Lady Geist

She pays a chunk of her own health to hurl a bomb that arms briefly before detonating for area damage.

What it is for: Her main burst and her wave-clear — it is the biggest single number in her kit, paid for with health she expects to drain back.

Damage

about 90 at base spirit power; tier 2 adds +50 and +2m radius (deadlock.one, metabot.gg)

Defensive

actively negative — the self-damage is spirit damage, though it can be mitigated by spirit resist

How to play against it

• There is a visible arm time before detonation — leave the radius rather than trading through it
• It costs her health every cast, so punish immediately after she throws it; she is at her most fragile in that instant
• Spirit Armor is the correct resist for the bomb and for the tier-3 ground
• Deny the tier-3 ground by not contesting the same spot; the pool is static and lasts only about 6 seconds

Interactions

• The self-damage is spirit type, so Spirit Armor on Lady Geist reduces the cost of her own ability
• Spending health on purpose only works because Life Drain and lifesteal items give it back — the two abilities are one system
• Tier 3 leaves toxic ground behind (about 30% of the damage per second for roughly 6 seconds as of 09-16-2026), turning it into area denial
• Combos with Malice: land Malice stacks first so the bomb hits an amplified target

Opens a tether onto an enemy that siphons their health over time and converts it into healing for her. The target must stay in line of sight and within range, and her movement is reduced while draining.

What it is for: The button that makes her health-sacrifice loop work — it turns any prolonged contact into a full heal for her and a slow bleed for the target.

Damage

about 24 damage per second at base spirit power (deadlock.one)

Mobility

reduces her own movement speed while draining

Defensive

her only real sustain tool; since the July 28, 2026 change it converts at 100% of damage dealt into healing

How to play against it

• Break line of sight — the tether requires an unobstructed view, so a single corner ends it instantly
• Out-range it: it has a maximum distance and she is slowed while draining, so backing up simply snaps it
• Anti-heal (Napalm tier 3, Decay, Cursed Relic) is the highest-value counter because the healing, not the damage, is the point
• She is slowed during the drain — that is the window to gap-close and burst her, not to retreat

Interactions

• She can fire her weapon and use abilities while draining, so the correct pattern is drain-plus-shoot, not drain alone
• It breaks on line of sight or range, which is the primary counterplay — corners beat it
• Tier 3 grants +2 charges (and its spirit scaling was raised to +0.45 on 09-16-2026), turning it from a single commitment into a repeatable tool
• Anti-heal effects cut directly into the healing conversion, which is her entire survivability plan

Spends more of her own health to fire blood shards that each apply a stack of Malice. Every stack slows the victim and increases the damage they take from her specifically. The slow decays over time.

What it is for: Her stick-and-amplify tool — it keeps a fleeing target in range of her slow pistol and makes everything she does to them hit harder.

Damage

about 23 per shard at base spirit power; tier 2 adds about +25.2 damage and +4 shards (deadlock.one, metabot.gg)

Crowd control

stacking movement slow that decays over time

Defensive

the slow helps her disengage, but the health cost partly offsets that

How to play against it

• The shards are projectiles fired in a spread — strafing denies most of the stacks, and partial stacks means a much weaker amp
• The slow decays on its own, so breaking contact for a couple of seconds resets her advantage
• Dispel Magic removes the stacks outright, which also removes the damage amplification
• She pays health for every cast — a Geist who spams Malice into cover is a Geist you can burst

Interactions

• The damage amplification applies only to damage from her, so it does not help her teammates the way a resist shred would
• Amplification was trimmed from 8% to 7% on July 28, 2026 with tier 3 compensating at about +8%
• The correct sequence is Malice first, then Essence Bomb, so the bomb lands into the amp
• More health spent, so it stacks the same self-damage tension as Essence Bomb

Swaps her current health level with an enemy target. There is a floor on how low the enemy can be brought and a floor on how much health she can receive based on the victim's current health.

What it is for: A fight-reversing button — she can deliberately dive at low health, then take the healthy target's health bar and hand them hers.

Damage

no conventional damage; it transfers health levels rather than dealing it

Crowd control

tier 2 silences enemies within about 25m for 3 seconds

Defensive

the single largest effective heal in the group when used at low health on a healthy target

How to play against it

• Do not be the healthiest target in range of a low-health Geist — that is exactly who she is looking for
• Ethereal Shift makes you untargetable through the cast; Unstoppable prevents the tier-2 silence chain
• Force her to use it early by bursting her before she has closed distance, so she swaps at a bad ratio
• After tier 3 she gets an 8-second combat buff on top of the swap — plan to disengage for those 8 seconds rather than trading through them

Interactions

• Best used at her lowest health against the healthiest enemy — the swap value is the gap between the two bars
• The tier-2 25m silence for 3s makes it an area shutdown, not just a duel-winner — it interrupts channels including Bullet Dance and Arctic Beam
• Tier 3 grants a large combat buff after the swap (around +60 Spirit Power, +40% fire rate and +50% spirit resist for 8 seconds)
• It pairs with her whole health-sacrifice loop: the more health she spent on Essence Bomb and Malice, the more the swap gains her