About

Pick a hero from the tier list. Its page has six tabs, and hovering a tab says what it holds: Meta (rated builds that contain at least 12 of the hero's 15 most-bought items), Best (every rated build, best first), Pro (the latest build of each top leaderboard player), Experimental (builds with too few games to rate), Community (builds submitted here, by votes) and Tips. Live now is a separate tab that lists matches being played and Twitch streams.

Builds saved since the latest patch come first. Older ones are tagged Outdated and sit behind Show N outdated builds; they may still work, or may use items that left the shop. Above each list, the type menu narrows it to Melee, Gun, Spirit, Hybrid or Tank builds. Tick more than one to see either.

Under the hero's name, the matchups row shows the heroes it beats and loses to, and the items worth buying against it.

The author splits a build into groups and names them. Most put them in buying order, early game first, with a last group for situational items. Their notes on an item show under it.

• Orange is weapon: gun damage, fire rate, ammo.
• Green is vitality: health, healing, resistances.
• Purple is spirit: ability damage, cooldowns, range.

Not always. Every build page opens By game phase: the build's items sorted into lane, mid game and late game by when players of that hero usually buy them, with the time next to each. If you're well past an item's usual time and haven't bought it, move on to the next phase rather than finishing the row. Items most players skip sit under Situational. The author's own layout is one tab over, under Author's groups.

A build is the same list whatever the enemy team is. The Counters for your match card on a build page lets you pick the enemy heroes and shows which counter items the build already carries and which it doesn't.

Souls

The money you buy items with.

T1, T2, T3, T4

Item tiers, from the 800-soul items to the 6,400-soul ones (800, 1,600, 3,200 and 6,400).

Active item

An item you trigger with a key, instead of one that works on its own.

Imbue

An item that boosts one of your abilities. You choose which ability when you buy it.

Flex slots

Extra item slots that unlock during the match.

Win rate and games

From games in the last 30 days where a player started with that build selected. They come from deadlock-api.com, which doesn't see every game. A win rate from 20 games can swing a lot, so check the game count next to it.

Adjusted for sample size

Heroes and builds are ranked by the low end of a win rate's likely range (the Wilson lower bound), not the raw number. A 70% win rate from 25 games ranks below 58% from 5,000.

Tier letters

Where a hero or build sits in its list: the top 15% are S, the next 25% A, the next 35% B, the rest C. Heroes are ranked at the rank you picked. A build keeps one letter on every tab. A "?" means it has fewer than 20 games and isn't rated yet.

Since patch

A hero's win rate in the days since the latest patch, against the 14 days before it.

Meta match

How many of the hero's 15 most-bought items the build contains, at the rank you've picked (12/15, say). A high number means it's close to what most players run. It doesn't say the build is good.

Counters

Items a hero's players buy at least 1.2 times as often as usual when a given enemy is in the match, with at least 50 purchases behind it.

Updated, Outdated

Updated means the author saved the build after the latest patch. An outdated build may still work, or may not.

Notes on X of Y

How many items the author explained. Builds with notes are easier to learn from.

Votes

Anyone signed in can vote on any build. The build page splits votes by the voter's rank, so you can see whether players at your level liked it.

Verified author

The person who submitted the build is the one who published it in the game.