Venator

Lobs a grenade that bounces once or twice before detonating in a roughly 4.5m area. The blast does weapon-scaling damage and ignites everyone caught, and burning enemies bleed pure damage into the space around them while their incoming healing is cut.

Purpose: His anti-heal and area-denial button. Venator throws it into a contested choke or onto a sustain hero before his team commits, so the enemy cannot regen or Lifesteal their way out of the fight.

Damage

35 impact (about 1.0x weapon scaling) plus roughly 10 burn DPS (about 1.6x scaling) over 3.5s; T2 extends burn by 1s

How to play against it

• The grenade bounces before it explodes, so step back through the bounce arc rather than sprinting forward into the detonation point
• Burning spreads damage to allies standing next to you, so break formation the instant one teammate ignites instead of grouping for a heal
• Do not pop a big heal (Restorative Shot, Healing Rite, Colossus Colossus 6,400 souls Tier 4ArmorInstantCast +37s Cooldown +7s Duration +25% Base Health +15% Weapon Damage +35% Bullet Resist +35% Spirit Resist +24% Move Speed -22% Dash Distance +20% Model Scale +30% Melee Damage Builds from Extra Health ) while burning; hold it until the 3.5s burn expires or the anti-heal is wasted
• Fight him in open ground where the 4.5m radius is easy to walk out of, not in a lane choke or a stairwell

Interactions

• Stacks multiplicatively with item anti-heal such as Healbane Healbane 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorPassive +8s Duration +7 Spirit Power -35% Incoming Healing or Toxic Bullets Toxic Bullets 3,200 souls Tier 3WeaponPassive -40% Incoming Healing , which can take a Lifesteal bruiser from sustainable to killable
• Because the burn is pure damage, armor and spirit-resist items do not blunt the damage-over-time portion the way they blunt his bolts
• The bounce means it can be thrown around a corner or off a ceiling to hit a defender behind cover

A point-blank shotgun burst within about 10m that shoves everyone hit backwards. If the shove drives a target into a wall or other geometry, that target eats bonus damage and is stunned briefly.

Purpose: Self-peel and a terrain-dependent hard-CC setup. Venator uses it to shove a diver off him, or in tight corridors to pin someone against a wall for a Stun his team can convert on.

Damage

60 base (about 0.7x weapon scaling) plus 30 bonus (about 0.8x scaling) when the target is slammed into geometry; T1 adds +25

Crowd control

Knockback on everyone hit; 0.6s Stun on targets driven into a wall (T2 adds +0.4s, so up to 1.0s)

Mobility

None for Venator himself

Defensive

The knockback creates separation from melee and gap-closers

How to play against it

• Fight Venator away from walls and railings — in open ground Gutshot is a 10m nudge with no Stun attached
• Divers with Unstoppable (Abrams' Siege, Yamato's Shadow Transformation Shadow Transformation 5s Duration160s Cooldown Yamato transforms with an initial invincible window, refreshes her ability cooldowns, and for the duration casts them much faster while immune to negative status effects and heavily… Damage No direct damage; the power is in refreshed abilities cast 60% faster Mobility T2 adds +4 m/s move speed during the transformation, on top of her already… Defensive Initial invincibility during the 1.5s transformation channel, immunity to… 1 +7 weapon damage 2 +4 m/s move speed and -30s cooldown (160s base) 5 +3s duration (5s base up to 8s) and +30% bullet resist and +30% spirit resist status immunity) walk through the shove and the Stun
• Do not back yourself into a corner while pressuring him; the shove has no value if there is nothing behind you
• It is a short 10m cone — an Assassinate Assassinate 55s Cooldown Scopes in for a long-range rifle shot. Damage 90 base spirit plus up to 90 bonus against targets under 50% health (T2 adds… Mobility none — she is scoped and stationary during the charge 1 -15s cooldown (55s base) 2 +80 maximum bonus damage 5 +4% weapon damage per kill (from +6% to +10%) , a Card Trick Card Trick 500m Range0.6s Cooldown Dealing weapon damage generates cards of a random suit, which she can then throw. Crowd Control none directly Damage 45 spirit base (about 0.55x spirit scaling); Mobility A Club card grants +24% move speed 1 +2 charges 2 +40 damage and increased spirit scaling 5 all suits improved and a higher chance for Jokers or any mid-range poke never triggers it

Interactions

• Wall Stun range is about 7m, so it only converts when the target is already close to a surface — in open mid-lane it is pure knockback
• The knockback can push an enemy out of a friendly zone ability or, badly used, shove a target out of your own team's follow-up
• Displacement resistance and Unstoppable effects negate the shove and therefore the wall Stun entirely

Kicks out a trap that arms after a short delay and then sits on the ground for up to 30 seconds. The first enemy to walk into its roughly 2m footprint takes Spirit Damage, is locked in place, and is revealed to Venator's team for several seconds afterwards.

Purpose: Flank denial and pick setup. Traps go on the doorways, zip-line landings and jungle entrances the enemy must path through, turning a rotation into a free Root plus wallhack for his team.

Damage

80 spirit (about 2.2x spirit scaling); T3 adds +30% damage against revealed targets

Crowd control

1.25s immobilize (T2 pushes it to 2.25s)

Defensive

Acts as a tripwire behind Venator so flankers cannot reach him unpunished

How to play against it

• Push a minion wave, a Seven stormcloud drone, an Ivy ally or any summon down a choke first — the trap springs on the first thing through
• Vary your rotation path; traps cover fixed geometry, so take the zipline or the roof instead of the same Haunt Haunts Neutral camps Lanes and Districts across the map Haunts replace the old neutral camps. They are not a reskin: each type behaves differently, and the health bar now shows a camp's soul value and how hard it is, so you can decide whether a camp is worth your time before you start shooting. Three eye colours mark the tier — teal for tier I, yellow for tier II, red for tier III. Souls 41/68/181 souls tier I / II / III a creep +0.44 / +0.73 / +1.95 a minute -camp door twice
• On Graves, shoot the trap: since the 09-29-2026 patch her gun destroys it outright
• Buy or hold a cleanse-style active (Debuff Remover / Unstoppable timing) for the 1.25-2.25s immobilize, because that lock is what turns into a Gutshot or Ira Domini stake
• Once revealed you have 6 seconds of being tracked — retreat immediately rather than trying to reposition for a re-engage

Interactions

• Two charges on an 8s recharge means he can cover two entrances at once; a third charge comes at T3
• Reveal persists through cover and stealth-adjacent effects, which is why it doubles as a ward on objectives like the Urn route and Patron approaches
• The trap is a physical object on the ground — it is visible if you are looking for it and it triggers on the first body through, so a minion or a summon soaks it
• As of the 09-29-2026 patch Graves can destroy a trap by shooting it, so a Graves lane clears his doorway set-ups before walking through them
• Since the 30 September 2026 build (6723, not in Valve's notes) troopers and Haunts Haunts Neutral camps Lanes and Districts across the map Haunts replace the old neutral camps. They are not a reskin: each type behaves differently, and the health bar now shows a camp's soul value and how hard it is, so you can decide whether a camp is worth your time before you start shooting. Three eye colours mark the tier — teal for tier I, yellow for tier II, red for tier III. Souls 41/68/181 souls tier I / II / III a creep +0.44 / +0.73 / +1.95 a minute no longer target the traps, so a lane wave will not shoot one out for you

For a limited window Venator loads three heavy stakes instead of normal bolts. Each stake hits for massively increased weapon damage, and the third and final stake is blessed, adding pure damage and outright executing enemies under a low health threshold.

Purpose: His kill-confirm. After a Root, a wall Stun or an anti-heal burn he loads up and converts, and the blessed final stake takes a target that thinks it has escaped at low HP.

Damage

120 per stake (about 1.5x weapon scaling); blessed stake adds 95 bonus pure damage (about 3.6x scaling), with T2 adding +65; execute triggers at 8% max health

Mobility

T1 grants +1.2 m/s move speed while active

How to play against it

• Ira Domini is a loud, visible transformation — the moment you see him load stakes, break line of sight for the 15s window instead of trading
• Bullet Resist items (Enduring Speed line, Metal Skin, Bullet Armor) cut the 120-per-stake body damage, though not the blessed pure-damage portion
• At low HP, the 8% execute means a Restorative Shot or Colossus that puts you over the threshold is worth more than a damage item
• He only has three stakes and a long 145-160s cooldown; forcing him to dump them on a tanky frontliner or a Viscous Cube wastes the whole ultimate
• Post 09-16-2026 he can Ricochet and split stakes, so do NOT stand in a line behind a teammate he is aiming at

Interactions

• Changed in the 09-16-2026 patch: Ira Domini now works with Ricochet, so every stake bounces, and it can split-shot (one extra bolt to each side, three total per trigger) — this is the first patch where the ultimate scales off weapon modifier items
• Because stakes scale off weapon damage, weapon-damage items (Headhunter Headhunter 3,200 souls Tier 3WeaponPassive +8s Cooldown +5% Weapon Damage +50 Bonus Health +3s Move Speed Duration +100% Proc Chance Builds from Headshot Booster , Sharpshooter Sharpshooter 3,200 souls Tier 3WeaponPassive +10% Weapon Damage +60% Weapon Damage +20% Weapon Fall-off Range +25% Weapon Zoom +60% Bullet Velocity Builds from Long Range, High-Velocity Rounds , Glass Cannon Glass Cannon 6,400 souls Tier 4WeaponPassive +85% Weapon Damage -13% Max Health +2 Bonus Ammo Per Kill +7% Fire Rate per Kill +8 Max Stacks +30% Move Speed +3s Slow Duration ) inflate the ultimate far more than spirit items do
• Only three stakes exist per cast and the window is about 15s, so every miss is a large fraction of the ultimate
• Pure damage on the blessed stake is not reduced by bullet or Spirit Resist