Mirage in Deadlock is tailor-made to turn the tide of fights with his quick teleports, but besides aiding your teammates, you need to sustain your lane—which requires running the correct build.
Valve’s undoubtedly hard at work, introducing a new hero, Mirage, and several changes in Deadlock’s Sept. 26 update. Mirage’s addition takes the hero tally to 22, and the newest addition offers interesting abilities that allow him to be quick on his feet and evade enemy bullets comfortably.
You can build Mirage to be a support or a menacing carry (thanks to the incredible Spirit Power scaling), like every other hero’s itemization in the game. With that in mind, here’s the best build for Mirage in Deadlock, along with all his abilities and a few gameplay tips.
Mirage’s abilities in Deadlock
Like every hero in Deadlock, Mirage offers three primary abilities and an ultimate:
- Tornado: Transforms you into a tornado that moves forward in the direction of your crosshair right before casting the ability. Enemy units and heroes in the tornado’s path are lifted in the air for well over a second, and you gain an impressive bullet evasion for a few seconds right after the ability ends. The evasion’s duration is almost four seconds, and Mirage appears to be made of glowing sand while he’s evading the incoming bullets. The burst damage done by the tornado scales with Spirit Power, and enemies lifted can still shoot and use their abilities.
- Fire Scarabs: Gears you up with three scarabs to launch at any target to slightly reduce their bullet resistance and steal some of their max health. Enemy heroes provide considerably more health steals than creeps, but you can’t stack the debuff on one opponent. This means it’s best to launch scarabs at different targets to maximize their effectiveness. The health steal scales with Spirit Power; if your HP isn’t full, the scarabs heal you and increase your maximum health.
- Djinn’s Mark: Possibly the most crucial ability in Mirage’s kit in Deadlock. It’s a passive ability, so you don’t need to cast it—but you can activate its damage before reaching the max stacks. Djinn’s Mark applies an increasing multiplier, visible over the enemy hero’s head, dealing additional damage when the multiplier expires, or you reach max stacks (four at the time of writing). The base damage, once again, scales with Spirit Power, and this passive is key to dominating your laning stage in every match.
- Traveler (Ultimate): You can quickly channel a teleport to an ally or visible enemy’s position on the minimap during channeling. After teleporting, you receive a move speed and fire rate buff to assist your teammates or finish off a fleeing enemy. It’s similar to Dota 2’s upgraded Boots of Travel, though the cooldown is well over two minutes at its base level.
Mirage uses a slow-firing automatic carbine with 16 bullets in its base version with a long range. His shots also travel quickly because of the high-velocity bullets, so it’s relatively easy to aim with Mirage; it almost feels like a histcan weapon as there’s no bullet drop.
The best build for Mirage in Deadlock
Early game
For abilities, open with Djinn’s Mark and stick to leveling it along with the Fire Scarabs. I like to open Tornado after unlocking the ultimate so I can quickly teleport and half the enemies’ movement on other lanes using the Tornado. However, if the enemy consistently pushes forward without much care or you wish to play aggressively, you can open the Tornado much earlier.
As with any hero, the early game’s focus remains sustaining the lane and constantly moving the creeps forward. To do this, rush Healing Rite, Sprint Boots, and Basic Magazine for the increased heals, move speed, and mag size.
Then, get Infuser and Extra Spirit to buff your Spirit Power while gaining Spirit Lifesteal. If your lane is going well, prioritize the Weapon upgrades; otherwise, stick to Spirit and Vitality items to prevent feeding as much as possible.
Mid game
The idea for the latter stages is simple during and after mid-game: Load up on Spirit upgrades to significantly increase damage output, as every Mirage ability except the ultimate scales with Spirit Power.
Improved Cooldown, Duration Extender, and Mystic Vulnerability will lower your spells’ cooldowns, extend their duration, and reduce the target’s Spirit resistance—allowing you to dish out hefty damage. With the now improved damage, upgrade your Sprint Boots to Enduring Speed and grab Bullet Lifesteal and Bullet Resist Shredder.
The Hunter’s Aura pairs well with your teleport ultimate, reducing the nearby enemies’ bullet resistance and fire rate. Additionally, if you’re roaming around and find a single enemy hero, the aura’s effect triples, allowing you to make quick work of your opponent.
Late game
Use your flex slots to load up on more Spirit items during the late game. By this stage in any match, the enemies are fully geared (unless it’s a steamroll in your favor), so you must focus on using your Tornado correctly to assist your teammates.
To do so, get Echo Shard to reset the cooldown of your most recently used non-ultimate ability. At the same time, make sure to upgrade your existing Spirit items to Superior Cooldown and Superior Duration. If you’re super farmed at this point, grab Curse or Boundless Spirit.
While Boundless Spirit is a well-rounded item for Mirage, Curse disarms and silences, which pairs well with the Tornado—allowing you to be an incredible disabler during team fights. Finally, I like to run Superior Stamina with most heroes, so I’m also picking it up for Mirage. The Crippling Headshot, on the other hand, is more of a situational item, so use it depending on your enemy heroes’ itemization.
With this Mirage build in Deadlock, you should have fantastic damage output while being an equally effective disabler. In his current state, Mirage shines as a split pusher. Once I unlock my ultimate, I push my creeps forward and quickly travel to a different lane to bag a kill or two. If you’re unable to secure a kill, you can simply put pressure on this lane, only to return to your lane and rinse and repeat.
