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The quintessential sniper ofDeadlock, Vindicta utilizes a long-range rifle to pick off weakened enemies from afar while using a variety of occult abilities to suppress her enemies and strengthen her own power.
While squishy in close quarters, a well-farmed Vindicta is enough to make any enemy think twice about peeking out from safe cover. Read on to learn what items to build and how to make the most of Vindicta’s abilities.
Vindicta Overview
Vindicta excels when she’s able to safely deal damage from a distance using her Flight ability, before finishing enemies off with Assassinate, which grants the player bonus souls when it kills an enemy hero. Using Assassinate to get as many kills on enemy heroes as possible is a key component topulling ahead of the enemy team in souls, or to bounce back from a poor start in the laning phase. To help facilitate this, Assassinate gains bonus damage against foes below 50% health, making it particularly effective at taking out fleeing or weakened opponents.
To compensate for this overwhelming strength, Vindicta is generally fragile due to low base health and bullet resist stats, and is one of only two characters to start with two stamina bars compared to the default three. To be truly effective, Vindicta players will need to make good use of her Stake ability to hold enemies in place, as well asthe game’s robust movement mechanicsto stay a step ahead of the opposition.
Ability Effects
Stake
Throw a stake thattethers enemiesto the location where the stake lands. Enemy movement is restricted to the length of the tether.
Flight
Leap into the air and fly. While in flight your weapon deals bonus spirit damage
Crow Familiar
Your crow familiar dealsimpact damageand applies ableedthat deals damage based on thetarget’s current health.
Assassinate
Use your scoped rifle to fire a powerful shot over long distances. Deal only partial damage until fully charged after 1s of being scoped. Doesbonus damageto enemies withless than 50% healthremaining. Landing a killing blow on a player with Assassinategrants you bonus souls.
Vindicta Build Guide
Vindicta is best built by prioritizing her Assassinate ability in the early and mid-game, increasing its damage and cooldown to help her get as many kills as possible and maximize the number of bonus souls obtained. Thanks to its high spirit scaling, Vindicta can efficiently boost the damage of Assassinate while picking up important utilities from items likeExtra Charge, Mystic Burst, and Improved Cooldown/Superior Cooldown.In addition to these spirit items, a variety of weapon items are also core to Vindicta’s item build, such asLong Range/Sharpshooter,increasing her base weapon’s damage.
Vindicta Ability Progression
Starting the game off with Crow Familiar is a good option to give Vindicta extra ability to contest the lane, providing a tool to harass enemies or push the lane and last hit creeps with. Picking up Stake second provides players with both a tool to lock down enemies and chase for kills, as well as an option to peel enemies off of themselves when getting attacked. Finally, learning Flight third gives players the ability to quickly reposition, gaining an easy vantage point over enemies and leveraging any early items purchased, or escaping out of the reach of aggressive foes. As soon as Assassinate becomes available, all ability points will be focused on upgrading it as much as possible.
As the game progresses, players will have to decide whether to invest a full 5 ability points into the final Assassinate upgrade, or instead shift their focus to upgrading Flight to make sure they don’t fall behind in the mid-game. It’s generally recommended to begin fully upgrading Flight before taking the final point of Assassinate as this allows Vindicta to steadily increase her strength in the mid-game, however, in matches where Vindicta is handily ahead of the enemy team, it can sometimes pay off to be greedy, holding onto her ability points and looking to further push a soul lead with extra Assassination bonus souls.
Beyond Flight and Assassinate, players will need to make a judgment call based on the progression of the match. The percent-based damage and healing suppression granted atrank 4 Crow Familiar can be great against tanky heroes that rely on healing themselves, such as Abrams or Mo and Krill, while the Disarm effect ofrank 4 Stake can be critical for locking down potent weapon-based threats like Wraith or a minigun-focused McGinnis.These remaining abilities are largely utility, so consider which would be most effective against the heroes present in the match and prioritize accordingly.
Vindicta Item Progression
Many of Vindicta’s core items are split across the weapon and spirit categories, with spirit items helping with Crow Familiar and Assassinate’s damage, while weapon items provide key damage multipliers and utilities to help Vindicta stay relevant throughout the game. As with all heroes, the specific buy order and even the items themselves are often flexible, and making smart decisions based on the enemy team’s composition is a large part of effective item progression (e.g., buying Knockdown to shut down an enemy Seven’s Storm Cloud, buying Ethereal Shift to dodge Wraith’s Telekinesis, etc.)
Mid-Game
Late Game
In the early game, most items provide an efficient source of generic stats that are useful in nearly any situation, making it hard to go wrong no matter what item you buy.High-velocity Magcan make it easier to land shots while providing a healthy boost to weapon damage and bullet shield while Headshot Booster improves Vindicta’s ability to harrass opponents with just her gun.Extra Healthprovides both additional tankiness and weapon damage, andMystic BurstandExtra Spiritincrease the damage of Vindicta’s abilities.Extra Staminain particular can be a great comfort pick to shore up Vindicta’s weak mobility, granting her an extra stamina bar.
Once Vindicta learns Assassinate, a variety of item choices open up to help her capitalize on this power spike.Long Rangeincreases the weapon damage dealt to enemies further than 15 meters away, whileExtra Rechargeimproves the cooldown recovery of Assassinate.Quicksilver Reloadadditionally allows Vindicta to increase her damage by instantly reloading her weapon when a selected ability is used, typically Flight.
In the mid-game, Vindicta will continue to pick up items that benefit Assassinate, such as upgrading Long Range intoSharpshooter, or picking upImproved Cooldown or even Superior Cooldownto increase Assassinate’s availability.Active ReloadandBullet Resist Shredderare also key pickups to ensure Vindicta remains a relevant threat even outside of her use of Assassinate. Defensive items also become a crucial consideration, withBullet and Spirit Armor and Bullet Lifestealbeing good safe picks, whileCombat and Enchanter’s Barrierbeing good for aggressive players confident they will be able to activate the conditional stat bonuses consistently.
In the late game, Assassinate can begin to fall off as enemies complete their defensive items and build larger health pools that make easy picks harder to find. Many core late-game items instead prioritize Vindicta’s basic weapon, turning her automatic rifle into a dangerous threat.Pristine Emblemin particular is a potent option for dealing with high-health targets, whileLucky Shot and Ricochetare excellent all-purpose pickups for improving basic weapon damage. There are many options that can be effective here, includingSiphon Bulletsto steal maximum HP from targets, orGlass Cannonfor a more risky offensive option.
How to Play Vindicta
Vindicta’s early game will require players tomake use of core system mechanicsto make up for the character’s relatively weak start. While on a fairly lengthy 25-second cooldown,Crow Familiar can be an effective poke to harass lane opponents or land last hits, while the relatively long effective range ofVindicta’s rifle should be leveraged to whittle away at enemies from a safe distance. Once Stake and Flight have been picked up,a well-placed Stake can lead to an easy kill against a weakened hero,locking them in place while Vindicta gains a positional advantage and bonus damage from Flight.
Once Vindicta learns Assassinate, the game becomes all aboutfinding as many kills as possible to leverage Assassinate’s bonus soul generation on kill.While it can be tempting to poke at enemies with a large burst of damage,Assassinate is best used to finish off enemies, both to ensure the bonus souls are actually obtained, and due to the ability’s bonus damage against enemies under 50% health. Be sure to keep an eye out in lane for weak enemies attempting to flee, as well as on the minimap to look for over-extending opponents to ambush.When moving between lanes like this, be on the lookout for available jungle creeps between the lanes to pick up some extra souls along the way.
As she is quite fragile, positioning is a key skill to playing Vindicta effectively.Look to place yourself behind or around teammates that can help shield you from the brunt of the enemies' aggression or control enemies able to dive past them.Using Flight to place yourself far away from the effective range of enemies can also be a great way to ensure you can pick away at opponents, butbe careful that the reduced mobility during Flight doesn’t end you up in a dangerous situation.
As the game progresses and enemies become tankier, the burst damage from Assassinate can begin to fall off and Vindicta players will likely need to rely on her basic weapon and Flight to deal the bulk of her damage. In an optimal scenario, the bonus souls granted from Assassinate kills should provide the currency needed to afford key items, however, in matches where Vindicta needs to play from behind,don’t be afraid of simply finding safe opportunities to farm souls from pushed-in lane creeps or uncontested jungle camps.
