Deadlock’s newest hero, Silver, gets a soft rework just as I was getting used to her

One of the ‘fun’ things about Deadlock being in ‘closed beta’—that is, not officially released, but relatively accessible with an invite from a pal—is the fact that Valve is under no compulsion or desire to keep the meta stable for any serious length of time. As is the case with Silver.

Silver’s the newest hero in the roster, and one I have a vested interest in playing because I think she’s cool as heck, so I’ve been doing just that. I’ve been having trouble playing her because of the way the game’s picking system works, forcing you to select a random pool of heroes to go into matchmaking with—everyone else wants to play her too.

I did, however, get a good round of games in on her last night, here are the things I learned:

Her gun is very bad, except for when you’re using her Slam Fire ability.Her ult is very good, and has a very short cooldown.As soon as you get her ult in the early game, you can start going ham on people.

So imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning to discover that Silver’s gun had been buffed, her ult’s cooldown had been increased, and its early-game performance had been tweaked so you can go less ham on people. Can’t have anything in this accursed city, I swear.

That’s per the Deadlock forums, in which a thread tallies up these rapid-fire balance patches. To get into specifics, here are the major changes for Silver herself:

Her gun (which I am just learning now is called Hair of the Dog. Very good, Valve) now has a higher base fire rate and a slightly bigger magazine, and she also has better base regen. This should make her better in lane, given her gun’s poor base stats were, pun intended, pretty dogwater.

Slam Fire’s had a bit of a nerf to it—15% of the tier 2 upgrade has been sheared off and given to its tier 1 upgrade, its cooldown is slightly longer, and the tier 3 buff is weaker. Boot Kick and Entangling Bolas tier 3’s upgrades are just plain stronger. While the Slam Fire nerf’s a little harsh, given developer Yoshi reckons the base weapon’s fire rate buff leads to a “11% DPS increase”, it’s not as bad as it seems.

As for her ultimate? It’s mostly been nerfed. The biggest heartache is the health bonus you get for transforming into a werewolf—slapped down from a meaty 350 HP to a measly 100 HP. Its cooldown being increased from 22 seconds to 35 seconds is nasty, too—making it harder for Silver to apply pressure in the midgame by just running at everybody, wolfing out, and tearing them to shreds.

Essentially, the scales in her kit have been tipped: Her base form is overall stronger, her wolf form is overall weaker. Which means I’ve gotta go learn to play her again. Current pubstompers Graves and Bebop also had some adjustments, too. Though knowing the pace at which these buffs and nerfs come, we may well see more tinkering in the near-future.

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