The Home of Early Access & Indie Gaming News & Reviews 

Deadlock Grey Talon Build Guide: Unlock Grey Talon's Potential

Guides
Posted on:
30th January 2025
Updated:
ago
Est reading:
8 minutes

Grey Talon in Deadlock is a versatile marksman hero who excels at dealing high weapon damage from a distance while offering excellent crowd control tools. If you want to master Grey Talon and dominate the enemy team with tactical precision, this Grey Talon build guide is for you. Let’s explore the best build for Grey Talon, including abilities and items, to help you take your gameplay to the next level.

Grey Talon Overview

Grey Talon is the quintessential marksman hero in Deadlock, known for his high burst damage and excellent zoning abilities. His skills allow him to maintain a strong presence in both lane skirmishes and larger team fights. While he can take down enemy heroes from a distance, his relatively low mobility makes positioning critical to avoid being caught off-guard.

Grey Talon shines in mid-game to late game engagements where he can fully utilize his abilities to take out multiple targets. His ability to control areas with his traps and ultimate makes him a dangerous adversary in Deadlock. However, he requires careful management of cooldowns and positioning to stay alive.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

  • High burst damage: Charged Shot and Guided Owl can chunk down squishy targets from afar, giving Grey Talon the upper hand in duels.
  • Excellent crowd control: With Immobilizing Trap and Guided Owl, Grey Talon can immobilize key targets, turning fights in his team’s favor.
  • Long-range presence: His ability to poke enemies at a distance allows him to deal significant weapon damage without putting himself in harm’s way.

Weaknesses

  • Low mobility: Grey Talon lacks reliable escape options, making him vulnerable to fast-moving enemies or those who can dive deep into the backline.
  • Fragile: He is highly susceptible to being burst down if caught out of position.
  • Ability-reliant: His effectiveness drops if his abilities are on cooldown or not used efficiently, making resource management essential.

Abilities Explained

Charged Shot

This is Grey Talon’s bread-and-butter ability, allowing him to fire a powerful shot that pierces through enemies, dealing immense damage. With a 1.5s cast time, it's perfect for poking enemies from a safe distance or clearing waves. Always charge this ability up when possible to maximize its potential.

Tip: Use Charged Shot in conjunction with Immobilizing Trap to easily land hits on immobilized enemies, ensuring they can’t dodge your high-damage shots. This combo can often result in a crippling headshot that can one shot squishy targets.

Rain of Arrows

This ability allows Grey Talon to gain the high ground by launching into the air. It launches you high into the air, allowing you to glide and gain a superior vantage point. While airborne, you gain bonus weapon damage and multishot for a short duration. It’s a great way to reposition and harass enemies from a distance.

Tip: Use Rain of Arrows to escape sticky situations by launching yourself away from danger. Alternatively, activate it in team fights to rain damage from above while staying out of reach. Remember, you can cancel the glide early to surprise enemies with a sudden descent or to quickly return to the ground.

Immobilizing Trap

Grey Talon throws an immobilizing trap that activates after a short delay. The trap will trigger on any enemy that enters its radius, immobilizing them. This ability is great for both offense and defense, whether you're chasing down a fleeing enemy or protecting yourself from an approaching threat.

Tip: Place traps strategically in choke points or in bushes where enemies might try to engage. This not only serves as a defensive measure but also sets up easy kills for you or your team. An extra charge from items can increase your control over the battlefield.

Guided Owl (Ultimate)

Grey Talon’s ultimate ability allows him to launch a spirit owl that you control. This spirit owl that you control flies to the target area and explodes on impact, dealing damage and stunning enemies. It’s a game-changer in team fights due to its crowd control and burst potential.

Tip: Position Guided Owl to hit multiple enemies in a team fight, but be patient. Sometimes, waiting for the perfect moment to stun several enemies can turn the tide of the battle. Always aim for the backline to stun key targets like enemy damage dealers or healers.

Best Grey Talon Build Guide

Early Game Build Progression

In the early game, focus on items that increase your ammo and weapon damage to optimize poking and laning. Items like High-Velocity Mag and Mystic Reverb offer great value for building up your early-game damage output.

Key Items:

  • High-Velocity Mag: Increases fire rate and ammo capacity, allowing you to dish out more damage quickly.
  • Mystic Reverb: Provides additional spirit power and improved cooldown, enhancing your ability to spam abilities.

Tip: Harass your lane opponent with Charged Shot while maintaining a safe distance. Look for opportunities to poke and zone your enemy out of experience range without overextending. Unlock Charged Shot first to maximize your early-game pressure.

Mid to Late Game Items

As the game progresses into the mid-game and late game, focus on building damage and survivability. Items that offer both increased damage and some form of sustain, such as Enchanter's Barrier and Healing Rite, are essential to keeping Grey Talon alive in team fights while maximizing his impact.

Core Items and Best Items for Grey Talon:

  • Enchanter's Barrier: Provides a shield and combat barrier to absorb incoming damage.
  • Healing Rite: Grants lifesteal, allowing you to sustain during fights.
  • Headshot Booster: Increases your critical strike chance, enabling you to land crippling headshots more frequently.
  • Superior Cooldown: Reduces your abilities' cooldowns, allowing you to spam your abilities more often.

Tip: Always keep an eye on the enemy team's key threats. If they have assassins or divers, consider picking up situational items like Enduring Spirit and Extra Stamina to give you that extra layer of protection.

Situational Items

Depending on the enemy team composition, adapt your build on Grey Talon to counter the threats you face.

  • For survivability: Enduring Spirit, Spirit lifesteal or Veil Walker are good on Grey Talon if you're being focused on in combat.
  • For more aggressive play: Boundless Spirit provides increased spirit power for each enemy killed with Guided Owl, allowing you to gain permanent spirit power.
  • Superior Stamina: Provides additional health and stamina, giving you more survivability in fights.

Tip: Keep an extra item slot flexible for situational items, as the game’s pace and the enemy team's composition will determine the best course of action for survivability. Vitality items can also be valuable for sustained fights.

Ability Order

To maximize your effectiveness, prioritize upgrading the following abilities:

  1. Charged Shot – Max this first for its consistent poke and wave-clear potential. The Charged Shot ability is your main source of damage.
  2. Rain of Arrows – While useful, it’s best to max this last, as its utility is more situational.
  3. Immobilizing Trap – Essential for locking down opponents, particularly when being chased or in team fights.
  4. Guided Owl – Upgrade as soon as possible for its stunning potential and extra burst damage.

Tip: Always upgrade Guided Owl whenever it becomes available, as it’s your strongest tool in team fights and can secure key kills with its stunning impact. The bonus ability charge from certain items can also give you an edge.

Gameplay Strategies

Early Game Laning

During the early stages, your primary focus should be farming and poking your lane opponent with Charged Shot. Make sure to place Immobilizing Traps defensively to protect yourself from ganks. Harass enemies while maintaining a safe distance, and never overextend without vision.

Tip: Time your Charged Shot with the enemy’s movements, and always try to last-hit minions while keeping your opponent pressured with constant pokes. Early game items like High-Velocity Mag enhance your early-game damage.

Team Fights

In team fights, Grey Talon should position himself at the backline, dishing out consistent amounts of damage with auto-attacks and Charged Shot. Use Guided Owl as soon as possible to stun multiple enemies and give your team the upper hand. Be mindful of your positioning, as overextending can quickly lead to being picked off by the enemy team’s assassins.

Tip: Stay just out of reach of the enemy’s frontline but within range to land your abilities. Your job is to focus on taking out the enemy damage dealers or supports while providing crowd control with Immobilizing Trap and Guided Owl. Remember, your weapon damage build is most effective when you can continuously deal damage without being interrupted.

Macro Play with Grey Talon

Grey Talon excels in controlling the map by applying pressure to the lanes. Push waves with Arrows and Charged Shot to keep the enemy on their back foot, and assist your team in securing key objectives. His crowd control abilities, particularly Immobilizing Trap, can also be used to prevent enemies from contesting objectives.

Tip: Split pushing can be highly effective with Grey Talon due to his wave-clear abilities. But don’t forget to use your traps and map awareness to avoid being caught alone while pushing. Scaling into the late game, your damage output becomes significant, so staying alive is crucial.

Mastering Grey Talon

To master Grey Talon in Deadlock, you need to develop strong map awareness, as positioning is key to surviving in late-game team fights. Always be mindful of your cooldowns, as your abilities are what make you a threat. Perfecting your Charged Shot aim and timing Guided Owl will set you apart from average Grey Talon players.

Tip: Practice aiming and positioning in custom games or bot matches to improve your accuracy with Charged Shot and Guided Owl. This will greatly increase your kill potential when it matters most. Unlocking Charged Shot first and focusing on abilities and items that enhance your weapon damage and spirit power will help you gain permanent spirit power through kills.

Additional Tips

  • Cooldown Reduction for Charged Shot: Items that provide cooldown reduction for Charged Shot can significantly enhance your damage output.
  • Weapon Damage as Long: Your weapon damage increases as long as you maintain your distance from enemies.
  • Spirit Damage: Some items can increase your spirit damage, enhancing the effectiveness of abilities like Guided Owl.
  • Left Mouse Button: For basic attacks, use the left mouse button to deal consistent damage between ability casts.
  • Around Rain of Arrows: Enemies around Rain of Arrows may try to avoid your attacks; use this to your advantage by predicting their movements.

Conclusion

Grey Talon is a powerful and versatile marksman hero in Deadlock, offering significant damage output and crowd control. Mastering him requires good positioning, precise ability usage, and a strong understanding of the game’s macro objectives. Follow this Grey Talon build guide to improve your performance, and soon, you’ll be dominating your games with the best Grey Talon build on the battlefield!

Want to learn more about the Deadlock heroes? Check out our other articles at SaveGame or our Deadlock lore article.

Disclaimer: This guide is based on the current patch and may change with future updates. For the most up-to-date strategies, be sure to check the latest guides and gameplay videos.

Share our awesome article on social media:
Still thirsty? Read more some more of our content
Article Contents
Follow us on
Made by a couple of 👾 gamers in Rural England