It’s easy to forget that Deadlock is still in its infancy—maybe because Valve spent several months denying its existence before unleashing it in an invite-only form last August. But the developer is still toiling away at creating the MOBA alongside the community, and this week has seen a pretty major update: an overhaul to the dashboard and character select screen, and six new heroes being drip fed over the next two weeks. Oh, and the community gets to decide who comes when.
The first one has already been decided by Valve, with vampire Mina releasing alongside the August 18 update. She’s described as “a glass cannon that delivers quick bursts of Spirit damage at range with her passive, Love Bites.” And in classic vampire fashion, she can transform into a bat and scurry off when things start looking a little dicey. Her ultimate Nox Nostra “unleashes a massive swarm of bats that hunt down and silence nearby enemies.” Pretty neat.
The other five include demonic goat Billy, bookworm Paige, the aptly-named The Doorman, Victor “the monster who can’t be stopped,” and a slightly unsettling red-eyed lad called Drifter. Valve’s dropped art for each one, and I’m personally a pretty big fan of Mina and Paige here, especially the latter. Apparently she can bring books to life, and I’m interested to see how that plays out in-game.
unleashing it in an invite-only form last August. But the developer is still toiling away at creating the MOBA alongside the community, and this week has seen a pretty major update: an overhaul to the dashboard and character select screen, and six new heroes being drip fed over the next two weeks. Oh, and the community gets to decide who comes when.
The first one has already been decided by Valve, with vampire Mina releasing alongside the August 18 update. She’s described as “a glass cannon that delivers quick bursts of Spirit damage at range with her passive, Love Bites.” And in classic vampire fashion, she can transform into a bat and scurry off when things start looking a little dicey. Her ultimate Nox Nostra “unleashes a massive swarm of bats that hunt down and silence nearby enemies.” Pretty neat.
The other five include demonic goat Billy, bookworm Paige, the aptly-named The Doorman, Victor “the monster who can’t be stopped,” and a slightly unsettling red-eyed lad called Drifter. Valve’s dropped art for each one, and I’m personally a pretty big fan of Mina and Paige here, especially the latter. Apparently she can bring books to life, and I’m interested to see how that plays out in-game.
Valve hasn’t dropped all six at once, though. Instead, it’s trying something different. A new hero will drop on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday both this week and next. The order isn’t set in stone either, with Valve asking players to vote after each completed game for who they want to be unlocked next.
I kinda like that—both the drip-feeding and letting the community pick who they want to see first. Especially with Valve promising balance adjustments for each hero a few days after each one’s release, this feels like the best way to go about it without potentially disrupting the balance with a huge batch straight off the bat.
It’s not the only big change coming. The old dashboard UI has been swapped out for the Hideout—a cosy lobby space with a training area and all of the old menu options spread out into different nooks and crannies. It seems like Valve wants people to be able to customise the space eventually, too, something which I am very much down for.
The last big update is the character select screen, which is sporting something a little more fighting game-esque now. There’ve also been some visual updates to existing heroes, with Valve saying the work is ongoing and players “can expect more updated heroes in the future.”
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