Violet Guide in Deadlock: Abilities, Best Build, and Leveling

In Deadlock, Violetta controls ink bullets, draws walls, and gains permanent buffs for enemy portraits. She combines spiritual damage with crowd control: she stuns individual targets, helps allies move, and restricts enemies’ vision. Let’s break down her abilities, item build, and skill progression.

Enhances the next three bullets: their trajectory can be controlled with the crosshair. Hits deal additional weapon and spiritual damage to a small area. Hits on heroes reduce the cooldown of abilities and items.

The alternate use allows you to draw an ink wall. It blocks movement and projectiles. The wall can be destroyed with a heavy melee attack, but the attacker will take spirit damage.

Launches a brush forward, leaving an ink trail. Allies can slide along it, while enemies hit by it take spirit damage and are slowed. The longer the brush travels, the stronger its strike—up to a set limit.

Pressing the button again hurls the brush forward and concludes the ability with an attack that covers a larger area.

Violet selects an enemy and begins to paint their portrait. As long as the target remains in front of her, she deals periodic spirit damage. The completed painting deals additional damage and stuns the enemy.

Afterward, a sketch appears. Pick it up to permanently boost Violet’s stats. The type of boost depends on the hero depicted.

Creates an ink-filled area around Violetta that blocks vision. Allies inside gain Spirit, and the positions of enemies are revealed.

An enemy leaving the area takes spiritual damage, is slowed, and silenced. Initially, an enemy’s exit destroys the ink, but the latest upgrade removes this restriction.

To start, focus on upgrading Still Life and Enhanced Shots:

This is a build for getting to know the hero. When playing with a team, you can upgrade your ultimate earlier to buff your allies.

The build’s foundation is Spiritism, additional Living Ink charges, and survivability. Hits with enhanced bullets help abilities recharge faster, so items should support prolonged firefights.

If you’re constantly running low on health, add Extra Regeneration. You don’t have to buy all the starting items: choose between extra damage and regeneration depending on the situation.

Haste charges help you use Living Ink more often, and Spirit Health Steal keeps the hero going in prolonged fights. If your healing is still insufficient, consider Healing Amplifier.

For damage and frequent ability usage:

If you’re getting killed quickly, add defense instead of another damage item. The RinaVX build uses Divine Barrier, Unyielding, and Oracle’s Armor. The Teleport Stone helps you reposition, and Dispel Magic comes in handy against disruptive negative effects. The complete Violet by RinaVX build can be found in the public builds under number 898309.

On the lane, start trading with Still Life and keep hitting your chosen target. Then use Living Ink: the enhanced shots will reduce the portrait’s cooldown and let you repeat the attack sooner. Collect sketches when it’s safe—it’s the collected sketches that grant permanent stats.

Use the Ink Wall to block a passage, cut off line of sight, or prevent enemies from retreating. Before a fight, leave yourself an escape route using Flow State. Don’t waste all your movement tools just to close the distance.

It’s best to use your ultimate where your allies are ready to follow up with an attack. Its area of effect buffs your team and punishes enemies who step out, but it doesn’t trap them inside an impassable wall.

Early statistics show that the Rat King, the Crush, and Kelvin stand out as particularly troublesome opponents for Violet. However, as more data is collected, it’s not certain that the best counterpicks will remain the same.

The heroine’s main vulnerability is the need to keep the enemy in front of her during Still Life. If the target takes cover, it’s harder to complete the portrait. At the same time, the ink walls don’t guarantee safety: they can be broken with a heavy blow.