Sinclair builds

Core build

16 items · buy in this order as souls allow

1. High-Velocity Rounds
2. Opening Rounds
from High-Velocity Rounds
3. Extra Charge
4. Extra Spirit
5. Improved Spirit
from Extra Spirit
6. Rapid Recharge
from Extra Charge
7. Sprint Boots
8. Trophy Collector
from Sprint Boots
9. Enchanter's Emblem
10. Mystic Expansion
Imbue Vexing Bolt
11. Magic Carpet
continuation
12. Boundless Spirit
from Improved Spirit
13. Greater Expansion
from Mystic Expansion
14. Superior Duration
15. Superior Cooldown
16. Diviner's Kevlar
continuation

Numbers are the purchase order. Continuation steps are this group's most-bought late items, added so the build runs to the late game.

By stage

“Bought” is the share of this group that bought an item, not a win rate. Swaps are our advice from game text, not measured results.

Early

0–9 min

1
High-Velocity Rounds
66% bought
2
Opening Rounds
63% bought
3
Extra Charge
100% bought
4
Extra Spirit
93% bought
5
Improved Spirit
100% bought

Optional · not in the order

Monster Rounds
22% bought

Mid

9–20 min

6
Rapid Recharge
100% bought
7
Sprint Boots
58% bought
8
Trophy Collector
61% bought
9
Enchanter's Emblem
73% bought
10
Mystic Expansion
83% bought
Imbue Vexing Bolt

Optional · not in the order

Shadow Weave
25% bought
Dispel Magic
23% bought

Situational swaps · our advice

Trophy CollectorHealbane(Healbane replaces Trophy Collector)
Enemies heal a lot (lifesteal, healing items or healers)
Why, and what changes
Your spirit damage also cuts the target's incoming healing.
1,600 souls · game text: Spirit Power +7 Your spirit damage reduces the enemy's Incoming Healing. If an enemy hero dies under this effect, you receive a large heal. Incoming Healing -35…
Enchanter's EmblemDebuff Reducer(Debuff Reducer replaces Enchanter's Emblem)
Enemies have several stuns, silences or roots
Why, and what changes
Shortens every debuff on you, and later upgrades into Unstoppable.
1,600 souls · game text: Bonus Health +90 Reduces the duration of all negative effects applied to you. Debuff Resist +25%

Late

20–30 min

11
Magic Carpet
33% bought
12
Boundless Spirit
100% bought
13
Greater Expansion
100% bought
14
Superior Duration
83% bought
15
Superior Cooldown
73% bought

Optional · not in the order

Duration Extender
50% bought
Compress Cooldown
48% bought
Mystic Vulnerability
22% bought
Tankbuster
22% bought

Situational swaps · our advice

Spirit Resilience
before Superior Cooldown
Most of the enemy team's damage is spirit damage
Why, and what changes
Adds a large amount of spirit resist.
- Adds an item: 11 held at the end instead of 10.
3,200 souls · game text: Spirit Resist +30% Out of Combat Regen +3 When below 50% health, gain additional Spirit Resist. Health threshold 50 Spirit Resist +15%
Warp Stone
before Superior Duration
You need an escape or a gap-closer
Why, and what changes
Teleports you forward and briefly adds bullet resist.
- Adds an item: 11 held at the end instead of 10.
- Active item: 2 of 4 active slots at the end.
3,200 souls · active item · game text: Teleport straight ahead, gaining Bullet Resist. Teleport Range 11m Bullet Resist +30% Buff Duration 6s

30+

30+ min

16
Diviner's Kevlar
34% bought

Optional · not in the order

Transcendent Cooldown
44% bought
Spirit Burn
29% bought
Escalating Exposure
21% bought
Vortex Web
21% bought

Situational swaps · our advice

Metal Skin
before Diviner's Kevlar
Most of the enemy team's damage is bullets
Why, and what changes
Its active makes you immune to bullets for a few seconds.
- Adds an item: 11 held at the end instead of 10.
- Active item: 2 of 4 active slots at the end.
3,200 souls · active item · game text: Bullet Resist +12% Become immune to bullets. Active Movespeed Penalty -1.5m Dash Distance -20% Duration 5.0s

Oct 14, 2026 update · Oct 14, 2026–Oct 18, 2026 · updated Oct 18, 2026

Build details

Fixed snapshot: the filters on this site don't change it. Sample: Sinclair, normal mode, ranked matches with average rank Phantom or higher, Oct 14, 2026 to Oct 18, 2026 (never more than 14 days): 1,013 matches, 49.6% won. Unranked matches carry no badge, so a rank bracket means ranked matches only.
Playstyle group: the most common trio of 3,200+ soul items by 30:00 was Rapid Recharge, Greater Expansion, Boundless Spirit. 350 of 1,013 matches (35%) built all three; 60.0% of them were won. That describes these players, not this exact build.
Items: bought by at least 50% of the group; late items are counted among the 153 matches that reached 35:00. With fewer than 2 late items, the build continues with the group's most-bought late items (at least 30%). Order follows the median purchase order. Imbue targets are the most common choice (20+ records, 40%+ agreement).
Ranked Sinclair matches by rank: Emissary 525 · Seeker 701 · Phantom 611 · Oracle 551 · Sentinel 533 · Ascendant 241 · Acolyte 678 · Ritualist 530 · Mystic 570 · Initiate 306 · Eternus 161.
Source: Deadlock API public data lake (data as of Oct 18, 2026). Not claimed: that this is the best build or wins more than alternatives; no win rate is computed for the assembled build.

Report a build problem

Copy this report, add what's wrong, and send it to the site maintainer.

Build problem report
Hero: Sinclair (60)
Build source: generated, Phantom+ ranked sample
Build version: 2026-10-18T17:35:00.199Z
Page: 
What's wrong:

Skill order

Rows in ability-slot order

The most common choice at each point among these 350 players; 39 used this exact order.

Sinclair skill order: unlocks and upgrades in order, one row per ability in slot order
Vexing BoltImbued by Mystic ExpansionVexing Bolt, imbued by Mystic Expansion			Vexing Bolt: Ability unlocked, step 3			Vexing Bolt: 1 AP upgrade, step 6		Vexing Bolt: 2 AP upgrade, step 8	Vexing Bolt: 5 AP upgrade, step 9
Spectral AssistantSpectral Assistant	Spectral Assistant: Ability unlocked, step 1	Spectral Assistant: 1 AP upgrade, step 2			Spectral Assistant: 2 AP upgrade, step 5											Spectral Assistant: 5 AP upgrade, step 16
Rabbit HexRabbit Hex				Rabbit Hex: Ability unlocked, step 4								Rabbit Hex: 1 AP upgrade, step 12	Rabbit Hex: 2 AP upgrade, step 13		Rabbit Hex: 5 AP upgrade, step 15
Audience ParticipationAudience Participation							Audience Participation: Ability unlocked, step 7			Audience Participation: 1 AP upgrade, step 10	Audience Participation: 2 AP upgrade, step 11			Audience Participation: 5 AP upgrade, step 14

Unlock1 / 2 / 5 AP upgrade costOrder only; no timings

The last point (Spectral Assistant 5 AP) completes the order: many matches end before every point is spent, so it's placed where the 101 players who got that far usually took it.

Vexing BoltImbued by Mystic Expansion

Spectral Assistant

Rabbit Hex

Audience Participation

RAIGEKI THE ULTIMATE WIZARD - RANK 1 SINCLAIR

by disease strickenVersion 148Guide updated Oct 8, 2026Guide #280256

Matches started with it: 1,178
Won: 47.5%
Players: 853
In-game favourites: Not available (not match usage)

Items, as published

1Early game
Game stage · Don't throw your lane before you get to T2 assistant, once you get T2 assistant you can pressure hard and usually force their guardian.
1. 1
  High-Velocity Rounds
  Probably the best item in Deadlock
2. 2
  Opening Rounds
  Built from High-Velocity Rounds
  Good stats, makes our gun really strong lane poke, gun spikes later with weave
3. 3
  Extra Charge
  Try to save both bolt charges in lane for when assistant is up.
4. 4
  Improved Spirit
  Spirit good
5. 5
  Rapid Recharge
  Built from Extra Charge
  Spirit spike timed with 3ap on bolt, if lane is still going at this point you should be able to force guardian.
6. 6
  Trophy Collector
  With walker damage being gutted playing active early is the move again. I usually buy this here to time with when I hit T3 bolt but you want to make sure you have this for first rift fight.
7. 7
  Enchanter's Emblem
  Spirit good
8. 8
  Shadow Weave
  Veil walker is nerfed and new map has less veils so I think this item is better now. Hitting rabbits from invis is way easier and the ambush buff in tandem with rabbit amp lets you solo kill people.
2If dying too much consider one of these.optional
Author's category
1. 1
  Dispel Magic
  Most often defensive buy. Slowing hex is very popular right now and this with assistant up makes you almost immortal.
2. 2
  Warp Stone
  All around good survivability item and enables a lot of stolen ults. Usually buy vs pocket / dynamo
3. 3
  Metal Skin
  Best anti gun item in the game. Buy if you need it to channel seven / dynamo ult or if you're getting ran down by drifter / haze / silver
3Core Items
Author's category · Usually this order, don't fight with a giant bag hard saving for carpet like a noob. Trans cd should always be last.
1. 1
  Greater Expansion
  Makes everything easier to hit and makes almost every ult better. Now that we're permafighting we usually want this before carpet.
2. 2
  Magic Carpet
  Legit the do everything item, lets you be anywhere on the map, force lanes in without fear, and enable some ults better than any other item. Use shadow weave while channeling and be the invisible UAV.
3. 3
  Superior Duration
4AP order always starts 221114433, after this max ult or rabbit based on the lobby you're in. Assistant is always maxed last.
Author's category
No items listed.
5Lategame Utilityoptional
Author's category · Buy off vibes, if you don't know what to buy kevlar and DB are always good.
1. 1
  Vortex Web
  If you bought shex you can upgrade to this, really strong initiation item from invis.
2. 2
  Echo Shard
  Much worse with the recent nerf imo, still obviously strong against grounded teams but I don't really buy this very often.
3. 3
  Scourge
  Throw on largest monkey and farm damage, really strong with how much spirit power / duration / range we get
6Full Bolt Damageoptional
Author's category · If your team lacks damage you can start buying these instead of carpet / cdr / duration
1. 1
  Mystic Reverb
  Stand 4 meters behind assistant and both your bolts will hit at the same time making this do 2x dmg
2. 2
  Spirit Burn
  If they have tons of healing
3. 3
  Tankbuster
  Bad on this hero but enables reverb / spirit burn
7Situationalsoptional
Author's category
1. 1
  Extra Regen
  If needed for lane
2. 2
  Extra Health
  If you bought regen for lane you can scoop this at some point for green spike.
3. 3
  Healbane
  Not my job but sometimes antiheal is really important
4. 4
8Only here so quickbuy worksoptional
Author's category
1. 1
  Mystic Expansion
2. 2
  Compress Cooldown
3. 3
  Duration Extender

Skill order

Published by the guide's author (not measured from matches).

Skill order published in RAIGEKI THE ULTIMATE WIZARD - RANK 1 SINCLAIR, one row per ability in slot order
Vexing BoltVexing Bolt		Vexing Bolt: Ability unlocked, step 2					Vexing Bolt: 1 AP upgrade, step 7	Vexing Bolt: 2 AP upgrade, step 8	Vexing Bolt: 5 AP upgrade, step 9

Vexing BoltVexing Bolt		Vexing Bolt: Ability unlocked, step 2	Vexing Bolt: 1 AP upgrade, step 3		Vexing Bolt: 2 AP upgrade, step 5			Vexing Bolt: 5 AP upgrade, step 8
Spectral AssistantSpectral Assistant	Spectral Assistant: Ability unlocked, step 1						Spectral Assistant: 1 AP upgrade, step 7		Spectral Assistant: 2 AP upgrade, step 9							Spectral Assistant: 5 AP upgrade, step 16
Rabbit HexRabbit Hex				Rabbit Hex: Ability unlocked, step 4						Rabbit Hex: 1 AP upgrade, step 10	Rabbit Hex: 2 AP upgrade, step 11	Rabbit Hex: 5 AP upgrade, step 12
Audience ParticipationAudience Participation						Audience Participation: Ability unlocked, step 6							Audience Participation: 1 AP upgrade, step 13	Audience Participation: 2 AP upgrade, step 14	Audience Participation: 5 AP upgrade, step 15

Vexing BoltVexing Bolt		Vexing Bolt: Ability unlocked, step 2												Vexing Bolt: 1 AP upgrade, step 14	Vexing Bolt: 2 AP upgrade, step 15	Vexing Bolt: 5 AP upgrade, step 16
Spectral AssistantSpectral Assistant	Spectral Assistant: Ability unlocked, step 1				Spectral Assistant: 1 AP upgrade, step 5	Spectral Assistant: 2 AP upgrade, step 6							Spectral Assistant: 5 AP upgrade, step 13
Rabbit HexRabbit Hex			Rabbit Hex: Ability unlocked, step 3							Rabbit Hex: 1 AP upgrade, step 10	Rabbit Hex: 2 AP upgrade, step 11	Rabbit Hex: 5 AP upgrade, step 12
Audience ParticipationAudience Participation				Audience Participation: Ability unlocked, step 4			Audience Participation: 1 AP upgrade, step 7	Audience Participation: 2 AP upgrade, step 8	Audience Participation: 5 AP upgrade, step 9