Lady Geist is a spirit burst duelist and split-pusher who pays for her power in her own health. She wins isolated 1v1s and side lanes with Essence Bomb spam plus Life Drain sustain, then flanks teamfights to delete a carry with a Malice-amped bomb — and flips any trade gone wrong by swapping health bars with Soul Exchange. She's a clear spirit hero (her pistol is a finisher, not a carry), medium complexity: poking is trivial, but managing self-damage and the short-range, instant Soul Exchange is the real skill ceiling. Pick her if you want a flat, safe ranked duelist who never depends on the team.
Early game
Lane by attrition. Spam Essence Bomb to clear the wave and poke at the same time — your big HP pool plus Healing Rite (or a regen item) pays back the self-damage, which is mitigable spirit, so you take less of it as you stack spirit resist. Take one early point in Life Drain for trades: its cooldown is long early (roughly once a wave), so trade hard when it's up and play passive when it's down. Secure last hits with the pistol and deny when it's safe. Respect Kelvin, Shiv and Infernus in lane — their own healing and burn out-sustain your trades — so poke from range instead of dueling them dry. First buys are Mystic Burst for the poke spike, Extra Spirit to scale the whole kit, and a sustain item so your own bombs never run you out of HP.
Mid game
This is your spike. With cooldown and spirit power online you're a premier split-pusher and 1v1 threat: push a side lane, force a duel, win it, then use Life Drain (plus Tankbuster) to solo-melt Walkers and objectives. Mystic Vulnerability stacks spirit vuln on top of Malice's amp, and Improved Spirit pushes bombs into one-shotting squishies. Always rotate with Soul Exchange up so you can flip a gank the instant you get jumped — dash-jump into the healthiest enemy and swap. Don't brawl in the open; come from an angle, drop the combo, and peel out with Enduring Speed beating any slow.
Late game
Late, you're a flanking nuke and a drain engine. Stay out of the main brawl — approach from a flank, land Malice into a Mystic-Vuln'd Essence Bomb on the enemy carry, and hold Soul Exchange as a reversal for when their team commits to you. Escalating Exposure turns Life Drain's rapid ticks into stacks of spirit vuln that ramp insanely fast, and Leech plus your lifesteal makes drain duels nearly unwinnable for the enemy. On the reworked king-of-the-hill Urn, your AoE bomb plus Life Drain is ideal for clearing and contesting the capture circle while staying topped off.
Combos & tricks
Core delete: stack Malice first (it amps the damage they take from you and slows them), then drop a Mystic-Vulnerability'd Essence Bomb on the slowed target — that's a kill on most squishies. With Echo Shard, imbue Essence Bomb and throw two back-to-back to erase a clustered wave, chunk a tower, or apply two Malice volleys for instant max stacks. Soul Exchange is your clutch swap: when you're about to die, dash-jump into the healthiest nearby enemy and trade health bars — you end full, they end near-dead. Note it now deals true damage (white numbers): it ignores spirit resist but does NOT proc Mystic Reverb or Spirit Burn (it does still proc Focus Lens). Last trick: because your self-damage is mitigable spirit, Spirit Resilience and Spellbreaker literally make your own bombs and Malice cost you less HP, so you spam more and survive more at the same time. Pair Life Drain with Escalating Exposure, Decay (kills their healing) and Tankbuster, and use a speed boost or Magic Carpet to cancel the drain's self-slow while you keep the tether.
Matchups
Strong into high-HP, immobile targets — Bebop, Paradox, Mina, Vyper — because Soul Exchange punishes big health bars and Life Drain out-sustains them. Struggles into Kelvin (her worst lane; his shields and heals counter the drain), Shiv (his lifesteal and bleed out-sustain the duel) and Infernus (afterburn plus lifesteal out-trades her in lane). Roughly even into Abrams. Best teammates are Victor and Graves, who set up the flanks she wants. Against spirit-heavy comps grab Spellbreaker, against sustain bruisers grab Decay, and against heavy CC take Debuff Reducer so you can actually reach Soul Exchange range.
Life Drain
Malice
Soul Exchange
