Deadlock’s August 12 Patch Targets Hero Scaling, Turrets, and Upgrade Bonuses
Valve's latest balance pass adjusts 13 heroes, with major changes to Apollo, McGinnis, Billy, and Vyper.
Valve published a new Deadlock balance update on August 12, bringing changes to 13 heroes, their abilities, tier upgrades, and several defensive values. The full details are available in the Steam announcement.
McGinnis receives one of the broadest passes, with adjustments to bullet damage, Spirit Resist, Mini Turret health, turret targeting, and Medicinal Specter. Apollo’s Riposte gets stronger melee resistance reduction and a more powerful Tier 3 bonus, while Vyper’s Petrifying Bola reaches farther and keeps enemies petrified for longer.
The update follows the broader July 28 balance pass, which changed items and tuned a large portion of the hero roster.
Deadlock August 12, 2026 Patch Notes
The largest adjustments affect hero scaling, upgrade bonuses, and defensive tools. McGinnis’ Mini Turrets gain more health but lose their temporary opening resistance, while Holliday’s Powder Keg now divides its damage between an instant hit and a damage-over-time burn. Apollo, Billy, Doorman, Drifter, McGinnis, and Vyper also receive several ability-specific changes.
- Apollo: Riposte melee resist reduction increased from -22% to -25%
- Apollo: Riposte T2 changed from “-30% Melee Resist” to “-25% Melee Resist and +0.4s Stun Duration”
- Apollo: Riposte T3 increased from 60% Lifesteal for 7s to 75% Lifesteal for 13s
- Apollo: Fixed Itani Lo Sahn being canceled with movement abilities
- Billy: Base health regen reduced from 2.5 to 2.0
- Billy: Rising Ram T3 changed from “On Impact: Deal 7% max health as spirit damage” to “On hero hit: +10% Max HP for 16s”
- Billy: Chain Gang spirit scaling reduced from 1 to 0.7
- Doorman: Doorway range reduced from 70m to 65m
- Doorman: Walker will no longer consider Luggage Cart dragged enemies as valid targets to trigger the stomp on until soon after they are dropped off
- Doorman: Similar to the Walker change above, the turrets in the healing area in base now also wait on considering valid targets
- Drifter: Rend spirit scaling reduced from 1.7 to 1.4
- Drifter: Stalker’s Mark cooldown increased from 24s to 26s
- Drifter: Stalker’s Mark T2 reduced from -12s Cooldown to -10s
- Holliday: Powder Keg now does half its damage immediately and half over 3s as a damage over time burn (same overall damage, multiple instances stack)
- Ivy: Stone Form T3 stun duration reduced from +1s to +0.75s
- Lash: Falloff range reduced from 20m->58m to 18m->54m
- McGinnis: Bullet damage base and growth values reduced by 5%
- McGinnis: Spirit Resist per boon reduced from +0.625% to +0.35%
- McGinnis: Mini Turrets no longer shoots heroes on ziplines
- McGinnis: Mini Turrets no longer have 80% decaying resist for the first 6s
- McGinnis: Mini Turrets health increased from 90 + 7.8/boon to 100 + 9/boon
- McGinnis: Medicinal Specter T1 changed from “Provides +40% Spirit Resist” to “+1.5s Duration”
- McGinnis: Medicinal Specter T3 no longer increases duration by +1.5s
- McGinnis: Medicinal Specter T3 now also increases spirit resistance by +40%
- Paige: Plot Armor weapon damage scaling increased from 0.2 to 0.3
- Seven: Lightning Ball T3 radius increased from +1.5m to +1.75m
- Vindicta: Stake T1 reduced from +65 Damage to +45
- Vyper: Petrifying Bola radius increased from 8m to 12m
- Vyper: Petrifying Bola petrify duration increased from 2s to 2.2s
- Wraith: Card Trick Heart heal spirit scaling reduced from 1 to 0.75
- Wraith: Full Auto T3 spirit scaling reduced from +0.06 to +0.045
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Deadlock
Developed by Valve
