Mastering Yamato in Deadlock: A Complete Build Guide

Yamato, the mysterious and agile samurai of Deadlock, is a hero that packs an incredible punch but requires precision and timing to reach her full potential. This hero, known for her high burst damage and swift movements, shines in close-range combat, flanking squishy backline enemies, and dominating 1v1 skirmishes. However, mastering Yamato is no easy task. To truly make the most out of her, you’ll need to understand her strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and how to build her for maximum effectiveness throughout the game.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore how to turn Yamato into an unstoppable force, walking you through her abilities, build progression, and some advanced tips for maximizing her potential.

Why Yamato is a Game-Changer in Deadlock

Yamato stands out in Deadlock for her high-risk, high-reward playstyle, which appeals to players who thrive under pressure. She’s not the most versatile hero, but with the right strategy, she can obliterate enemy backlines with ease.

Pros:

• High burst damage makes her deadly in close-range engagements.
• Exceptional mobility due to her grappling hook ability.
• One of the best duelists with immense potential to win isolated fights.
• Ultimate grants invincibility, which can turn the tide in your favor during critical moments.
• Self-healing and debuffs make her sustainable in drawn-out fights.

Cons:

• Squishy early game, making positioning and defense key.
• Dependent on her ultimate ability for survivability and damage bursts.
• Requires precision with her abilities, particularly with her skill shots.

With the right build and mastery of her abilities, Yamato becomes an unstoppable juggernaut in the late game. But her potential is only unlocked through strategic ability progression, itemization, and skillful gameplay.

Yamato’s Abilities: Breaking Down Her Skill Set

Understanding Yamato’s abilities is crucial for timing your engagements and making the most out of her high burst potential. Let’s dive into each ability and how to maximize their impact on the battlefield.

1. Power Slash (Ability 1)

Yamato’s Power Slash is her primary damage-dealing tool. This ability lets you channel for 1.5 seconds, charging a powerful sword strike that can devastate enemies when fully charged.

• Cooldown: 8.5 seconds
• Damage: 160 (x2 Spirit) at full charge
• Range: 25 meters
• Ability Progression:
  • Gain +60 Bullet Resist while channeling
  • Apply a 40% movement slow for 3 seconds at 2 AP
  • Gain +200 damage at full charge at 3 AP

Best Use: Align Power Slash with multiple enemies to maximize damage, and always use it after locking an enemy down with Flying Strike or Crimson Slash.

2. Flying Strike (Ability 2)

Flying Strike is Yamato’s mobility tool and a key part of her flanking potential. Throw a grappling hook, pulling yourself toward an enemy and slowing them upon impact.

• Cooldown: 21 seconds
• Damage: 70 (x0.7 Spirit)
• Slow: 30% for 2.5 seconds
• Ability Progression:
  • Apply a 25% movement slow at 1 AP
  • Increase cast range by 20 meters at 2 AP
  • Gain +6 weapon damage after striking the target at 5 AP

Best Use: Flying Strike is your gap closer and chase tool. Use it to dive onto fleeing enemies or initiate surprise attacks from unexpected angles.

3. Crimson Slash (Ability 3)

Crimson Slash is a versatile ability that allows Yamato to deal damage, debuff enemies, and heal herself.

• Cooldown: 11.5 seconds
• Damage: 60 (x0.4 Spirit)
• Heal on Hero Hit: 70 (x1.1 Spirit)
• Ability Progression:
  • Slow enemy fire rate by 30% at 1 AP
  • Heal for an additional 10% of your max health at 2 AP
  • Reduce cooldown by 6 seconds at 5 AP

Best Use: Use Crimson Slash to heal during fights, especially when engaging multiple opponents. This ability becomes vital in extended team fights, providing healing and debuffs that can turn the tide.

4. Shadow Transformation (Ultimate)

Yamato’s ultimate ability, Shadow Transformation, is what makes her truly invincible. For 4 seconds, Yamato becomes immune to death, refreshes all abilities, and gains increased speed, damage resistance, and immunity to negative effects.

• Cooldown: 106 seconds
• Duration: 4 seconds
• Ability Progression:
  • Reduce cooldown by 30 seconds at 1 AP
  • Increase movement speed by 4 m/s at 2 AP
  • Extend duration by 2 seconds at 5 AP

Best Use: Use Shadow Transformation as a second phase in fights, after you’ve exhausted all your abilities. The ability refresh lets you deliver another devastating barrage of attacks while being immune to damage.

Building Yamato for Success: The Ultimate Build Guide

Yamato’s build revolves around balancing survivability with damage output. You’ll need to focus on Spirit for her abilities to deal more damage while incorporating Weapon and Vitality items to stay alive.

Early Game Build

Yamato is quite vulnerable during the early game, so it’s essential to focus on survivability and early damage boosts.

• High-Velocity Mag: Boosts bullet velocity and weapon damage, helping you secure last hits on minions and early poke.
• Close Quarters: Increases damage when fighting at close range, which complements Yamato’s kit.
• Melee Lifesteal: Provides some early-game sustain through life steal during melee engagements.
• Healing Rite: Enhances your healing capabilities, which is crucial for surviving early skirmishes.
• Sprint Boots: Boosts mobility, allowing you to chase down enemies or reposition quickly.

Mid-Game Build

During the mid-game, Yamato starts to scale with Spirit items that enhance her ability damage. You’ll want to balance this with survivability to maintain your dominance.

• Kinetic Dash: Improves mobility, allowing you to move around the map faster and engage or disengage more effectively.
• Mystic Shot: Enhances spirit damage, making your Power Slash and Crimson Slash hit harder.
• Soul Shredder Bullets: Applies a debuff on enemies that increases spirit damage received, making your next few abilities devastating.
• Improved Burst: Increases your burst damage potential, letting you finish off squishy targets quickly.
• Refresher: Resets all ability cooldowns, giving you a massive advantage in extended team fights, especially when combined with your ultimate.

Late Game Build

Yamato becomes a late-game powerhouse with the right items, focusing on increasing her ultimate’s uptime and boosting her damage.

• Duration Extender: Extends the duration of your ultimate, allowing you to wreak havoc for longer.
• Superior Cooldown: Reduces the cooldown of your abilities, letting you use your kit more frequently.
• Healing Booster: Enhances your healing abilities, making you much harder to kill in extended fights.
• Surge of Power: Further increases your spirit damage, turning Yamato into a destructive force.

Situational Items

Depending on the enemy composition, consider adding these items to counter specific threats:

• Ethereal Shift: Increases mobility and helps escape tricky situations.
• Debuff Remover: Essential if the enemy team has crowd control effects that can lock you down.
• Soul Rebirth: Adds extra survivability, allowing you to revive and continue the fight.

Pro Tips for Dominating with Yamato

Mastering Yamato isn’t just about itemization it’s about learning how to maximize her kit in the heat of battle. Here are a few tips to take your gameplay to the next level:

1. Utilize alternate fire with Power Slash: Align your shots to hit multiple enemies at once, maximizing your damage output.
2. Flying Strike as an escape tool: Don’t just use it to engage Flying Strike is also perfect for escaping dangerous situations or kiting enemies.
3. Time your ultimate carefully: Don’t blow your Shadow Transformation too early. Use it after you’ve exhausted your cooldowns for maximum effectiveness.
4. Heal through Crimson Slash: Engage in fights where you can hit multiple enemies with Crimson Slash to heal and extend your survivability.

Unleashing Yamato’s Full Potential

Yamato is one of the most exciting heroes to play in Deadlock due to her high-risk, high-reward playstyle. With the right build, ability progression, and smart gameplay, she becomes a terrifying presence on the battlefield, capable of decimating enemy teams with precision and speed.

Mastering Yamato will take time and dedication, but once you learn to navigate her squishy early game and leverage her ultimate for late-game dominance, you’ll find yourself consistently at the top of the scoreboard.

Ready to take your Deadlock game to the next level? Follow this build, practice those skill shots, and become the unstoppable samurai that no one sees coming.