Counterlock
Heroes / Violet / How to play
Field manual · Sep 29 patch

How to play VioletHow to play

51.3% win rate · #12 of 44 · Ambitious · Nimble · Creative

Updated 2026-10-31 01:58 UTC · n = 3,952,034 matches

How to play Violet

Still Life1Still LifeLiving Ink2Living Ink

Your combo: Sketch a target with Still Life (it damages them while you keep looking at them, and stuns if you finish), then steer Living Ink’s 3 empowered shots into them.

Don’t waste: Still Life only stuns if you finish the sketch while watching them; they break it by breaking line of sight, or by diving you while you’re locked on.

Edge: Living Ink hits on heroes reduce all your cooldowns, and enemies caught in Abstract Landscape are silenced and slowed when they leave it.

From community hero guides, Oct 2026 patches, checked against deadlock.wiki. The same combo from the other side is on how to counter Violet.

Your kit

Living Ink
Living Ink
Ability 1 · 22s cooldown

Flow State
Flow State
Ability 2 · 23s cooldown

Drag a brush that continues to travel forward, leaving a trail that grants bonus slide distance for allies and a fading slow and spirit damage to enemies it passes through, increased the further it travels. Re-activate the ability to flick the brush forward, ending the ability early but dealing spirit damage in a larger area.

Still Life
Still Life
Ability 3 · 35s cooldown · stun 0.9s · pull

Choose a hero to be your subject, dealing spirit damage over time as long as you are looking at them. If the sketch is completed they take additional spirit damage, suffer from stun, and drop a sketch that can be picked up. For each collected sketch, you permanently gain stats based on the hero.

Abstract Landscape
Abstract Landscape
Ultimate · 180s cooldown · silence 2s · ultimate

Create a circular display of ink that blocks vision and grants allies Spirit.Enemies inside are revealed, and leaving causes them to take spirit damage and suffer from Silence and slow, destroying the ink in the process.

Skill order

Max first:Still LifeStill Life›Living InkLiving Ink›Flow StateFlow State›Abstract LandscapeAbstract Landscape

From the most common upgrade order (47k matches): the order abilities reach their last tier.

10m21m32m43m54m66m76m88m99m1011m1115m1220m1326m1428m1532m
Living InkLiving InkAbility 1IIIIII
Flow StateFlow StateAbility 2IIIIII
Still LifeStill LifeAbility 3IIIIII
Abstract LandscapeAbstract LandscapeUltimateIII

unlock I II III upgrade tiers · column labels are the average minute of each step

Build path with timings

Early
Mid
Late

Items that win most on Violet

Lanes you win

Lanes to play safe

When they counter you

−7.0 ppGraves

Buy against Graves:

−6.6 ppRat King

Buy against Rat King:

−5.1 ppBaba

Buy against Baba:

Best teammates

Notes from the best builds

Violet stats and buildsHow to counter Violet