Slowing Bullets Is Getting Blamed For Turning Deadlock Gunfire Into Cheap Permanent Soft CC
A May 7 item feedback thread argues Slowing Bullets is basically old Infernus afterburn logic turned into a 1600-soul purchase: touch someone with one bullet often enough and they never really get to move normally.
A 1600 version of that, but for the best soft CC in the game.
A May 7, 2026 Deadlock forum thread took aim at Slowing Bullets, arguing that the item should either have a per-target cooldown or stop fully refreshing its duration on every bullet.
The poster’s comparison is pointed: old Infernus afterburn, but itemized. Their argument is that Slowing Bullets lets certain heroes maintain near-permanent dash slow and movement slow just by landing a bullet every few seconds. For a 1600-soul item, that feels less like a tactical purchase and more like turning basic gunfire into a low-effort leash.
This is a small thread, but the complaint is very Deadlock. The game already has roots, walls, knockups, slows, silences, pulls, stuns, and whatever terrible feeling happens when three of those arrive in the same two-second window. When players complain about “CC bloat,” they are usually not just talking about one ability. They are talking about the moment every escape route feels taxed before they even press a button.
Slowing Bullets fits that fear because it is universal. A hero ability being annoying can be filed under “that hero is annoying.” An item being annoying means the problem can show up on whoever can apply it cleanly. The forum post specifically calls out heroes that can tag targets instantly or reliably, arguing that they can make escape much harder without spending much effort.
That does not prove the item is broken. Item complaints often come from the exact match where someone got run down three times and needed a public venue for the emotional paperwork. But the suggested fix is at least coherent: a per-target cooldown, or partial duration refresh instead of full reset, would preserve the item’s identity while lowering the feeling of permanent uptime.
If this becomes a bigger thread, the real story will not be Slowing Bullets alone. It will be whether Deadlock players are starting to see the item shop as part of the same crowd-control problem they already blame on hero kits.