McGinnis is an exceptionally strong character in Deadlock, particularly effective at controlling areas and assisting her team during critical moments – but only if she’s optimized correctly.
While Deadlock emphasizes aiming and gunplay more than traditional MOBAs, utilizing casting abilities can significantly enhance your gameplay. McGinnis stands out as one of the more straightforward characters in Deadlock, particularly because her turrets provide substantial support.
However, excelling with her at higher levels demands a deep understanding of how to leverage her lane pressure and robust split-pushing capabilities to compensate for her otherwise limited burst damage and turret setup time.
This guide will assist you in selecting the optimal items and abilities for McGinnis to maximize her effectiveness in Deadlock.
Best McGinnis Abilities in Deadlock
Below is the recommended starting and maximum progression for McGinnis’s abilities in Deadlock. While her diverse abilities are useful in various scenarios, her ultimate can feel lackluster and may require teammates with stunning or rooting capabilities to be fully effective.
- Ability Starting Path: 3>2>1
- Against high-damage characters in the early game, it’s advisable to invest in your second ability first for enhanced sustainability.
- Ability Max Path: 1 point in 2>max 1>2 points in 3>1 point in 2>1 point in 4>max 2>max 3>max 4
- McGinnis boasts a unique ability set, allowing you to adapt your build path to the match’s demands. In games with teammates who can disable enemies, prioritize maxing your ultimate first to deliver significant burst damage during team fights, whereas focusing on other abilities is better suited for playing a utility role.
Investing a point in Medicinal Specter early on is very beneficial, as it heals all allied units within its area of effect and grants a firing rate boost. This enables you to effectively push minion waves while also providing much-needed sustain and a bonus firing rate for engagement.
Mini Turret will be your primary ability on McGinnis, allowing you to deploy additional firepower on the battlefield without facing the enemy directly. This proves invaluable when trying to escape from foes, as placing a turret can obstruct their pursuit.
As for Heavy Barrage, it targets locations within your line of sight, while the Spectral Wall effectively traps enemies, setting them up for the massive burst damage from your ultimate.
Deadlock McGinnis Abilities Explained
If you are unfamiliar with McGinnis’s skills in Deadlock, here is a concise overview:
- 1: Mini Turret
- Deploys a Mini Turret that automatically targets enemies. The turret has a limited lifespan and possesses 30% of McGinnis’s max health, 60% Spirit Resist, while dealing reduced damage to troopers and objectives.
- Level 1: +1 ability charge and turrets apply +25% movement slow
- Level 2: +10 meter attack range and +10% turret fire rate
- Level 3: +45 turret DPS
- Deploys a Mini Turret that automatically targets enemies. The turret has a limited lifespan and possesses 30% of McGinnis’s max health, 60% Spirit Resist, while dealing reduced damage to troopers and objectives.
- 2: Medicinal Specter
- Deploy a spirit that heals nearby allies.
- Level 1: +35% fire rate on units healed by Medicinal Specter
- Level 2: -18 second cooldown
- Level 3: +5% max health regen per second
- Deploy a spirit that heals nearby allies.
- 3: Spectral Wall
- Creates a wall that splits the battlefield. When cast, it deals damage and slows nearby enemies. It can be triggered again to cause the wall to explode prematurely, inflicting further damage.
- Level 1: Removes 1 stamina and amplifies McGinnis’s damage by 25% on hit enemies for 7 seconds
- Level 2: -15 second cooldown
- Level 3: Adds a 1 second stun to enemies hit by Spectral Wall
- Creates a wall that splits the battlefield. When cast, it deals damage and slows nearby enemies. It can be triggered again to cause the wall to explode prematurely, inflicting further damage.
- 4: Heavy Barrage
- Unleashes a barrage of rockets targeting a selected area.
- Level 1: Applies 35% movement slow
- Level 2: -50 second cooldown
- Level 3: +30 damage per rocket
- Unleashes a barrage of rockets targeting a selected area.
Best Build on McGinnis: Deadlock Items Explained
The recommended items for McGinnis are categorized into four sections: early game, mid-game, late-game/luxury, and situational purchases.
The first three sections offer a general idea of which items to prioritize at each game stage, though you can proceed directly to late-game items if you have a lead. Situational items focus on countering specific mechanics during matches.
Here’s what you should aim to purchase for McGinnis to increase your chances of defeating the enemy’s Patron:
Early Game Items
McGinnis possesses one of the most effective primary weapons in the game when utilized correctly, with her minigun providing significant lane pressure. For this reason, Monster Rounds‘ enhanced damage against NPCs is excellent for pushing enemies back. Basic Magazine is beneficial for increased ammo and serves as a foundation for Titanic Magazine later.
Extra Stamina and Extra Regen will bolster your longevity in the lane. Since McGinnis benefits from remaining in lane to gather souls and ability points, added regen from Healing Rite is crucial in the early phases, particularly if you experience poke damage.
Extra Charge enables you to utilize multiple Mini Turret charges, while Mystic Reach boosts spirit damage and range for all your abilities, especially your turrets.
Mid Game Items
To enhance your sustainability, focus on purchasing Enduring Speed and Fortitude for necessary regeneration and movement speed. Fortitude aids in jungling neutral creeps and split-pushing, as max-health regen keeps you healthy during rotations. McGinnis is particularly effective due to her split-pushing prowess.
Don’t disregard McGinnis’ turrets; during the mid-game, aim to acquire Improved Cooldown and Suppressor to reduce your ability cooldowns and minimize enemy fire rates, respectively. Suppressor synergizes with your turrets, making her hard to trade against, and can be upgraded into Mystic Slow later.
Late Game/Luxury
McGinnis’ high firing rate maximizes her potential with weapon damage items that inflict Spirit power debuffs on enemies, such as Spiritual Overflow. When combined with Titanic Magazine, Spiritual Overflow allows her to accumulate significant Spirit Damage on enemies, effectively taking down even the tankiest heroes.
You’ll also need Improved Bullet Armor and Improved Spirit Armor in the late game to withstand attacks from enemy heroes targeting your backline. Additionally, Inhibitor grants movement slow and damage reduction, allowing you to maintain distance from aggressive heroes while sustaining reduced damage output.
To capitalize on her reliance on Spirit damage from abilities, McGinnis flourishes with lower cooldowns and enhanced ability damage. Seek items like Rapid Recharge, Echo Shard, and Superior Cooldown to enable frequent ability usage. Using Echo Shard to drop multiple turrets quickly could be lifesaving.
Furthermore, since her abilities have short durations, Superior Duration is an ideal choice to extend turret activity, resulting in minimal downtime complemented by cooldown-reducing items. Pairing these with Mystic Slow ensures enemies are effectively hindered.
In addition, aim for Escalating Exposure and Boundless Spirit to maximize McGinnis’s Spirit damage output, making her a formidable opponent in late-game scenarios.
Situational Items
These situational items can elevate McGinnis’s performance when utilized correctly. Here’s a summary of each item and circumstances for their optimal use:
- Warp Stone: Provides a short teleport option, allowing you to reposition during fights while gaining weapon damage and spirit power boosts. Ideal against enemies with teleport or dash abilities.
- Toxic Bullets: Inflicts bleed damage and healing reduction on enemies. Particularly effective against high HP and high regen heroes due to the damage dealt being a percentage of their current health.
- Active Reload: Enables instant reloading with boosts to firing rate and bullet lifesteal, essential for builds focused on bullet damage rather than spirit damage.
- Leech: This item is transformative for McGinnis in situations where she’s lagging behind, offering lifesteal for bullet and spirit damage to sustain fights longer and potentially turn the tide in your favor.
- Unstoppable: An incredibly powerful item against disablers; it allows for easier ultimate usage by preventing enemy disables.
- Debuff Remover: Useful when facing teams that frequently disarm or silence your character, allowing you to remove most negative debuffs unless stunned.
- Rescue Beam: As McGinnis typically operates from the backline, upgrading your Healing Rite to a Rescue Beam can be a beneficial choice.
- Reactive Barrier: Triggered automatically when McGinnis is disabled by enemy abilities, providing temporary bullet and spirit armor. This is great when enemies focus her down, as her turrets can remain active during CC.
- Slowing Hex: Effective against high-mobility heroes, this item slows them down while silencing their movement-based abilities and items.
- Withering Whip: Applies a debuff on an enemy hero, reducing fire rate and bullet resist temporarily. This is critical when dealing with enemy heroes that can outpace you.
- Ethereal Shift: Renders McGinnis untargetable and invulnerable temporarily, ideal for escaping ambushes. However, during this time, she cannot move or act but receives an instant reload and increased spirit power.
- Knockdown: This active item places a stun debuff on an enemy after a delay. It’s effective when your team lacks disables to coordinate with your ultimate ability.
- Curse: Applies a debuff that silences, disarms, and falters an enemy hero from using items temporarily, beneficial in late-game scenarios where enemy abilities are difficult to manage.
Despite feeling somewhat lackluster in the current game state, McGinnis remains one of the easier characters to learn for grasping complex mechanics.
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