Yamato is one of the most powerful Deadlock heroes, capable of being equally troublesome as both a bullet damage carry and a spellcasting mage. She has a varied set of options and can be a bit tricky to get around, so here’s our best Yamato build in Deadlock.
Yamato’s abilities in Deadlock
Yamato, like all the other Deadlock heroes, has three abilities and an ultimate. These skills allow Yamato to get up close and personal with her opponents, dish out massive spirit damage from a distance, and survive prolonged encounters and empower her attacks. Yamato’s abilities are as follows:
- Power Slash: Yamato charges up a long-range slash that does more damage the longer it is charged.
- Flying Strike: Yamato launches a grappling hook and attaches to an enemy unit, pulling herself to them and applying a slow.
- Crimson Slash: Yamato spins her blade, slashing nearby opponents. The spell does damage, applies a fire rate slow, and heals her.
- Shadow Transformation: After a charge, Yamato resets her abilities’ cooldowns, makes them cast faster, has infinite ammo, and cannot be stunned. She also gains damage reduction and cannot die for the duration of the spell (similar to Troll Warlord’s ultimate in Dota 2).
As you can see, Yamato has a diverse set of abilities she can work with to both cut the enemies down from range or go in for a close-up fight. Fleeing enemies can be caught up with through her grappling hook that, when upgraded, has tremendous range and a powerful slow. In tight close combat, Yamato’s Crimson Slash can be a lifesaving spell with its massive heal, especially when the ability hits level two and gains additional healing power.
Lastly, her Ultimate is the ultimate tool for dueling since Yamato quite literally cannot die or be afflicted with crowd control spells, making her an absolute powerhouse so long as it lasts. You will see later through our build how overpowered this ability can be with the right items and make Yamato a true beast.
The best build for Yamato in Deadlock
Early-game itemization options:
During the laning phase, Yamato can do a ton of damage with her Power Slash, which your whole early itemization should revolve around. Mystic Burst is an absolute must, while Extra Spirit should also be considered for maximum early spirit damage. Yamato lacks defenses by default to compensate for her powerful abilities, so Extra Health, Extra Regen, and Sprint Boots are recommended. Other 500-Soul early items boosting defense are also options that should be considered, such as Enduring Spirit.
- Mystic Burst
- Power Slash
- Extra Spirit
- Extra Health
- Extra Regen
- Sprint Boots
Early-game abilities you should level up first:
In terms of abilities, you should focus on throwing all of your ability points into Power Slash before moving on to anything else. It’s her absolute best ability, and when used correctly can decimate enemy health bars from the first minute of the match all the way to the very end.
Mid game
Mid-game itemization options:
- Torment Pulse
- Cold Front
- Mystic Vulnerability
- Soul Shredder Bullets
- Mystic Shot
When the mid-game comes around, you should seek to give Yamato even more spirit power than before. Torment Pulse and Cold Front are fantastic options for close-range encounters and do massive damage in the mid-game period, while Mystic Vulnerability helps boost those effects even further. Naturally, Soul Shredder Bullets are on the table, as making enemies more susceptible to spirit damage is always welcome, while Mystic Shot should also be considered as it synergizes well with the mentioned item.
If you need more defense and mobility, there’s Kinetic Dash and Enduring Speed, but Spirit Lifesteal is also good. Against enemies heavily reliant on healing like Lady Geist, Healbane might be a great item to pick up, though it’s very situational.
Mid-game abilities
You should upgrade your ultimate once for the reduced cooldown and then boost your second and third abilities next.
Late game
Late-game items to buy
- Improved Burst
- Escalating Exposure
- Duration Extender
- Refresher
- Superior Duration
- Superior Cooldown
- Improved Cooldown
- Boundless Spirit
- Improved Bullet Armor
In the late game, you’ll want to do spirit damage and not much else. While Yamato’s bullet damage carry potential is massive, she thrives as a spirit damage mage due to how her abilities work. It’s simply better to go spirit damage Yamato at the moment, especially since players don’t know how to play around it very effectively.
Improved Burst and Escalating Exposure will help you achieve massive spirit damage on all of your abilities, especially Power Slash. On its own, the ability should be able to do hundreds of damage with every cast. If lined up correctly, you could shred through several enemies in one cast, making this one of the best spells in the game. Duration Extender (Superior Duration) and Refresher help with buffing your ultimate, which should by now be at level three. These items help it last longer and be cast twice in a single fight, almost guaranteeing your win. Improved Cooldown on Power Slash is a fantastic choice, too.
If in need of additional protection, picking up the Improved Bullet and Spirit Armor during any stage of the match (except early) is a good idea, while Slowing Hex is great against exceptionally mobile heroes like Infernus.
