Best Ivy Build in Deadlock: Skill Paths, Itemization, and More

Ivy in Deadlock is tailor-made to prepare her teammates for incredible flights, but she can also hold her own if you use the right build.

Ivy shines when she bonds with an ally (similar to Dota2‘s Io), her and teammate’s weapon buff while she is giving heals. This means Ivy leans heavily towards a support option Two of her abilities involve interacting with her teammates, one dealing minor damage and crowd control, and the last providing an incredible stun to start fights.

With all that in mind, here’s the best build for Ivy in Deadlock.

Ivy’s skills in Deadlock

Ivy offers three primary abilities and an ultimate, like every hero in Deadlock:

• Kudzu Bomb: Summons a field of vines that damages and slows enemies in its AoE. You can throw this like any other grenade and its range is impressive. It’s the best early-game ability for Ivy, as it helps you clear lanes quickly.
• Covenant of the Watchman: Tethers to the nearest ally (including creeps) in your line of sight. Once tethered, it shares healing and bonuses like fire rate and movement. You can also use it in tough situations without tethering for its bullet life steal.
• Stone shape: Transforms you into stone when you jump into the air and slam into the ground, stunning and damaging nearby enemies. While in the air, you have a brief moment to move around to realign your landing spot in case your enemies flee. Stone Form is Ivy’s best ability, especially for the mid- to late-game, and at its highest level it also heals you for a percentage of your max health.
• Air drop: This lets you fly with an ally or a bomb, and dropping either will create a huge explosion that slows enemies in its AoE. You and your teammate also get significant bullet resistance, lasting over 10 seconds. This is one of the best skills in Deadlock to gank other lanes. However, if you don’t have any teammates nearby, just press Mouse3 (Scroll Wheel) to fly a bomb.

When you hold down the fire button, Ivy uses a hitscan pistol with minimal vertical coil. The magazine size of this weapon is one of the largest for any character, but the damage is not that impressive. Like any other hitscan weapon, you can comfortably track your opponents with a slower sensitivity.

The best build for Ivy in Deadlock

Early match

Open with Kudzu Bomb Than Covenant of the Watchman. Invest one point into both abilities, as it will give you an extra charge for the bomb and fire rate buff with the second ability. Then keep leveling up Stone Form to gank teammates and support them with its stun. Stone Form pairs well with your ultimate, allowing you to start off successful almost every time.

During the early laning phase, focus on holding the lane and constantly moving creeps forward. If you’re alone in the lane or constantly low on health, rush Health Nova and then Healing ritual, intimate spaces and mystical reach.

Then buy Sprint boots for better sprint speed. Basic magazine works well for Ivy because the upgrade increases the maximum magazine size percentage. For Ivy it gives you eight extra rounds for only 500 Souls.

In the middle of the game

If you haven’t bought it yet, get Health Nova as your first item in the middle of the game. In addition, you will receive Melee Charge and Berserker to instantly reload your weapon when you hit an enemy (including creeps) with your charged melee attack, and significantly increase your weapon’s damage when taking sustained damage.

Next, Constant speed upgrade for the Sprint Boots is a no-brainer. To finish off your support build on Ivy during the mid-game, Rescue beam heal yourself or an ally and quickly pull them out of a sticky situation. Heroic Aura is also a must-pick to temporarily increase the movement speed and fire rate of nearby allies.

Depending on the builds of the enemy heroes, you can choose Hunter’s aura, bullet armoror Spiritual armorWhen in doubt, go with Hunter’s Aura, it will allow you to get solo kills quickly.

Late in the game

For late game itemization I first upgrade the Duration Extender to Superior Durability and then get Superior coolingIf you have a snowball effect, then you get Curse to interrupt, silence, disarm, and prevent enemies from using objects.

If the game is neck and neck, Improved bullet armor And Improved Spirit Armor to survive and support your teammates for extended periods of time during team fights.

Alternative Ivy DPS Build in Deadlock

While Ivy shines in roaming and support, you can customize each hero’s build to make them portable Deadlock. For Ivy’s damage is building upwe focused primarily on the Weapon and Vitality card to take advantage of the fantastic magazine size on her base weapon:

• Early match: Basic Warehouse, Close Range Combat, Extra Health, Sprint Boots, Active Reload, Ammo Collector, Nova Health, Monster Bullets.
• Middlegame: Heroic Aura, Enduring Speed, Intensifying Magazine, Healing Booster, Spirit Armor, Vampiric Burst, Escalating Resilience, Bulletproof Shredder, Decay.
• Endgame: Paralyzing headshot, lucky shot, slowing bullets, echo shard, Titanic magazine, metal skin, bullet armor, rebirth of the soul, curse.

For skills, focus on leveling Kudzu Bomb and Watcher’s Covenant. While Ivy’s DPS build is decent, I tend to lean towards the support build; I’ve had more success with it.

When playing with friends, make sure to pick the best heroes to pair with Ivy, as she can throw characters like Dynamo into an area where he can lure enemies with his ultimate Singularity, resulting in a perfect wombo combo.