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Lady Geist

BruiserSkirmisherAssassin Hybrid Damage Mid Game Medium Difficulty

Patch 10-30-2026, 245,968 matches. Updated daily.

How to counter and play Lady Geist

Items to buy

  • vs silences and ability denial Debuff Reducer Debuff Reducer 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorPassive +25% Debuff Resist +90 Bonus Health Dispel Magic Dispel Magic 3,200 souls Tier 3ArmorInstantCast +45s Cooldown +10% Spirit Resist +3s Buff Duration +250 Heal Amount Indomitable Indomitable 6,400 souls Tier 4ArmorPassive +55s Cooldown +10s Duration +10% Bullet Resist +10% Spirit Resist +20s Cooldown On Apply +2 Out of Combat Regen Builds from Reactive Barrier
  • vs healing and lifesteal Healbane Healbane 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorPassive +8s Duration +7 Spirit Power -35% Incoming Healing Decay Decay 3,200 souls Tier 3TechPress +30s Cooldown +12s Duration +0.1s Cast Delay +8 Spirit Power -55% Incoming Healing +65 Bonus Health Toxic Bullets Toxic Bullets 3,200 souls Tier 3WeaponPassive -40% Incoming Healing
  • vs slows Debuff ReducerEnduring Speed Enduring Speed 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorPassive +25% Slow Resist +2 Out of Combat Regen Builds from Sprint Boots Dispel Magic
  • Buy anti-heal — Napalm Napalm 20m Range25s Cooldown Sprays a burning mixture in front of him that deals spirit damage, slows whoever it touches, and leaves them coated in napalm that keeps burning. Crowd Control movement slow on everyone hit Damage about 40 spirit at base plus the napalm coating over time (deadlock.one) Mobility none directly, though the slow effectively closes distance 1 +20% lifesteal 2 applies about +17% Damage Taken and -33% Healing to affected targets tier 3, Decay or Cursed Relic Cursed Relic 6,400 souls Tier 4TechPress +55s Cooldown +3.25s Duration +0.1s Cast Delay -25% Damage Penalty — because Life Drain Life Drain 18m Range2.5s Duration34s Cooldown Opens a tether onto an enemy that siphons their health over time and converts it into healing for her. 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; 1 +2 charges and increased spirit scaling 's 100% healing conversion is the whole hero
  • Fight her around corners: Life Drain requires unbroken line of sight, so a single pillar ends the tether instantly
  • Dive her whenever her health is low from Essence Bomb Essence Bomb 14s Cooldown She pays a chunk of her own health to hurl a bomb that arms briefly before detonating for area damage. Damage about 90 at base spirit power, with 1.35 spirit scaling; Defensive actively negative — the self-damage is spirit damage, though it can be… 1 -5s cooldown 2 +2m radius and +50 damage 5 leaves a toxic ground effect dealing roughly 30% of the damage per second for about 6… or Malice Malice 6s Cooldown Spends more of her own health to fire blood shards that each apply a stack of Malice. Crowd Control stacking movement slow that decays over time Damage about 23 per shard at base spirit power; Defensive the slow helps her disengage, but the health cost partly offsets that 1 -3s cooldown 2 about +25.2 damage and +4 blood shards 5 about +8% additional damage amplification self-damage; she has no dash and cannot escape a gap-closer like Phantom Strike Phantom Strike 6,400 souls Tier 4ArmorPress +35s Cooldown +0.35s Cast Delay +8 Spirit Power +15% Weapon Damage +40% Move Speed +3s Slow Duration or Flame Dash Flame Dash 3s Duration38s Cooldown Dashes forward with slow resistance, leaving a burning trail behind that damages anyone standing in it. Damage about 30 damage per second from the trail; Mobility a substantial forward dash, extendable by holding forward Defensive slow resistance during the dash makes it reliable as an escape even into… 1 -12s cooldown 2 +1.0s trail duration and about +20 damage per second 5 2 ability charges with about a 14s recharge
  • Hold Ethereal Shift Ethereal Shift 6,400 souls Tier 4TechInstantCast +37s Cooldown +4s Duration +5s Buff Duration +30% Spirit Resist +20 Spirit Power for Soul Exchange Soul Exchange 5.5m Range0.3s Duration220s Cooldown Swaps her current health level with an enemy target. Crowd Control tier 2 silences enemies within about 25m for 3 seconds Damage no conventional damage; Defensive a large heal when used at low health on a healthy target 1 -50s cooldown 2 silences enemies within about 25m for 3 seconds 5 about +60 Spirit Power, +40% fire rate and +50% spirit resist for 8 seconds after the… , and do not be the highest-health hero standing within 25m of her when she is low
  • Strafe against Malice — the shards are a spread of projectiles and partial stacks means a much weaker slow and damage amp
  • Punish her 2.58s reload; with a 9-round magazine she has a dead window in almost every extended trade
  • Life Drain converts at 100%, so every second you leave her in line of sight she is turning your health bar into hers
  • Soul Exchange takes your health level if you are the healthiest target nearby — being at full health near a dying Geist is actively dangerous
  • Soul Exchange tier 2 silences everything within about 25m for 3 seconds, which ends channels like Bullet Dance Bullet Dance 3.5s Duration165s Cooldown Enters a firing flurry, shooting her weapon at nearby enemies with perfect accuracy and added bullet damage. Damage added bullet damage on top of her weapon; Mobility tier 2 adds about +3 m/s move speed and +10% fire rate during the channel Defensive tier 3 grants 40% evasion, which is a substantial survivability window… 1 +10% fire rate and about +3 m/s movement speed 2 40% evasion and about -65s cooldown or Arctic Beam Arctic Beam 5s Duration28s Cooldown Channels a beam of freezing energy in front of him that damages targets and progressively cuts their movement speed and fire rate the longer it stays on them. Crowd Control ramping movement speed and fire rate reduction; Damage about 45 damage per second at base; Mobility none — it constrains his own movement while he holds it 1 about -20% fire rate and move speed on targets 2 about +20 DPS with improved spirit scaling 5 about -13s cooldown and fires 2 additional beams at targets within 10m and blocks your escape items
  • Malice stacks slow you and amplify all of her damage against you specifically, so the exchange gets worse the longer it runs
  • Essence Bomb tier 3 leaves a toxic pool that makes holding an objective circle or a chokepoint genuinely costly
  • Essence Bomb first — it costs her health. Force it onto a wave or a durable frontliner, then engage while she is down that health and the cooldown is running
  • Life Drain second: make her tether onto a tanky ally who can simply walk around a corner, which wastes both the charge and her slowed positioning
  • Soul Exchange last — bait it by having your highest-health hero hold Ethereal Shift; a swap that resolves on an untargetable hero is a wasted ultimate and she is left at low health
  • Do not bait Malice deliberately; it is cheap and frequent. Deny it with lateral movement instead
  • Immediately after any Essence Bomb or Malice cast, when she has just paid health for the ability
  • The entire Life Drain channel — she is movement-slowed and anchored to line of sight on one target
  • Her 2.58s reload with only 9 rounds, which is one of the longest effective dead windows in the group
  • Any collapse at all, since she has no mobility ability — a two-person gap-close is simply lethal
  • The seconds before Soul Exchange comes off cooldown: without it, a low-health Geist has no way to reverse a losing fight

Plan a game against Lady Geist and the rest of their team →

Good at

  • Personal sustain between 100% Life Drain conversion and Lifesteal itemisation
  • Soul Exchange reverses a losing duel outright and, at tier 2, silences an area on top
  • Hybrid damage — spirit abilities plus a hard-hitting pistol — so a single resist stat does not answer her
  • Malice provides a personal damage amp that makes her burst larger than the raw numbers suggest

Weak to

  • No movement ability at all, so once a team collapses on her she cannot leave
  • Her own kit damages her, so she is frequently at a health level a burst hero can finish
  • Life Drain is broken by line of sight and by range, so cover-heavy fights neutralize her sustain
  • Anti-heal items are a near-complete answer to her entire survivability plan

In lane, good at

  • Essence Bomb clears waves and pokes the enemy laner from safety
  • Life Drain converts any successful trade into a full health reset, so she wins attrition lanes
  • Malice keeps an opponent from disengaging cleanly after a bad trade
  • Reasonable health pool means she can absorb the self-damage cost of her own kit

In lane, weak to

  • 9-round magazine with a 2.58s reload makes her gun trades very punishable in the dead window
  • Both Essence Bomb and Malice cost her health, so an aggressive laner can punish her right after a cast
  • No dash and no mobility ability at all — she cannot escape a coordinated gank
  • Life Drain slows her and requires line of sight, so it is nearly useless against a laner who plays around cover
  • Soul Exchange unlock — Makes her low-health dives into a resource instead of a liability
  • Life Drain tier 3 — +2 charges plus the raised spirit scaling turns her sustain from a single commitment into a repeatable engine
  • Essence Bomb tier 3 — The toxic ground pool converts her burst into area denial for objective fights
  • Soul Exchange tier 2 — The 25m 3-second Silence makes the ultimate a teamfight shutdown, not just a duel win

Heavy Pistol ("Johann's Gift")

Medium RangeHeavy Hitter

43.8 DPS

Falloff Range 17m 48m

Slow, high-impact single shots — about 2.1 rounds per second for roughly 20.7 damage each from a very small 9-round magazine with a 2.58s reload. Every shot counts, and the tiny clip means she is reloading constantly in extended fights, which is part of why lifesteal items are core to her.

  • 20.70 Bullet Damage
  • 1 Pellets per Shot
  • 2.12 Bullets per sec
  • 9 Ammo
  • 2.58s Reload Time
  • 828m/s Bullet Velocity
  • 50Light Melee
  • 116Heavy Melee
Vitality and movement
  • 880 Health
  • 1 Health Regen
  • 6.30m/s Move Speed
  • 2.40m/s Sprint Speed
  • 3 Stamina
  • 4.50s Stamina Cooldown

Base values on patch data. Items and boons change all of these.

The heroes Lady Geist wins most with, against what their two win rates would predict.

  • Haze Haze AssassinCarryClose rangeBullet damage Single-target sustained DPS ramps up once Fixation is stacked Durability low (1/3) Burst high (2/3) Mobility high (2/3) Healing high (2/3) 58.6% together +5.5% above expected
  • Graves Graves ControllerSummonerClose rangeHybrid damage Map pressure while away from the fight via Borrowed Decree Ghouls marching at objectives Durability low (1/3) Burst low (1/3) Mobility none (0/3) Healing low (1/3) 60.2% together +5.3% above expected
  • Deadman Danny Deadman Danny SkirmisherInitiatorMid rangeHybrid damage Free flight: he picks his angles and reaches heroes others can't Durability low (1/3) Burst high (2/3) Mobility very high (3/3) Healing low (1/3) 57.8% together +4.1% above expected
  • Paige Paige SupportControllerMid rangeSpirit damage Peel — Plot Armor is a save and a damage buff on one button. Durability low (1/3) Burst low (1/3) Mobility none (0/3) Healing high (2/3) 58.6% together +4.0% above expected
  • Seven Seven MageControllerMid rangeSpirit damage Wave and jungle clear through Lightning Ball and Power Surge, which helps him reach item breakpoints sooner Durability low (1/3) Burst high (2/3) Mobility none (0/3) Healing none (0/3) 58.0% together +4.0% above expected
  • Victor Victor BruiserInitiatorClose rangeSpirit damage Effectively two health bars via Shocking Reanimation, which invalidates the normal 'focus the bruiser' plan Durability very high (3/3) Burst high (2/3) Mobility high (2/3) Healing very high (3/3) 57.4% together +4.0% above expected

Every Lady Geist duo →

Every Lady Geist matchup

Lady Geist wins 52.6% of games overall. Who counters Lady Geist and who Lady Geist counters: all 43 opponents, from Lady Geist's hardest to easiest, with how far each sits from that average. Lady Geist struggles Lady Geist does well

Paige and Graves are strong against almost every hero this patch, so they sit near the top here too. The counters that are about Lady Geist in particular: Haze (Lady Geist wins 48.3%) and Abrams (Lady Geist wins 49.2%).

Only matches whose average rank was Oracle and above, where Lady Geist wins 50.0% overall.

Abilities

Pick an ability to see what it does and how to play around it.

Essence Bomb

Ability 1 · Self-Damaging Thrown Explosive

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

Purpose: Her main burst and her wave-clear — paid for with health she expects to drain back.

Damage
About 90 at base Spirit Power, with 1.35 spirit scaling; tier 2 adds +50 and +2m radius (deadlock.one, metabot.gg; scaling is game data, 30 October 2026)
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 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
Upgrade tiers
  • Tier 1: -5s cooldown
  • Tier 2: +2m radius and +50 damage
  • Tier 3: leaves a toxic ground effect dealing roughly 30% of the damage per second for about 6 seconds

Life Drain

Ability 2 · Sustained Single-Target Tether

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.

Purpose: 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) counters it 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, 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
Upgrade tiers
  • Tier 3: +2 charges and increased spirit scaling

Malice

Ability 3 · Self-Damaging Multi-Projectile Debuff

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.

Purpose: 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
Upgrade tiers
  • Tier 1: -3s cooldown
  • Tier 2: about +25.2 damage and +4 blood shards
  • Tier 3: about +8% additional damage amplification

Soul Exchange

Ultimate · Targeted Health Swap

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.

Purpose: 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
A large heal 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 Unstoppable 6,400 souls Tier 4ArmorInstantCast +60s Cooldown +5.5s Duration +125 Bonus Health +25% Debuff Resist Builds from Debuff Reducer 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
Upgrade tiers
  • Tier 1: -50s cooldown
  • Tier 2: silences enemies within about 25m for 3 seconds
  • Tier 3: about +60 Spirit Power, +40% fire rate and +50% Spirit Resist for 8 seconds after the swap
Patch history for these abilities (1)
  • Life Drain And its spirit scaling was raised to +0.45 on 09-16-2026.

Values were last changed in patch 10-30-2026.

Lady Geist's win rate by game length

Game length changes little for Lady Geist compared with other heroes: #7 of 44 in games under 25 minutes, #11 of 44 from 25 to 40, #11 of 44 past 40.

45% 50% 55% 60% 0.6% of all games end at 10–15 minutes 1.2% of all games end at 15–20 minutes 3.4% of all games end at 20–25 minutes 11.0% of all games end at 25–30 minutes 23.2% of all games end at 30–35 minutes 26.4% of all games end at 35–40 minutes 17.9% of all games end at 40–45 minutes 9.4% of all games end at 45–50 minutes 4.3% of all games end at 50–55 minutes 1.7% of all games end at 55–60 minutes 0.8% of all games end at 60+ minutes 10–15 min: 49.2% over 1,298 games 49.2% 15–20 min: 52.3% over 2,741 games 52.3% 20–25 min: 55.9% over 7,765 games 55.9% 25–30 min: 55.6% over 25,023 games 55.6% 30–35 min: 53.5% over 55,560 games 53.5% 35–40 min: 52.7% over 65,424 games 52.7% 40–45 min: 51.3% over 45,709 games 51.3% 45–50 min: 51.1% over 24,387 games 51.1% 50–55 min: 50.5% over 11,992 games 50.5% 55–60 min: 50.2% over 4,722 games 50.2% 60+ min: 49.4% over 2,410 games 49.4% 10–1515–2020–2525–3030–3535–4040–4545–5050–5555–6060+
above 50% below 50% under 1,000 games how many games end then
See the numbers
MinutesWinsvs usualGames
10–15 49.2% −3.4% 1,298
15–20 52.3% −0.3% 2,741
20–25 55.9% +3.3% 7,765
25–30 55.6% +3.0% 25,023
30–35 53.5% +0.9% 55,560
35–40 52.7% +0.1% 65,424
40–45 51.3% −1.3% 45,709
45–50 51.1% −1.5% 24,387
50–55 50.5% −2.1% 11,992
55–60 50.2% −2.4% 4,722
60+ 49.4% −3.2% 2,410

"vs usual" is against Lady Geist's 52.6% over all these games. Faded rows have under 1,000 games, where a few percent either way is noise; under 300, no win rate is shown.

Each point is how often Lady Geist won games that ended at that length, not the chance of winning at that minute. Short games are usually one-sided, so the left side is about closing out a lead and the right side about long, close games. Games under 10 minutes are left out. Every hero by game length →

Sources and confidence for this record

Record confidence: Strong evidence. Compiled for patch 10-30-2026, researched 2026-10-30.

Difficulty rating: deadlocklabs.gg hero page lists in-game complexity as 2 of 3 stars (★★☆)