Kelvin is recognized as one of Deadlock’s premier heroes for lane control, equipped with robust defensive tools and utility that allow him to thrive in the early game.
Success with Kelvin hinges on patience and a defensive strategy. Focus on farming while denying your opponent lane control to establish an early advantage that can propel you into a strong mid and late game.
While you may not achieve the kill counts of heroes like Wraith or Seven in the late game, a well-built Kelvin still contributes significant damage and provides vital support through abilities like Ice Path and Frozen Shelter.
Here’s the optimal build for Kelvin in Deadlock.
Best Abilities for Kelvin
To maximize Kelvin’s potential, prioritize upgrading your abilities in the following order:
The primary focus should be on maxing out Frost Grenade and Arctic Beam after the August 29 patch. Frost Grenade offers a substantial area effect (AoE) and damage, making it a reliable zone denial tool when upgraded to level 1. This ability also features a high uptime when combined with the appropriate items.
Utilizing base-level Ice Path, Kelvin can quickly switch lanes and use Frost Grenade’s healing ability to assist teammates in need while maintaining lane farm.
In the late game, Ice Path is essential for disorienting enemies during team fights and can be utilized to catch opponents who are out of position. However, using Ice Path to escape unfavorable scenarios should be a last resort, as enemies may capitalize on it to pursue you.
After maxing Frost Grenade and Arctic Beam, invest in Frozen Shelter. This skill is crucial for health regeneration and debuffing enemies, making it one of the most important abilities for maintaining control and survivability. Deploying this ability near a dropped Rejuvenator can significantly impact the game.
If faced with multiple enemy heroes trying to push you, consider prioritizing Frozen Shelter over Ice Path.
Kelvin’s abilities and upgrades are outlined below:
- 1: Frost Grenade
- Launch a grenade that creates a freezing ice cloud, damaging and slowing enemies.
- Level 1: +1 Charge
- Level 2: Frost Grenade now heals 145 HP for allies. Scales with Spirit
- Level 3: +175 damage
- Launch a grenade that creates a freezing ice cloud, damaging and slowing enemies.
- 2: Ice Path
- Kelvin generates a floating trail of ice providing movement bonuses to himself and allies while granting 60% slow resistance. Enemies can also walk on this trail.
- Level 1: +4m/s sprint speed
- Level 2: -16 second cooldown
- Level 3: While active, gain +1 Spirit Power per meter created. Max of 55 Spirit Power.
- Kelvin generates a floating trail of ice providing movement bonuses to himself and allies while granting 60% slow resistance. Enemies can also walk on this trail.
- 3: Arctic Beam
- Emit freezing cold energy in front of you, damaging targets and inflicting movement and fire rate slow the longer the beam is sustained on them. Movement speed is reduced while using Arctic Beam, which can also gather Souls.
- -8 second cooldown
- +40 damage per second
- Fires two additional beams at enemies within 13m of the last target hit
- Emit freezing cold energy in front of you, damaging targets and inflicting movement and fire rate slow the longer the beam is sustained on them. Movement speed is reduced while using Arctic Beam, which can also gather Souls.
- 4: Frozen Shelter
- Kelvin generates an impenetrable dome around himself, freezing the air within. Allies rapidly regenerate health while enemies are slowed.
- +40% Fire Rate Slow
- -40 second cooldown
- +70 Health Regen that scales with Spirit Power
- Kelvin generates an impenetrable dome around himself, freezing the air within. Allies rapidly regenerate health while enemies are slowed.
Best Build for Kelvin: Deadlock Items
Early Game Items
During the early game, it’s critical to prevent opponents from feeling confident in their ability to push you. Equip Sprint Boots and Extra Health to enhance Kelvin’s low sprint speed and enhance his survivability.
Next, prioritize spirit-boosting items. Extra Spirit gives a much-needed increase, while Mystic Shot allows your bullet damage to scale periodically with Spirit. Since many heroes will outrange Kelvin, getting close is essential to pose a threat when pushing. Close Quarters provides a +25% weapon damage increase in close combat.
Items like High-Velocity Mag and Headshot Booster enhance Kelvin’s ability-based damage with increases to Bullet Velocity, Weapon Damage, and Fire Rate.
Mid Game Items
Continue building on your early loadout with items such as Point Blank, Enduring Speed, and Improved Spirit, which further increase Weapon Damage, Spirit, and Movements Speed.
Pristine Emblem is an excellent choice, enhancing Weapon Power while also boosting Kelvin’s Spirit Power and Resistance. Improved Cooldown provides more frequent use of vital abilities like Frost Grenade and Frozen Shelter, while Rapid Recharge increases your available casts.
With a surplus of ability casts during the mid-game, you can begin supporting teammates, especially if they’re close to eliminating their respective Guardians.
For added survivability, consider acquiring Healing Booster and Spirit Armor.
Late Game/Luxury Items
Once the lane phase concludes, focus on maximizing Weapon and Spirit damage to provide robust support during team fights. Items such as Headhunter and Siphon Bullets will enhance your sustain through healing from headshots and HP steal, respectively.
Hunter’s Aura is an excellent support item, significantly lowering the threat from ADC roles by reducing nearby enemies’ Bullet Resist and Fire Rate. Moreover, Alchemical Fire is a powerful AoE Active Item that can catch clustered enemies off guard, delivering increasing Spirit Damage in its radius.
Finally, prioritize Escalating Exposure as a crucial item post-buffs to Arctic Beam in the August 29 patch. This ability will become your primary damage dealer in the late game, providing an increasing Spirit Damage buff per hit every 0.7 seconds.
Complete your build with upgrades like Superior Cooldown and Improved Spirit/Bullet Armor for the necessary defenses against powerful enemies.
Situational Items
At times, you may need to adjust your item path based on specific enemy strategies or team composition. Here are some situational items to consider:
- Silencer: Effective against heroes who frequently spam abilities, such as Lady Geist and Yamato.
- Boundless Spirit: Provides a substantial boost to various stats when extra survivability is needed. Requires Improved Spirit.
- Echo Shard: Perfect if you struggle in solo skirmishes, granting an additional instant use after Arctic Beam.
- Silence Glyph: Less useful against channeled abilities but a lifesaver against quickfire heroes such as Seven and Bebop.
- Ethereal Shift: Ideal for split-pushing, increasing the likelihood of a safe escape from enemy territory.
- Curse: Effective against ability-focused heroes as an interrupt. It also mitigates heavy Active Item usage by opponents.
- Debuff Remover: Essential against specific heroes like Pocket during the lane phase, significantly reducing Slow duration.
- Rescue Beam: Crucial for those focusing full support for Kelvin, especially beneficial when aiding a teammate struggling in their lane.
- Healing Rite: A useful investment if falling behind in-lane during the early game, granting substantial health regen and sprint speed for 17 seconds or until damaged by opponents.
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