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Deadlock’s Pocket is a close-range specialist who excels at makingaggressive plays, taking advantage of his Flying Cloak and Enchanter’s Satchel to quickly engage enemies and escape when the situation becomes too dangerous. While a low spirit resistance stat can make him feel fragile when playing against heroes who focus on spirit damage, smart use of his abilities can allow him to survive seemingly lethal engagements by outsmarting his opponents. Read on to learn how to make the most of Pocket’s versatile kit.
Pocket Overview
Pocket is a versatile character that can make good use of an incredibly wide pool of items thanks to his set of flexible abilities and surprisingly powerful shotgun. Nearly all of his spells can be used to serve a multitude of purposes, whether it’s providing powerful burst offense, superior mobility, or defensive counter-play, truly excelling when each ability is used to achieve multiple goals at the same time. To balance this, Pocket starts each match with -15% spirit resistance, requiring players to make intelligent decisions with both their ability usage and item build to succeed.
Ability Effects
Barrage
Channel to start launching projectiles thatdeal damageandapply movement slow’around their impact point. Each projectile landed on a hero grants you astacking buff that amplifies all of your damage. If you cast it while in the air, you’llfloatand maintain any horizontal momentum you started with.
Radius: 6.5m
Cooldown: 30s
Flying Cloak
Launch a sentient cloak thattravels forwardanddamages enemies. you may press[Ability 2]toteleportto its location.
Radius: 5m
Damage: 90 (x1.1 Spirit)
Lifetime: 3.2s
Enchanter’s Satchel
Escapeinto your suitcase. When the duration ends,deal damageto nearby enemies. Duration can be ended early by performing any action.
Radius: 12m
Cooldown: 16s
Damage: 100 (x0.7 Spirit)
Affliction
Applydamage over timeto all enemies nearby. Affliction’s damage is non-lethal and does not apply item procs.
Radius: 14m
Cooldown: 120s
DPS: 23 (0.4x Spirit)
Pocket Build Guide
Thanks to the high base damage of Flying Cloak and Enchanter’s Satchel, which are further boosted by their 2AP bonuses, prioritizing Spirit items in the early and mid-game easily enables early kills by quickly bursting enemies down. These abilities also double as Pocket’s primary defensive and escape options, making them easy picks even in games where he falls behind. For enemies that survive this initial burst of damage, Affliction’s potent damage over time effect can soften enemies before a solid engagement or while chasing weakened enemies down, while Barrage’s damage amplification effect can be used beforehand to increase all forms of damage Pocket can deal.
As matches progress and enemies purchase items that allow them to more easily survive Pocket’s burst of spirit damage, players will need to increasingly supplement their damage with well-placed shots with their shotgun. This can be supplemented with either items like Soul Shredder Bullets, Mystic Shot, and Spiritual Overflow to improve Pocket’s spirit damage, or items like Close Quarters, Point Blank, or Pristine Emblem to improve his weapon damage.
Pocket Ability Build
Pocket’s ability progression is relatively static in the early game, starting with Barrage to have a solid tool to harass opponents in lane, before prioritizing Flying Cloak and Enchanter’s Satchel to enable both Pocket’s burst damage and ability to escape, as well as putting a single point into Affliction when convenient to improve its availability.
Once Flying Cloak and Enchanter’s Satchel both have their 2AP bonuses, Pocket’s ability progression becomes more flexible, allowing players to pick AP bonuses based on what their team needs most. Enchanter’s Satchel’s fire rate slow can be an effective option against carries like Wraith or Haze that depend on their weapon to deal damage, while Affliction’s healing suppression can be potent for dealing withheroes like Abrams or Kelvinwho rely on life regeneration to survive extended fights. For more offense, both Flying Cloak and Barrage’s 5AP bonuses are great ways to further improve Pocket’s damage output.
Pocket Item Build
Pocket’s versatile kit can often be used to avoid damage altogether when played well, allowing players to prioritize primarily offensive items that improve his ability to convert engagements into kills. When Pocket eventually needs to buy core defensive items, he’s able to select items that provide additional utility to help mitigate the enemy team’s strengths, like Enduring Speed, Debuff Reducer/Debuff Remover, or Reactive Barrier.
Mid-Game
Late Game
Like every character inDeadlock, specific items should be adjusted depending on the heroes present in the enemy team. For example, substituting in Decay can be a strong option against a problematic Abrams, Ethereal Shift can be effective for dodging targeted abilities without needing to sacrifice Enchanter’s Satchel’s cooldown, etc.
How to Play Pocket
Pocket is most effective when taking full advantage of his versatile set of abilities to play aggressively and find kills.Use Barrage to poke at enemies while taking advantage of its generous area of effectto hit around corners, or to chase enemies while dealing damage by using its float to preserve speed after dropping from a zipline or performing a dash jump. Flying Cloak is another effective tool for poking at enemies or pushing the lane, allowing players to confirm a hit on opponents before deciding whether to teleport in to pursue a kill attempt.Enchanter’s Satchel is a powerful ability to turn the tide of an engagementby avoiding incoming damage while dealing high amounts of spirit damage when leaving it. A combination of Flying Cloak, teleporting onto an enemy, then casting and immediately exiting Enchanter’s Satchel is a powerful option for quickly setting up an advantageous engagement.
Flying Cloak, in particular, is incredibly powerful for the mobility it provides, both to engage enemies when they least expect it and to escape aggressive enemies pursuing a kill on Pocket. For example, engaging enemies with a dash jump or items like Majestic Leap can allow Pocket tosend Flying Cloak towards safety, unleashing a burst of damage before teleporting back towards his own base. When fleeing from opponents,sending Flying Cloak down one path while running down a different alleyway forces opponents to chase either the Cloak or Pocket himself, allowing him to decide whether to teleport to his Cloak or continue running on foot depending on the enemy’s decision. Creative use of Flying Cloak can allow Pocket to outsmart opponents and escape from situations no other hero can, so be sure to experiment.
With his superior mobility, Pocket excels at ambushing unsuspecting enemies.Paying attention to the minimap for overextended enemies can present lucrative opportunities to rotate and secure kills, earning the team valuable souls and lane pressure. Taking the opportunity while rotating between lanes to defeat neutral creeps can further extend Pocket’s soul lead and help him afford the plethora of items he needs to stay ahead of the enemy.
As the game progresses past the laning phase, Pocket will often need to incorporate more attacks and abilities into his burst to secure kills, including using Barrage to build up its damage amplification buff, using Affliction to apply its potent damage over time effect, and attacking enemies with his shotgun to apply on-hit effects from various items and finish enemies off after exhausting his abilities.
