Like most MOBAs, Deadlock has a terrifying, — albeit mostly harmless— ancient demon hiding in the middle of the map.
Valve, either in the spirit of simplicity, or due to not having come around to changing its placeholder name, decided to call their ancient demon the Mid Boss.
But what does it do? Why should you kill it? And when should you do so?
When it comes to its buffs, Mid Boss is a mix between LoL’s Baron Nashor, and Dota’s Roshan. Like Valve’s original MOBA, though, you don’t get its buffs by killing it.
Getting the empowerments requires you only to break the Rejuvenation Buff gem that slowly falls from the arena’s ceiling. For that, you just need to hit it with a charged melee attack.
This means that, if your team kills the Mid Boss, a hero on the enemy team can swoop in, charge-melee onto the gem, and his team will get the buffs, while your team just gets the Souls.
If you manage to claim the Rejuvenation Credit for yourself, it will give your entire team the following effects:
On top of it all, the team which gets the kill credit on Mid Boss gets a ton of Souls. Despite this, this neutral objective is a lot more of a snowballing tool then a comeback mechanic.
If you’re behind in structures, in Souls, and losing the game overall, it will rarely be worth it to spend your time taking down Mid Boss after winning a team fight.
It would be much better for you to shove all lanes, and take multiple guardians or walkers in one go, for a similar time investment.
On the other hand, if you’re winning, you should be fishing for every possible opportunity to take the Mid Boss down, or to force the enemy team into a disadvantageous team fight around it.
The Mid Boss will not attack you until you join his arena. Once you do, he will target you with his laser. If multiple players attack him inside the arena, he will damage the closest one, so make sure to let your tank handle that.
He can only be damaged by people inside the arena, so don’t try shooting him from the platforms around it. He has a permanently regenerating shield, so there is a minimum required DPS value in order for him to start taking damage.
At the 10 min mark, when he first spawns, it’s extremely hard to pass the DPS check. Later on, once you have multiple carries with good items and ability upgrades under their belt, it becomes easier.
When the Mid Boss reaches 60% HP, he will roar, and that will be heard by every player on the map. If the enemy team wasn’t aware you were taking him down, they’ll find out.
As we highlighted before, the buffs given by the boss are tied to the Rejuvenation crystal, so there is more than enough time for the enemy team to react to the roar at 60%, and reach the arena before the crystal is available.
If they manage to get there and time, and one of their players charge melees onto the crystal, their team will steal your buffs. Plan accordingly.
It is safer to take Mid Boss down when you have a considerable numbers advantage, but you can make use of characters that are able to zone enemies out, to prevent a chance of a steal.
As is the case with any MOBA, every game is different. There is never going to be a perfect blueprint you can follow in every match, but there are a few points you can have in mind when it comes to Mid Boss timings.
It is incredibly hard to take him down between the 10 to 15 min mark, unless you get a sweep on the enemy team without losing more than a teammate. Even so, doing Mid Boss at that point in the game will take so long, that you’re better off taking down a couple Guardians and resetting.
From the 15/20 min mark forward, he is a worthy target, but almost always just for the winning team. Once you take down all Guardians, or at least the two in the middle lanes, he should be your next target.
You don’t need your entire team to be there, at least not at the start. Get a tank or a character with a lot of lifesteal, and start taking Mid Boss down. Pay attention to the map and see how the enemy team reacts.
You’ll have a lot of priority around the objective, so your team will always have a faster route towards it. Once it reaches 60% HP and warns everyone that it is being killed, your team is going to be grouped faster than the enemy, allowing you to force a team fight victory.
If they get there before you kill Mid Boss, consider leaving the boss alive and fully engaging into the fight. You can always finish him off after you own the team fight, and you prevent any chances of steals.
When it comes to forcing Mid Boss as the losing team, a classic League of Legends tactic, it doesn’t make much sense in Deadlock. You can push lanes so quickly from the 20 min mark forward, and you can tank Guardians so easily with lifesteal or bulkier characters, that you’re almost always better off pushing.
Structures give you Souls, a lot of them. Taking them down allows you to push the lanes much further, which gives you breathing room and slows the enemy’s snowball, or stalls it entirely.
The rules of thumb are:
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