Deadlock: Best Yamato Build Guide

Deadlock’s Yamato is a challenging hero to master due to her reliance on precision skill shots and strategic timing, essential skills honed through extensive gameplay. Her abilities are designed for aggressive play, particularly effective in ambushing fragile opponents in the enemy’s rear. Additionally, Yamato is capable of handling multiple enemies simultaneously, thanks to her self-healing abilities and a game-changing Ultimate that grants her temporary invincibility.

Optimizing Yamato’s Spirit build is crucial as it significantly enhances her effectiveness later in the game compared to primarily focusing on Weapon upgrades. In this guide, we’ll dive into the essential tactics and item strategies to fully leverage Yamato’s potential in Deadlock.

Deadlock Yamato Overview

Deadlock’s Yamato stands out as a formidable hero with a knack for high-stakes, close-range engagements. Known for her explosive burst damage, Yamato excels in taking down targets up close, making her a lethal asset in skirmishes. Her agility is further enhanced by a grappling hook that allows for swift target engagement, positioning her as a top-tier duelist capable of winning isolated confrontations. Yamato’s kit is designed for high-risk, high-reward tactics, appealing to players who thrive on strategic risk-taking.

Her ultimate ability grants invincibility, providing a crucial edge in battle, while her self-healing capabilities and a debuff that slows enemy fire rates add to her self-sufficiency in combat scenarios. Despite these strengths, Yamato’s glass cannon nature necessitates cautious positioning and the strategic use of defensive items to ensure survival. She is a quintessential late-game hero, requiring patience and skillful play to reach her full potential.

Her dependency on her ultimate for peak performance and her high skill ceiling might deter less experienced players, but mastering Yamato’s unique abilities can turn the tide of battle. She may not have the versatility of other heroes like Pocket, but her distinct combat style becomes increasingly rewarding as players harness her full power to execute daring and effective flanks.

Yamato’s Abilities Overview in Deadlock

Power Slash

• Description: Yamato charges her sword strike for up to 1.5 seconds, increasing damage. Release early by pressing 1 or left-click for reduced damage.
• Cooldown: 8.5 seconds
• Damage: 160 at full charge (multiplied by 2 times Spirit)
• Range: 25 meters
• Upgrades:
• 1 AP: Adds +60 bullet resistance while charging.
• 2 AP: Inflicts a 40% movement slow on hit for 3 seconds.
• 3 AP: Increases full charge damage by 200.

Flying Strike

• Description: Launches a grappling hook to pull yourself towards an enemy, dealing damage and applying a slow upon arrival.
• Range: 20 meters
• Cooldown: 21 seconds
• Damage: 70 (0.7 times Spirit)
• Movement Slow: 30% for 2.5 seconds
• Upgrades:
• 1 AP: Increases movement slow to 55%.
• 2 AP: Extends cast range to 40 meters.
• 5 AP: Boosts weapon damage by 6 for 10 seconds after striking.

Crimson Slash

• Description: Executes a sweeping slash that damages and slows the fire rate of enemies in front. Hitting enemy heroes also heals Yamato.
• Range: 13 meters
• Cooldown: 11.5 seconds
• Damage: 60 (0.4 times Spirit)
• Heal on Hero Hit: 70 (1.1 times Spirit)
• Fire Rate Slow: 20%
• Debuff Duration: 4 seconds
• Upgrades:
• 1 AP: Increases fire rate slow to 50%.
• 2 AP: Adds healing of 10% of max health on hero hit.
• 5 AP: Reduces cooldown by 6 seconds.

Shadow Transformation

• Description: Yamato becomes invincible and infused with her shadow soul, refreshing abilities and boosting their speed. She gains damage resistance and is immune to debuffs.
• Cast Time: 2 seconds
• Cooldown: 106 seconds
• Duration: 4 seconds
• Ability Speed: +60%
• Spirit Resist: +40%
• Bullet Resist: +40%
• Upgrades:
• 1 AP: Reduces cooldown by 30 seconds.
• 2 AP: Increases move speed by 4 meters per second.
• 5 AP: Extends duration by 2 seconds.

These abilities define Yamato as a high-risk, high-reward hero, capable of turning the tide of battle with her dynamic and powerful skill set.

Deadlock Yamato Build

Yamato’s effectiveness increases substantially as she acquires souls and levels up her abilities. Proper itemization during each phase of the game is crucial for excelling in lane battles and throughout the match. As Yamato has a relatively low durability, strategic gameplay and cautious positioning are essential during the early stages.

Yamato Ability Optimization

When playing as Yamato in Deadlock, it’s crucial to focus on leveling specific abilities early to maximize lane harassment and control. Initially, concentrate on enhancing Power Slash to maximize its damage output and harassment capability. Prioritize getting this ability to 2 AP right after unlocking Crimson Slash for its beneficial movement slowing effect.

Next, enhance Flying Strike to 2 AP to significantly boost Yamato’s mobility and flanking abilities, thanks to the extended cast range. Once these key abilities are upgraded, distribute remaining points between Crimson Slash and Shadow Transformation to balance her damage output and survivability in skirmishes.

Yamato Item Strategy for Deadlock

Yamato’s build capitalizes on her strong late-game scaling with a focus on Spirit enhancements while integrating crucial Weapon and Vitality items for early-game resilience. As her abilities grow in power, stacking Spirit-focused items like Duration Extender and Improved Cooldown sharpens her edge, turning her into a formidable force on the battlefield.

Item Categories:

• Weapon: Start with High-Velocity Mag for improved bullet speed, enhancing both range and accuracy. Hollow Point Ward is essential for boosting weapon damage early on.
• Spirit: Early investments in Spirit Strike and Mystic Burst amplify your spirit damage, crucial for mid to late-game. In later stages, items like Mystic Shot and Soul Shredder Bullets escalate the damage further, especially when comboing with basic attacks.
• Vitality: Begin with Extra Regen and Healing Rite to enhance survivability in lane. Later, add Spirit Lifesteal for sustained healing in combat and Healbane to mitigate enemy recovery.

Phase-Specific Items:

• Early Game: Equip Yamato with Sprint Boots for mobility, allowing for quick positioning and escapes. The Melee Lifesteal offers a direct combat advantage, essential for her skirmishing style.
• Mid Game: Transition into items like Kinetic Dash for mobility and Torment Pulse for additional utility in skirmishes. Refresher is pivotal, allowing Yamato to reset cooldowns and sustain her offensive pressure.
• Late Game: Opt for Superior Cooldown and Duration Extender to maximize the uptime of her abilities. Surge of Power should be considered to enhance her burst potential in critical team fights.

Situational Items:

• Include Ethereal Shift for strategic repositioning or escape from tight situations. Silence Glyph is advisable if facing opponents with heavy crowd control capabilities, ensuring Yamato’s mobility and attack sequences remain uninterrupted.

By strategically building Yamato with a balance of early survivability and late-game damage potential, players can effectively utilize her kit to dominate in lanes and exert considerable influence in team fights.

How To Play Yamato In Deadlock

Yamato excels in gathering souls quickly due to her ability to dominate lanes and effectively rotate into jungle areas. This capability allows her to amass items swiftly, amplifying her in-game impact. One key tactic with Yamato involves utilizing her alternate fire in tandem with Power Slash for effective enemy poking, making the most of her versatile attack strategies.

Yamato’s kit is especially potent when combining her healing capabilities with offensive maneuvers. The Crimson Slash is a crucial tool in her arsenal, allowing her to breach enemy defenses, regain health, and dispatch AoE damage, setting her up perfectly for securing eliminations on more vulnerable targets positioned behind frontline defenses.

Strategic Gameplay Tips:

• Engage regularly with both basic attacks and the alternate fire mode, which deals splash damage and can be effective even when targeting the ground near opponents.
• Optimize the use of Power Slash to pierce through groups of enemies; positioning is key to maximizing its multi-target damage.
• Reserve Flying Strike for crucial moments to pursue or finish off escaping enemies, enhancing her chase and engage capabilities.
• Strategically activate Yamato’s Ultimate ability after deploying her other skills to benefit from the cooldown resets, ensuring sustained offensive pressure in prolonged encounters.

By harnessing these strategies, players can leverage Yamato’s full potential, dominating the battlefield through superior soul collection, itemization, and skillful execution of her diverse abilities.

Conclusion

This comprehensive guide to the best Yamato build in Deadlock has equipped you with all the necessary strategies and item recommendations to maximize her potential in the game. Yamato's kit, designed for high-risk and high-reward gameplay, can dominate in the hands of a player who masters her complex mechanics and timings. By following this guide, you can enhance your play style to leverage her unique abilities effectively, making Yamato a formidable hero in your Deadlock arsenal. Whether you're farming souls or diving deep into enemy lines, understanding and utilizing Yamato’s builds and strategies will undoubtedly elevate your gameplay and help you secure more victories.