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How to play Grey Talon

Best build by measured win rate · patch 09-29-2026 · updated Oct 14 · Grey Talon wins 47.0% overall

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The Grey Talon build

Each tier lists the items Grey Talon players win with most often, out of 174,840 Grey Talon games. Win % is how often Grey Talon wins when the item is bought; the green or red number is how far that is above or below the rest of the same tier. Popularity is the share of Grey Talon games the item was bought in; Bought at is the average time. Only items bought in at least 1,500 games and by at least 5% of Grey Talon players count, so a lucky streak can’t make the list.

Lane · Tier 1 · 800 souls

Early mid game · Tier 2 · 1,600 souls

Mid game · Tier 3 · 3,200 souls

Late game · Tier 4 · 6,400 souls

Situational / optional

Fewer Grey Talon players buy these, usually against particular enemies, but those who do win clearly more than the rest of the same tier. Each still has at least 1,500 games behind it.

Popular, but behind the rest of their tier

Not wrong to buy, and sometimes the right answer to a specific enemy. On average, Grey Talon players who buy these win less than those who buy something else at that point.

How this build is chosen

Source: deadlock-api.com item results for Grey Talon, City Never Sleeps matches since 2026-09-30, refreshed daily. Items are compared with the rest of their own tier, because late items always show higher raw win rates (only players who are ahead can afford them). Ranking uses the low end of each item’s 95% confidence range, so more games beat a lucky few. It shows what winning Grey Talon players buy; it can’t prove the item caused the win. For what to change against a specific enemy team, use the matchup tool.

How Grey Talon plays

Strengths

  • Longest effective engagement range in the roster — he dictates whether a fight even starts
  • Spirit Snare Spirit Snare 34s Cooldown Throws down a trap that arms after a short delay and triggers when an enemy enters its radius, applying Curse and a movement slow. Crowd Control Curse (silence + disarm + item lockout + interrupt) plus a movement slow; Damage minimal direct damage; Defensive the primary anti-dive tool — placed at his own feet or on the approach, it… 1 applies -15% Bullet Resist for 10 seconds 2 +1s Curse duration and +1.5m radius 's Curse is one of the few effects that blocks item usage entirely, shutting down escape actives
  • Rain of Arrows Rain of Arrows 4s Duration25s Cooldown Launches Grey Talon high into the air and lets him glide down slowly, gaining bonus weapon damage and firing multiple arrows per shot while airborne. Crowd Control tier-1 upgrade adds roughly a 24% movement slow to his arrows while airborne Damage no direct damage; tier 1 adds about +3 weapon damage and a 24% movement slow… Mobility high vertical displacement plus a slow controlled glide 1 +3 weapon damage and a 24% movement slow applied by his shots 2 +30% bullet lifesteal, +30% spirit lifesteal and +30% bullet evasion gives him a vertical escape plus a damage buff in the same button
  • Guided Owl Guided Owl 125s Cooldown After a short cast, Grey Talon takes control of a spirit owl and flies it across the map; Crowd Control area stun on detonation Damage about 230 at base spirit power (deadlock.one) Mobility none for Grey Talon — in fact he is locked in place 1 instantly kills enemies below about 22% health and grants permanent Spirit Power per… scales itself with permanent Spirit Power on every hero kill

In lane

  • Charged Shot Charged Shot 17s Cooldown Draws back a heavy shot that can be held at full charge and pierces straight through everything it hits. Damage about 80 at base spirit power, +54 at tier 2 (deadlock.one, metabot.gg) 1 +54 damage 2 roughly -3s charge delay plus improved spirit scaling, turning it from a setpiece into a… pierces the wave, so he farms and pokes with the same button from outside his opponent's range
  • Bow falloff runs to about 54m — he can contest soul orbs and harass from positions most laners simply cannot answer
  • Rain of Arrows Rain of Arrows 4s Duration25s Cooldown Launches Grey Talon high into the air and lets him glide down slowly, gaining bonus weapon damage and firing multiple arrows per shot while airborne. Crowd Control tier-1 upgrade adds roughly a 24% movement slow to his arrows while airborne Damage no direct damage; tier 1 adds about +3 weapon damage and a 24% movement slow… Mobility high vertical displacement plus a slow controlled glide 1 +3 weapon damage and a 24% movement slow applied by his shots 2 +30% bullet lifesteal, +30% spirit lifesteal and +30% bullet evasion gives him an escape most solo-lane bullies cannot follow

Power spikes

  • Charged Shot Charged Shot 17s Cooldown Draws back a heavy shot that can be held at full charge and pierces straight through everything it hits. Damage about 80 at base spirit power, +54 at tier 2 (deadlock.one, metabot.gg) 1 +54 damage 2 roughly -3s charge delay plus improved spirit scaling, turning it from a setpiece into a… tier 3 — The charge delay drops by about 3s, turning his setpiece poke into a repeatable ranged attack
  • Spirit Snare Spirit Snare 34s Cooldown Throws down a trap that arms after a short delay and triggers when an enemy enters its radius, applying Curse and a movement slow. Crowd Control Curse (silence + disarm + item lockout + interrupt) plus a movement slow; Damage minimal direct damage; Defensive the primary anti-dive tool — placed at his own feet or on the approach, it… 1 applies -15% Bullet Resist for 10 seconds 2 +1s Curse duration and +1.5m radius tier 2 — -15% Bullet Resist for 10s makes his trap a team-wide damage amp on top of the Curse lockdown
  • Guided Owl Guided Owl 125s Cooldown After a short cast, Grey Talon takes control of a spirit owl and flies it across the map; Crowd Control area stun on detonation Damage about 230 at base spirit power (deadlock.one) Mobility none for Grey Talon — in fact he is locked in place 1 instantly kills enemies below about 22% health and grants permanent Spirit Power per… unlock — Gives him cross-map pick potential and a Stun for his team to fight around
  • Guided Owl Guided Owl 125s Cooldown After a short cast, Grey Talon takes control of a spirit owl and flies it across the map; Crowd Control area stun on detonation Damage about 230 at base spirit power (deadlock.one) Mobility none for Grey Talon — in fact he is locked in place 1 instantly kills enemies below about 22% health and grants permanent Spirit Power per… tier 3 — The sub-22% execute plus permanent Spirit Power per kill makes his ult a self-scaling snowball

Weak points to cover

  • Very low health and no damage mitigation — he dies to any committed dive
  • Everything meaningful in his kit has a visible cast tell (charge draw, snare arming, 1.5s owl cast)
  • Airborne during Rain of Arrows Rain of Arrows 4s Duration25s Cooldown Launches Grey Talon high into the air and lets him glide down slowly, gaining bonus weapon damage and firing multiple arrows per shot while airborne. Crowd Control tier-1 upgrade adds roughly a 24% movement slow to his arrows while airborne Damage no direct damage; tier 1 adds about +3 weapon damage and a 24% movement slow… Mobility high vertical displacement plus a slow controlled glide 1 +3 weapon damage and a 24% movement slow applied by his shots 2 +30% bullet lifesteal, +30% spirit lifesteal and +30% bullet evasion means Knockdown Knockdown 3,200 souls Tier 3TechPress +35s Cooldown +0.1s Cast Delay +2s Stun Delay +0.5s Stun Duration +75 Bonus Health +5% Ability Range +5% Radius counters both his escape and his damage window at once

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Grey Talon’s hardest matchups

Best teammates

  • Rat King Rat King BruiserSupportClose rangeBullet damage Makes his whole team's guns better: stacking bullet-resist shred from Rat Swarm Durability high (2/3) Burst high (2/3) Mobility low (1/3) Healing low (1/3) 55.6% duo win
  • Graves Graves ControllerSummonerClose rangeHybrid damage Best-in-class unattended map pressure via Borrowed Decree Ghouls marching at objectives Durability low (1/3) Burst low (1/3) Mobility none (0/3) Healing low (1/3) 54.5% duo win
  • Paige Paige SupportControllerMid rangeSpirit damage Currently among the strongest heroes in the game: deadlocklabs.gg records 54.1% win rate at 2.8% pick, S tier, after a recent buff package worth about +2.2 points. Durability low (1/3) Burst low (1/3) Mobility none (0/3) Healing high (2/3) 54.0% duo win

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