Haze is Deadlock's premier hyper-carry: a stealthy SMG assassin who farms safely, ramps Fixation on a target, and then erases clustered enemies with Bullet Dance. She's heavily weapon-scaling — her gun is the win condition, with spirit only sprinkled in for Smoke lifesteal and Sleep duration. The kit is simple enough that she's flagged new-player friendly, but carrying with her is all judgment: survive a rough lane, position before the ult, and never Dance into CC.
Early game
Laning is Haze's weakest phase, so farm — don't brawl. Last-hit and deny soul orbs, weave a jungle camp between waves, and farm under your Guardian against lane bullies. Sleep Dagger does NOT break your invisibility and no longer drops your zoom, so use it to body-block a deny, zone a chaser, or set up a poke rather than as a combat opener. Your goal is simply to reach mid game even or ahead in souls — don't contest fights you don't have to. First buys lean weapon: Monster Rounds for last-hit damage and camp sustain, High-Velocity Rounds so your SMG lands clean at lane range, and Restorative Shot (buffed this patch) to survive poke. Headshot Booster is great because every headshot feeds two Fixation stacks.
Mid game
Once core items land, Haze spikes hard. Hunt isolated, low-HP targets: Smoke Bomb in (items are usable while invisible, so you can pre-buff), reposition behind them, Sleep Dagger, then open up with Fixation ramping per bullet. Swift Striker is the bread-and-butter pickup, with Bullet Lifesteal and Active Reload keeping you topped through long sprays. Run the Urn — you can carry it while smoked. Only commit to teamfights with stacks pre-built, allies nearby, or a clean exit lined up; you create one-sided fights, you don't trade in the frontline.
Late game
This is the hardest carry in the game. Pre-stack Fixation on a target, get your positioning, then Smoke behind a clustered enemy team and Bullet Dance the cone — ideally after sleeping their biggest threat. With Ricochet plus Glass Cannon a full-duration Dance can wipe a whole stack, the bounces re-applying your bullet procs across the group. Positioning BEFORE the ult is everything: respect heavy CC, pop Unstoppable first if they have lockdown, and never Dance into Paradox's Time Wall — it now stops your bullets cold.
Combos & tricks
Core pick: Smoke Bomb, reposition behind the target, Sleep Dagger, then Bullet Dance (or just gun) at point-blank as Fixation ramps. Pre-buff inside the Smoke — using items doesn't reveal you, so pop Unstoppable, Ethereal Shift, or Fury Trance while invisible and emerge with the buff already live. Front-load the ult by tagging a target for a few shots first: headshots give two Fixation stacks each, so a couple of headshots massively boost the channel. Sleeping targets wake the instant they're damaged, so sleep the SECOND threat to remove them while you focus-fire the first. And Ricochet + Bullet Dance through the most clustered heroes is a team wipe.
Matchups
Haze feasts on big, immobile, clumped bodies that can't spread out of the cone or escape Fixation — Abrams, Bebop, turret-bound McGinnis, and channeling Seven all melt, as do squishies she can Smoke onto and delete. She struggles against burst that one-shots her 730 HP before she ramps (early Vindicta and Grey Talon poke, burst mages), against CC that interrupts the channel (Bebop hook, Dynamo black hole, Kelvin dome, anyone buying Knockdown or Cursed Relic), and specifically against Paradox, whose Time Wall eats Bullet Dance. Mobile heroes who break line of sight — Lash, Mo & Krill, Wraith — also reset your Fixation by leaving your sights.
Smoke Bomb
Fixation
Bullet Dance
