Valve just ripped up Deadlock’s laning — here’s what really changed

Deadlock’s laning just got reinvented – and it actually matters

This update changes what you do every time you step into a lane. Trooper souls no longer autopop into your account on a kill – they drop as limited-range orbs you have to physically pick up, medics drop heal packs instead of providing on-death healing, starting souls are higher, and trooper bounties got a bump. On top of that, Valve slapped major balance swings across the roster and item pool: Split Shot’s cooldown is more than doubled, Kelvin got hit hard, and camera/visibility tweaks could quietly alter how fights resolve. The patch is live now, and it rewrites laning fundamentals.

• This caught my attention because Valve snuck a sweeping gameplay pivot into a “small update.” That’s classic Valve – subtle tag, heavy impact.

Key takeaways

• Trooper souls now drop as 18m pickup orbs (survive on ground 18-40s), forcing players into lane presence rather than remote farming.
• Medic troopers drop an absorbable heal pack that heals allies in a 30m radius — healing is now an objective you contest.
• Split Shot cooldown jumps from 14s to 32s; several CDR items were nerfed or removed, shifting itemization away from spammy abilities.
• Kelvin and a few heroes were significantly nerfed; other heroes like Abrams, Lash, Billy, Wraith, and Dynamo were buffed — expect meta shakeups.

Breaking down the laning overhaul

Let’s be blunt: this patch takes away the comfort of safe, long-range soul farming. Trooper kills used to hand you half their souls instantly; now those souls land on the ground as an orb with an 18m pickup radius (it lasts 18s initially and scales up to 40s later). Enemies can’t pick up the orb, but they can see where it is — so the reward becomes a contested, positional objective instead of passive income.

Medic troopers no longer passively heal on death. They drop a med pack that heals everyone in a 30m radius when absorbed, with the same 18m pickup rules as soul orbs. In short: laning is now about presence and control. You have to commit a player to secure resources, or risk letting the opposing team zone you off the orb. That changes how teams value roaming, wave control, and who gets XP/soul priority.

Valve also bumped the starting souls from 400 to 600 and increased trooper bounties by 10%, which looks like a concession to make early purchases and skirmishes more forgiving while they push players to fight over pickups.

Hero and item shifts — the stuff that will change your build

The update is full of hero tweaks, but a few stand out. Kelvin — already a lane bully for many players — takes a heavy hit: lower base bullet velocity and the removal of a major cooldown reduction on Frozen Shelter. That’s a direct nerf to his zoning and burst patterns. Split Shot’s cooldown going from 14 to 32 seconds is huge: champions and item builds that relied on quick multi-target pokes will need rethinking.

On the flip side, Valve buffed underperformers like Abrams, Lash, Billy, Wraith, and Dynamo — expect these characters to climb in priority while the Kelvin/Holliday/Mina/Paradox crowd recalibrates. Echo Shard loses its CDR effect entirely and other CDR items got scaled back, which pairs with the Split Shot nerf to push meta away from constant ability spam and toward more deliberate engagements.

Defensive units also shifted: Walkers look tankier with adjusted damage resistance, and Guardians were tweaked. Plus, Valve “reworked the position of your player camera and various details that affect visibility around your hero.” That reads like a stealth nerf/buff to peek-and-fire playstyles — something that will be noticed first by pros and streamers who live at the edge of sightlines.

Why this matters (and what to do next)

Valve has a habit of dropping sweeping changes that sound small on paper but force you to relearn core loops (Dota veterans, raise your hands). This is one of those moments. For casual players it means the laning phase will feel more interactive and riskier — you’ll need to contest pickups and maybe swap who farms. For competitive players and teams, rotations, draft priority, and timing windows will all shift. Expect new contested timings around trooper waves and med-packs, and a meta that favors heroes who can safely secure or deny ground resources.

My skeptical bits? Valve made the orbs un-grabbable by enemies but still visible. That reduces “steal” salt but increases strategic zoning: teams can corral opponents away without losing the reward to a last-second snatch. It’s an elegant compromise, but it feels like a halfway house — I wouldn’t be surprised to see adjustments after a week of high-level play. Also, the camera/visibility tweak deserves close attention; small changes there can suddenly make flankers feel either overpowered or useless.

TL;DR

Valve’s Deadlock update remakes the laning phase by making souls and healing into physical, contestable objectives, nerfs key cooldown mechanics (hello Split Shot), and reshuffles hero power. It’s a thoughtful directional change that forces teams to play the map more actively — test heroes, rethink CDR builds, and expect the meta to be messy and interesting for a while.