At the Valorant Masters Tokyo tournament Riot Games revealed the 23rd Valorant agent, known as Deadlock, whose abilities are designed to trap multiple opponents throughout a round.
Deadlock is a Sentinel agent and every one of her abilities is designed to slow down or trap opponents on the battlefield, which should make her a very strong agent against lineups that want to play fast on offence. However, her effectiveness when she is on offence could be limited based on initial impressions.
Her C ability is GravNet, which unsurprisingly traps opponents in a big old net. When the net lands on the ground it will trap any enemy inside it, forcing them to crouch and move slowly. Trapped opponents will either need to leave the net’s area of effect, or hold the action button to remove the net from themselves, leaving them vulnerable to attack.
Her Q ability is Sonic Sensor, a small tag you place onto a surface that will listen for any enemies making a sound around it. If it hears weapon fire, footsteps or just a lot of noise in its area, it will concuss any enemies caught in its line of fire. This seems like a great way to protect your back, but sooner rather than later all the good spots to put this will be figured out.
Next up is her E ability, Barrier Mesh, which outside of her ultimate is perhaps the most interesting. Throwing the Barrier Mesh disk onto the ground will spawn four barriers in an X shape, which stop enemies moving through them. Bullets can still fly through, so it’s not hard cover, but it can completely block off a pathway for an advancing enemy. These barriers can be destroyed one by one by shooting the ending point of the wall, or you can take down all four by shooting the central disk.
Finally her ultimate is Annihilation, which makes little sense when you write it down but as soon as you see it in action you will understand it. First Deadlock must bounce the ability off a surface, if it then hits an enemy it will trap them inside what is effectively a big cocoon. The enemy is then physically moved along the path that the ability initially traveled, and if they reach the end still cocooned they will die. However, their teammates can shoot them inside the cocoon to free them, saving their life.
“Our gameplay goal for Deadlock was to create an Agent for players who wanted to hold their ground actively with their utility, as opposed to needing to set up their utility in advance,” said Alexander Mistakidis, game designer on Valorant. “Our hope is that this appeals to players that value being able to nimbly audible their plays and strategy based on information about their opponents.”
Deadlock’s kit is certainly one of the stranger ones in Valorant and seems to have a very specific, defensive, play style. But people said the same about Sage and battle Sage became a thing so you never know.
What we do know is that Deadlock will launch as part of Episode 7 Act 1 on June 27. She will launch alongside the new battle pass that includes some underwhelming skins and the brand new Team Deathmatch game mode.
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