Victor is made up of different parts from unknown bodies / Image credit: Valve
TL;DR
Victor was the last hero released as part of the community-voted launch
He quickly dominated Deadlock and was subject to emergency nerfs
Victor has been nerfed multiple times since launch, changing the way he plays
He’s strong in low elo but becomes less effective in higher ranks
Few heroes provoke as much debate as Victor in Deadlock, an undead brawler with a kit built around self‑harm and resurrection. Debuted dead last as part of the six-hero community-voted release, Victor was an overtuned powerhouse that instantly dominated lobbies with a sky-high winrate. The situation was so bad that Victor was nerfed multiple times within a few hours of his release.
Yet, it didn’t stop there, as Victor has proven to be a balance nightmare. Since release, Victor’s numbers and mechanics have been tweaked almost every patch, yet he remains either a pub‑stomping menace or a throw pick depending on who you ask. Why is this straightforward hero causing Valve so many issues?
Victorious arrival
Even though Victor was the last to arrive through voting, the community quickly fell in love with his high-risk kit, which dealt massive area damage to the frontline. His kit is built around his signature ability, Aura of Suffering, where he deals spirit damage over time to both enemies and himself, increasing in damage the longer the ability is channelled.
During fights, Victor is a huge threat that demands teams focus fire on him. This is his ideal situation as he has sustain from Jumpstart to keep him in the fight, while throwing out Pain Battery when absorbing enough damage. When Victor falls, he resurrects himself with his ultimate, Shocking Reanimation, to give him a second chance to clean up the fight.
Victor is severely item-dependent, but once he hits his core build within decent timing, he can take over the game by simply running towards the enemy team. His straightforward but effective kit quickly made him a menace, and saw an emergency hotfix from Valve just hours after his launch.
Nerfs of suffering
Valve wasn’t satisfied and continued dismantling Victor with many nerfs throughout multiple patches. The common changes were aimed at his survivability, particularly with how much self-damage Victor could get away with when using Aura of Suffering.
His signature ability received nerfs to its area of effect, cooldown (which prevented rapidly toggling the ability), and damage from spirit scaling. Additionally, Victor’s ultimate wasn’t safe from the nerf hammer, moving its original tier 1 upgrade, where he received more spirit damage per bullet, to tier 3, removing a big source of burst in the mid game.
Victor farms fast with his aura / Image credit: Valve
Jumpstart was also hit with a painful nerf that increased its recharge timer from three seconds to eight, which made items that increase charges mandatory for the character. Not only did this affect his health regeneration, but this also hindered his movement speed buff and reliable source of cleanse, which he desperately needed against anti-heal.
Unsustainable self-damage
However, Victor’s change invalidated his past playstyle and common builds. Aura of Suffering and Jumpstart’s self-damage can no longer be reduced by Spirit resistance. Before this change, Victor had a horrible laning stage and mid-game, and needed Spirit resistance items to survive his self-damage.
Now, Victor is doing his enemies a favour and doing most of the damage to himself, which feels even worse when the enemy buys their own Spirit resist item to mitigate his damage.
The round of nerfs proved too much for Victor, and he finally received some buffs two days later, lowering Aura of Sufferings’ self-damage to 70%, but also reducing its radius again. The ability also received a damage buff.
Victor’s problematic feast-or-famine design
Despite all the nerfs, Victor’s remained a popular pick with a good winrate that hovered around 52%. While that seems healthy, the issue is how polarising he is across different skill brackets. Victor is a low elo menace, a pub stomper that can solo carry games after spending half an hour farming.
Balancing Victor has always been difficult because of his linear, but highly effective playstyle. When he farms fast and builds the right items, he becomes an unkillable raid boss. However, if the enemy team has an inkling of how to build counter items, such as anti-heal, slows, or Spirit resist, he melts instantly when entering a teamfight.
Sorting tracker sites by rank shows how quickly Victor’s winrate drops off the higher the skill level increases. It eventually gets to a point where Victor sinks to the bottom with a ~44% win rate. It’s even worse in the pro scene as Victor is nowhere to be found.
Compared to similar characters like Pudge and Wraith King from Dota 2, Victor doesn’t have utility that can help set up a gank or a teamfight. This means that he has nothing to offer when falling behind, little to do during even games, but can stomp hard during winning games.
Better players can farm efficiently and itemise accordingly. But if matchmaking is working, better players know he is a soul-hungry hero and won’t join any fights until he hits his timing, letting them take free objectives.
Dedicated Victor players are leaning more into stacking healing and regeneration, with items like Mystic Regeneration and Healing Booster keeping him healthy through a fight. Hybrid builds that also boost his gun damage are also gaining popularity, pushing him further and further away from the fun, frontline tank he was on release.
Stitching Victor back together
Balancing a hero who hurts himself to hurt others is inherently tricky, but that doesn’t mean the problem is unsolvable. He’s a character that lives or dies on raw numbers, whether his own or through items, where even the smallest buffs in his current state can cause him to run rampant in lower elo.
Valve should decide whether Victor is disruptive because of his damage as he is now, or consider adding utility and interactivity to his kit, making him more interactive and rewarding better play.
Warden traps enemies who linger too long / Image credit: Valve
Trading off damage for utility, like increasing damage against enemies from his allies or conditional crowd control similar to Warden, would make him more teamplay-oriented and less like a solo carry.
But first, the fun factor. Victor has perhaps the weakest laning phase because his abilities actively hurt him without the means to sustain him. In practice, this creates extremely boring laning phases where the Victor is turtling and hiding, aiming to at least survive so he can go and farm elsewhere.
Instead of tying Aura of Suffering to a flat percentage, why not scale the self-damage with the number of enemies affected, along with time spent channelling? While this keeps Victor’s self-damage to around the same amount in normal fights, this incentivises him to be more active during the laning phase.
Revive rework
His revive is another ability that’s worth questioning, not because second chances are inherently unfun, but because it warps his game plan on whether or not it’s off cooldown. Instead, lean into his theme of sharing pain with a conditional ultimate that activates with low health, giving him damage reduction and ramping up Aura of Suffering even more.
Victor’s ultimate gives him a second chance / Image credit: Valve
Heroes like Huskar from Dota 2 perfectly demonstrate how to fight heroes who are more effective on lower HP, and whether the team can commit with enough burst damage.
This transitions into the fact that Deadlock is still in beta, and there’s no proper drafting system in place. Victor’s tendency to dip into low health can be countered by heroes like Shiv or Grey Talon, or his lack of real initiation can be controlled with heroes like Kelvin or Vindicta. While he may seem oppressive in lower elos, eventually the skill and knowledge will trickle down, and what would have happened to him by then?
Conclusion
Victor’s fundamental design tension is thrilling because it rewards risk with a big payoff. He’s the hero who lives hard, and that’s why players love him, and balance teams don’t know what to do with him.
While it’s fine for games to have fringe cases to keep gameplay more unique, Valve should find a way to trade his all-or-nothing loops into something more interactive. Without it, Victor’s polarising presence dictates every lobby, and it’s usually bad for his own team.
FAQs
How do you play Victor in Deadlock?
Play safely during the laning phase and farm fast with your abilities. Try to get a good Soul economy going so you can purchase core items, allowing you to join teamfights.
Who is the best hero in Deadlock?
Seven has been one of the most successful heroes across all brackets for a long time in Deadlock.
Has Victor in Deadlock been nerfed?
Yes, Victor has received multiple nerfs since his release, including an emergency hotfix just hours after his launch.
