How To Play Solomon - Beginner's Guide

Welcome readers to another Lockbuilds guide for Deadlock, and this time we have a hero guide. Deadlock recently dropped one of its biggest updates, called ‘City Never Sleeps’, and I guess we can all agree that Yoshi blew everyone’s socks off. The update brought a ton of new content to the game, including an entire map overhaul and a huge number of other QoL changes. But what got players the most excited was definitely the release of six new heroes: Rat King, Baba, Solomon, Nurse Harrow, Deadman Danny, and Violet.

Now, Deadlock doesn’t release the new heroes all at once. The devs hold an in-game vote and release the heroes one by one, depending on their number of votes. Rat King was the first hero to be released, Baba came second, and the third hero was Solomon, who is arguably the hardest hero to play in the game right now. In this guide we will talk about a few tips that should help players understand him better.

After spending hours on the official Deadlock Reddit and Steam forums, I was certain of one thing: players are having a tough time figuring out Solomon, especially new ones. Some people find the hero so complicated that they are just straight up removing him from the match queue. So, how do you play him? After sinking a decent amount of hours into understanding the hero, here are a few Solomon tips that Deadlock players can find helpful.

Solomon Is Neither a Carry Nor a Tank. He Is Hardcore Support

A mistake I see a lot of players make while playing Solomon is diving straight into fights, or trying to constantly 1v1 or 1v2 with him. You have to realize that apart from Rook Battery, Solomon doesn’t have any ability suitable for 1v1s. Sure, you can play around your Bishops and shield yourself with your Knight to delay the inevitable. But if you get caught by a gun-heavy hero like Haze or Wraith, you best believe you are not getting out of that fight.

Unless you are some movement god like Lomein or Eido, who can wall bounce out of any situation, do not try to take solo fights with Solomon.

Maintain Your Distance in Team Fights

We spoke about solo fights. What about team fights? Can we dive straight into team fights with Solomon? The answer is a big “No”. The ability kit of Solomon is similar to Paige’s. You will be most impactful by dealing damage with your abilities from a distance. So nestle yourself in a spot where you have a clear view of the fight, and do your thing with the abilities.

Your Bishop Squares Do More Damage Than You Think

Solomon’s Bishops are his main damage-dealing ability. With the right Spirit mods, you do a ton of damage to your opponents when you hit them with your Bishops. But you do a ton of damage with the Bishop Squares as well. Here are the damage stats from one of my recent Solomon games:

You can clearly see the insane damage numbers of the Squares in the screenshot above. 18.4k damage from a single ability (excluding the 7,429 damage from direct hits with the Bishops) is really impressive. If you are having a tough time hitting your opponents directly with your Bishops, just place the Bishops in their vicinity and watch the magic.

On top of that, if you have Spirit Burn and Mystic Reverb imbued on your Bishops, you can proc them just by using the Squares. The damage scales perfectly with Spirit items.

Do Not Forget to Recall Your Bishops and Queen After Fights

When I first started playing Solomon, you have no idea how many fights I lost because I used my Bishops or my Queen in one fight, only to realize that I forgot to recall them after it was over. Now I had no option but to wait for the cooldown, and there was no way to deploy them in the second fight.

You have to hardcode this in your brain. Otherwise, a Rift fight or Mid Boss fight will start right in front of you and you will be sitting ducks.

Solomon’s Weapon Damage Scales With Spirit

You might not know this, but Solomon’s bullet damage has a base Spirit scaling of 0.14. You can see it in this screenshot of his base weapon stats:

So even if you don’t buy a single yellow item and just invest in purple items, your bullet damage will still increase. That doesn’t mean you should skip yellow items entirely, though. Solomon’s weapon is very potent and can deal huge damage after the 4.8k investment spike.

Use Escape Items if You Have to

This is something I always recommend to new players: do not skip escape items. If you are constantly getting eliminated in fights, there is a high chance that you are not able to escape in time. In that case, escape items are your friends. Items like Warp Stone and Magic Carpet can be a game changer for Solomon.

Assassins and Carries in Deadlock like to dive on Support heroes a lot, because most Support heroes in the game have great crowd control abilities. The same is true for Solomon. Opponents know that Solomon can be very impactful in common teamfight situations like the Rifts and the Mid Boss. So if they see a Solomon roaming around in the wild, you can bet your souls that they are rushing him.

If you are playing Solomon and are not used to the movement tech of Deadlock (start with how stamina works), try to buy at least one escape item.

Save Your Ult Strictly for Team Fights

Solomon’s Ultimate is probably one of the best crowd control abilities in the game. Try to save it for team fights, because you can literally help your team win the game if you use your Ult correctly. I see so many people use their Ult just to escape or win a solo duel. If you are doing that, it is selfish.

If you are caught off guard while farming or doing common in-game activities, first use your Ability 1, 2, 3, or your escape items to get out of the situation. If you are unable to do so, let yourself get eliminated and try as much as you can to avoid using your Queen.

The one exception is when you are carrying a lot of unspent Souls. In that case you can use your Ult to protect them and avoid feeding.

Wrapping Up

Those were all the useful tips that I felt every Solomon player should know. For item picks, check the Solomon builds, and see the Solomon counters to learn which heroes give him the most trouble. I hope you have found the guide useful. I will be back next time when Yoshi releases another hard-to-play hero.