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How to play Shiv

Best build by measured win rate · patch 09-29-2026 · updated Oct 14 · Shiv wins 43.7% overall

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The Shiv build

Each tier lists the items Shiv players win with most often, out of 269,454 Shiv games. Win % is how often Shiv 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 Shiv 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 Shiv 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 Shiv 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, Shiv 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 Shiv, 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 Shiv 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 Shiv plays

Strengths

  • The most reliable single-target removal tool in this group; Killing Blow Killing Blow 12m Range145s Cooldown Shiv leaps to an enemy hero and instantly kills them if they are below a health threshold; Damage Instant kill below 18% of the target's health (23% at 2 AP); Mobility The leap itself is a 12m-18m targeted gap-close, separate from Slice and… Defensive none directly, though the 5 AP reset on kill effectively removes the risk of… 1 1 AP: +2 m/s move speed at full Rage and +6m range (12m to 18m) 2 2 AP: +5% execute threshold (18% to 23%) and +16% full-Rage bonus damage 5 5 AP: resets cooldown on a successful elimination, -30s cooldown, and allows a recast… ignores positioning once the target is low
  • Bloodletting Bloodletting 25s Cooldown A portion of the damage Shiv takes is not applied immediately; Damage No damage dealt. Defers 30% of incoming damage over 6s; activating clears… Defensive His entire defensive layer — effectively an on-demand partial heal for… 1 1 AP: -15s cooldown (25s to roughly 10s) 2 2 AP: +40% of deferred damage cleared on activation 5 5 AP: +15% of incoming damage deferred lets him win commits that the health bars say he should lose
  • Excellent against immobile, low-health heroes — Rem, Sinclair and other sub-750 HP backliners are natural prey
  • Snowballs hard: the 5 AP reset means one good pick can cascade into a whole teamfight

In lane

  • Serrated Knives Serrated Knives 16s Cooldown Shiv throws a knife that damages and bleeds the target. Crowd Control Applies a movement slow with the bleed; Damage 32 impact damage plus 10 bleed DPS per knife stack over a 5s debuff; 1 1 AP: +2s debuff duration 2 2 AP: +2 charges (four knives available for a full stack dump) 5 5 AP: +7 bleed DPS per stack give him free chip at range with 2 charges on a 16s cooldown, which wins the health-bar war without him ever entering shotgun range
  • Bloodletting Bloodletting 25s Cooldown A portion of the damage Shiv takes is not applied immediately; Damage No damage dealt. Defers 30% of incoming damage over 6s; activating clears… Defensive His entire defensive layer — effectively an on-demand partial heal for… 1 1 AP: -15s cooldown (25s to roughly 10s) 2 2 AP: +40% of deferred damage cleared on activation 5 5 AP: +15% of incoming damage deferred means losing a trade does not mean losing the lane — he defers 30% of the burst and clears 40% of it back
  • Slice and Dice Slice and Dice 16s Cooldown Shiv dashes forward, cutting everything along the line he travels. Damage 75 impact damage base, 12m range, 16s cooldown; Mobility A fixed-length 12m forward dash (14m at 2 AP) — the only repositioning tool… Defensive Usable to escape, but only along the direction he is already facing, so it… 1 1 AP: -6s cooldown (16s to 10s) 2 2 AP: -4% spirit resistance on hit (stacking) and +2m range 5 5 AP: -2s cooldown per hero hit (max -8s) and +50 impact damage at 75 damage plus the shotgun is a genuine all-in threat from 12m as soon as the enemy drops below half

Power spikes

  • Killing Blow Killing Blow 12m Range145s Cooldown Shiv leaps to an enemy hero and instantly kills them if they are below a health threshold; Damage Instant kill below 18% of the target's health (23% at 2 AP); Mobility The leap itself is a 12m-18m targeted gap-close, separate from Slice and… Defensive none directly, though the 5 AP reset on kill effectively removes the risk of… 1 1 AP: +2 m/s move speed at full Rage and +6m range (12m to 18m) 2 2 AP: +5% execute threshold (18% to 23%) and +16% full-Rage bonus damage 5 5 AP: resets cooldown on a successful elimination, -30s cooldown, and allows a recast… unlock — Makes every low-health enemy within 12m a guaranteed kill and turns on the Rage passive that upgrades all three basic abilities
  • 1 AP into Slice and Dice Slice and Dice 16s Cooldown Shiv dashes forward, cutting everything along the line he travels. Damage 75 impact damage base, 12m range, 16s cooldown; Mobility A fixed-length 12m forward dash (14m at 2 AP) — the only repositioning tool… Defensive Usable to escape, but only along the direction he is already facing, so it… 1 1 AP: -6s cooldown (16s to 10s) 2 2 AP: -4% spirit resistance on hit (stacking) and +2m range 5 5 AP: -2s cooldown per hero hit (max -8s) and +50 impact damage — -6s cooldown (16s to 10s) lets him engage and still hold an exit dash in the same fight
  • 2 AP into Killing Blow Killing Blow 12m Range145s Cooldown Shiv leaps to an enemy hero and instantly kills them if they are below a health threshold; Damage Instant kill below 18% of the target's health (23% at 2 AP); Mobility The leap itself is a 12m-18m targeted gap-close, separate from Slice and… Defensive none directly, though the 5 AP reset on kill effectively removes the risk of… 1 1 AP: +2 m/s move speed at full Rage and +6m range (12m to 18m) 2 2 AP: +5% execute threshold (18% to 23%) and +16% full-Rage bonus damage 5 5 AP: resets cooldown on a successful elimination, -30s cooldown, and allows a recast… — Threshold rises from 18% to 23% and full-Rage damage jumps, widening the window where a fight is already lost for the target
  • 5 AP into Killing Blow Killing Blow 12m Range145s Cooldown Shiv leaps to an enemy hero and instantly kills them if they are below a health threshold; Damage Instant kill below 18% of the target's health (23% at 2 AP); Mobility The leap itself is a 12m-18m targeted gap-close, separate from Slice and… Defensive none directly, though the 5 AP reset on kill effectively removes the risk of… 1 1 AP: +2 m/s move speed at full Rage and +6m range (12m to 18m) 2 2 AP: +5% execute threshold (18% to 23%) and +16% full-Rage bonus damage 5 5 AP: resets cooldown on a successful elimination, -30s cooldown, and allows a recast… (late 35min+) — Cooldown reset on elimination plus a 20s recast — one successful pick becomes a chain of executes through a whole team

Weak points to cover

  • No native healing reduction and no native healing — enemy sustain both undoes his damage and denies his execute
  • Poor teamfighter: everything in his kit is single-target and his shotgun falls off past 20m
  • One directional mobility ability means Hard CC on the dash or on the leap ends his fight

Next

Shiv’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) 55.4% duo win

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