Master Deadlock's Melee System: Techniques, Parrying & Advanced Tactics

Mastering the melee system in Deadlock isn't easy, but if you do, it completely changes how you fight. Using your

melees, and especially your parries in the right way, enables you to dish out loads of damage and often lets you win

fights that seem unwinnable at first. But before we go over all the different melee attacks to teach you what

separates the good players from the best, we have to cover the basics first. So, let us now have a look at how the

melee system works in detail. In Deadlock, every hero has access to two types of melee attacks, a light

melee and a heavy melee. Each hero starts with their own base melee damage values. These can be increased through

boons gained from leveling up, as well as by purchasing specific melee focused items. Items that grant weapon damage

also increase melee damage, but only at 50% effectiveness, meaning a 10% weapon damage increase will only increase your

melee damage by 5%. Light melees are quick and don't really have a tell. This makes them especially hard to parry for

your opponents. They take 0.75 seconds to perform and can be chained together without a cool down. Performing light

attacks while moving will briefly slow down your character after every punch. This slow down can be mitigated by

purchasing items that provide slow resistance. Heavy melees, on the other hand, need to be charged up for half a

second. This wind up will lock you in place before your hero lunges forward in the direction you are aiming, hitting

the first enemy in your path. This mechanic makes heavy melees easier to predict, risking getting parried if you

don't play mind games with your opponents. But more on this later when we explore the different melee attacks.

The base cool down for a heavy melee is 1 second, but if you miss, the cool down is increased to 1.3 seconds. Melee

attacks can be performed while reloading, but doing so pauses your reload for the duration of the melee

hit. When performing many light melees in a row, the reload progress stops completely due to them having no cool

down. When continuously heavy meleeing, your reload will progress quite a bit each time. This is due to the cool down

between punches and the ability to reload during the wind up animation of the punch. Last hitting a trooper with a

melee attack prevents its soul orb from appearing and directly grants you the full amount of souls you would have

normally gotten from collecting the dropped soul and shooting the floating orb. Soul orbs can also be secured with

melee hits in case you're out of ammo and in reach of one. But it seems like players shooting an orb do have an

advantage in gaining the soul. So, only use this as a last resort. If any melee attack hits an enemy hero that is

currently climbing a ledge, it will cause them to be slowed by 80%. This slow decays down to a 20% slow over 2

second period, then stops. Melee attacks have a large area of effect, often allowing you to hit

multiple targets at once. This can be useful when clearing waves and jungle camps, but can also be used

to melee multiple heroes with a single punch. There are several objects in the game that can only be interacted with

using melee attacks. Rich buffs, the rejuvenator, and bags of unsecured souls can only be claimed with a heavy melee.

Sin and sacrifice machines around the map can also only be damaged by melee attacks. If you want to know how these

slot machines work, you can check out our last video. We put a link to that video in the description below.

Additionally, landing any melee attacks on an enemy carrying the urn will force them to drop it. Without a counter to

melees, brawling would be quite the [ __ ] show. For this reason, every hero is able to perform a defensive move called

a parry. Once used, you enter defensive stance for 0.75 seconds, during which you cannot perform any other actions. If

any melee attack hits you in this state, the incoming melee damage is fully prevented and the attacker gets stunned

for 2.75 seconds. The parry target also suffers a plus 25% extra damage for the whole duration of the stun from all

sources. The stun duration from a parry cannot be decreased by debuff resistance. In case the attacker has the

unstoppable buff, they will not get stunned, but the damage of the melee hit will still be blocked. After successful

parry, there's a brief 0.25 second window where the parry animation finishes and you can't use abilities or

shoot your gun. Once that window ends, the parry cool down is instantly reset, allowing you to parry multiple enemies

in quick succession even after your initial parry window has ended. Just make sure to not keep your parry button

held down or your refreshed parry might be gone instantly. Always try to listen and look out for enemy heavy melees and

react accordingly. Parrying based on the sound cue isn't the best way to react to melees, but it's still far more reliable

than just leaving it to chance. And if practiced a little, it can still be a lifesaver in the future, especially when

someone is trying to melee you from behind while you're being chased. Keep in mind that dashing, as well as light

and heavy melee attacks, will prevent you from using your parry. And be careful. If you whiff your parry,

it will go on a 4.5 second cool down. Because of this long cool down, as well as the extensive stun duration and the

bonus damage a parry target receives, it is very important to never mindlessly hit your opponents or you will just be

used as a recreational punching bag for your enemies. This is where all of the mind games and melee attacks come into

play. Mastering these upcoming techniques is a must if you want to get the most out of the melee system. But

before we cover them, if you enjoyed this video so far, please don't forget to give this video a like and subscribe

to our channel. Especially when you're new to the game, you're probably going to miss a lot of

parries and your enemies will just slap you in the face twice without anything you can do about it. This is where tech

number one comes in, surprising your enemies with rebuttal. This item costs just 800 souls and it

gives you 18% damage resistance against melee attacks and reduces your parry cool down by 2 seconds. The next time

you miss your parry, melee heavy opponents think they can beat you up, but behold, this time your parry is up 2

seconds earlier and they probably won't see it coming. When the next heavy melee comes your

way, you can easily parry it and even heal for the melee damage due to rebuttal's effect on a successful parry.

Additionally, you will also deal an extra 30% damage for 6 seconds, helping you take down parried enemies faster.

Especially when factoring in the 25% damage amp the parry target already receives.

Once the enemies in your lane are aware of this, you can still try to play mind games with enemy heroes in other lanes.

In any case, you now have the parry advantage. Also keep in mind that there are other items in the game that grant

melee resistance. So, make sure to always itemize accordingly. Additionally, there are other items that

influence parrying and the melee system, but going over all of them is a bit outside the scope of this video. If you

would enjoy a deep dive into all the different melee items and how they work, let us know in the comments.

As we mentioned previously, you cannot use your parry during melee attacks. This can be used to your advantage with

melee attack number two. The next time you find yourself in a one V one with an enemy and you waste your parry, take

into consideration that you can freely punch your enemy back if they're going for a heavy melee attack themselves.

This can even out the trade you have to take with your enemy in this situation and it has the added benefit of

surprising them, shifting their mindset once they realize they can't just bully you for free.

As you have probably noticed, or rather felt during one of your games, getting too close to an enemy lane guardian will

cause it to perform a melee attack. This brings us to tech number three. Just like melee hits from enemy heroes,

this attack can also be parried. This will stun the guardian for the usual 2.75 seconds, but it will not take plus

25% bonus damage. You can still use this to your advantage though to kill that enemy lane guardian

a little faster by preventing it from attacking your troopers. Parrying the guardian can also be used

to dive low HP enemies who are feeling safe at their shop. Just make sure not to stick under the tower for too long

because the guardian won't be stunned forever. Continuing on the topic of mind games.

Like mentioned previously, the heavy melee lunge will go in the direction you're aiming.

This sets up melee tech number four. When moving your mouse during the lunge of your heavy melee swing, your path can

be curved away from your enemy. This can be used to parry check your enemies. This is mainly done to see how your

enemy reacts to an incoming heavy melee. If your opponent instantly wastes their parry the moment you charge your heavy

melee, they set themselves up for a beating if you can close the distance. But if your opponent withholds their

parry, they might be waiting for the last moment with their parry. In this case, we advise you to be careful and

not heavy melee them up front as this might indicate that they're well trained in melee fights. Or they simply have

their parry button unbound. Then, you can freely beat them up. This technique can also be used to pull away from an

enemy that is currently parrying if you notice the parry early enough. You don't have full mobility during your melee

lunge though. There's a slight turn rate slow to limit the movement with your heavy melees, so

keep this in mind. Just like guardians, enemy troopers will also melee you when you come into close range.

This can be used to your advantage with tech number five. When you're in close range to an enemy

trooper, you can just use your parry. The trooper will then melee you, which resets your parry cool down.

Even though it can be heard that your parry was successful, the enemy will oftentimes not realize that your parry

was reset and they might go in for a melee hit because they just saw you waste your parry.

The next thing to look out for is if your enemies tend to melee last hit troopers. If you notice they do this

regularly, you can use melee tech number six to mess with your opponents. Just try to sneak up on your enemy when a

wave of troopers is near. Once their health is low enough to be finished with a heavy melee, get in range of your

troopers and use your parry. A lot of players will not be in the headspace to react to this, enabling you

to get a parry off and a lot of damage in on unsuspecting enemies. Two of our more advanced melee techs will come in

especially handy for doing this. So, stay tuned. Now that you have more strategies to

parry your enemies, melee tech seven will come in handy for when your parry connects. After you parry an enemy, it

is actually possible to hit them back with two heavy melees before the stun of the parry wears off.

But for this to work, you need to input queue your heavy melee. Input queuing works in the following

way. If you know a parry will connect, you need to instantly hold down your melee

button. The button press has to happen during your parry animation.

By doing this, the heavy melee input is queued up on the server and will be executed the moment your parry animation

ends. This effectively lets you hit your opponents a few frames earlier, allowing you to land both heavy hits while the

enemy is still stunned. This also has the added benefit that sometimes players will spam their parry

button, using their parry right after your second melee hit lands. This sets you up to beat them even more,

but Spencer style. But that's not all. You can deal even more damage to your prey while they're

stunned. Remember the cooldown between heavy melee hits? During this recovery period, you can also shoot your enemies.

This time window could also be used to use your parry again in case you're dealing with multiple enemies.

We can recommend watching this video by Cyrus if you're interested in a deep analysis on why this works out when you

use input queuing. Heavy melees don't just deal a lot of damage. They can also be used as a

movement tool, which brings us to melee tech number eight. As we mentioned before, the windup of

your heavy melee locks you in place. This isn't just the case on the ground. Charging your heavy melee also lets you

hover in the air. When combining heavy melees with movement tools, you can reach places you

could not reach otherwise or reach places with using less stamina. For example, you can use this technique

after wall jump to reach a lot of places without using stamina at all. Additionally, the distance of your lunge

when heavy meleeing isn't too bad as well. Sometimes this distance can serve you to get into cover when running away

while having no stamina. With items like melee charge and its upgrade crushing fists, your melee reach

can be improved even further. Keep in mind though that after the lunge, you will be locked in the hit

animation, during which you cannot move for a short duration. Melee tech number nine is about mind

games again, but can also extend your melee range quite a bit. The heavy melee cancel, also referred to

as HMC. This tech uses certain active items or abilities to cancel heavy melee during

the lunge. This lets you bait out parries on the enemy heroes with a melee you cancel

just before landing. Once you see their parry window is over, you can freely punch them in the face or

just shoot them in the head while they're stuck in the parry animation. You can use this trick to elongate your

heavy melee reach, especially when you have items that extend your heavy melee distance as well.

On some heroes, this can be even faster than walking if you're playing a slow hero and have no move speed items.

Executing an HMC is really simple. You just have to buy an active item or select a hero with an ability that

enables it, initiate a heavy melee attack, and then during your lunge, activate the item or ability to cancel

the melee animation. These items enable you to cancel a heavy melee.

Fleetfoot, Fury Trends, Vampiric Burst, Colossus, and Unstoppable. Additionally, these abilities can also

cancel your heavy melee. Dynamo's Singularity, Ivy's Stone Form,

Kelvin's Ice Path, and also his ultimate ability Frozen Shelter. As you've probably noticed, those heroes

rarely play melee builds though, and using their abilities to HMC is not always practical in gameplay, and that's

likely intentional. Valve changed a few abilities that could previously do this, so they no longer

work that way, helping to keep the playing field more even across all characters.

In the beginning, we talked about light melee attacks and how they are hard to parry because they have no windup

animation and are nearly instant. Melee tech number 10 is more of a tip that can help you predict light melee

attacks from your opponents. Enemies will often try to light melee you if you're very low HP and they could

finish you in one hit. [snorts] Or if an enemy is chasing you, shooting their gun, and they run out of bullets,

they will sometimes go for a light melee instead of waiting for the reload to try and finish you off.

And lastly, if an enemy that usually plays in mid-range comes up too close for comfort, they might try to slap you

as well. But beware, trying to parry light melee attacks can be risky.

If your enemy doesn't go for it, you will be stuck in the parry animation and they will simply shoot you or wait for

the parry to be over and punch you afterwards. In the end, parrying light attacks is

coming down to a lot of game sense that you'll develop over time when you're brawling with your enemies a lot.

As we mentioned before, during a dash, you're not able to use your parry. But with tech number 11, this limitation can

be easily avoided. Dashes can be canceled at any point through sliding by pressing your crouch button. This cancel

allows you to use your parry since you're able to parry during a slide. This can be used to come in clutch when

enemies are charging their heavy melee at your teammates, creeps, or other objectives.

Unlike during a normal dash, you're able to parry while performing an air dash, and this brings us to melee tech number

12. To perform it, you just have to jump, air dash in any direction, and use your

parry. This allows you to carry your parry into an enemy, which can be used to counter

opponents trying to disengage to the side with a heavy melee lunge. Or you can use it to jump into your wave and

parry unsuspecting enemies that want to melee troopers. This technique can also be performed

when dash jumping. A common use for this is to dash jump into the enemy guardian to parry it for a quick dive.

Now that we've covered all the techniques you can pull off solo, we have a few more tricks up our sleeves.

But these require teamwork and both players in a lane need to be constantly aware of their lane partner.

Now that we got that out of the way, let us take a look at tech number 13. If your partner is brawling a lot, it's

only a matter of time before they will get parried. In this case, they're stuck taking a

massive amount of untradable damage. Instead of running away and leaving them to their fate, you can come in clutch

and play an Uno reverse card on your enemy. Because your teammate is lying there

stunned, the enemies will almost always go for a heavy melee follow-up to dish out the most amount of damage.

Use this knowledge against them and dash in front of your stunned ally and use your parry.

This allows you to block the damage for them as well as stunning the attacker, turning their punish into a death trap.

If the second enemy tries to join the party and wants to swing away as well, remember that your successful parry just

reset your cooldown, allowing you to parry them too. But be careful. If you're too late for

the parry or if your enemies decide to just shoot your stunned partner instead, you'll both be stuck without any

defensive options and probably way out of position. At that point, both of you might just be

heading back to base together and into spectator mode. Tech number 14 can be used to set up the

technique which is went over, but it can be hard to execute if you aren't playing with a pre-made partner or you don't

have really good synergy with your random lane partner. Communication and awareness is key here.

So, use this with caution. If your teammate is close to you and aware of what you're doing, just go up

to an enemy hero and heavy melee them in the face. No pulling away, nothing. This will probably get you parried, but that

is the whole point of the tech. As previously mentioned, parrying an enemy often triggers players to instantly

charge up their heavy melee. Now, your lane partner can come swooping in and use their parry to counter your enemy.

By doing this, you've secured a free parry on an enemy who otherwise wouldn't have even tried to melee anyone. Just

like the last technique, this can be risky though if the enemy decides to shoot you in the face instead of heavy

meleeing you while you're stunned. Baiting your enemies into a heavy melee can also be done with melee tech number

15. This tech is just wasting your parry on nothing. Genius, right?

This will oftentimes bait your enemy into heavy meleeing you. And you guessed it. This is again where

your teammate comes in and parries your oblivious melee baited enemies. After practicing all of these

techniques, your melee skills should be noticeably sharper and more reliable. To practice, you can host some fight

clubs in the hideout with your friends to practice all of our techniques as well.

Just don't talk about it. Before you go out and hit your enemies in the face, here's one final trick.

Now that you're likely better at the melee mind games, start baiting enemies into melee fights.

To do this, you can just hide behind cover near your enemies and just heavy melee into nothing.

The sound of the heavy melee will often trigger enemies to think about meleeing as well.

Then, you will just have to outplay them. We hope you enjoyed this deep dive into

what the melee system in Deadlock has to offer. If you enjoyed this video, leave us a like and subscribe to our channel

for upcoming guides on various topics. We'll also be very happy about your stories about putting some of these tips

to use. Thank you for watching and we'll catch you all in the next one.