Sinclair

Sinclair fires a bolt of magic whose damage grows the further it travels. Pressing the ability again redirects the bolt toward his crosshair mid-flight. If a Spectral Assistant is active, it fires a reduced-damage copy of the bolt as well.

Purpose: His primary poke. The redirect is what makes it land — he can throw it long for the damage bonus and then steer it around a dodge.

Damage

60 minimum to 120 maximum depending on distance travelled; +50% max damage and assistant damage at 5 AP. 24s cooldown with 4s between charges (mobalytics 2026, corroborated by deadlock.one's 60-120 range)

Crowd control

None at base. The 1 AP upgrade applies -25% fire rate for 5s.

Defensive

The fire-rate slow at 1 AP is a genuine defensive debuff against gun-primary divers

How to play against it

• Do not dodge early — the bolt is redirectable, so commit your strafe or your cover break at the last moment when he can no longer correct
• Close the distance. Damage scales with travel distance, so fighting Sinclair inside 15m strips most of the bolt's value
• Break line of sight with a hard object rather than strafing; a redirect cannot steer through geometry
• At 2 AP this is an ~11s cooldown with charges, so treat it as a permanent ambient threat rather than something to wait out

Interactions

• Damage scales with distance travelled, not with distance to target — a redirected bolt that loops long hits harder than a point-blank one
• The Spectral Assistant fires its own reduced-damage copy, so the two abilities are designed to be used together
• The fire-rate slow at 1 AP stacks with Rabbit Hex's damage amplification for an unusually strong single-target burst setup
• Because the bolt is steerable, standard 'strafe the skillshot' counterplay does not work in isolation
• Since 5 October the bolt does only half damage to objectives, so it is a hero-poke tool rather than a way to chip guardians and walkers

Sinclair summons an Assistant at a targeted location. The Assistant attacks whenever Sinclair fires his weapon. Pressing the ability again swaps Sinclair's position with the Assistant's and reloads his weapon.

Purpose: It is three things at once: extra damage output, a free reload, and a pre-placed escape. Placing it behind him before a fight is effectively banking a teleport.

Damage

15 damage per Assistant attack, +14 at 5 AP. 40s cooldown, 6s base duration (game data), maximum 2 swaps (mobalytics 2026)

Mobility

The swap is a functional blink to a pre-chosen location, usable twice per cast

Defensive

His only escape tool — placing the Assistant behind cover and swapping is how he survives a gap-closer

How to play against it

• Look for where he placed the Assistant before you commit — that is where he will be standing when you dive him
• Kill the Assistant or cut off the swap destination; with the Assistant gone he has no escape at all
• Count the swaps. Two per cast, so after the second one he is a 730 HP hero with no mobility until the 40s (30s at 1 AP) cooldown returns
• Engage during the 6s base duration gap when no Assistant is placed — before the 2 AP duration upgrade, the window where he is undefended is large

Interactions

• The swap also reloads his weapon, so it doubles as a way to skip the 2.50s reload mid-fight
• Limited to 2 swaps per cast — after the second swap it is purely a damage summon
• The 2 AP upgrade extends duration by 7s (5s to 12s), which is what makes it viable as a banked escape rather than a burst tool
• Placing the Assistant on high ground gives him an angle he can swap to and back from

Sinclair hexes an area, turning every enemy inside it into a rabbit for a short time. Hexed enemies move faster but take increased damage and cannot perform most actions. The hex does not interrupt an ability that is already in progress.

Purpose: His Hard CC and his burst multiplier. Turning a target into a rabbit both stops them acting and makes everything that follows hit harder, which is how a poke mage converts chip into kills.

Damage

No direct damage; applies 15% increased damage taken (+7% at 5 AP). 26s cooldown, 2s duration (+1s at 2 AP), 24m range, 6m radius (cut from 6.5m on 5 October; mobalytics 2026, corroborated by deadlock.one)

Crowd control

A hard disable — hexed targets cannot use most actions for 2s (3s at 2 AP). Notably it does NOT interrupt an ability already being channelled or executed.

Mobility

None for Sinclair. Hexed enemies move faster, which is a real drawback of the ability.

Defensive

Hexing a diver mid-approach stops them acting, though their increased move speed means they still arrive

How to play against it

• If you are already mid-ability when it lands, keep going — the hex does not interrupt abilities in progress
• Base duration is only 2s. The correct response is to keep moving toward cover (you move faster as a rabbit) rather than freezing in place inside the amplification
• Spread out: the 6m radius is a group punish, and one hex catching three heroes into a 15% amp is what actually kills people
• Cleanse or debuff-removal ends the transformation and the damage amplification together
• Stay outside 24m cast range in a standoff; he cannot hex what he cannot reach, and his weapon falloff goes to 60m so he is happy to poke instead

Interactions

• It does not interrupt in-progress abilities, so hexing someone mid-channel does not stop the channel — know this limitation
• Hexed enemies move faster, so using it on a fleeing target can actually help them escape
• The 6m radius (8m at 5 AP since 5 October) makes it a multi-target disable against a grouped team, not just a single-target hex
• Hex into Vexing Bolt into a stolen ultimate from Audience Participation is his full combo

Sinclair copies an enemy hero's ultimate for a limited time. Reactivating the ability casts the copied ultimate instead of his own. The copy inherits the original's upgrade points and cooldown state.

Purpose: A flexible fight-swinger whose value is entirely determined by what the enemy team brought. Against a team with a strong teamfight ultimate it effectively doubles that ultimate for Sinclair's side.

Damage

No inherent damage — output depends entirely on the copied ultimate. 85s cooldown; after a successful copy it comes back at 60% of that (about 51s; 40% before 5 October), 20m range, 9s copy duration (cut from 12s on 5 October; Valve's notes)

Crowd control

Whatever CC the copied ultimate provides

Mobility

Whatever mobility the copied ultimate provides

Defensive

Can copy a defensive or disengage ultimate when that is what the fight needs

How to play against it

• It requires a target within 20m — staying outside that range with your ultimate-carrier denies the copy entirely
• Use your ultimate before he can copy it, or bait the copy onto a hero whose ultimate is low-value in that moment
• The copy lasts only 9s: if you force a disengage immediately after he copies, the window expires with nothing spent
• Because the shorter cooldown only applies after a successful copy, denying the copy puts it on the full 85s
• Team composition is real counterplay here — a team whose ultimates are self-targeted buffs gives him very little to steal

Interactions

• The copy inherits upgrade points, so copying a late-game enemy's 5 AP ultimate gives the strongest version
• A successful copy puts it on a shorter cooldown (60% of the full 85s since 5 October, up from 40%), which is what makes it repeatable across a long fight
• The 9s copy window means he must copy and use it in the same engagement — he cannot bank it
• Each upgrade tier improves the copied ultimate by one further step
• Its value swings enormously by matchup: near-useless against self-buff ultimates, decisive against area-control or lockdown ultimates