Holliday is Deadlock's explosive pistol playmaker — a hybrid carry who fights by knocking enemies into the air and shooting them out of it. Her game is to catch one priority target out of position, lasso or launch them away from their team, and delete them inside her combo window before peel arrives, then snowball off the pick. She's a genuine spirit/weapon hybrid: Powder Keg and Spirit Lasso scale with Spirit while her gun and the Crackshot finisher are Weapon. High aim demand and tight combo timing make her a skill-reward pick, not a safe carry — the client flags her as not for new players.
Early game
Holliday laning is genuinely strong. Lob Powder Keg onto the wave or a creep camp and shoot it to detonate — that's safe last-hits, denies, and harass in one button. Take an early point in Crackshot for the headshot bonus: it ignores damage falloff and tacks on a fading slow, so you out-trade most lane bullies at range. Keep Bounce Pad as your panic button, not an opener — it's the thing that saves you when a gank catches you grounded. Your real spike is the second Powder Keg charge from Extra Charge, so you can double-barrel a lane partner or chunk a tower-diver out of nowhere. First buys feed the barrel burst and the headshot finisher, with a little sustain to keep trading.
Mid game
This is her peak. Roam with Bounce Pad — it's mobility plus landing damage, so a pad onto a target is itself an opener. Hunt isolated backliners, and just as happily clumps, because barrels punish anyone who groups. The core loop: pre-place a Powder Keg, engage, fling the target airborne, and headshot or Crackshot them out of the air for the heavy bonus. Stack cooldown so a barrel is always up. Spirit Lasso comes online here as your pick button — drag an enemy backliner into your team, or yank a fleeing target back into kill range. Prioritize Superior Cooldown and a Surge of Power on Bounce Pad so the engage is fast and barrels never sit idle.
Late game
Late, you're a flank assassin and fight-opener, not a brawler — 780 HP melts if you stand in the front line. Set up on the side, open the fight by lassoing the enemy carry or support out of position, then dump barrels and airborne shots. Spirit scaling from Boundless Spirit, Escalating Exposure and Mystic Reverb turns barrels and lasso into real chunks, but you still need the gun to close — Mercurial Magnum bridges the two by charging your shots with spirit. The win condition never changes: get a pick before the fight is even joined and play five-on-four off the back of it.
Combos & tricks
Launch-and-shoot is the whole hero: Powder Keg under an enemy, detonate to fling them airborne, then headshot or Crackshot them mid-air for the bonus. Lasso, reposition, delete — yank a target out of their team (or a runner back into range), then barrel and airborne-shot them down, and pop Bounce Pad right after the lasso to extend its hold. Barrels chain: one Powder Keg detonates another, so space or stack two for a bigger AoE on a clump or objective. The clean kill sequence is Slowing Bullets to pin, Powder Keg burst, a Crackshot headshot (its own slow, no falloff), then finish with the gun — and Lasso them back if they bolt. Don't forget Bounce Pad deals landing damage: pad onto a target as an aggressive opener, or pad out to kite and grab high ground.
Matchups
She feasts on low-mobility squishy backliners she can lasso and launch — Grey Talon, Vindicta, Seven, a planted McGinnis — and on comps that clump into her barrel AoE. Respect dispel and debuff-removal: anyone who can shrug off the lasso or slow hard-counters her combo, so bait it first or itemize around it. Durable dive-tanks that survive the burst and collapse on her like Abrams, out-range and out-mobility threats like Bebop and Lash, and sustained DPS that wins a straight brawl like Haze and Wraith all punish a missed engage. Pick your moment, never force the lasso, and keep Ethereal Shift up to bail a whiff.
Ability Bounce Pad
Ability Crackshot
Spirit Lasso
