Viscous vs Infernus

Do

• Plan for Majestic Leap Majestic Leap 3,200 souls Tier 3ArmorInstantCast +45s Cooldown +5s Interrupt Cooldown +100% Air Control +50% Air Control +32% Move Speed +2.5s Slow Duration +8s Barrier Duration — know which tier it sits in so you are not improvising at the shop.
• Know what Flame Dash looks like. It is the cooldown this lane revolves around.

Avoid

• Walking to lane on the same path every wave against a hero with Infernus's engage range.

Do

• Very low burst — if he cannot sustain contact, his damage never materializes
• Before Flame Dash tier 3 he has one charge, so committing forward is genuinely risky
• Splatter's bounces and puddles clear minion waves and hold a lane choke without him needing to step forward

Avoid

• Napalm harasses the enemy laner and clears the wave in a single cast, so he farms and pressures simultaneously
• Afterburn keeps damaging after the trade ends, so every exchange is worth more than it looks

Do

• Their first real spike is laning 0-10min — respect it from that point, not before.
• Your spike is The Cube unlock: A 3s full invulnerability save for any ally changes the maths of every early skirmish and gank

Avoid

• Taking an even fight against Infernus on their spike timing when you could take the same fight ten minutes later on yours.

Do

• Watch for Concussive Combustion Concussive Combustion 190s Cooldown Turns Infernus into a living bomb that detonates after a delay, dealing spirit damage and stunning every nearby enemy. Crowd Control area stun on detonation; Damage about 125 spirit at base (deadlock.one) Defensive uninterruptible, so it functions as a panic button that punishes whoever… 1 +100 damage 2 about -65s cooldown and +100% explosion lifesteal 5 +0.9s stun duration, +10m radius and +0.4 spirit scaling on the damage . Do not try to Stun him out of it — it is explicitly uninterruptible; instead use the delay to leave the radius
• Hold him at range — Napalm is a short cone and his SMG has 660 m/s travel; Grey Talon, Vindicta or Holliday fight him from outside his entire kit

Avoid

• Spending your own escape before Flame Dash is on cooldown.

• Concussive Combustion Ultimate

  The one cooldown worth tracking on its own timer: area Stun on detonation.

  • Do not try to Stun him out of it — it is explicitly uninterruptible; instead use the delay to leave the radius
  • Unstoppable Unstoppable 6,400 souls Tier 4ArmorInstantCast +60s Cooldown +5.5s Duration +125 Bonus Health +25% Debuff Resist Builds from Debuff Reducer pre-cast makes you immune to the Stun even if you eat the damage
  • Ethereal Shift Ethereal Shift 6,400 souls Tier 4TechInstantCast +37s Cooldown +4s Duration +5s Buff Duration +30% Spirit Resist +20 Spirit Power during the delay makes you untargetable through the detonation entirely
• Napalm Ability 1

  Sticking power rather than damage: movement slow on everyone hit.

  • It is a short cone — back out of the arc rather than trading through it; the coating stops ticking once the burn expires
  • Spirit Armor is the correct resist because all of it is Spirit Damage, not bullet
  • At tier 3 the -33% healing means you cannot outsustain him — disengage instead of trying to heal through it
• Flame Dash Ability 2

  His gap-close and his escape, plus a lingering zone that makes retreating through the same corridor costly.

  • Before tier 3 he has one charge — if he dashes in, he has no dash out; collapse on him immediately
  • The dash is a fixed straight line; sidestep and he overshoots past you
  • Do not walk back down the corridor he dashed through — the trail persists and refreshes his burn

1. 1 Flame Dash

   Flame Dash first — before tier 3 it is his only mobility. Feint an approach, make him dash to close, then focus him with no escape available

2. 2 Napalm

   Napalm second: force it onto a durable frontliner or the creep wave, since without the slow he cannot hold you in his SMG range

3. 3 Concussive Combustion

   Concussive Combustion is not worth baiting for interruption (it cannot be cancelled), but it IS worth baiting for position — make him commit it on a target holding Ethereal Shift or Unstoppable

• Almost no burst — every kill requires several seconds of contact Strong evidence
• Must be at close range, where he is also easiest to focus down Strong evidence
• Low durability with no defensive ability besides the dash Strong evidence
• Read this matchup as one where the early deficit sticks. Infernus is a top-tier laner, and the 09-16-2026 patch removed the fixed bonus souls for being modestly behind in net worth on both hero kill bounties and Rift bounties, with the notes explicitly naming early-to-mid game as the most affected window. What is left is a redistribution inside your own team, not a handout. The practical consequence is that a lane you lose 0-6 minutes no longer self-corrects — you have to not lose it, or take the game somewhere else quickly. Documented
• You fight at mid range and Infernus has to reach close range, but they have the movement to do it — which means the matchup is not a range advantage, it is a cooldown one. Their gap-closer is the only thing bridging the band, so track it rather than tracking their health. With it up you are in their range and should behave accordingly; with it down you are in a range they cannot reach and every second of that window is free. Strategic

• Napalm plus Afterburn means you keep taking damage after the fight appears to be over — disengaging at 40% health frequently still kills you Strong evidence
• Napalm tier 3 applies -33% healing, so your Restorative Locket Restorative Locket 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorInstantCast +20s Cooldown +0.1s Cast Delay +8% Spirit Resist +25 Max Stacks +3 Max Stamina Restore , Lifestrike Lifestrike 3,200 souls Tier 3ArmorPassive +4s Cooldown +48% Move Speed +2.5s Slow Duration +16% Melee Damage +125 Bonus Health Builds from Melee Lifesteal or support heals simply do not save you Strong evidence
• Concussive Combustion cannot be interrupted — stunning him does nothing, and at tier 3 the radius is large enough that walking out is not reliable Strong evidence
• Flame Dash with two charges lets him dive in, detonate, and still have a charge to leave with Strong evidence
• His damage is split spirit and bullet, so a single-resist build is only half-effective against him Strong evidence

• Hold him at range — Napalm is a short cone and his SMG has 660 m/s travel; Grey Talon, Vindicta or Holliday fight him from outside his entire kit Strong evidence
• Buy Spirit Armor, not just Bullet Armor: Napalm, Afterburn, Flame Dash trail and Concussive Combustion are all Spirit Damage Strong evidence
• Carry Dispel Magic Dispel Magic 3,200 souls Tier 3ArmorInstantCast +45s Cooldown +10% Spirit Resist +3s Buff Duration +250 Heal Amount to strip the Afterburn burn and the Napalm slow together — it resets his whole damage ramp Strong evidence
• Use the Concussive Combustion delay to LEAVE, not to CC him; it is uninterruptible, so a Stun on him is a wasted cooldown Strong evidence
• Collapse on him whenever Flame Dash is spent — pre-tier-3 he has exactly one escape and nothing else Strong evidence
• Break line of sight completely for a few seconds; Afterburn only extends on weapon hits, so hard cover lets the burn expire Strong evidence
• Metal Skin Metal Skin 3,200 souls Tier 3ArmorInstantCast +24s Cooldown +5s Duration +12% Bullet Resist -20% Dash Distance +20% Gravity Scale is the right shape of answer to Infernus's gun — 5 seconds of complete bullet immunity on a 24-second cooldown — but know its two holes before you rely on it. It does not stop on-bullet build-ups, so their Toxic Bullets Toxic Bullets 3,200 souls Tier 3WeaponPassive -40% Incoming Healing bleed, Silencer Silencer 6,400 souls Tier 4WeaponPassive +12% Spirit Resist -25% Spirit Damage Reduction +2.5s Silence Duration +6s Debuff Duration +10s Immunity Duration stacks and slow build-ups keep landing while you are immune, and it costs you −1.5 m/s and −20% dash distance for the duration, which is the wrong trade if you were planning to walk out during it. Use it to win a stand-and-fight window, not to escape one. Documented

• Any moment Flame Dash is on cooldown — he has no other escape and low durability Strong evidence
• During the Concussive Combustion delay if you are already outside the radius: he is standing still, visible, and committed Strong evidence
• His 2.25s reload on a 27-round magazine emptied at about 9.5 rounds per second Strong evidence
• The first few seconds of any engagement, before Afterburn has ramped — his burst is the weakest in the group Strong evidence
• Any time you can force the fight past 30m, where his cone and trail cannot reach you and his gun has lost nearly a third of its damage Strong evidence
• Parry is your best tool against Infernus's arrival and it is now a commitment rather than a hedge. Since 09-16-2026, parrying during a dash cancels the dash and its momentum, so you cannot both reposition and hold F. The cooldown maths makes the decision for you: a successful parry costs 0.5 seconds and stuns them for 3 with no Debuff Resist reduction possible, while a whiff costs 4.5 seconds — against a hero who arrives on a cooldown, that whiff is the entire window they needed. Documented

• Confirming and denying a soul orb is a hit-check, not a damage-check — one bullet or one pellet takes it regardless of how much damage it does. That is good news for you in the abstract and bad news against Infernus specifically, because their bullets fly more than twice as fast as yours. On the contested floating orb you have to pre-fire: start the shot before the trooper dies and lead the orb's spawn point, because if you both react at the same instant their bullet arrives first. Strong evidence
• Infernus is one of the strongest laners in the game and the standard build order will lose to them. Tier I is 800 and Tier II is 1,600, so your first meaningful decision comes fast: against this hero the 1,600 that answers their specific threat (Healbane Healbane 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorPassive +8s Duration +7 Spirit Power -35% Incoming Healing if they out-sustain you, Debuff Reducer Debuff Reducer 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorPassive +25% Debuff Resist +90 Bonus Health if they out-lock you, Battle Vest Battle Vest 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorPassive +18% Bullet Resist +3 Out of Combat Regen +65% Life Threshold +22% Weapon Damage +7% Fire Rate at +18% if they out-gun you) is worth more than the damage item that wins you a lane you are not going to win anyway. Strategic

• Stacking a second damage-reduction debuff onto Infernus is close to a wasted slot: since 05-22-2026 total damage-reduction debuffs stack diminishingly rather than additively. If someone on your team already brings one, your souls buy more as anti-heal or as resist shred, both of which sit on different multipliers. Coordinate this before the game rather than discovering it in the fight — two players independently buying Inhibitor Inhibitor 6,400 souls Tier 4ArmorPassive +150 Bonus Health +5s Debuff Duration -30% Damage Penalty +10% Weapon Damage -40% Incoming Healing against their carry is a common and invisible waste. Documented

• Infernus wins by choosing where the fight happens. Take your position before the zoning goes down, not after — once the area is committed you are fighting on their terms, and walking in to contest it is exactly the mistake the kit is built to farm. Strategic

• You deal Spirit Damage, so Healbane is the cheaper and more reliable anti-heal against Infernus — it lands off your abilities at T2 rather than asking you to sustain gunfire you are not built for. Strong evidence
• Majestic Leap (vitality T3) — Infernus' Flame Dash — that is the zoning and area denial this answers. Buy to escape ground-based lockdown and to rotate across the map quickly. Documented
• Stamina Mastery Stamina Mastery 3,200 souls Tier 3ArmorPassive +2 Stamina +18% Stamina Recovery +23% Air Jump/Dash Distance Builds from Extra Stamina (vitality T3) — Infernus' Concussive Combustion — that is the stuns and Hard CC this answers. Buy when dodging telegraphed abilities and disengaging is how you survive. Strong evidence
• Warp Stone Warp Stone 3,200 souls Tier 3ArmorInstantCast +16s Cooldown +30% Bullet Resist +6s Buff Duration (vitality T3) — Infernus' Concussive Combustion is what you are buying against here. Buy when you are repeatedly getting caught and killed out of position, or to close a gap onto a fleeing target. Documented

• Your damage arrives over time and Infernus converts damage dealt into health, which makes the natural instinct — stay in the fight, keep the pressure on — the exact thing that loses it. Their sustain scales with how many targets are in front of them and how long the fight runs; yours does not scale at all. Either break contact and force them to re-approach on a cooldown, or bring healing reduction so the long fight stops being their format. Strategic