Valve's new Deadlock update makes solo laning more viable, but you'll have to consider your push timings carefully

A new Deadlock update from Valve buffs healing from the trooper medic packs, rebalances Walker health scaling, and nerfs Focus Lens.

Valve has pushed out yet another new Deadlock update in the wake of its balance changes. The combination of hero shooter and MOBA might still technically be in an invite-only playtest, but getting access is more of a formality than a challenge, and its development team has been rolling out major patches in leaps and bounds. This latest overhaul isn't quite as big as last weekend's offering (thank goodness, as we're all still figuring out every last piece of that puzzle), but it does make some adjustments that could really benefit solo lane play.

The previous update totally overhauled how troopers, the grunt-force minions of your Deadlock squad, drop their souls and healing orbs upon death. Today's focus is specifically on that latter part, and the medic packs that are dropped by the candle-carrying creeps. Their heal amount has been doubled, and it'll now be split evenly across any nearby heroes. The regen takes two seconds rather than one, so it won't be a ridiculous burst, but it'll still offer much more substantial sustain. The radius it checks for allies has also been slightly increased, and the pickup range will grow over time as the match progresses.

Combined with some soul-split adjustments that rolled out earlier in the week, it feels increasingly like Valve is pushing towards more laning flexibility. Get someone with enough ability to sustain against the odds such as McGinnis, Mo and Krill, or Lady Geist, and you'll likely be able to hold the fort by yourself. That frees up your potential partner to roam on a high-mobility hero, or alternatively slot into a tri-lane elsewhere on the map.

The other big change in today's Deadlock patch notes is to Walker health. This was buffed up dramatically in the big update, with side-lane defenders raised to the same tankiness as their midlane counterpart. However, they've now been rescaled; rather than a consistent 12,880 health across the board, they'll now begin at 8,000 and escalate to 11,000 and finally 14,000 as each one falls.

The new starting value is equivalent to where the old mid-Walker was at, so you can anticipate that it'll be about that level of difficulty to bring your first one down. While that makes any early losing lanes much easier to snowball, it should also make it slightly more feasible for a team that's behind to snag a takedown of their own to start unlocking flex item slots.

Last on the list for today is a small nerf for Focus Lens. The tier-four Spirit item's active ability, which silences opponents and then deals a burst of damage at its conclusion based on how hurt they were while it was active, now lasts for just four seconds, a slight decrease in duration. Its cooldown has also been raised from 32 to 38 seconds; not a major blow, but one that should keep it more in line with the rest of the playing field.

This Deadlock update is live now. You can check the patch notes courtesy of Valve developer 'Yoshi' via the Deadlock forums. As someone who always relished the challenge of going solo top against a duo in Dota 2, as well as playing a more pure roaming role, I'm certainly interested to watch how these adjustments play out.