Deadlock: Best Infernus Build Guide

Infernus stands out in Deadlock as a hero known for his exhilarating speed and devastating area-of-effect abilities, capable of progressively draining the health of his adversaries. Mastering Infernus requires not only understanding his build but also strategically leveraging his unique skill set to dominate on the battlefield. This guide dives deep into crafting the perfect build for Infernus, enhancing his dueling capabilities and setting him up as a formidable force in any team configuration.

The versatility of Deadlock’s gameplay means that each hero can be tailored to suit various styles and strategies. For Infernus, focusing on optimizing his fiery abilities will ensure he maximizes damage output and maintains pressure across the map. In this article, we’ll explore the optimal build for Infernus, providing insights into how to effectively harness his power and outmaneuver opponents.

Deadlock Infernus Overview & Ability Details

Infernus thrives in the dynamic battlefield of Deadlock as a hero adept at applying continuous damage-over-time to his adversaries. His primary attack launches rapid projectiles that accumulate burn stacks on targets, enhancing his sustained combat effectiveness. Although he doesn’t boast the highest base speed, his Flame Dash ability compensates by providing exceptional mobility, enabling him to engage or retreat swiftly from skirmishes.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of Infernus’s abilities, emphasizing their tactical applications and potential upgrades to maximize his battlefield dominance:

Infernus Abilities Overview

• Catalyst: Unleashes a stream of napalm that significantly slows enemies while increasing the damage they receive from Infernus. This ability is crucial for initiating combat, allowing Infernus to capitalize on debilitated foes.
• Base Effects: Deals initial damage with added effects that slow and amplify damage against targets.
• Key Upgrades: Additional charges and enhanced damage effects, including lifesteal for sustained duels.
• Flame Dash: Propels Infernus forward rapidly, leaving a trail of flames that damages and slows enemies. This dual-purpose ability serves as both an offensive tool and a means for strategic repositioning.
• Base Effects: Increases movement speed dramatically, leaving a damaging trail.
• Key Upgrades: Greater damage output on the trail and reduced cooldown, enhancing mobility and offensive potential.
• Afterburn (Passive): Passive ability where Infernus’s attacks cause enemies to burn, taking damage over time. Each attack refreshes this debilitating effect, making it a persistent threat in prolonged engagements.
• Base Effects: Inflicts a burning effect that scales with spirit damage.
• Key Upgrades: Enhances the burning effect’s duration and damage, further debilitating enemies over time.
• Concussive Combustion: Transforms Infernus into a living bomb, detonating after a delay to stun and damage all nearby enemies. This ultimate can turn the tide of team fights or secure crucial kills.
• Base Effects: Causes significant area damage and stuns enemies.
• Key Upgrades: Increases damage, stun duration, and explosion radius, making it a formidable force in clustered combat scenarios.

Each of Infernus’s abilities can be tailored through strategic upgrades to suit various combat roles, from aggressive engagement to strategic crowd control. Players should choose upgrades based on the current game state and team composition to fully leverage Infernus’s destructive potential.

Infernus Build Guide (Ability & Item Progression) In Deadlock

nfernus is renowned in Deadlock for his potential to top damage charts by the game’s conclusion. His gameplay evolves from an early-game assassin roaming between lanes for quick kills to a formidable DPS force in later stages. This guide focuses on enhancing both his lethal capabilities and survivability through strategic ability upgrades and item selections.

Early Game Strategy

Initially, Infernus should focus on leveraging his high damage potential to secure early kills and establish lane dominance. His mobility allows him to effectively gank unsuspecting opponents across different lanes.

Key Abilities to Upgrade:

• Catalyst: Prioritize upgrading this ability for its utility in engagements, enhancing Infernus’s damage output against slowed enemies.
• Flame Dash: Early enhancements should focus on reducing cooldowns and increasing damage, boosting Infernus’s ability to engage and disengage swiftly.

Mid-Game Transition

As the game progresses, Infernus should begin to accumulate items that increase his damage and provide resilience, allowing him to sustain longer in fights and deal continuous damage.

Essential Items:

• Mystic Burst: Boosts spirit damage, making his abilities even more lethal.
• Improved Cooldown: Reduces ability cooldowns, facilitating more frequent ability usage for sustained aggression.
• Sprint Boots: Increases mobility, essential for positioning in skirmishes and retreating when outnumbered.

Late Game Focus

In the later stages, Infernus’s role shifts towards maximizing DPS while maintaining survivability in team fights.

Critical Upgrades and Items:

• Concussive Combustion: Investing in this ultimate’s upgrades can drastically change the tide of team fights, providing massive area damage and control.
• Diviner’s Kevlar: Offers protection, crucial for surviving against late-game burst damage from enemies.
• Spiritual Overflow: Enhances spirit scaling effects, amplifying the damage of all spirit-based abilities.

Throughout the game, Infernus players should adapt their build based on the opposing team’s composition and the state of the match. This dynamic approach ensures that Infernus can maintain his effectiveness as both a ganker and a DPS powerhouse, ultimately leading his team to victory.

Infernus Ability Build

When playing as Infernus, begin by unlocking his core passive ability, Afterburn, to start stacking burn effects on opponents right from the start. Next, activate your primary abilities, Catalyst for engaging enemies and Flame Dash for mobility. Ensure Concussive Combustion, your ultimate, is unlocked as soon as it’s available at 3k Souls for its game-changing power in team fights.

Optimal Ability Upgrade Path:

1. Prioritize Afterburn: Focus on fully upgrading Afterburn to maximize the damage-over-time (DoT) effect. This will significantly enhance Infernus’s continuous damage output in prolonged encounters.
2. Enhance Flame Dash: Invest your next eight Ability Points (AP) into Flame Dash. Fully upgrading this ability enhances your strategic mobility and offensive capabilities, allowing for aggressive plays and quick disengagements.
3. Upgrade Catalyst: Allocate the following three APs to level up Catalyst to tier two. This increases its utility in engagements by enhancing damage amplification and crowd control effects.
4. Maximize Concussive Combustion: Once Catalyst is at level two, channel your AP into fully upgrading Concussive Combustion. Each level up increases the ultimate’s damage, stun duration, and area of effect, turning it into a pivotal ability in team fights.
5. Final Touch on Catalyst: With your ultimate fully upgraded, use the remaining AP to bring Catalyst to its maximum potential. This final upgrade significantly boosts its effectiveness, making it deadly in combination with your other abilities.

By following this progression, Infernus is equipped to dominate in various phases of the game, from early skirmishes to late-game team battles, making him a formidable force on the battlefield.

Infernus Item Progression

Infernus thrives in Deadlock by combining Vitality and Spirit items to enhance his survivability and increase his damage output, respectively. Here’s a strategic breakdown of item choices for Infernus as the game progresses from the early stages to the late game:

Early Game:

• Headshot Booster: Essential for enhancing early game damage; prioritize this at the Curiosity Shop for improved harass and kill potential.
• Basic Magazine: Boosts ammunition, enhancing sustained damage during engagements.
• Infuser: Provides critical Lifesteal and boosts Spirit Power, augmenting your primary attack capabilities.
• Enduring Spirit: Crucial for increasing Spirit Lifesteal, enabling longer engagements.
• Soul Shredder Bullets: Costs 1,250 Souls; essential for its debuff that amplifies Spirit Damage and Lifesteal upon hitting enemies.
• Sprint Boots: Offers necessary mobility for positioning and escaping, a staple for Infernus’s kit.
• Healing Rite (Optional): A strategic choice for on-the-spot healing, enhancing survivability in prolonged fights.

Starting with the Headshot Booster is vital for capitalizing on Infernus’s ranged prowess, allowing you to exploit enemy weaknesses from the get-go. The Basic Magazine and Infuser will support your combat endurance, while the Enduring Spirit enhances your ability to stay in fights longer by boosting your lifesteal effectiveness. Graduating to Soul Shredder Bullets mid-phase allows you to ramp up damage output significantly, making you a formidable opponent in skirmishes. Always round off your initial build with Sprint Boots to ensure that you can navigate the battlefield with agility, capitalizing on both offensive opportunities and defensive retreats when necessary.

Mid-Game:

• Quicksilver Reload: Essential for enhancing your damage output. Link this with your Catalyst ability for instantaneous reloads, enabling continuous Afterburn stack building during combat.
• Spirit Lifesteal: Increases your sustain by boosting Lifesteal, crucial for extended engagements.
• Toxic Bullets: A cornerstone of any Infernus build, these bullets apply a persistent bleed effect that synergizes perfectly with your Afterburn, eroding enemy health over time.
• Mystic Vulnerability: Amplifies the effectiveness of your abilities, making each hit more devastating.
• Duration Extender: Extends the duration of your debuffs on enemies, which can be pivotal during prolonged fights.
• Suppressor (Optional): Useful in specific matchups where silencing an enemy can turn the tide of battle.
• Bullet Armor/Spirit Armor: Choose based on the predominant damage type you’re facing; Bullet Armor for physical threats, Spirit Armor for magical.

Initiating the mid-game with Quicksilver Reload can drastically enhance your engagement capabilities, ensuring that your weapon is always ready for action. Adding Spirit Lifesteal will bolster your staying power in fights, making you a relentless force. Integrate Toxic Bullets early to start whittling down opponents with layered damage over time. Both Mystic Vulnerability and Duration Extender will elevate your ability impact, making your debuffs more punishing and longer-lasting. Depending on enemy compositions, choose between Bullet Armor or Spirit Armor to best mitigate incoming damage, solidifying your presence as a formidable adversary on the battlefield.

Late Game:

• Leech and Healing Booster: Begin with these to fortify your lifesteal capabilities, ensuring that Infernus remains hardy in confrontations.
• Enduring Speed and Fleetfoot: Upgrade your mobility significantly with these items, enhancing both movement speed and combat efficacy.
• Titanic Magazine: A must-have for ammunition capacity, ensuring you never run out during critical fights.
• Improved Bullet Armor/Spirit Armor: Opt for the right type of armor upgrade based on the enemy’s primary damage source to maximize your resilience.
• Shadow Weave (Optional): Ideal for a disruptive playstyle, useful for sneaking and creating chaos behind enemy lines.
• Inhibitor (Optional): Slows high-mobility foes, reducing their threat level and offensive output, making them easier to handle.
• Unstoppable (Optional): Crucial for countering heavy crowd control setups, allowing Infernus to maintain aggression without interruption.
• Ricochet (Optional): Effective in group skirmishes where the enemy tends to cluster, multiplying the impact of your attacks.
• Crippling Headshot (Optional): Replaces earlier damage-boosting items for a significant late-game power spike.

During the late game, prioritize enhancing Infernus’s staying power and damage output through strategic item selections tailored to the unfolding match dynamics. Start by solidifying your lifesteal foundation with Leech and Healing Booster, ensuring you can outlast opponents in sustained exchanges. Transition into boosting your mobility with Enduring Speed and Fleetfoot, allowing for rapid positioning and repositioning, which is vital in late-game skirmishes.

Consider upgrading your magazine for prolonged engagements, and adjust your defensive gear according to the predominant enemy attacks. Opt for situational items like Shadow Weave and Inhibitor to adapt to specific enemy strategies, enhancing your ability to disrupt and control the battlefield.

Lastly, assess the need for items like Unstoppable to counteract crowd control, or Ricochet to exploit enemy positioning mistakes. Crippling Headshot offers a considerable damage increase, perfect for sealing the deal in decisive moments. Through these adjustments, Infernus can dominate the late phases of the game, leveraging superior mobility and sustained damage to clinch victories.

How To Play Infernus Effectively In Deadlock

Harnessing Infernus’s potential revolves around maximizing the impact of his Afterburn effect. Unlike heavy hitters like Bebop, Infernus excels in gradually eroding his opponents’ health with persistent damage over time, effective both at range and in close combat.

Initially, your primary goal should be to farm efficiently in your lane to quickly acquire the Headshot Booster. This key item will significantly enhance your ability to farm and harass simultaneously, allowing you to build Afterburn stacks on your adversaries effectively.

As the game transitions out of the laning phase and Infernus secures his essential items, his presence on the battlefield becomes more pronounced. The typical engagement involves initiating with a long-range poke to accumulate Afterburn stacks, then closing in with Flame Dash while integrating Catalyst for maximum impact. Continue applying pressure with basic attacks to escalate the damage, concluding with your ultimate, Concussive Combustion, either to stun the opposition or clinch a critical kill.

Moving into the late game, Infernus’s capacity to brawl comes to the forefront, supported by a suite of Lifesteal items that bolster his sustainability. His consistent damage output renders him particularly effective against more robust heroes, positioning him as a formidable contender in the prolonged engagements typical of Deadlock’s later stages. This strategic application of Infernus’s abilities not only pressures opponents but also secures crucial advantages for his team.

Conclusion

This guide has laid out a comprehensive roadmap for mastering Infernus in Deadlock, from early game strategies to late game dominance. By focusing on maximizing Afterburn stacks and strategically choosing items that enhance both survivability and damage output, players can unlock the full potential of Infernus’s kit. Whether you’re harassing opponents in lane or dominating in team fights, the tips provided here will help you turn Infernus into a formidable force on the battlefield. As with any hero in Deadlock, practice and adaptability are key—so take these strategies, tailor them to your playstyle, and watch as Infernus becomes a blazing asset to your team’s arsenal.