The Graves Backlash Turned Into A Hero Shooter vs MOBA Reality Check

On January 30, 2026, a Reddit thread about Graves turned into a larger Deadlock identity argument: what happens when hero-shooter players meet a character that feels aggressively MOBA?

The post argued that Graves backlash was one of the first times some Deadlock players were really confronting the fact that the game is not just a shooter with cooldowns. It compared the reaction to Dota-style summon and macro characters: designs that can look oppressive, weird, or “bad for the game” if your reference point is mostly direct aim duels.

The poster was not saying balance is irrelevant. They explicitly left room for adjustments. The more interesting claim was cultural: players were judging a fresh hero before the counterplay had time to spread, and some of that panic came from not being used to MOBA archetypes.

That is a recurring Deadlock problem. The game has shooter immediacy, so every unfair-feeling death arrives with first-person certainty. You saw the thing. You got deleted by the thing. Therefore the thing is illegal. But the MOBA half of Deadlock often hides the answer somewhere less emotionally satisfying: wave state, positioning, item timing, map control, scaling windows, or simply “you fought the character in the one situation where she is supposed to be disgusting.”

The replies showed the split. Some players argued Graves was weak in direct micro but strong in macro and positioning. Others said parts of the kit still felt miserable, especially in smaller or more constrained fight formats. That is the actual balance conversation hiding under the yelling: a hero can be strategically interesting and still feel awful in the wrong mode or lane state.

The thread is useful because it names the fracture line. Deadlock keeps attracting people who want a hero shooter and people who want a MOBA. Valve is building both at once. Every new hero that leans harder into one side is going to make the other side act like the building is on fire.

Graves was not just a balance argument. Graves was the game asking its audience, again, whether they understand what they signed up for.