Best Deadlock Mo & Krill build: Abilities & Items

Master Mo & Krill’s abilities and item builds for dominating ganks and jungle control in Deadlock

Introduction to Mo & Krill Playstyle

After extensive testing spanning 200+ hours, we’ve developed the optimal Mo & Krill build for Deadlock, covering ability progression and itemization across all game phases.

Mo & Krill represent the quintessential roaming specialist in Deadlock, excelling at map control and surprise engagements. If your playstyle favors ambushes and disrupting enemy formations, this hero duo delivers exceptional ganking potential.

While they struggle in conventional laning scenarios, their kit shines when targeting isolated opponents and rapidly eliminating high-priority targets. Their unique mechanics reward aggressive positioning and calculated engages.

Beyond their assassination capabilities, Mo & Krill dominate jungle clearing, making them ideal for players who prefer controlling the map’s tempo through strategic rotations and objective control rather than static lane assignments.

This comprehensive guide details optimal ability sequencing, item builds for each game phase, and advanced strategies to maximize your impact as Deadlock’s premier roaming threat.

Ability Priority and Upgrade Strategy

Strategic ability progression is crucial for Mo & Krill’s effectiveness throughout the match. Below we outline the optimal upgrade path:

During early laning, invest two points into Scorn immediately to mitigate your vulnerability. Mo & Krill’s substantial hitbox makes them susceptible to enemy harassment, making the self-sustain from Scorn essential for surviving the laning phase. However, this ability’s value diminishes in later stages, so complete its upgrades last.

After securing early sustain, immediately transition to maxing Burrow for mid-game dominance. This represents Mo & Krill’s most impactful ability, offering unparalleled engagement tools and survivability.

Burrow provides exceptional mobility with temporary invulnerability, spirit and bullet armor generation while underground, and substantial area damage with crowd control upon emergence. It serves as the cornerstone of your mid-to-late game effectiveness.

Following Burrow, prioritize maxing Combo for its incredible pick potential. This channeled suppression ability enables you to eliminate key targets before teamfights initiate. When combined properly with your other abilities, Combo can single-handedly create numerical advantages for your team.

While Sand Blast occupies the lowest priority, it remains crucial for initiating your kill chains by disabling enemy responses. The disarm effect creates windows for safe engagement and sets up your more damaging abilities.

Complete Ability Breakdown

Here is a detailed breakdown of Mo & Krill’s abilities and their upgrade paths:

  • 1. Scorn
    • Deals damage to nearby enemies and heals you based on damage dealt. Healing is amplified against enemy heroes.
      • Level 1: -4 second cooldown
      • Level 2: +25 damage
      • Level 3: Applies a debuff allowing Mo and Krill to deal +15% additional damage to affected enemies. Stacks multiply and persist for 16 seconds
  • 2. Burrow
    • Submerge underground, gaining increased movement speed plus spirit and bullet armor. Hero damage reduces speed bonus. Upon surfacing, launch enemies airborne and execute a spin attack dealing damage and applying slow. Cooldown initiates when Burrow concludes.
      • Level 1: Burrow duration +3 seconds
      • Level 2: +140 Spin DPS and +2 radius
      • Level 3: -20 cooldown and +3 m/s movement speed
  • 3. Sand Blast
    • Project sand forward, disarming enemies in cone area while dealing damage.
      • Level 1: +1.5 second duration
      • Level 2: -20 second cooldown
      • Level 3: Applies -50% movement slow to targets
  • 4. Combo
    • Channel to immobilize target, stunning them while dealing continuous damage. Successful kills during channel permanently increase maximum health.
      • Level 1: -30 second cooldown
      • Level 2: Combo duration +1 second
      • Level 3: +40 damage per second and 100% lifesteal
  • Game Phase Itemization Guide

    We’ve categorized item recommendations into four progression stages: early game fundamentals, mid-game power spikes, late-game luxury items, and situational counter-builds.

    Your itemization should dynamically adapt based on game state and enemy composition. This build provides a solid foundation while allowing flexibility for experienced players.

    Early game demands maximizing your limited strengths while mitigating Mo & Krill’s inherent vulnerabilities. Monster Rounds accelerates jungle clearing, while Headshot Booster provides essential poke damage. Close Quarters naturally complements your close-range combat style.

    Mystic Reach extends your engagement range, reducing positioning constraints, while Infuser enhances your initiation potential. For survivability during vulnerable laning, Enduring Spirit and Healing Rite provide crucial durability, supplemented by Sprint Boots to address mobility deficiencies.

    Mid-game transitions focus on engagement tools and damage amplification. Warp Stone compensates for limited gap-closing abilities, while Berserker and Fleetfoot enhance your clearing and combat capabilities.

    Torment Pulse represents your most critical power spike—prioritize rushing this item. It adds 200-250 damage during Combo, dramatically improving duel potential. Pair it with Mystic Vulnerability to reduce enemy spirit resistance and maximize damage output.

    Apply Surge of Power to Burrow for enhanced engagement speed and damage. Veil Walker provides roaming durability, synergizing with Enchanter’s Barrier for increased spirit damage during ganks.

    Late game emphasizes survivability and specialization. Point Blank enhances Close Quarters synergy, while Spiritual Overflow offers scalable late-game value. Crippling Headshot shreds protections before Combo activation.

    Unstoppable becomes essential as enemies prioritize interrupting your engages, while Phantom Strike provides exceptional initiation tools. Divine Kevlar adds durability during Combo channels, and Escalating Exposure extends Mystic Vulnerability benefits.

    Improved Reach (applied to Combo) extends your threat range, while Superior Duration and Superior Cooldown optimize ability uptime for late-game teamfighting.

    Situational Items and Counter Building

    These situational items address specific matchup problems—only purchase them when encountering the described scenarios:

  • Alchemical Fire: Excellent for pre-engagement damage stacking, particularly when thrown beneath your ultimate target for additional damage ticks during channel.
  • Colossus: Counters highly mobile enemies who frequently escape your engagement range, forcing confrontations on favorable terms.
  • Metal Skin: Provides additional durability when Unstoppable proves insufficient against heavy crowd control compositions.
  • Debuff Remover: Essential against teams with multiple disables that disrupt your initiation sequences.
  • Improved Bullet Armor: Mitigates significant weapon damage intake when facing marksman-heavy compositions.
  • Improved Spirit Armor: Counters spirit damage specialists like a well-farmed Pocket, adding crucial magical resistance.
  • Return Fire: Useful for camp clearing and counter-poking, particularly effective against persistent harassers like Vindicta.
  • Healbane: High-risk option that provides healing on hero kills, ideal for targeting enemy roamers in skirmish-heavy games.
  • Reactive Barrier: Addresses mid-game crowd control problems that disrupt your engagement timing.
  • Cold Front: Forces close-quarters combat against evasive targets while dealing additional area damage.
  • Slowing Hex: Alternative mobility denial tool that doesn’t deal damage but guarantees close-range engagements.
  • Withering Whip: Laning phase recovery item for difficult matchups where you’re falling behind.
  • Knockdown: Pre-engagement tool against perceptive opponents who consistently anticipate your attacks.
  • Curse: Provides advantage against specific counters like mobile Viscous or high-damage Pocket matchups.
  • Advanced Tactics and Common Mistakes

    Mastering Mo & Krill requires understanding advanced techniques while avoiding common pitfalls:

    Optimal Engagement Sequence: Initiate with Sand Blast to disable enemy retaliation, immediately follow with Burrow for positioning and armor, then activate Combo on isolated targets. Use Scorn during the engagement for sustain and damage amplification.

    Jungle Efficiency: Your rapid camp clearing enables unique pathing opportunities. Prioritize controlling key jungle areas to create ganking angles and deny enemy farm. Time your rotations to coincide with objective spawns.

    Common Mistakes to Avoid: Don’t overcommit to laning—your strength lies in mobility and ganking. Avoid using Burrow unnecessarily as its cooldown leaves you vulnerable. Never initiate Combo without proper setup or when multiple enemies can interrupt it.

    Advanced Positioning: Use terrain to mask your approach angles. Burrow allows unique pathing through otherwise impassable areas. Coordinate with teammates to create multi-angle engagements that overwhelm enemy formations.

    Item Timing Awareness: Understand your power spikes—Torment Pulse completion dramatically increases your threat level. Adjust your playstyle accordingly, becoming more aggressive after key item acquisitions.

    With these strategies mastered, Mo & Krill become one of Deadlock’s most formidable roaming threats, capable of single-handedly dictating game tempo through calculated aggression and map control.

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