Deadlock's Rat King is Valve's monstrous answer to over a year of community jokes

"Out of the sewers and into the streets, the rightful King of the Rats is here at last." It seemed almost an inevitability that the first new Deadlock hero to win the ongoing public vote to join Valve's in-development MOBA would be the Rat King. His arrival marks the culmination of over a year of fan desire, sparked by a community artist who suggested that the mythology of a giant, ruling rodent would be a great fit for Deadlock's Cursed Apple. It stuck in players' heads, and now it's finally real, courtesy of the team at Valve. 

The Rat King that joins Deadlock today is a relatively far cry from the original concept that was submitted to Reddit by a user called 'CycloneScones.' The artist, who also goes by 'Liornogard' or 'Dragonroilz,' submitted an idea for a Rat King that had taken up a "9-5 corporate job on Wall Street" to pay the bills, and was wearing a traditional suit and tie. Valve's take on the sewer overlord is much chunkier and more of a classic mob boss figure, wearing a crown of scrap, a bandolier, a cape, and trinkets hung around his neck.

Rat King in-game is a menacing frontline tank who should be very easy for even new players to pick up and learn. To start with, his weapon is Sovereign's Decree, a rapid-fire rifle with 24 in the magazine. It fires two shots at a time, with one landing perfectly where you're aiming and the other somewhere nearby. Its falloff range starts at 20 meters, and caps at 50. Notably, he's actually able to squeeze into tunnels despite his size by crouching, and several of these around the map have been adjusted to accommodate.

Rat King's lifesteal effectiveness is a little lower than the standard, at 75%, but this is probably compensation for just how beefy he can become thanks to Royal Pestments. This ability straps scrappy armor on, giving him a six-second barrier totaling 15% of his maximum health. While it's active, 15% of incoming bullet damage will be deflected back at his attacker. Max this out, and it becomes ten seconds, grows to 25% of his health with a 30% return chance, and will cap any single instance of incoming damage to a max of 250.

The other Rat King abilities are all more offensive options. Scrap Grenade is a throwable explosive with a large eight-meter radius, bouncing between each of its three detonations that both damage and slow victims by 20%. At max, it hits harder, gets a shorter cooldown, and adds one final, bigger boom at the end. The direction it bounces in as blasts go off seems relatively random, but players can melee the device to send it flying in a particular direction, whether to protect themselves or inflict more hurt.

Rat Swarm sends a flurry of rodents running ahead of the King. They travel 50 meters in a relatively straight line, but will latch onto enemies they pass. Up to five rats can attach to a character at a time, and each bites its victim once per second, dealing damage and applying a stacking 1% bullet resist debuff. Level this skill up and you'll get a second charge, a bigger swarm, a doubled debuff duration from four to eight seconds, and twice the effectiveness of every nibble.

Last on the list is Rule, Rattania! This is the ultimate teamfight initiation skill, and comes in two parts. First, Rat King summons his banner, and then charges forth at constant pace with a limited turn speed, buffing allies up to 24 meters around him with faster move speed, immunity to slows, and a 20% reduction to incoming damage. Activate it a second time and you'll slam your flag into the ground, dealing 200 damage and applying knockup and a 40% move speed slow to all enemies.

That's just the start, as the impact causes a sewer pipe to burst forth, with rats flooding out over the next 12 seconds to apply the Rat Swarm debuff on anyone nearby. Rank Rat King's ult up and it gains faster move speed, eight more seconds on both the charge and the planted banner, a radius increase to 32 meters, 15% more damage reduction (for a total of 35%), and an extra 150 damage on the slam (making 350). When you see this coming, your best bet is probably to simply get clear as fast as you can.

Rat King is of course just the first in Valve's six-hero rollout for the Deadlock 'City Never Sleeps' update that launched this week, with the next due on Tuesday October 6. Get in game and start playing if you want to vote; now that the people's champion is here, it feels as though anyone could be next. Personally I'm sticking to my original pick of strict, old-timey healer Nurse Harrow, although I have a sneaking suspicion that chess wizard Solomon might be the strongest candidate.