DenyPick
Patch 09-16-2026 Data researched 2026-09-21 What changed
PO Pocket — assassin frame

Pocket

AssassinSkirmisherMage close range spirit damage mid-game Medium difficulty

Measured 46.3% win rate, 2.1% pick rate on patch 09-16-2026 across 48,264 matches.

Strengths

  • Two independent escapes (Flying Cloak teleport and an untargetable satchel) make him extremely hard to actually kill.
  • Teleports ignore geometry-based zoning entirely, so walls and terrain control do not contain him.
  • Barrage's airborne float lets him deal damage from a position most heroes cannot reach or answer.
  • Affliction T3's total heal prevention is one of the strongest anti-sustain effects available.
  • Excellent backline infiltration — deadlocklabs.gg describes his role as disrupting the backline specifically.

Weaknesses

  • Currently the weakest of this group by measured results alongside Mina: deadlocklabs.gg records 45.7% win rate at 2.3% pick, C tier across 377,553 matches. Note deadlock.io reports a much higher figure (~52.3%), which does not match the two larger-sample sources and should be treated as unreliable.
  • -15% spirit resist on a 780 HP frame makes him exceptionally fragile to spirit burst.
  • No self-healing at all; he wins by not being hit rather than by recovering.
  • Affliction is non-lethal and procs nothing, so his ultimate cannot close out a kill on its own.
  • His damage requires him to be at spreadshot range with an 11-round clip, so a single caught reload is usually fatal.
  • Hard-countered by lockdown: Mo & Krill's Combo and Sand Blast bypass both of his escapes, which is why they are his worst matchup.

Weapon

spreadshot (The Black Sheep). A short-range spread weapon, roughly 4.3 damage per pellet for about 57 DPS from a tiny 11-round clip. The small magazine and the spread mean he has to be point-blank and has to commit to a reload cycle, which is why his kit is built entirely around getting in and back out.

Abilities

Barrage

Ability 1 · channelled stream of area projectiles

Pocket channels, launching a stream of projectiles that deal spirit damage and apply a slow around wherever they land. Projectiles that connect with heroes build stacking damage increases. He can cast it while airborne, which makes him float.

What it is for: His main damage and his zone denial. The airborne float is the important interaction — he can barrage from above a fight where nothing can reach him, and the stacking amp means a sustained channel on a hero escalates fast.

Damage
32 damage per projectile (deadlock.one). T3 adds +4% amplification per stack and +3m radius.
Crowd control
A slow around each impact point, which compounds in a small area.
Mobility
Casting while airborne makes him float, extending his air time; the channel is not cancelled by an air dash or by Flying Cloak (metabot.gg).
Defensive
The float keeps him out of melee and ground-level reach while he deals damage.

How to play against it

  • It is a channel with a visible origin. Look up — if he is floating and barraging, he is committed to that position and is a free target for any hitscan hero.
  • Break out of the impact area rather than trading through it; the stacking amp punishes standing still more than anything else in his kit.
  • Hard CC on him while he channels ends both the damage and his float, dropping him into the fight.

Interactions

  • It is not interrupted by AirDash or Flying Cloak, so he can channel it while repositioning — this is the core of high-level Pocket play per deadlock.io.
  • The slow sets up his shotgun follow-up by keeping the target in spread range.
  • T3's +3m radius makes it much harder to simply walk out of.
Upgrade tiers
  • T3: +4% amplification per stack, +3m radius.

Flying Cloak

Ability 2 · travelling projectile with a teleport recast

Pocket sends a living cloak flying forward, damaging enemies it passes. Pressing the ability again teleports him to wherever the cloak currently is.

What it is for: His gap-closer and his repositioning tool, and crucially it is a deferred choice — he can throw the cloak, see how the fight develops, and then decide whether to follow it in.

Damage
60 damage (deadlock.one). T2 grants +5 weapon damage for 6s.
Mobility
Teleport to the cloak's live position, so the distance is chosen after the cast rather than before.
Defensive
Can be thrown backward as an escape route rather than forward as an engage.

How to play against it

  • Kill the tempo by tracking the cloak, not Pocket. The cloak's position is where he will be; pre-aim there rather than at his current body.
  • The teleport has to happen within the cloak's lifetime — deny the angle for those seconds and he either commits badly or loses the option.
  • With Flying Cloak on cooldown he is a 780 HP shotgun hero with one escape left; that is the window to commit.

Interactions

  • Barrage is not cancelled by Flying Cloak, so he can channel damage and teleport in the same window.
  • The 'suitcase-cancel teleport' combo with Enchanter's Satchel is the standard safe backline entry (deadlock.io).
  • Teleports ignore geometry-based zoning entirely — McGinnis' Spectral Wall and Paradox's Time Wall do not stop him.
Upgrade tiers
  • T2: +5 weapon damage for 6s.
  • T3: +1.6s cloak lifetime, -10s cooldown.

Enchanter's Satchel

Ability 3 · self-untargetable stasis with an exit explosion

Pocket vanishes into his suitcase, becoming unreachable for a duration. When it ends, he bursts out damaging nearby enemies. He can end it early by taking any action.

What it is for: His panic button and his reposition-in-place. It eats burst damage and ultimates aimed at him, and because he can cancel it at will, it is also a feint that baits out enemy cooldowns.

Damage
65 damage on exit (deadlock.one). T3 adds +1.5s duration, +4m radius and a -40% movement speed and fire rate debuff for 4s.
Crowd control
None at base. T3's exit applies a -40% movement speed and fire rate slow for 4s.
Mobility
None directly, but it buys time for other cooldowns to come back.
Defensive
His best defensive tool — a full untargetable window on demand that he controls the length of.

How to play against it

  • He does not move. Drop a persistent zone on the suitcase — McGinnis' Heavy Barrage, Paradox's Pulse Grenade, Paige's Captivating Read — and he emerges into it.
  • Do not waste your burst while he is in it; hold your combo for the exit, which is at a known point and a known moment.
  • Reposition your team away from the satchel while he waits; the exit explosion needs bodies nearby to matter.

Interactions

  • Cancelling it early is the point — the satchel-cancel into Flying Cloak teleport is his standard safe-entry pattern (deadlock.io).
  • It does not move him, so persistent ground zones placed on the satchel still catch him on exit.
  • It is why deadlocklabs.gg lists him as an escape-dependent hero who survives aggressive positioning.
Upgrade tiers
  • T3: +1.5s duration, +4m radius, and -40% movement speed and fire rate for 4s on exit.

Affliction

Ultimate · persistent aura damage-over-time

An aura around Pocket that continuously damages nearby enemies. The damage is explicitly non-lethal and does not trigger item procs.

What it is for: Teamfight pressure rather than a kill button. Because it cannot kill on its own it is about softening an entire group so his shotgun and Barrage finish them, and at T3 it becomes a full healing shutdown.

Damage
32 damage per second (deadlock.one). T3 adds +13 DPS with spirit scaling.
Crowd control
None at base.
Defensive
None directly, though the T3 heal prevention is effectively defensive against sustain compositions.

How to play against it

  • Simply leave the aura. It is centred on a 780 HP hero with -15% spirit resist — walking out is usually safer than trying to out-trade inside it.
  • The damage cannot kill you on its own, so do not panic-retreat from a winning fight because of the ticking bar; check whether anything else is actually hitting you.
  • At T3 it stops your healing, so pre-heal and pre-shield before the fight rather than relying on in-combat sustain.

Interactions

  • Non-lethal and no item procs, so it deliberately cannot secure kills by itself — it must be paired with his gun or Barrage.
  • Because it is an aura on him, he has to stay in the fight to apply it, which conflicts with his squishiness.
  • T3's total heal prevention is a direct answer to Lash's Flog, Mirage's Fire Scarabs and Mo & Krill's Scorn.
Upgrade tiers
  • T2: +3s duration, +4m radius.
  • T3: prevents all healing on affected enemies, +13 DPS with spirit scaling.

Laning strengths

  • Barrage clears troopers quickly and can be channelled from above the lane where a ground-level laner cannot answer it.
  • Two escapes means he can contest orbs and take aggressive last hits that other close-range laners cannot.
  • The satchel lets him absorb a committed dive and come out on the other side with the enemy's cooldowns spent.

Laning weaknesses

  • -15% spirit resist is a real, unusual vulnerability — spirit-damage laners hurt him significantly more than the 780 HP number suggests.
  • An 11-round spreadshot clip means his gun contributes almost nothing at lane distance.
  • No sustain whatsoever; every point of health he loses has to be recovered by leaving.
  • deadlocklabs.gg lists Mo & Krill (-1.9%), Vindicta (-1.6%) and McGinnis (-1.4%) as his worst matchups — a lockdown bruiser, a long-range sniper and a zone controller.

Power spikes

  • Flying Cloak + Enchanter's Satchel online (laning 0-10min): Two escapes make him nearly impossible to punish for aggressive positioning, which is how he farms and roams safely.
  • Superior Cooldown (mid game): deadlocklabs.gg lists cooldown reduction as core; it converts his escapes from once-per-fight into always-available, which is his entire risk model.
  • Flying Cloak T3: -10s cooldown and +1.6s cloak lifetime make the teleport available for both an entry and an exit in the same fight.
  • Affliction T3 (late): Total heal prevention turns his ultimate from soft pressure into a hard counter against every sustain-based composition.

Playing against Pocket

  • Stack spirit damage. His -15% spirit resist on 780 HP means spirit burst kills him faster than the health bar suggests, and it is the cleanest structural answer to him.
  • Drop persistent ground zones on the satchel. He does not move inside it, so Heavy Barrage, Pulse Grenade or Captivating Read placed on the suitcase catch him on exit.
  • Do not fire your combo while he is untargetable. Hold it for the satchel exit, which happens at a known place and a predictable moment.
  • Bring lockdown over burst. Mo & Krill's Sand Blast disarm into Combo beats both of his escapes, which is why deadlocklabs.gg records that as his worst matchup at -1.9%.
  • Track the cloak's position, not Pocket's, and pre-aim where it is — that is where he will appear.
  • Do not retreat from a winning fight just because Affliction is ticking; the damage is non-lethal and procs nothing, so the bar dropping is not the same as dying.

Bait these first

  • Enchanter's Satchel first. It is the escape he uses reactively — threaten him with a cheap ability to force it, then drop a persistent zone on the suitcase and commit on the exit.
  • Flying Cloak second. Once both escapes are down he is a 780 HP, -15% spirit resist hero with an 11-round shotgun and no sustain.
  • Barrage third: force him to channel it on a wave or a tank rather than holding it for the fight, since the stacking amp only pays out on sustained hero contact.
  • Do not bait Affliction — it is an aura he turns on in a fight rather than a cooldown you can waste. Instead deny it by making him fight at range where the aura does not reach.

What Pocket does to you

  • Flying Cloak lets him teleport straight past your frontline, your Spectral Wall or your Time Wall into your backline, with the decision to commit made after the cloak is already in flight.
  • Barrage channelled from the air puts stacking-amp spirit damage and a slow on your position from a spot most of your team cannot shoot back at.
  • Enchanter's Satchel makes him untargetable on demand, so the burst combo you fired to kill him is spent on nothing and he cancels out the instant it is safe.
  • At Affliction T3 all of your healing stops — Flog, Fire Scarabs, Scorn, Medicinal Specter and every lifesteal item go offline while you are in his aura.
  • Enchanter's Satchel at T3 exits with a -40% movement speed and fire rate debuff for 4s, so escaping him after he re-emerges is much harder than it looks.

Punish windows

  • The Enchanter's Satchel exit — a known position, a known moment, and he emerges with no untargetability left.
  • Mid-Barrage while he is floating: he is channel-committed at a fixed point in the air and any hard CC drops him.
  • With Flying Cloak on cooldown before T3's -10s: he has no gap-close and no fast reposition, only the satchel.
  • His 11-round spreadshot reload at point-blank range — with no sustain, a caught reload against a bruiser is usually a kill.
  • Any moment he is held by hard CC. Both of his escapes are actions he must take, so a disarm-plus-stun chain (Mo & Krill) or a root bypasses both.

Hardest matchups for Pocket

Ranked by how far below Pocket's own baseline each pairing measures — not by raw win rate.

Victor 38.2% -8.1 pts
Graves 39.3% -7.0 pts
Seven 40.3% -6.0 pts
Mo & Krill 41.5% -4.8 pts
Paige 42.3% -4.0 pts
Warden 42.6% -3.7 pts
Dynamo 42.8% -3.5 pts
Vindicta 42.9% -3.4 pts

Best matchups for Pocket

Same measure, other direction.

Silver 52.2% +5.9 pts
The Doorman 50.3% +4.0 pts
Mina 49.6% +3.3 pts
Bebop 49.5% +3.2 pts
Yamato 47.8% +1.5 pts
Grey Talon 47.3% +1.0 pts
Apollo 46.4% +0.1 pts
Vyper 45.7% -0.6 pts

Every Pocket matchup

Analyse a full enemy team

Matchup pages cover one enemy. The tool reads all six together.

Open the tool as Pocket
Sources and confidence for this record

Record confidence: Strong evidence. Compiled for patch 09-16-2026, researched 2026-09-21.

Difficulty rating: deadlock.io describes Pocket's complexity as 'Moderate', beginner-friendly for survival because of two escape abilities but with a notably high ceiling for converting that survivability into damage.