Deadlock Venator Abilities Explained

Venator is the latest playable hero among the six heroes that were introduced in Deadlock's Old Gods, New Blood update. He's a priest who was sent to New York by the church to participate in the ritual and combat evil. To complete his mission, he uses a variety of weapons and blessed armaments to combat the supernatural foes he's facing.

1 - Consecrating Grenade

Venator's first ability is Consecrating Grenade. He shoots a grenade that will bounce before exploding to deal weapon damage and set enemies on fire. Targets that are burning will deal pure damage to enemies in an area around them. Additionally, they'll also suffer from reduced healing.

When an enemy is hit by the grenade's explosion, they'll have a burning aura surrounding them. Afterwards, all enemies in the aura will take pure damage per second and receive reduced healing. If an enemy gets hit by the grenade directly, the grenade can explode without bouncing.

When upgraded, this ability has faster cooldowns, a larger radius, a stronger healing debuff, and can have charges. This can be particularly devastating at higher levels and when Venator has a good amount of weapon damage. You can chuck multiple grenades in a short period of time to debilitate and devastate the enemy team.

2 - Gutshot

Next, Venator's second ability makes him fire a shotgun blast that damage and knocks back enemies hit. If they hit a wall, they'll get stunned and will take additional damage. This ability is Venator's primary way of peeling for himself in fights. The knockback is fairly significant despite its short range. Additionally, if Venator players knock enemies into walls, the stun can help set up a kill if the stunned target is focused on.

3 - Hex-Lined Snap Trap

Hex-Lined Snap Trap is Venator's third ability. This makes him kick a trap that will arm after a short delay. If an enemy steps on the trap, they'll take damage, get immobilized, and be revealed.

This ability's delay before arming makes it bad at instantaneous peeling. Additionally, it can take some time to get used to kicking the trap to places you want it to be. Ideally, you'll want to use this ability to cover your flank angles to protect you from getting ambushed. However, if you have an ally with crowd control, this ability can be a good follow up after you get used to placing the traps.

4 - Ira Domini

Finally, Venator's ultimate ability is Ira Domini. He'll use his crossbow and load it with three stakes that can deal massive damage against foes. Additionally, the final shot of this ability is "blessed", dealing additional pure damage and executing enemies that are low on health.

This ability's upgrades grant Venator bonus move speed, lower this ability's cooldown, and increases the bonus damage it deals. At max level, all three shots become blessed which massively increases the damage output of this ability.

Venator's ultimate is his powerful and most devastating ability, especially when fully upgraded. This ultimate ability deals massive burst damage. Additionally, the true damage and execute make this great at one-shotting softer targets or quickly burning through a tank's health. However, this ability requires players to have great aim so you can hit moving targets with it. If you have an ally who can disable your enemies or if an enemy steps into Venator's traps, this is almost a guaranteed kill on lower health enemies.

This story was originally published by GameDaily on Feb 7, 2026, where it first appeared in the Games section. Add GameDaily as a Preferred Source by clicking here.