Welcome to our Valorant agent tier list for climbing ranked! We created this list with the help of our high ELO experts (Immortal 3+) who play in NA, EU, and OCE.

This is a general list that is meant to be helpful whether you’re playing solo or with a squad, but it does lean more towards coordinated teamplay rather than trying to carry lone-wolf style.

Valorant Agent Tier List (Patch 5.07)

Click the icons for champion builds, counters, and more!

S-tier Agents

Chamber

Fade

Kay/O

Raze

A-tier Agents

Breach

Jett

Neon

Omen

Phoenix

Skye

Sova

Viper

B-tier Agents

Astra

Brimstone

Cypher

Killjoy

Reyna

Sage

Yoru

To learn more about our methodology and other explanations (like agent difficulties), click here.

Note that at the beginning of the patch, we will give predictive placings based on the buffs/nerfs. Check back midway through the patch for an update (if it’s still the same, it means we predicted correctly!).

Valorant Predictive Tier List for Climbing Ranked

Patch 5.07 Valorant Agent Tier List

Agent Explanations

Here are the explanations why we’ve placed each agent in their tiers. If you have any questions please ask in the comments below and our experts will reply as soon as they can.

If you have trouble facing a particular agent, check out our article on How to Play Against Every Valorant agent.

S-tier Agents

Chamber

[Learn more about Chamber]

Chamber is the strongest agent in the game and in solo queue there is far more dry peeking, and less clearing out angles with utility. This makes Chamber even stronger as he gets so many free kills, and can teleport away to prevent a trade or even continue holding an angle because trades are slow.

Raze

[Learn more about Raze]

Raze is the only duelist who can get some information on her own, make space, and is the strongest defensively. She is an all around agent who can make many solo plays with her blast packs which make her a fantastic agent for solo queue.

Jett

[Learn more about Jett]

Jett is great on both offense and defense. She can make space on offense for the team and is still a good Operator and/or aggressive pusher on defense. Her Ultimate can also win eco rounds where enemies may take non-ideal fights during anti-ecos where a Blade Storm kill yields a teammate the enemy’s rifle.

Fade

[Learn more about Fade]

Fade’s kit is very strong and pretty easy for teammates to play off of even with minimal communication and coordination. Seize is a very underrated part of her kit as it can completely stop a 5 man push and allow for teammate rotations.

Reyna

[Learn more about Reyna]

The smurf agent. Who was recently buffed to lean even more into this role. Reyna is designed to be selfish and play for herself. In less coordinated play swings off of a teammate’s contact is much slower or non-existent which allows Reyna to dismiss or heal.

A-tier Agents

Sova

[Learn more about Sova]

At lower ranks fewer people shoot his utility and it gets far more value, and at higher ranks with more coordination his utility supplements commonly played duelists well. Sova is also a great character for solo clutches and late round to make a big individual impact on the team.

Sage

[Learn more about Sage]

Sage is a glorified duelist who can be used for stuffing 5 man rushes. Being the only character that can heal herself with no stipulations is great to have, and her wall allows for some hero plays.

Omen

[Learn more about Omen]

Omen is the controller with the kit most suited for making individual plays. He can also play many angles that may not be cleared or flushed out with utility in a less coordinated environment.

Viper

[Learn more about Viper]

Viper is a must pick on some maps, and can take over a game if the team is able to get the spike planted. This is because she has greater post plant utility that teams who retake more slowly will suffer against, and she can farm ultimates for nearly guaranteed round wins.

Brimstone

[Learn more about Brimstone]

Brim is very easy to play and a great way to help the team with smokes while focusing on gunplay. Brimstone can also be a monster in post plant between his ultimate and molly as retakes are a little slower in a less coordinated game, making this utility stronger for denying defuses.

B-tier Agents

Phoenix

[Learn more about Phoenix]

Phoenix’s buffs made him a stronger agent overall in all environments. His kit is rather selfish, and has a lot of aspects for individual plays.

Killjoy

[Learn more about Killjoy]

As players get better she really gets boxed out by Chamber. But in mid and lower ranks she is quite strong as she does not have to really on precision weaponry like Chamber, and is better for stopping all out pushes more common at lower ranks.

Kay/O

[Learn more about Kay/O]

KAY/O has a very strong kit overall, and can make individual plays with his right click flash, but it did get nerfed quite a bit. His utility that is stronger is based around setting up others, and doesn’t flourish as much in a solo queue environment.

Skye

[Learn more about Skye]

Skye was changed to play less selfishly. She also requires excessive communication and teamwork to get the most value of her kit.

Neon

[Learn more about Neon]

As a duelist Neon requires a good amount of resources from teammates. Other duelists can play better on their own.

Breach

[Learn more about Breach]

He is a strong agent, but requires so much coordination to play effectively. He is an agent as the rank gets higher becomes better.

C-tier Agents

Astra

[Learn more about Astra]

Another agent that requires a lot of coordination with your team. She also is one of, if not the hardest to make individual plays with. An agent that definitely gets better at higher ranks.

Yoru

[Learn more about Yoru]

Yoru can help players get through lower ranks as many do not know how to effectively play against him, but he worsens as players communicate better and can counter his kit.

Cypher

[Learn more about Cypher]

C for Cypher tier. The weakest agent, and in a role that is very hard to get value in solo queue.

Best Valorant Team Comps by Map

• Ascent
  • Sova, Omen, Killjoy, Jett, KAY/O
• Bind
  • Viper, Brimstone, Raze, Skye, Fade
• Breeze
  • Viper, Chamber, Sova, Jett, KAY/O
• Fracture
  • Fade, Chamber, Brimstone, Neon, Breach
• Haven
  • Fade, Chamber, Omen, Raze, Breach
• Icebox
  • Sova, Chamber, KAY/O, Sage, Viper
• Pearl
  • Fade, Chamber, KAY/O, Neon, Astra

These are some powerful team comps that we recommend for each of the Valorant maps.

Here are some additional options that you can interchange based on your agent pool.

Just make sure to build wisely, so if you’re replacing Omen, you may want a Brimstone and so forth.

For more details, check out our dedicated guide on our Team Comps by Map.

Format and Methodology

Tier Ratings

Overall, the criteria for S/A/B are as follows:

S-tier

• S-tier agents are optimal for the current meta. They can fit into any team comp and are expected to be in almost every team comp for almost every map.

A-tier

• A-tier agents are very good but aren’t as consistent as S-tier. They can fit into most team comps and perform well on most maps but there are some exceptions where other choices may be better.

B-tier

• B-tier agents are underpowered compared to their peers, are inconsistent due to feast/famine tendency, or depend on certain maps/team comps in order to succeed.

Agent Difficulties

These ratings are more suited for newer players (Iron, Bronze, and Silver) and relate to how much time and experience you need to be useful to your team compared to other agents.

Here are examples for each:

Brimstone (Easy)

Brimstone is an ideal agent for beginners with abilities that are very straightforward and easy to understand.

They can all be safely used from behind cover and are useful even when you’re playing from behind.

Cypher (Average)

Cypher’s abilities require you to have additional macro understanding compared to Brimstone.

You need to understand where to place your gadgets, how to balance between switching back and forth to your camera, and how to use your gadgets in combination with each other.

Defending can be more forgiving for a beginner, but on offense, you need to learn how to lurk and where flankers are likely to come from to make your Trapwires useful.

His ultimate is also harder to activate compared to Brimstone.

Sova (Hard)

To be an effective Sova player, you need to spend time in custom games to practice your ability lineups with your arrows.

If you don’t it can be incredibly easy to whiff your Shock Darts and your Recons may land in areas that provide no value.

Because of the amount of time commitment he requires and due to how easy it is to mess up his abilities, he is quite hard for beginners to pick up compared to other agents.

As always, we welcome all discussion and feedback so please leave any comments/questions below! Be sure to check out our Valorant site to find the best character ability lineups for every map.

The post Valorant Agent Tier List (5.07) by Mobalytics appeared first on Mobalytics.

Hey everyone!

This article is a bit different than our usual content, it’s more of a curated collection than an instructional guide.

Our goal is to display the settings of pro players and streamers to allow you to get a feel for how they play and be able to explore what may work better for you in comparison to your current settings.

So far we have the settings for:

• 100T Asuna
• Brax
• Faze Babybay
• XSET Cryo
• 100T Hiko
• G2 Mixwell
• GMB NAts
• 100T Nitro
• Noted
• TL Scream
• Shanks
• SEN Shazham
• SEN Shroud
• SEN Sinatraa
• TSM Subroza
• Tenz
• TSM Wardell

We’ll be continually updating this overtime so be sure to check back often. Let us know in the comments who you’d like to see next! Also, you can check general-purpose settings to get maximum FPS in Valorant.

100T Asuna

100T Asuna’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 1400 (max 1600)
  • EDPI = 413 (max 800)
  • Sensitivity =0.295 (max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Jump = Spacebar + Wheel Down
  • Crouch = Left Ctrl
  • Use Object = F
  • Ability 1 = Q
  • Ability 2 = E
  • Ability 3 = C
  • Ultimate Ability = X
• Crosshair
  • Color = White
  • Outlines = On
  • Center Dot = Off
  • Inner Lines = 1|2|1|3
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|0|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1920 x 1080
  • Material Quality = Low
  • Texture Quality = Low
  • Detail Quality = Low
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Yellow

100T Asuna’s Socials

• Twitch
• Twitter

Babybay (Faze)

Babybay’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 800 (max 1600)
  • EDPI = 195.2 (max 800)
  • Sensitivity =0.244 (max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Jump = Spacebar
  • Crouch = Left Ctrl
  • Use Object = F
  • Ability 1 = E
  • Ability 2 = Q
  • Ability 3 = C
  • Ultimate Ability = X
• Crosshair
  • Color = White
  • Outlines = Off
  • Center Dot = Off
  • Inner Lines = 1|4|2|2
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|0|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1920 x 1080
  • Material Quality = Med
  • Texture Quality = Med
  • Detail Quality = Med
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Yellow

FAZE Babybay’s Socials

• Twitch
• Twitter
• Youtube

Brax (fomerly T1)

Brax’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 400 (max 1600)
  • EDPI = 136 (max 800)
  • Sensitivity =0.34 (max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Jump = Spacebar
  • Crouch = Left Ctrl
  • Use Object = F
  • Ability 1 = E
  • Ability 2 = Q
  • Ability 3 = C
  • Ultimate Ability = X
• Crosshair
  • Color = Green
  • Outlines = On
  • Center Dot = Off
  • Inner Lines = 1|4|3|4
  • Outer Lines = 1|0|2|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1600 x 900
    • Note that Brax has recently changed to full HD
  • Material Quality = Low
  • Texture Quality = Low
  • Detail Quality = Low
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Red

Brax’s Socials

• Twitch
• Twitter
• Youtube

Cryo (XSET)

XSET Cryo’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 800 (max 1600)
  • Sensitivity = 0.3(max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Ability 1 = MB3
  • Ability 2 = E
  • Ability 3 = F
  • Ultimate Ability = Q
• Crosshair
  • Color = Cyan
  • Outlines = Off
  • Center Dot = Off
  • Inner Lines = 1|3|2|2
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|0|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1920 x 1080
  • Material Quality = Med
  • Texture Quality = Low
  • Detail Quality = Med
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Yellow

XSET Cryo Socials

• Twitch
• Twitter
• Youtube

Hiko (100 Thieves)

100T Hiko’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 1600 (max 1600)
  • EDPI = 576 (max 800)
  • Sensitivity = 0.36 (max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Jump = Spacebar
  • Crouch = Left Ctrl
  • Use Object = F
  • Ability 1 = C
  • Ability 2 = Q
  • Ability 3 = E
  • Ultimate Ability = X
• Crosshair
  • Color = Green
  • Outlines = On
  • Center Dot = On
  • Inner Lines = 1|4|2|3
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|6|8
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1920 x 1080
  • Material Quality = High
  • Texture Quality = High
  • Detail Quality = High
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Red

100T Hiko’s Socials

• Twitch
• Twitter
• Youtube

Mixwell (G2)

G2 Mixwell’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 400 (max 1600)
  • EDPI = 276 (max 800)
  • Sensitivity = 0.69 (max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Jump = Spacebar + Wheel Down
  • Crouch = Left Ctrl
  • Use Object = F
  • Ability 1 = Q
  • Ability 2 = E
  • Ability 3 = C
  • Ultimate Ability = X
• Crosshair
  • Color = White
  • Outlines = Off
  • Center Dot = Off
  • Inner Lines = 1|4|2|3
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|0|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1920 x 1080
  • Material Quality = Low
  • Texture Quality = Low
  • Detail Quality = Low
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Red

G2 Mixwell’s Socials

• Twitch
• Twitter
• Youtube

nAts (Gambit Esports)

GMB nAts’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 800 (max 1600)
  • Sensitivity = 0.49 (max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Ability 1 = C
  • Ability 2 = MB4
  • Ability 3 = 4
  • Ultimate Ability = X
• Crosshair
  • Color = Green
  • Outlines = On
  • Center Dot = Off
  • Inner Lines = 1|2|1|2
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|0|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1280 x 960
  • Material Quality = Low
  • Texture Quality = Low
  • Detail Quality = Low
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Red

GMB nAts’s Socials

• Twitch
• Twitter
• Youtube

Nitro (100 Thieves)

100T Nitro’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 400 (max 1600)
  • EDPI = 300 (max 800)
  • Sensitivity = 0.75 (max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Jump = Spacebar + Wheel Down
  • Crouch = Left Ctrl
  • Use Object = F
  • Ability 1 = Q
  • Ability 2 = E
  • Ability 3 = C
  • Ultimate Ability = X
• Crosshair
  • Color = White
  • Outlines = Off
  • Center Dot = On
  • Inner Lines = 1|3|1|3
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|0|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1920 x 1080
  • Material Quality = Low
  • Texture Quality = Low
  • Detail Quality = Low
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Red

100T Nitro’s Socials

• Twitch
• Twitter
• Youtube

Noted (Streamer)

Noted’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 800 (max 1600)
  • EDPI = 388.8 (max 800)
  • Sensitivity = 0.486(max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Jump = Spacebar + Wheel Down
  • Crouch = Left Ctrl
  • Use Object = F
  • Ability 1 = Q
  • Ability 2 = E
  • Ability 3 = C
  • Ultimate Ability = X
• Crosshair
  • Color = Yellow
  • Outlines = Off
  • Center Dot = Off
  • Inner Lines = 1|3|2|1
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|0|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1920 x 1080
  • Material Quality = Low
  • Texture Quality = Low
  • Detail Quality = Low
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Yellow

Noted’s Socials

• Twitch
• Twitter
• Youtube

Sinatraa (SEN)

SEN Sinatraa’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 800 (max 1600)
  • EDPI = 309.6 (max 800)
  • Sensitivity = 0.387(max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Jump = Spacebar + Wheel Down
  • Crouch = Left Ctrl
  • Use Object = F
  • Ability 1 = Q
  • Ability 2 = E
  • Ability 3 = C
  • Ultimate Ability = X
• Crosshair
  • Color = Cyan
  • Outlines = On
  • Center Dot = Off
  • Inner Lines = 1|3|1|3
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|0|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1920 x 1080
  • Material Quality = Low
  • Texture Quality = Low
  • Detail Quality = Low
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Red

SEN Sentinel Socials

• Twitch
• Twitter
• Youtube

TSM Subroza

TSM Subroza’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 800 (max 1600)
  • Sensitivity = 0.278 (max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Ability 1 = MB5
  • Ability 2 = MB4
  • Ability 3 = MB3
  • Ultimate Ability = C
• Crosshair
  • Color = Green
  • Outlines = Off
  • Center Dot = Off
  • Inner Lines = 1|1|4|2
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|0|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1920 x 1080
  • Material Quality = Low
  • Texture Quality = Low
  • Detail Quality = Low
  • UI Quality = Medium
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Yellow

TSM Subroza’s Socials

• Twitch
• Twitter
• Youtube

Scream (Team Liquid)

TL Screams’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 400 (max 1600)
  • EDPI = 306 (max 800)
  • Sensitivity =0.765 (max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Jump = Spacebar
  • Crouch = Left Ctrl
  • Use Object = E
  • Ability 1 = F
  • Ability 2 = Q
  • Ability 3 = C
  • Ultimate Ability = X
• Crosshair
  • Color = Cyan
  • Outlines = On
  • Center Dot = On
  • Inner Lines = 1|0|0|0
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|0|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1920 x 1080
  • Material Quality = Low
  • Texture Quality = Low
  • Detail Quality = Low
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Red

TL Scream’s Socials

• Twitch
• Twitter
• Youtube

Shanks (Streamer)

Shanks’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 400 (max 1600)
  • EDPI = 180 (max 800)
  • Sensitivity =0.45 (max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Jump = Spacebar + wheel down
  • Crouch = Left Ctrl
  • Use Object = F
  • Ability 1 = Mouse 4
  • Ability 2 = Mouse 5
  • Ability 3 = E
  • Ultimate Ability = X
• Crosshair
  • Color = Green
  • Outlines = On
  • Center Dot = Off
  • Inner Lines = 1|3|2|2
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|0|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1920 x 1080
  • Material Quality = Low
  • Texture Quality = Low
  • Detail Quality = Low
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Red

Shazham (SEN)

SEN Shazham’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 400 (max 1600)
  • Sensitivity =0.53 (max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Ability 1 = C
  • Ability 2 = Q
  • Ability 3 = E
  • Ultimate Ability = X
• Crosshair
  • Color = Green
  • Outlines = On
  • Center Dot = Off
  • Inner Lines = 1|5|2|3
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|0|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1920 x 1080
  • Material Quality = Low
  • Texture Quality = Low
  • Detail Quality = Low
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Red

SEN Shroud

Shroud’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 450 (max 1600)
  • Sensitivity =0.8778 (max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Ability 1 = C
  • Ability 2 = Q
  • Ability 3 = E
  • Ultimate Ability = X
• Crosshair
  • Color = Cyan
  • Outlines = Off
  • Center Dot = On
  • Inner Lines = 1|6|2|4
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|0|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1920 x 1080
  • Material Quality = Low
  • Texture Quality = High
  • Detail Quality = Low
  • UI Quality = Medium
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Purple

Shroud’s Socials

• Twitch
• Twitter
• Youtube

SEN Tenz

SEN Tenz’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 800 (max 1600)
  • EDPI = 251.2 (max 800)
  • Sensitivity = 0.314 (max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Jump = Spaec Bar + Wheel Down
  • Crouch = Left Ctrl
  • Use Object = E
  • Ability 1 = Mouse 4
  • Ability 2 = Mouse 5
  • Ability 3 = C
  • Ultimate Ability = F
• Crosshair
  • Color = Cyan
  • Outlines = Off
  • Center Dot = Off
  • Inner Lines = 1|4|2|2
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|0|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1920 x 1080
  • Material Quality = Low
  • Texture Quality = Low
  • Detail Quality = Low
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Yellow

SEN Tenz’s Socials

• Twitch
• Twitter
• Youtube

Wardell (TSM)

TSM Wardell’s Valorant Settings

• Mouse Settings
  • DPI = 400 (max 1600)
  • EDPI = 261.2 (max 800)
  • Sensitivity =0.653(max 10)
  • Scoped Sensitivity = 1.15 (max 10)
• Ability Keybinds
  • Jump = Wheel Down
  • Crouch = Left Ctrl
  • Use Object = E
  • Ability 1 = Mouse 4
  • Ability 2 = Mouse 5
  • Ability 3 = F
  • Ultimate Ability = C
• Crosshair
  • Color = Cyan
  • Outlines = Off
  • Center Dot = Off
  • Inner Lines = 1|4|2|2
  • Outer Lines = 0|0|0|0
• Graphics Quality
  • Resolution = 1920 x 1080
  • Material Quality = Low
  • Texture Quality = Low
  • Detail Quality = Low
• Accessibility
  • Enemy Highlight Color = Yellow

TSM Wardell’s Socials

• Twitch
• Twitter
• Youtube

That’s all for now! Let us know which Valorant pro’s settings you’d like to see next in the comments below. Be sure to check out our Valorant site to find the best agent ability lineups that the pros use!

The post Valorant Pro Settings (Mouse Sensitivity, Keybinds, Crosshair, and Graphics) appeared first on Mobalytics.

Looking for the best guns in Valorant? You’ve come to the right place.

In our Valorant weapon tier list, our experts (Immortal-Radiant) rank every gun based on their strength in the current ranked meta.

We’ll be updating this list every patch or so so be sure to check back!

To learn more about every gun, from their spray patterns to their stats, head to our dedicated Valorant Weapons page.

If you’re looking for the best agents in the current meta (including team comp recommendations by map) head to our Valorant Agent Tier List.

The Best Guns in Valorant

Patch 5.03 Valorant Weapon Tier List

Methodology

Our experts (ranked Immortal – Radiant) will be ranking weapons from S/A/B/C based on how strong they are in the ranked meta.

This list aims to apply to the general meta so it should be useful for more elos (perhaps not the very bottom of Iron where OPing probably isn’t recommended).

Overall, the criteria for S/A/B/C are as follows:

S-tier

These are weapons that have an optimal cost/effectiveness ratio. They are typically the most commonly used guns for most maps on both offense/defense and the least situational weapons.

A-tier

These are weapons that are very powerful but a little more situational than S-Tier. They usually have a slightly lower cost/effectiveness ratio and may not work too well on either offense or defense on certain maps.

B-tier

These are weapons that can be strong in certain situations but also tend to have a disadvantage against their competitors in many situations. You usually only run them at very specific parts of the map and they can vary in performance based on attacking or defending.

C-tier

These are weapons that are very situational and rarely worth picking up. They are they rarely offer an advantage over their competition.

Weapon Commentary

Here are some insights for each gun from our experts with explanations for why they’re ranked where they are.

S-tier Weapons (Optimal)

Operator

Type: Sniper Rifle – Creds: ¤ 4700 – Magazine: 5 – Wall Penetration: High

• Priced at 4700 it is quite expensive but its price is justified. One shot to the body at any range will kill an enemy. This weapon is very strong at grabbing early picks in the round whilst holding the site as a defender.
• It is best suited on Jett (since she can instantaneously dash out regardless of whether she got the kill) and second-best on Reyna (can dismiss if she secured the kill).
• The Operator is meta on maps like Breeze, Icebox and Fracture which have very long lines of sight.

Phantom

Type: Assault Rifle – Creds: ¤ 2,900 – Magazine: 30 / 90 – Wall Penetration: Medium

• This is the clear weapon of choice for players who appreciate a higher fire rate (11 rounds/sec, 660 RPM) and a slightly bigger magazine in comparison to the Vandal.
• It benefits from a silenced barrel and conceals the direction its bullets are coming from, making your shots harder to pinpoint for enemies.
• The Phantom’s first bullet accuracy is considerably better in comparison to Vandal.
• The fire rate and the first bullet accuracy mean it is very effective when jiggle peeking corners and bursting off 2-3 shots.
• Probably the best gun to go with if you are a newbie and are familiarising yourself with the fundamentals of a tactical shooter.

Vandal

Type: Assault Rifle – Creds: ¤ 2,900 – Magazine: 25 / 75 – Wall Penetration: Medium

• Vandal has a slower fire rate (9.75 rounds/sec, 585 RPM) and a slightly smaller magazine in comparison to the Phantom.
• The main advantage of using the Vandal is its consistent damage output and one-shot kills when hitting the opponent’s head (at all ranges).
• The confidence that you gain from the one-shot headshot damage at any distance makes it a preferable choice for some players when holding longer ranges of sight.
• The Vandal is very effective when it is burst fired, (shoot 3-5 bullets then reset the recoil).

A-tier

Classic

Type: Sidearm – Creds: ¤ Free – Magazine: 12 – Wall Penetration: Low

• The Classic is a solid choice for pistol rounds since you save 800 credits which you can invest into armour and or utility.
• Patch 3.09 nerfs mean that the jumping classic right clicks and Classic run-and-gun is going to be less deadly. Nevertheless, it is a free gun and will still be a desirable weapon to use for pistol rounds.
• Besides the mentioned value in pistol rounds, the Classic can also be a surprise factor in buy rounds by using the right-click burst mode that comes with it
• Considering the fact that this gun is completely free and is given to you by the game at the start of every round, it provides incredible value at 0 credits.

Judge

Type: Shotgun – Creds: ¤ 1,850 – Magazine: 7 – Wall Penetration: Medium

• The Judge is the most expensive shotgun but also most effective compared to the others.
• The main selling feature for the weapon is its full-automatic firing mode which makes it extremely effective against close ranges, even against opponents who have purchased rifles like the Phantom.
• When holding close quarter areas like Garage on Haven or Hookah on Bind the Judge is a very strong weapon of choice.
• It is a weapon of choice for some Raze players who combine her double satchel mobility with the Judge to initiate aggressive plays on enemy territory.

Marshall

Type: Sniper Rifle – Creds: ¤ 950 – Magazine: 5 – Wall Penetration: Medium

• The Marshall serves as the cheaper counterpart to the Operator, justifying the lower price by weakening a lot of the features that make the Operator so strong.
• For example, body hits with the Marshall are only able to kill people without armor
• It is a meta weapon of choice on Breeze for eco rounds.
• The Marshall has many perks, fast movement speed and scoping animations, and great almost perfect no-scope accuracy (compared to the Operator).
• The Marshall is an easy to control weapon and has a relatively fast fire rate making it a viable option for eco rounds when holding long ranges of sight.
• The scope distance is just right for contesting early round picks like Ascent B Link versus A Short.

Odin

Type: Heavy – Creds: ¤ 3,200 – Magazine: 100 – Wall Penetration: High

• A well-played Odin is a force to be reckoned with – close chokepoints or common areas that are wallbang-able aren’t so secure anymore with the threat of an Odin around.
• The large-scale magazine of the Odin make multi-kills possible that wouldn’t be otherwise and reloads become nearly redundant.
• Additionally, Odin players are still something opponents get easily distracted or confused by, and therefore, they might not be able to instantly counter your plays.

Sheriff

Type: Sidearm – Creds: ¤ 800 – Magazine: 6 – Wall Penetration: High

• The Sheriff is the pistol that deals by far the most damage of all sidearms
• In contrast to its silenced counterpart, the Ghost, the Sheriff is more commonly used on half-buy rounds or as a sidearm to the Operator instead of pistol rounds.
• In 90% of times the Sheriff will one-shot opponents when hitting the head, but watch out:
  • From 30m distance and further, this weapon will only bring your opponent down to 5 hp.
• Its bullet penetration allows for you to secure wallbang kills that you most likely wouldn’t be able to with other pistols.
• At long ranges, the Marshall is the better weapon of choice since it is one shot to the head, unlike the 145 damage the Sheriff deals. The Marshall also only costs 150 more.
  • The Sheriff is not a great pick for pistol rounds since it means you won’t be able to purchase any utility. Knowing this, it is mostly used by Jett players on pistol rounds since they can survive the round mostly unaffected without their Updraft and Cloudburst.
• This weapon is most effective at medium range, at point blank range and at very long ranges it is sub-optimal.

Spectre

Type: SMG – Creds: ¤ 1,600 – Magazine: 30 – Wall Penetration: Medium

• Spectre is still a relatively viable option on half-buy rounds however the Ares is too strong to pass up on.
• It has made the Spectre somewhat redundant or at least a less preferred option.
• The only case I can make for the Spectre over the Ares in patch 4.0 is for any players who want to still try an overly aggressive run and gun playstyle on attack, I.e. Neon players.
• It’s still the best out of the SMG class for different reasons:
  • In comparison to the Stinger, the cheaper SMG alternative, the Spectre is substantially more accurate, kicks considerably less, and has a higher magazine capacity.
  • This weapon finds its use in many economically challenging situations as a budget alternative to the traditional assault rifles.

B-tier Weapons (Good)

Ares

Type: Heavy – Creds: ¤ 1,550 – Magazine: 50 – Wall Penetration: High

• Overall, the Ares has very similar functionality to the Odin, with its decreased price point being its main distinction and point of attraction. The Ares is almost half the price of an Odin and with such similar power it is arguably better to stick with the Ares this patch and save your credits.
• The lower price is justified by the 50 bullets less in a magazine and the lower firing rate.
• It’s quite effective at distance due to its low damage falloff and minimal recoil when scoped in.
• If you plan on sitting back and anchoring the site, the Ares is a very strong half-buy option.
  • Note: It is easier to sit back and scope in with the Ares rather than try and be mobile or be aggressive with it.

Bulldog

Type: Assault Rifle – Creds: ¤ 2050 – Magazine: 24 – Wall Penetration: Medium

• Compared to the other two assault rifle in Valorant (Phantom & Vandal), the Bulldog has some noticeable disadvantages: slower fire rate (9.15 rounds/sec), smaller magazine, and lower damage output
• If you don’t manage to headshot your opponent you will almost always find yourself falling victim to any opponent that has a Vandal or Phantom due to their superior fire rate and damage output.
  • However, it can have its niche uses since it can be a more powerful alternative to SMGs in half-buys or anti-eco rounds.
• Unlike other rifles, the Bulldogs firing mode switches to a three-round burst when using the AD.
• Riot knew that the Bulldog was quite underutilized in both pro play and ranked. Knowing this, they reduced the price to 2050. Since doing so, I would argue that this hasn’t improved the situation for the Bulldog.

Frenzy

Type: Sidearm – Creds: ¤ 450 – Magazine: 13 – Wall Penetration: Low

• Since the Frenzy movement speed accuracy was nerfed, it has lost much of its potency and viability on eco and pistol rounds.
• It is a low-cost pistol and does relatively high damage, typically requiring 7-8 shots to the body and 3 to the head to kill.
• However, the spread of this fully-automatic gun is hard to control and its magazine size is considerably small.
• There simply are better options in pistol rounds as well as buy rounds (like the Ghost or the Sheriff).

Ghost

Type: Sidearm – Creds: ¤ 500 – Magazine: 15 – Wall Penetration: Medium

• The Ghost might be the best all-round pistol choice for the starter rounds.
• This semi-automatic pistol has the potential to kill opponents without armor in only one shot to the head and is, therefore, a cheap alternative for many Rifles and SMGs in certain situations
• Like the Phantom, the Ghost has a silencer which helps to increase overall accuracy and also reduces noise while firing, making it an effective stealth weapon

Guardian

Type: DMR – Creds: ¤ 2,250 – Magazine: 12 – Wall Penetration: High

• The Guardian is the only semi-automatic rifle in the game so far and is capable of one-tapping just like the Vandal, with the highest damage per bullet among the rifles.
  • However, when put in relation to weapons at a similar cost, the Guardian really doesn’t find a place for its own in the current meta.
• This is quite a viable pick if your economy isn’t great and you can’t afford a Vandal or Phantom. Especially if you are feeling sharp with your aim and plan on contesting longer ranges of sight.
• Additionally, handling this special gun is a task not everyone can instantly master in the heat of the game – its shooting rhythm and limited magazine size is often the reason why players trade the Guardian for a Vandal or Phantom as soon as they get the chance to.
• One thing to keep in mind is that the Guardian does have High wall penetration but it’s a bit too niche to make it that big of an advantage.

C-tier Weapons (Situational)

Bucky

Type: Shotgun – Creds: ¤ 850 – Magazine: 5 – Wall Penetration: Low

• The Bucky is the cheapest primary weapon in the game at 900 credits, making it useful for half-buy rounds.
• The right-click used to be deadly at short-medium ranges but after some nerfs in ACT 2 the Bucky has lost its worth in the game altogether. The right-click is now almost completely useless and some players have found some viability in its left click at very close ranges.
• Unfortunately at the price of 850 you are just better off right-clicking a Classic which will have very similar damage output and save you 850 credits.

Knife

• If all guns in your arsenal fail you and you find yourself left with nothing else than your knife, you might as well use it
• But considering how poorly implemented the current version of the knife in Valorant is, this should be your absolute last resort when playing to win.
• There is finally a viable way to use your knife in VALORANT.
  Behold: It is an effective way of clearing out enemies holding their own Astra wall.
  • Check out how C9B Vanity managed to clutch up with a knife play.

Shorty

Type: Sidearm – Creds: ¤ 150 – Magazine: 2 – Wall Penetration: Low

• The Shorty is the cheapest purchasable gun in the game and is balanced relatively well for its credit value in game.
• Due to its low price point, it can be a game-changer in economical rounds.
• Its range is terrible and is only viable at point-blank range, it doesn’t have the same effectiveness that the Bucky or Judge have at ranges beyond point-blank.
• With just two shells in a magazine, multi-kills are basically impossible with this weapon.

Stinger

Type: SMG – Creds: ¤ 950 – Magazine: 20 – Wall Penetration: Low

• The Stinger’s unique characteristic is its extremely high fire rate but in all other respects, the Stinger is a cheaper but also distinctly worse version of the Spectre.
  • This is due to its smaller magazine, low wall penetration, and lower damage output.
• Furthermore, this gun has an absurdly high spread and doesn’t work well at distances over 20m due to the low accuracy leading from it.
• Overall, the Stinger should be used like a shotgun with two advantages. First being able to slightly adjust your aim onto your opponent after shooting the first bullets, and second, being mobile whilst spraying an opponent point-blank you might be able to dodge their bullets.
• The alternate fire when scoped in has become somewhat viable at medium ranges (check the clip below) but this weapon is simply outclassed by most others when it comes to choosing something for an eco round.
  • Check out the right-click accuracy here.

Thanks for reading! Let us know what you think of our rankings in the comment below. To learn more about every gun, head to our dedicated Valorant Weapons page. For the best agents, head to our Valorant Agent Tier List.

The post Valorant Weapon Tier List (Best Guns) appeared first on Mobalytics.

Welcome to our Valorant patch breakdown! We’ll be discussing all the buffs, nerfs, and adjustments related to agents, guns, maps, and more for every patch.

Massive changes are hitting VALORANT this patch and much of the community are very excited about it. One of the biggest talking points is the Yoru rework going live, he is expected to finally be a viable duelist pick in both ranked and pro play.

Second to this is the Astra nerfs which are understandable and deserved since she has been far stronger than other controllers for a long time now. The controller meta was feeling a bit out of whack with Astra dominating all non Viper maps.

The buffs that Brimstone and Omen are receiving combined with the Astra and Viper nerfs should level out the playing field between controllers and make bring back Omen and Brimstone into the meta.

There is a lot to cover in this patch including some serious quality of life changes for the map Icebox, so let’s dive right into it all.

R.I.P. Astra meta

For such a long time, Astra could simply outperform Omen and Brimstone by impacting the map in ways that they couldn’t come close to replicating.

There were a few major problems regarding Astra’s power as a Controller. Firstly, her ability to smoke the map was far superior to her counterparts. She has been able to dissipate smokes and fake them, create patterns of play with her stars, smoke any region of the map with ease, and by the time a smoke vanishes her timer would be back up for her to re-smoke almost immediately.

Moreover, her ability to make coordinated plays with her team using the Gravity Well and Nova Pulse ended up being far more impactful than Stim Beacons and Shrouded Steps, especially in higher elo.

Considering this, the entirety of her kit is receiving adjustments and is being tuned down.

Stars

• Max Stars reduced 5 >>> 4
• Cooldown on retrieving a Star increased 14 >>> 25
• Astra can now pick up placed Stars during the Buy Phase to refund their charge immediately.
• Max distance of Star Placement increased 10000 >>> 30000 to allow her to place Stars across the furthest corners of maps.

Astra’s impact felt pervasive round to round as she could make round-winning plays for her team with well-worked stars. Reducing her overall number of stars as well as the cooldown for dissipating her star will now force players to be much more prudent and deliberate when it comes to star placement.

A lot of the time stars on the ground were simply an intimidation technique and functioned like a deterrent to enemies, I think we will see this less since she will have to wait much longer to use them after recalling.

Gravity Well

• Cooldown Increased 25 >>> 45
• Gravity Well Size Decreased 525 >>> 475
• Gravity Well no longer affects anyone fully underneath the Gravity Well.

Her staple ability, this is Astra’s bread and butter, using a Gravity well multiple times throughout the round was kind of overpowered.

It set up plays for her teammates to capitalize and fight vulnerable opponents, and or cleared significant chokepoints and corners for her team to advance.

The fact that its cooldown timer has almost doubled means that she will maybe only have a single opportunity throughout the round to use this ability as opposed to the usual two.

Nova Pulse

• Cooldown Increased 25 >>> 45
• Nova Pulse no longer affects anyone fully underneath the Nova Pulse.

Nebula

• Cooldown Increased 14 >>> 25
• Nebula cooldowns are now sequential instead of simultaneous
• Nebula size increased 410 >>> 475

Astra will have to wait a bit longer before being able to re-smoke choke points. Prior to this she could almost instantly re-smoke areas, so the fact that this opens up a small window for the enemy to work around her smokes is a fair decision.

A few other quality of life changes for Astra

Astral Form

• While in Astral form, pings are no longer blocked by level geometry that Astra cannot see
• Astra’s targeting ring in Astral form is reduced to one ring that reflects the now unified size of all her utility
• Astra’s targeting ring no longer randomly disappears when aiming across some map locations
• Increased the speed of the overlay that covers Astra’s screen when transitioning in and out of Astral form
• Fixed an issue where Stars were placed slightly above the location Astra was targeting.

Omen is back in control

Dark Cover

• Cooldown decreased 40s >>> 30s
• Cost increased 100 >>> 150
• Projectile Speed increased 2800 >>> 6400

Riot have reverted the nerfs that hit his Dark Cover long ago. The cooldown decrease is going to allow him to use his smokes without stressing too much about his lack of capability to re-smoke since this is no longer as big of a problem.

Shrouded Step

• Cost decreased 150 >>> 100
• Pre teleport delay decreased 1s >>> 0.7s

This small buff towards Shrouded Step allows him to use his short-range teleport in a slightly more swift manner and may just allow him to catch opponents off guard a bit easier.

Paranoia

• Added forward spawn offset, so players adjacent to Omen are not hit
• This is a good quality of life change that will allow Omen to use Paranoia without worrying about blinding his teammates.

Brimstone back in action

Sky Smoke

• Deploy time decreased 2 >>> 1 second
• Deploy radius increased 5000 >>> 5500
• Smoke height increased to match other Controllers

The deploy radius is going to help Brimstone a lot, especially on defensive rounds when it comes to smoking the side of the map furthest from where he is playing.

Usually, if playing Haven, Bind, Split or Ascent he would have to play close to mid to be able to smoke both sides with ease.

With this increase in deploy radius, he will be able to support anchors on-site and allow other more suitable agents to play mid and use their utility there. I.e. Initiators and or Sage for Split etc.

Stim Beacon

• Now also applies a 15% speed boost in addition to RapidFire.

This is a great buff to see since his Stim Beacon was one of the worst and least impactful abilities in the game.

The speed boost might really be a valuable tool on attacker rounds and when used on duelists to help them entry, especially Neon.

It also will allow him and his teammates to rotate (and traverse the map in general) 15% faster.

Mask off Viper, there are new dilemmas to face

Fuel

• Fuel drain increased 50% when Toxic Screen and Poison Cloud are both active.
• Viper’s fuel bar now turns red when she does not have enough fuel to activate her abilities.

Viper players have to be careful when managing their fuel levels now and quite often will have to choose between their wall and their orb.

On B site Breeze, Viper could control the entirety of B Main alongside mid with the wall and orb, now they will have to be a bit more judicious when using these abilities.

There will certainly be more opportunities for enemies to work around mid and B on maps like Breeze when attacking.

Toxic Screen

• Cooldown after deactivating increased 6 >>> 8
• Cooldown timer now starts when her smoke starts dissipating instead of when the deactivation telegraph plays.
• Deactivation delay decreased 1 >>> .8
• Toxic Screen now has yellow lights that indicate when it is on cooldown
• Removed delay on Toxic Screen disabling when Viper is suppressed.
• Added a unique VO line that plays when her smoke is disabled by suppress.

Poison Cloud

• Cooldown after deactivating increased 6 >>> 8.
• Cooldown timer now starts when her smoke starts dissipating instead of when the deactivation telegraph plays.
• Deactivation delay decreased 1 >>> .8
• Poison Orb now has a yellow light to indicate when it is on cooldown.
• Removed delay on Poison Orb disabling when Viper is suppressed.
• Added a unique VO line that plays when her smoke is disabled by suppress.

Snake Bite

• Duration decreased 6.5 >>> 5.5
• Her post plant potential is weakened ever so slightly, as well as her ability to fend off attackers, the second that is shaved off should see very little noticeable impact round-to-round though.

Will Yoru leap-frog to the top of the tier list with this drastic rework?

Fakeout

• Charges reduced from 2 >>> 1
• Decoy HP: 150
• Decoy is now a full running version of Yoru and can only be sent running forward
• Right-click to place a stationary marker for the decoy
  • Reactivate similarly to footsteps to create the decoy that runs forward
• Upon taking damage from an enemy gun, the decoy winds up, turns towards the enemy that shot it, and explodes after a short delay.

Enemies within the cone of the explosion are flashed

Not only does Yoru receive a massive buff towards his Fakeout ability which was previously just a bunch of measly footsteps, but it is in another way an additional flash ability.

It forces his opponents to pay attention to it to try to discern whether it is the real Yoru or not. It is a seriously deceiving ability since the real Yoru can create patterns of play by using his Fakeout in one way over and over again until he decides to one round pretend to be the Fakeout clone himself, (after he has conditioned the opponents to believe he is just juking them out.)

• There are already some funny clips of opponents being tricked by this exact tactic.
• Renowned Yoru main ‘Red’ shows us some new Yoru strategies, pretending to be a clone. (Check out the clip at 2:20)

One important consideration is that Yoru’s Fakeout clone will not pop up on the HUD map and this will alert enemies as to whether it is him or not.

I do think that this should be hot-fixed/altered as higher elo players who are comfortable at quickly glancing at their minimaps will be able to pick up on whether it is the real Yoru or not.

Gatecrash

• Charges increased from 1 >>> 2
• Cost: 200 Credits
• Cooldown charge refresh removed, switched back to 2-kill reset
• Gatecrash can be faked by pressing F, while hovering over the beacon
• Fake teleport will play audio and portal visuals as if Yoru is attempting to teleport.
• Time it takes for teleport beacon has decreased 1.5 >>> 0.5 seconds
• Teleport beacon’s in-game audio while traveling reduced 22.5m>>>12.5m
• Teleport beacon’s speed has been increased 675 >>> 800

Upon activating a fake teleport, the beacon creates a small decal on the floor for 30 seconds to indicate location of the fake teleport

The fact that Yoru can now fake his teleport adds a whole new layer of deception and trickery to his gameplay. It is such a simple addition to his kit yet it feels so natural and right, it is going to allow him to make plenty of plays with false audio queues.

Dimensional Drift

• Duration increased 8 >>> 10 seconds
• Yoru is not revealed to enemies
• Unequip delay time increased 0.6 >>> 1.2 seconds
• Yoru is now able to cast all utility out of his ultimate
• Yoru’s footsteps can now be heard within 15m of Yoru’s location
• Cast delay added upon casting Dimensional Drift, preventing the invulnerability frame on cast

Yoru’s rework has been long-awaited and all of these additions are going to make him very tricky to play against, literally, he will have a much easier time tricking enemies and finding success in his role as a self-sufficient fragger with this new upgraded kit.

For more commentary around Yoru’s rework, head over to our previous article that has a comparative discussion around the old and new Yoru.

Map changes for Icebox

There are quite a few changes to Icebox this patch and it is going to take some time for the community to get used to these.

The most significant and noticeable differences can be seen all around B site.

Here are a few images that showcase the major talking points.

The entire B half of the map is receiving a revision in its design all the way from the area up at Snowman near defender side, up to the B Main Attacker Side Garage.

Most noticeably, there is a lot more cover around B Site both, from Snowman to Mid Orange, and throughout Yellow and also Garage. Lines of sight in these areas are not so vast and long anymore and there are a lot of new angles being introduced to this side of the map whilst also a lot of common long range angles being removed. Since the release of Icebox it has felt as though attacker favoritism has existed for A Site.

It felt like attacking B Site was almost tokenistic in nature just to mix things up and catch opponent defenders off guard. It did feel a fair bit easier and more straightforward when attacking A Site when comparing it to B Site. The old Icebox B site only really offered Yellow and Green for attackers to hold down their positions.

The mid double-decker nest area was very awkward to hold in post-plant situations as it was a hollow rectangle that was very exposed. Now it is very blocky and offers a lot of impenetrable cover so it looks like there will be a lot more opportunity for attackers to play closer towards the bomb.

There are lots of little tweaks for Icebox, even in the mid map region and A site there have been a few adjustments so head over to the official patch notes for all the details around this.

Final thoughts

This is one of the largest patches to hit Valorant yet but so far the initial reaction from the community is very positive.

Praise is noticeable across social media sites like Twitter as much of the playerbase joke and tease Astra mains for losing their position at the top of the agent hierarchy whilst being excited to see the meta refreshed with agents that have been left in the dust for a long time.

Hopefully, the Brimstone, Omen and Yoru changes lead to their pick rates increasing. Maybe we will even start to see these agents shine in upcoming professional matches.

It is reinvigorating to see Riot devs making an effort to address imbalances in the game both from an agent and map standpoint, personally I am looking forward to testing out all these changes in Act 2.

That is all for now, as always, good luck in your ranked climb.

That concludes our Valorant patch breakdown for 4.04! Be sure to check out to see how these changes affected our Valorant agent tier list.

The post Valorant Patch Notes Breakdown (Patch 4.04) appeared first on Mobalytics.

Firstly I’d like to outline that VALORANT is quite well balanced at the moment and I wouldn’t say that there are any broken agents or busted abilities.

It is important for me to assure you that this is by no means an effort to criticize the current meta because I actually think the devs have done a pretty good job thus far.

In saying that, some agents are definitely stronger than others and there are a few abilities that are seriously underused.

This article is going to be my personal take on how some of the weaker agents could be made more relevant in competitive play.

Additionally, there will be some discussion around popular abilities that deserve some rework or buffs, as well as my hopes for the new agent, ‘Deadeye’.

1. Rework Yoru

Personally, I think Yoru as a character and all the ideas behind his abilities are very cool. I like how his power as a duelist revolves around trickery and map manipulation.

I think there is room for a deceptive agent like that in VALORANT. Unfortunately, he is extremely under-picked in pro play and ranked games.

If you lock him in during ‘agent select’ most of the time your teammates will think you are trolling. You know an agent’s kit is underwhelming when simply selecting him can cause a war of words with teammates.

The first main problem that is holding Yoru back is that abysmal footsteps ability. Fakeout is a cool concept; being able to distract opponents with an audio queue of one or two agents walking.

However, if the enemy decides to take a quick peek they can easily discern that you are trying to duke them out, and very quickly your plan of faking a site will be squashed.

I think Yoru’s Fakeout should be buffed so that an actual model of ANY agent (your choice) from your team appears walking and peeking angles. This will be so much more believable don’t you think?

Similar to the champion Neeko, from League of Legends, she is able to morph into any character from her team whilst also sending a clone charging any direction she wishes.

Yoru’s Fakeout should function in a similar way, two casts of any agent marching in a path chosen by the player.

Another issue I have with Yoru is how Gatecrash is quite an ineffective way of escaping danger.

For example, if Reyna is being peeked by two enemies and manages to kill one, she can activate her Dismiss to instantaneously retreat to safety. As soon as you press your ‘E’ key with Reyna you will immediately be safe.

Sadly for Yoru, pressing ‘E’ to Gatecrash out of danger doesn’t work as well.

The animation is quite slow and it feels as though it takes a full second for Yoru to actually teleport out. It would be a nice touch to see this become instant the same way Reyna’s Dismiss works.

This would make him a hell of a lot harder to trade out, and make his capacity to escape on par with other duelists like Jett and Reyna.

Furthermore, his Gatecrash is often given away by the loud audio queue of him activating it and then again, of where he actually teleports to.

It is hard to trick opponents and successfully get behind them unless you are combining it with your own flash or a lot of other utility from your teammates.

I could see Yoru being more self-sufficient if the SFX of his Gatecrash was toned down. The radius of the Gatecrash needs to be halved and the noise it makes needs to be altered.

Right now it is too obvious Yoru has activated his Gatecrash and too predictable where he is going to teleport to.

2. Rework Cypher’s ultimate, Neural Theft

It can’t just be me who has activated Neural Theft and died seconds later all because that enemy who peeked you magically cloned themselves.

Neural Theft is quite a strong ability but I just wish it was slightly reworked so that it doesn’t benefit the enemy in any way shape or form.

Right as Neural Theft activates, an outline of your opponent appears from your perspective and you can see them regardless of where they are on the map.

This is very valuable information for you and your team, and is a very helpful ability when you are unsure of where the enemy are and what they are doing.

Unfortunately, sometimes if the enemy is smart enough, they will decide to peek at you right as the Neural Theft blinks to reveal their location.

From your perspective, it can often appear as though you just got peeked by two people standing side by side and in that split second it can be very difficult to figure out which body is actually the enemy agent. It is a shame that the enemy has the power to turn your ultimate ability on its head.

I would like to see the ultimate reworked so that the enemy location is revealed for maybe 2-3 full seconds as opposed to just a flash image.

This image serves as a point of reference but it’s not the best example. It was tough to recreate the level of confusion that can occur in games. In the heat of the moment, it can be tough to tell the difference when the flashed body is overlapping the other. Overlapping is what causes the greatest trouble and leads me to argue that the ‘blink’ of Neural Theft should be changed.

This will be much more helpful for information gathering, delaying purposes, and it will eliminate the confusion that the flash image can cause.

3. Buff Brimstone

Brimstone’s Stim Beacon is about as useless as Yoru’s footsteps. Yes okay, maybe on pistol rounds you might be able to shoot down a wall much faster, and yes you will shoot your gun faster when stimmed but spraying was never the aim of the game. C’mon now this has to be one of the worst abilities in VALORANT.

While Astra can use a Gravity Well to pull opponents whenever she wants and wherever she wants, Brim is stuck with the lousy old Stim Beacon. This ability needs to be completely scratched and swapped for a new one since it is keeping him behind other controllers like Astra and Viper who have better utility for their team.

Astra harnesses the power of the cosmos and uses stars to alter gravitational forces to pull opponents into a well. In other words, her abilities match her character design. Maybe Brim, who is a suspected former soldier and war commander, could have an ability related to his persona too.

Perhaps his Stim Beacon can be swapped for another piece of military equipment. Maybe he could drop a singular ‘bullet-proof’ vest for a teammate each round that grants the user a health bonus of 50-100 for the body only.

Maybe that is not on theme enough with his ‘controller’ role and he should have something more like an army radio which has a small radius and alerts him when an enemy is near. When I think of a controller agent, I think of map control, so I guess something like that helps manage flanks, but it still doesn’t seem like the right fit for him.

Moreover, a lot of agents are already proficient at controlling flanks, like Cypher and Killjoy. Maybe something like a cluster grenade that is thrown and when activated leaves mines on the ground that don’t deal lethal damage but instead slow and deal partial damage to enemies that pass through it, kind of like Ziggs’ Hexsplosive Minefield from League of Legends. This might be a viable option.

Lastly, there is nothing wrong with Brimstone’s smokes themselves, but the fact he only gets three and can only use them within a certain radius is pretty awful. Astra and Omen can smoke repeatedly throughout the round and they can place the smoke wherever they want. Meanwhile, Brim is limited by distance.

It would be nice to see Brim have the power to reach the entire map as he then wouldn’t be forced to play mid on maps like Bind, Haven, or Ascent then.

4. Add new interactives on maps

Ziplines are getting a bit old now don’t you reckon. In my opinion, there are enough maps that have random and obscure flying foxes on them.

It’d be cool to see something new on the next map. Bind has teleporters, Breeze has a chute, Icebox and Fracture have ziplines.

It would be interesting to see something different like an elevator or a teleporter tube.

The Riot team are always pushing the boundaries when it comes to conventional map design for tactical shooters and I am sure with the ingenuity and creativity they have shown recently, the next map will have a unique interactive aspect to it.

It would be cool to see them design a map that has a lot of verticality to it, and no I am not talking about something like Icebox either.

I am talking about “Watch out, they have an Operator up on that tower” sort of design. I am confident that Riot are easing us into more and more peculiar map designs. I’m all for it and think it’d be cool to see new and outlandish creations.

5. Give Deadeye a successful launch

From the Fracture preview and various images that have been circulating of Deadeye it is apparent that this massive sniper-esque weapon is his most prized possession.

I wonder how you could make this weapon stronger than the Operator which is already a one-shot machine at any distance to the chest. I’m not too invested into VALORANT lore as I find it very confusing with the limited detail that has been released up to date.

But I am aware that there is some sort of mirror universe and I have heard theories that Deadeye is in some ways a counterpart to Sova. Similarly to Sova, Deadeye has a marking that comes down his forehead across his right eye.

Gathering from these images, maybe his right eye is not an ordinary eye. Given his name… ‘Deadeye’, maybe he lost his eye and it is now replaced by some sort of futuristic piece of technology with immense potential and power.

With his suspected relation to Sova, I am assuming maybe in his ultimate he will be able to see through walls when scoped in with his rifle? It is assumed from the Fracture map reveal video that Deadeye was responsible for shooting the collider in the middle of the map which supposedly split earth one and two. If his bullets are capable of this level of penetration I am also going to assume that he may have the power to one-shot any agent anywhere.

It would be cool to see infinite penetrability, this idea is consistent with Sova again, since Sova can use his Hunter’s Fury through any objects and terrain. I’m going to guess he will have some setbacks like only being able to slot one bullet in the chamber before having to reload, or a very obvious audio queue or something similar that will balance out how strong his ultimate will be.

That’s my hope for Deadeye though, it would be cool to see something stronger than the Operator, and an ability that relies on aim.

Like I said, VALORANT is in quite a good place right now and I don’t think I ever find myself thinking, damn that is broken or that ability needs to be nerfed. Despite this, there are a few underwhelming abilities from agent’s like Yoru and Brimstone and it would be nice to see things like Fakeout and Stim Beacon reworked or swapped out for completely new ones.

I am very interested to hear what you guys would like to see changed or added to the game. Let us know in the comments section what you’re thinking!

The post A Radiant Player’s VALORANT Wishlist (5 Changes for Episode 3) appeared first on Mobalytics.

Trying to summarize a whole scene and therefore countless individual teams doesn’t necessarily sound like a great idea when you hear of it the first time.

Nonetheless, we as an esport community tend to always compare players, teams and in the end also different regions of the world to each other regarding their playstyles and capabilities in the games we are passionate about.

Since everybody is talking about it but no one really captures the essence of it, Mobalytics made the effort to sum up the main current Meta differences of Valorant’s different regions.

Today’s article focuses on the South Korean (hereinafter only referred to as ‘Korean’) Meta in particular.

To explore and furtherly explain all important aspects of the current Korean Meta we are first looking at bare statistics of the region like agent pick rates & win rates, map pick rates and such.

Afterward, we are ready to look at a few gameplay examples to identify the key traits of the current Korean Meta in pro play and what you can take away from it in particular.

To round off our take on the Korean Meta we are also comparing it to some of the main characteristics of the North American (NA) and European (EU) Valorant Meta practiced at the current stage of the game which is Patch 2.03.

However, as long as there are no competitive matchups between teams of different regions, all we can do is speculate. The first true test for the different regional approaches to Valorant will be at the international Valorant Champions tournament at the end of 2021.

But as a preparation for this mentioned clash of the regions, let’s get into the analysis of the Korean Meta first.

Disclaimer: We are solely moving the gameplay-related characteristics of the Korean pro scene into the spotlight of this article. South Korea’s FPS history, community, or other inherent trademarks of the region are just as interesting but simply not in today’s focus.

Pro Korean Valorant Stats

For this section we are taking a look at the bare statistics of the most recently completed tournament in the Korean scene: VCT 2021: Korea – Challengers 2.
Amongst other things, we’ll include the most relevant stats regarding agent picks, map picks and weapon usage of the tournament.

Agent Picks

Pro Scene

Source

Here you can clearly identify the typical agent lineup for most Korean teams: Breach, Omen, Sova, Jett, and one varying pick.

For some maps and teams this varying pick might be an additional duelist like Raze but most of the time we saw a Sentinel like Cypher or Killjoy complementing the lineup.

But the favorites under the currently selectable agents are clear for most Korean pro teams:

• Omen – 97.9% pick rate and 50% win rate
• Jett – 93.8% pick rate and 48.9% win rate
• Sova – 87.5% pick rate and 50% win rate
• Breach – 75% pick rate and 47.2% win rate

Seeing a Breach so far up on that ranking kind of already tells you a lot about the general playstyle and ability to change pace in the Korean Meta.

Both in North American and European agent rankings it’s probable to see a lot more Sentinel picks like Cypher, Killjoy, and even Sage to replace Breach’s potential slot in the lineup.

Also, Duelist alternatives to Jett and Raze like Reyna and Phoenix are noticeably more popular in other regions.

But let’s not spoil too much regarding comparisons between the regions, we will philosophize about that in a whole different section later on in the article.

Ladder

The agent picks in the Korean ladder look drastically different to the ones in pro play.

Very popular agent picks in pro play like Breach and Omen are rarely picked in normal Ranked matches in Korea with Breach only having an underwhelming 7% pick rate.

Most of the time you’ll find multiple Duelists in one game. Phoenix, Raze, and especially Jett and Reyna have very high pick rates compared to basically all agents associated with the Sentinels class (Cypher, Killjoy, and Sage).

For me personally, it was very interesting to see the extraordinary pick rate of Brimstone. In no other region is Brimstone that much more liked and preferred over Omen, his main rival in his field.

In general, it seems like in the Korean ladder there are a huge amount of solo players who aren’t too keen on helping out teammates with their abilities and rather want to play for themselves.

Having up to three Duelists in a team apparently is highly common and team-focused agents like Breach, Cypher, Killjoy and Skye find absolutely no niche in the current casual Meta at least.

However, it’s important to mention here that these statistics were drawn from the ranks of Platin 1 and everything above. So there is a certain degree of knowledge and skill regarding the game to assume at this level.

Map Picks

Pro Scene

Source

In the visual above you can spot a trend that unfortunately is common for pretty much all regions of pro Valorant: Icebox didn’t really find approval on the part of both the ladder and professional players.

This seemingly also goes for the Korean scene. Teams in this region generally put in a lot of work and thought in their setups on maps and how they are going to approach specific map control.

Finding and successfully establishing those setups and prepared executes on a new map in the map pool takes a lot of practice and time. I could imagine, many teams don’t want to risk playing on Icebox due to the feeling of not being fully prepared for it.

Besides that, a pretty much normal distribution of map picks took place at VCT 2021: Korea – Challengers 2.

Split played fewer times overall compared to Bind, Haven and Ascent but that’s also a fairly common thing we were able to observe in tournaments all over the world the last months.

Ladder

You can find a similar distribution in the played maps in the Ranked ladder in Korea over the last few weeks. These numbers in particular are drawn from the timeframe 02/17/2021 until today, so as up-to-date as you can get.

Icebox apparently is the most dodged map in the current map pool and therefore is the least played overall. So, as you can see the already mentioned trend to dislike Icebox is also clearly displayed in the ladder stats.

The other four maps, Ascent, Bind, Haven and Split seem to be equally popular in Korea’s ladder. Only Ascent stands out slightly as at least the most played map in the pool.

Weapon Usage

Pro Scene

Source

To be completely honest with you, this pie chart shocked me the first time I found it.

In all regions except Korea the Vandal has a 60/40 or even 70/30 majority over the Phantom in its overall purchases. But not in the Korean Meta.

Here the Phantom rules over the Vandal with an approximate 70/30 buy ratio.

Apparently, this proves that the term “ninja” truly originates in Asia. The Sneaky Beaky effect of the Phantom’s silencer evidently found a huge fanbase within the Korean scene.

Apart from that significant balance shift regarding the two main rifles of Valorant, there is nothing greatly unusual here.

However, there are some indicators in this chart that may suggest a slight tendency to skip force buys in Korean pro matches.

“Why?”, you rightfully ask. Because SMG’s like Spectre or Stinger are noticeably less dominant here compared to other regions and on the other hand pistols like Classic and Frenzy hold great numbers. In situations you can’t or don’t want to afford an SMG you are likely to stick to a pistol.

Whether this is the actual case or not we’ll evaluate in the following playstyle analysis of the current Korean Meta.

Ladder

The main peculiarity in the pro scene regarding weapon usage is the incredible ratio of 70/30 for Phantom/Vandal purchases.

But, this behavior doesn’t seem to also apply to the Korean Valorant ladder. Here, the Vandal has gotten the upper hand over the Phantom with a usage ratio of 55/45. Not a difference as distinct as in the regions of NA or EU but after all a turnaround compared to the Korean pro scene.

Other than that, the Ghost is noticeably more popular than the Classic in the ladder. That’s definitely something contrary to the conception of Korean pro teams regarding pistols.

Playstyle of The Current Korean Meta

Capturing the essence of the Korean playstyle is not an easy task. However, the whole purpose of this article is to make an educated and reasoned attempt to do exactly that to maybe give a better insight into this for most players foreign region of Valorant.

So, let’s begin.

Korean Valorant is very well thought out. Only a few things regarding rounds seem to be depending on quick decision-making coming from individuals ingame.

Most of the early round approaches are well-considered and look like the teams practiced them a thousand times on offline servers before implementing it into an actual match.

The overall pace of most Korean teams is very slow. Nearly every buy round starts with a default from both teams which is oftentimes spread over the whole length of the map.

Nonetheless, every team has various ways in store to take or retake map control on each part of the map. Again, very planned out and calculated and oftentimes in a really explosive fashion.

The very popular Korean agent combination of Jett and Breach, which we already saw in the agent pick rates of the region, mainly represents the ability for explosive plays of this kind.

Also, things I found to be very characteristic of the Korean playstyle are revolutionary, never-seen-before utility combos and mini-plays all over the map.

All this requires a huge amount of teamwork and coordination only a few teams in the world could potentially match as of today. Thinking of teams like Sentinels in North America or FPX in the European region.

To adequately visualize these main qualities of Korean Valorant, we are now looking at an gameplay example extracted out of a matchup between Vision Strikers and NUTURN in the VCT 2021: Korea – Challengers 1 Open Qualifier.

This is a round of the first map Bind which the arguable number one of Korean Valorant, Vision Strikers actually lost in the end.

We see all kind of “typical” Korean gameplay details in this round:

• Slow pace by both teams in the beginning of the round
• A nice utility combo at B Long by the defenders (Vision Strikers)
  • Killjoy turret holding the line of sight
    • Breach ready to flash on turret’s contact
  • No action until only 40 seconds are left on the clock
• But then an explosive confrontation at B Long with the infamous Breach flashes

Overall, two defaults collided at the 0:40 minutes mark in this round. The attacker team’s (NUTURN) slow and careful approach to the round was matched by a well-prepared defender team (Vision Strikers) that was only waiting for contact.

You will find many rounds in Korean pro matchups which will run like this or in a very similar way.

Also regularly, the devilish duo Breach + Jett will tackle early round map control with some form of combination of Jett’s dash and Breach’s flashes.

This playstyle is very inherent to many Korean teams.

Comparing the Korean Meta to NA/EU

We already briefly addressed the differences in agent, map and weapon preferences between the Korean Meta and the North American and European ones.

To do a short recap, the devilish duo Jett + Breach is something that is very prominent in Korea’s ladder and pro scene especially. Of course, other regions adopted the principle of “flashing and dashing” as well but use it not as excessively as Korean teams do.

Also, we mentioned a drastic difference in the total usage of Phantom and Vandal regarding Korea and the rest of the world.

Whether this is going to impact future encounters on international stages is hard to predict but probably something that is going to have a marginal impact compared to other differential views on how to play the game.

Conclusion

Maybe the following is a bit over-simplified but as a closing statement I would leave you with this:

Pace and utility usage of the Korean Meta resemble in some regard the approach many EU teams also try to follow. Very well planned-out and strategic.

Nonetheless, some of the plays to get early round map control or a few instant rushes seen in the Korean Meta could just as well be part of the repertoire NA teams typically have.

However, the first real test between the regions will occur at the end of this year at the VCT 2021 Champions tournament. Feel free to come back to this article then and rectify my wrong conceptions and suppositions.

Keep track of all the best players in Korea and other regions with our Valorant Leaderboard.

The post Valorant Pro Korean Meta Analysis appeared first on Mobalytics.

From 4th to 7th February the first VCT Challengers tournament was played out in the North American region.

The starting shot for the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2021 NA had many interesting and unexpected matchups to offer since a few of the so-thought favorites didn’t even make it out of the Open Qualifier a week prior.

Teams like T1, 100Thieves, TSM and Cloud9 Blue failed to survive the Open Qualifier but that didn’t diminish the quality of the games later on. Rather the opposite was the case.

In the end, these eight teams were able to close it out and earned the chance to participate in the Main Event of VCT Challengers #1 with a price pool of $50,000 USD:

Image via Liquidpedia

Today, we are taking a closer look at the matchup between the two teams that made it all the way to the Grand Final: Immortals and Sentinels.

Game Analysis

Immortals showed a more or less clean performance throughout all their Upper Bracket matchups and secured themselves a spot in the Final after beating XSET 2-1, Gen.G Esports 2-0 and Luminosity Gaming 2-1 in maps.

Sentinels on the other hand lost their very first Upper Bracket matchup against Luminosity Gaming and therefore were forced to rebuild confidence for a challenging upcoming route through Lower Bracket. Spoiler: They did it.

The Grand Final was designed to be a best of five, which means the first team to win three maps overall wins the Grand Final.

However, since Immortals came from the Upper Bracket into this matchup they received one map win in advance and theoretically only needed two additional map wins to close it out.

Source

In spite of this considerable head start for Immortals, Sentinels defeated their opponent in clinical fashion.

Three maps, three clear wins for Sentinels and thus the overall tournament victory of VCT Challengers #1 Main Event and the associated $20,000 USD prize money for Sentinels.

And here we are, having the exciting opportunity to go over three specific and especially interesting rounds out of the first map of the Grand Final: Split.

But let’s take a look at a few relevant statistics for this map regarding both teams before we are getting into the analysis part.

Before this matchup Immortals only played Split two times in the entire VCT Challengers #1 tournament.

They won their first game on it 13-8 against Team Envy and lost their second one 10-13 against Cloud9 Blue.

Sentinels on the other hand have a bit more experience on Split. Overall, played five times in Challengers #1 and four times a win. Only against Luminosity Gaming they had to swallow a 9-13 loss.

So, on paper Sentinels have the clear edge regarding experience on the map.

Agent compositions for both teams seem to be fairly non-discussable on Split in the past and therefore pretty easy to predict for this matchup.

Immortals Comp

Sentinels Comp

In the following section, we highlighted two different rounds to show why Sentinels’ approach to the map worked out basically across the board and how Immortals tried to cope after losing six consecutive rounds in the beginning of the game.

Additionally, we also took a closer look at the second Pistol Round due to the meta-describing use of the Frenzy by both teams.

While observing these aspects, we will also be pointing out useful tips and tricks that you can apply in your own matches.

Grand Final – Split

To make the rounds we want to further explore with you a bit more clear and vivid, we summarized the respective rounds to a few key points.

This allows us to focus on the most important decisions and duels in the round and to fade out everything less important for explanation’s sake.

Because oftentimes winning or losing rounds comes down to very few decisions and key duels within the round.

Simplifying the events of a round can help immensely in tracking down these deciding factors and also mistakes that happened.

So, let’s get right into our first highlighted round!

Highlight 1 – 5th Round (Score: Immortals 0 – 4 Sentinels)

At this point in the game Sentinels already started well into the game. They won the Pistol Round and three consecutive rounds after.

For the first time in this match both teams have the money for a full-buy. The Immortals bank even recovered enough from the passed round losses to be able to afford an Operator.

This is how the 5th round went in chronological order:

[8:23] Sentinels (attacker site) decide to run a default in which they take early B tunnels control in a fairly aggressive fashion

• Sinatraa plays a very aggressive role and instantly peeks B site
• He finds the entry frag onto Khemicals who misses his Operator shot

[8:32] Simultaneously, Sentinels work their way forward in Mid after registering that there is no Mid aggression on Immortals side

• They trade a one-for-one: Immortals’ ShoT-UP pops out of cover to kill Zombs but ShahZaM immediately refrags him

[8:52] Since Sentinels managed to get numbers advantage (4v3 at this point) they decide to make use of it and do a simple execute on A site

• This is possible because Sentinels’ Cypher Dapr did his job in this specific default: Showing presence on A and holding any potential aggression from Immortals

[8:58] Dapr manages to get the round-concluding kill onto NaturE in A Heaven because Immortals consequently decide to safe their weapons for the next round after

[9:32] Nonetheless, since Sentinels bank is close to the maximum of ¤ 9,000 credits they decide to hunt the remaining Immortals players

• The hunt isn’t successful – three Sentinels players get killed in the process

Key Takeaways + Tips and Tricks

Overall, the round was decided by the first frag coming from sinatraa onto Khemicals and the maintaining of the resulting numbers advantage over the whole round.

A successful default, efficient trading and a solid round-closing execute by Sentinels never really left a chance for Immortals to turn the situation around after the initial whiff from Khemicals’s Operator.

And that’s exactly what you can take away from this round for your own play in the future. If your team manages to get an early entry kill and doesn’t get traded, retreat for the time being and think about how you can capitalize from this numbers advantage.

Many teams want to compensate for a loss of manpower by pushing somewhere on the map and getting information about the enemy positions. Waiting for this kind of aggression after an entry kill might be a good plan.

A simple execute like Sentinels decided to do is oftentimes a solid way to benefit from your numbers advantage and win the round.

However, there are many other ways to round off a round like that. As long as you maintain the earned numbers advantage by trading kills in the consequent duels you should be fine.

Highlight 2 – 7th Round (Score: Immortals 0 – 6 Sentinels)

In the 7th round of the game Immortals seemingly found a way to counter Sentinels B Tunnels default and even won their first round in the end.

Again, it was a full-buy for both teams and Sentinels as well as Immortals bought one Operator each.

Let’s see how Immortals went about this round and what they did differently in comparison to previous rounds.

[13:23] Sentinels run their usual B Tunnels default seen in many rounds before

• This time Sinatraa doesn’t go for the B site peek right away
• Him and SicK are even holding for potential re-aggression

[13:38] Immortals try for the first time in this match to retake B tunnels control – and succeed

• Even though two Sentinels players are holding the push, Immortals is able to trade it out and win the 3v2 confrontation
• An additional resurrect (Ultimate ability) from Immortals Sage, Genghsta turns the situation into a 5v3 in favor of Immortals

[13:55] Sentinels A players in their default, Cypher Dapr and Jett ShahZaM are slowly contacting A to regain map control and balance out the situation

• The Immortals A player, NaturE, on the other side, plays it correctly and stays defensive to not give Sentinels a chance to turn the situation around

[14:10] Nonetheless, both Dapr and ShahZaM get a frag to make it a 3v3 retake since the Spike is getting planted on A site in the meantime

• The numbers are even again due to this two kills and Immortals has the considerably worse position by having to retake and defuse the Spike

[14:35] Immortals retake becomes possible because Dapr left his teammate Zombs alone on site who then gets sandwiched and killed

• The location of the Spike plant was suboptimal for defending it from ramp or heaven
• Therefore Immortals could just stick the defuse after killing the only enemy on site and thus win the round

Key Takeaways + Tips and Tricks

The entire round the balance was shifting between both teams.

After Immortals’ successful B Tunnels reaggression the round was in favor for them.

But the moment both Dapr and ShahZaM equalized the situation by killing a player each on A, the Spike plant was made possible and a 3v3 retake situation for Immortals resulted.

But then Dapr made one wrong decision by not considering the Spike plant position and he left the site and his teammate by himself.

This was the key factor that enabled Immortals’ remaining three players to kill the site player without a trade and just defuse the Spike without any risk.

An important learning you can draw from this round is to always keep the communication in the team alive. Most likely the Spike planter zombs didn’t realize he was able to plant more open for heaven and ramp because ShahZaM didn’t call him that he was holding heaven in the meantime.

And also Dapr’s round-defining decision to leave the site after the Spike plant probably came from bad comms in this particular situation.

So, always communicate the important details of what you are doing to your teammates ingame.

Independent of Ranked ladder or team-based matches this makes winning the rounds that matter a lot more consistent. Even if adrenaline and focus are high in those situations.

Highlight 3 – 13th Round (Score: Immortals 3 – 9 Sentinels)

In the last highlighted round we are looking at the second Pistol Round in this game. After half time the defender team now is Sentinels and the attacking team Immortals.

You don’t like to see it but it simply summarizes the current pistol meta in Valorant pretty perfectly: Nine Frenzys and only one Ghost was bought for this round.

Let’s look at how the best teams of NA work with this gun.

[23:46] Something that looked like an instant A rush attempt by Immortals was blocked by Sentinels’ utility early on

• Sentinels seemingly anticipated a certain amount of A presence by Immortals’ side and stacked A with three players
• The utility (Slow and Barrier Orb) of A Heaven player Sage, SicK mainly blocked the enemy rush, ShahZaM and Zombs set up a close range crossfire with the Frenzys

[24:10] Immortals decide to rotate to Mid in a very noisy fashion which gave Sentinels’ dapr also the chance to rotate to ropes in time for their cross to B Heaven

[24:22] Dapr manages to get a kill on an unaware Immortals player, Khemicals and also got away with his life

• He lures the rest of Immortals into ropes because they wanted to trade him

[24:29] A close range massacre takes place when all remaining Immortals players drop down ropes into to two Frenzys held by Dapr and Sinatraa

• The kill onto the lurking NaturE on A secures the round win for Sentinels

Key Takeaways + Tips and Tricks

Sometimes it’s better to let the enemies run into your well-prepared set up without any resistance from your side. By blocking the enemy team just because you can, you might take the fight somewhere else where you aren’t that well-prepared for a hit.

Sentinels did that. They blocked the initial A rush although their setup on A was really solid to begin with.

But in the end it worked out for them because Immortals were unlucky by dropping down into a close-range fight in which not even one but two Frenzys were just waiting for their prey.

Outro

Let’s take a look on the overall scoreboard of VCT Challengers #1 Grand Final.

Our personal MVP (most valuable player) of this matchup is Sinatraa from Sentinels.

Not only is he the top fragger of the Grand Final, but he also holds an unbelievable ratio when it comes to entry kills and entry deaths.

In three maps he opened thirteen rounds with his first frags for Sentinels and only died trying six times.

For a pure entry player which Sinatraa for sure is, this is an incredible statistic. Also, no other player on the server came close to his performance.

The agent comps we saw this game were also very congruent with the previously known comps on each map from the respective teams. No real surprises here.

But if you want to let yourself be influenced by our take on agent comps on each map, be sure to check out our Valorant Agent Tier List.

It’s always up-to-date and highly discussed by our high-ranked staff.

To learn more from the pros, check out our Valorant Leaderboard and Profiles.

The post Pro Valorant Match Analysis: Sentinels vs Immortals (VCT NA #1) appeared first on Mobalytics.

Does the solo-queue experience in Valorant get on your nerves? Are the randoms in your team sabotaging you once again? You are stuck and unsatisfied in your current rank but cannot climb the Ranked ladder because of unfair matchmaking?

Maybe, grouping up in a coordinated 5-stack is a possible solution to all of your problems. A large population of the Valorant player base is queueing the Ranked or Unranked matchmaking in a lobby of at least three people.

Especially in Valorant, this approach may secure you a clear advantage over your opponents because of the more reliable communication and consistent teamwork. That’s why we want to cover the process of establishing a dependable Valorant 5-stack for you and your friends.

Starting from the initial step of finding fitting players for your lobby, going all the way through to explaining what opportunities there are for your team to compete besides the official Ranked ladder.

Coming Together: How to Make Friends (or at least Teammates)

A good portion of you might already have a group of friends you can grind and climb Ranked with. You probably meet a few times a week to play together or just bunch up with the players that are available in the moment to have a little fun.

However, many people who generally enjoy this game aren’t so fortunate and have to expose themselves to the risky and oftentimes toxic environment of solo-queue.

One option for those players could be to constantly be on the lookout for skilled and communicative mates in the matches they play.

Separating the wheat from the chaff and recruiting teammates that might qualify to be invited into your lobby to play further matches can be a tricky task.

There’s always a chance the player who was supposed to enhance the team chemistry turns out as a burden to the rest of the lobby by being toxic or simply in a lower skill level.

But in the past this attempt showed to be very successful in several cases and even a few of the best professional teams found their line-ups this way.

Agreeing on a Schedule

Depending on the availability of the group of players you now established, it can help immensely to work out a basic schedule for playing together.

Everyone knows the problem: Your friends are at work, in school, or busy doing “more important” stuff than playing Valorant when you are eager to rank up in your next few games.

Most of the times it makes sense to pick a few days of the week (or even every day) and to arrange a set time when you should come together.

There are many possibilities that work well as a meeting point, most fitting would be some kind of voice conferencing software which you should use anyway if you intend to communicate more fluently with your team, for example: Discord, Teamspeak, or even Skype.

So, now you are almost good to go for queuing Ranked with your mates and dominating the opponents due to the improved quality of your communication and teamplay.

But, one thing is still to be determined: Who plays which agent and what kind of player types did you gather in your squad.

Pre-Game Strategizing

After you found yourself a reliable and fun-to-play-with lobby, you and your teammates have to decide on which agents to play and who is going to play them. And ideally, this discussion should take place before you find a game.

Just like people have strengths and weaknesses in real life, players in Valorant prefer some agents over others depending on their playstyle.

Here are some general tips to find your perfect agent selection based on the player types you are working with:

• Aggressive players who tend to simply out-aim opponents are most valuable to the team by playing duelists like: Jett, Phoenix, Raze, Reyna.
• Thinkers who are constantly trying to maximize teamwork and work out the smartest solution to a tricky situation probably find supporting agents most fitting, for example: Breach, Sage, Sova, or the latest added agent Skye.
• Strategists who are likely to stay in the back at first and observe the action carefully before charging into battle presumably find the most joy in playing more passive agents like: Omen, Brimstone, Cypher, Killjoy or the by the community more or less neglected Viper

Be sure to include the different maps and Spike sites in your decision making and differentiate between them. Not every map is the same and thus should be approached in an appropriate manner.

But testing is above studying and worrying too much about tactics and such details of the game can shift your focus from the actual gameplay. So try things out and learn with your team!

However, if you are clueless about the best agent combinations on each map, we’ve got you covered with our Valorant agent tier list.

Here you can find our recommended agent picks for the current map pool during every patch:

Outlook on Competitive and Esports

If you and your teammates reach a point at which the regular Valorant Ranked experience bores you to death and ranking up isn’t a goal that is worth striving for any longer, you could make the next step and enter the big and competitive world of Valorant esports.

Every week and especially weekend there are lots of tournaments and cups to compete in for either a certain price pool or simply “honor and fame”.

As a really new game, Valorant already has a fairly big esports scene which is continuously growing.

Price pools are getting bigger and the first tournaments administered by Riot themselves (Valorant’s development studio) are seeing the light of day.

Esports is a huge market and a great passion for millions of people all over the world but it’s not for everyone – and that’s totally fine.

We merely want to draw your attention to the possibility to further your Valorant experience when Ranked matchmaking just doesn’t do it for you anymore. The esports community welcomes every new and interested member.

Want more tools to help your 5-stack? Head to our Valorant Maps feature to help plan your executes and tactics.

The post How to Climb Ranked as a 5-Stack in Valorant appeared first on Mobalytics.

Hey everyone!

Today we’ll be interviewing a special guest, Turan “Yami” Selvi, who recently hit the Radiant rank for the first time on the EU server.

Throughout this article, we discuss topics such as his mentality, encounters with pro players, tips and tricks for climbing, and more!

Yami is most known for running the Valorantdaily Instagram account, be sure to give him a follow.

Congrats on getting Radiant! Did you play other tactical shooters or FPS games before Valorant? 

My first tactical shooter was Counter Strike Source, which I played when I was really really young. After that, I switched over to console and played Call of Duty for a couple of years. Then I moved back to PC and played FPS games like CS:GO, Overwatch, and Rainbow Six Siege.

For those games, did you play them all competitively and try to climb the ranked ladder?

I played all of them mostly casually except for Overwatch and CS:GO. In Overwatch, I managed to hit Top 500 in Season 4 but lost the motivation to keep playing soon after.

In CS:GO, I also played until the highest rank, Global Elite, and quit playing ranked after a couple of months.

When Valorant came out, was it your goal to hit Radiant (or “Valorant” at the time) from day 1?

Haha, yes! I knew I wasn’t going to hit Radiant already in beta or act 1 since I didn’t grind as much and before that, I was mostly playing League and TFT, but it definitely was a goal from the beginning onward.

During your climb, about how many matches would you play a day on average? 

During the beta and Act 1, I didn’t play as actively as now, probably only 1-2 games a day. In Act 2, it increased up to 2 up to 3 games a day.

Wow, that is much less than I’d expect. Did you play every day?

In Act 2, I’ve been playing pretty much every day. Before Act 2, I had a lot of days where I didn’t play at all.

Did you play solo or premades? 

A mix of both, probably 70% premade and 30% solo. I definitely prefer playing with premades over solo queue.

How does your mentality/strategy change when playing at high levels of ranked in premade vs solo?

I think even in the high levels, solo queue can be a mess sometimes, especially in EU. It happens very frequently that 1-3 players in your team don’t have a mic or can’t use it because they’re living in Russia. It’s definitely a disadvantage and was a bigger one back then when the matchmaking didn’t really differentiate between a team full of solo queue players and a full-stack.

After the update, it’s more balanced but still hurts to play without comms. That’s the main reason why I play in premade and I’m often the only one who plays Jett so I can pick her without feeling guilty haha.

Can you describe the development of your agent pool? Has it been the same since the beta or has it changed as you climbed the ranks?

The first agent I really liked was Cypher who I played the most in beta. Then I moved on and played/tested pretty much every agent until I picked up Jett in late Act 1.

The reason for that was that I felt the most comfortable with her kit since it assists aggressive play and synergizes well with an Operator (I mostly played AWP in CS).

I always liked Jett but didn’t play her in the early stages since she was considered a troll pick back then.

What’s more important at agent select, playing your comfort pick or what’s meta? For example, if Jett was nerfed would you still try to make her work or switch to a top-tier agent?

I definitely think that the agent you play matters – BUT for me, the biggest game-changer was becoming more and more consistent at winning aim duels.

When it comes to playing my comfort pick or what’s meta I would probably try to find an agent that combines both and if that agent doesn’t exist, I try to find the one which is the closest to that.

If Jett was nerfed I would probably just try her and see if I still enjoy playing her before making any changes.

Yami’s performance overview. See yours here.

How many agents do you think you need to be proficient with to reach Radiant? At least 2 (main + backup) or more?

I think it doesn’t hurt to play all of them and get a general idea of how they work. After that, having 1-2 pocket picks is probably recommendable.

I for example play mainly Jett or alternatively literally any other agent which is needed (except for Sova and Cypher because if you don’t know the proper lineups/spots for your utility you’re kinda screwed.

Do you spend time practicing agent abilities, such as Jett’s smokes, in Customs?

No, I personally have never done that but I think it’s definitely a good idea for people who have the motivation and time to do that.

Assuming you’re in solo queue, is it better to always choose your comfort pick or pick an agent you’re less comfortable with but is better for the team? For example, would you still choose Jett if your team already had Raze, Phoenix, and Reyna. 

No, I would never do that. I think instalocking in solo queue is a terrible idea and if I see that we already have 2 duelists I would usually just ask the remaining people what they want to play and then fill to whatever agent we needed.

Yami’s agent class distribution. See yours here!

You mentioned earlier that the biggest game-changer for you was becoming more consistent in winning aim duels. Did you take specific steps to improve that? Or did you just learn that by playing ranked over time?

To be honest in CS:GO, I never really practiced shooting for heads and it wasn’t that essential in the other FPS games I played.

Then with VALORANT I picked up an aim trainer, Kovaak’s 2.0, and trained my aim for the first time. This didn’t last very long, I only spent like 10 hours using it.

I slowly improved by playing a bunch of Ranked but it wasn’t until Deathmatch came out that I felt very serious improvements.

I think Deathmatch is a great way to improve your consistency in winning aim duels – maybe even the best.

Do you play Deathmatch often to practice? Do you have a regular routine or practice ritual before you start playing ranked matches?

I used to play practice range a lot before Deathmatch came out but ever since then.. very rarely

Now, I often just play 1-2 Deathmatch rounds before I play ranked. Then after the first game, I usually take a 5-10 minute break in which I either again play Deathmatch or do something else.

Looking at your profile, I noticed that your Top 5 guns are the Vandal, Operator, Phantom, Ghost, and Classic. Do you use the Vandal/Phantom situationally? Or were you a Phantom main that switched after Deathmatch came out and your aim improved?

I keep switching back and forth between those two haha. Looking at stats and pure facts, the Phantom is the stronger gun, but it just feels a lot better to play Vandal. I don’t know – I probably still haven’t found the right gun.

I think you need to adapt the gun to your playstyle. On attacking side for example, if you’re a guy who lurks the Vandal can be the better pick since you’ll mostly have a 1v1 duel max, but if you take the site with your team you’ll probably end up spraying through walls, smokes or you’ll need to transfer your spray and that’s where the Phantom has a big advantage – I think it’s all about finding the weapon which fits your playstyle.

Another example would be: If you find yourself hitting the first headshot with the Phantom at farther distances but you’re often not able to secure the kill with a second hit, it might be worth trying out the Vandal.

Can you walk us through your mental flowchart for how you approach guns/econ? For example, winning pistol vs losing it?

It depends on the agent but let’s assume I’m playing Jett. If we lose the first round, I usually buy a Shorty round 2 and try to get free kills by waiting for a push or use my dash plus jump to surprise people.

Losing first round always means playing rifle in round 3 basically. If we win the first round I often keep the Ghost or let a teammate give me his and stick to that so I can afford an Operator in round 3.

Yami’s gun performance. See yours here!

Outside of desperation all in rounds, do you ever use anything in between? Like the Bulldog/Guardian/SMGs? 

I think the Spectre is a great gun if you win the first round and don’t have the intention to buy an Operator in Round 3.

Except for that, I usually stay away from the rest. I think the Bulldog is fine for its price and Odin is great if you’re playing Sova but that’s pretty much it.

I always stay away from guns like Stinger, Ares, or Guardian.

The OP has been somewhat controversial lately and some have called for nerfs while others have argued that it is balanced and that players still don’t understand how to play against it. Obviously you may be slightly biased as an OPer but what are your thoughts on that overall?

Haha, I knew that was coming. I actually don’t think I’m biased at all. Although I’m using the OP myself I definitely agree that it could be weaker – but they could also just add more counter potential.

But I think we shouldn’t forget about the fact that Jett was considered useless for quite a long time after release until people figured out how to play her. I can also imagine the meta slowly developing away from the Operator without significant nerfs or buffs.

Do you think the complaints are more of an OP thing or a Jett thing? And if it were up to you, how would you balance it? Changing the gun itself or introducing other agent mechanics like Breach’s scope disruption? 

Probably a combination of both but definitely introducing other mechanics like Breach’s. His recent buff which allows him to flash 3 times definitely hurts the Operator indirectly and that’s a great way to slowly balance it out.

For the gun itself, as a lot of people already suggested, I think adding a noticeable zoom-in sound would be a step towards the right direction.

They should also experiment turning down the movement speed a little while you’re in scope.

What is your mental approach in ranked games? How do you avoid/manage tilt?

A few years ago, I used to be someone who tilts and gets upset really fast, especially about my team when I was performing well and they were doing poorly.

That was until I slowly realized that it really didn’t have a point. I learned about Stoicism from a book called The Daily Stoic, and started meditating.  It’s a really cool philosophy.

Setting goals in life outside of gaming also allowed me to take it way less seriously which resulted in me even performing better because I remember how the negative emotions lead me to bad decision making in the past.

Very cool, could you give us an example related to Valorant? How does it apply in situations such as when you’re having a good game but your team is doing bad or when you yourself are having a bad game?

I always try to make the best of things. If I play well and my team doesn’t, I, first of all, remember the games where it’s the opposite and secondly, I just try to motivate them and try to be a good leader by calling strats and stuff.

Are there any particular pros that you watch or look up to? Have you ran into any on the ladder?

There aren’t really ones who I look up to but I watch Wardell’s streams sometimes since he plays Jett and the Operator really well, plus he’s entertaining on top of that.

I actually met a bunch of EU pros in Ranked already. The most known are probably TL ec1s, the whole NiP line-up, G2 Davidp, and even s1mple from CS:GO.

That’s awesome, any particular stories that come to mind when you played with or against them?

When I faced NiP’s players, I thought there was only two of them but it turned out that two were on their main accounts and the other three were smurfing with random gamertags.

When we faced Davidp, I remember that we were leading 11-3 and then ended up losing 11-13 which really hurts haha. I can confirm that they are good at the game – I could feel the skill gap for sure.

Could you describe that skill gap?

You could just feel that they weren’t doing as many mistakes as the “average Immortal player” and they were really good at punishing your mistakes.

They all have strong aim of course but what really makes them different is their experience and decision making.

They weren’t taking 1v1 duels when it wasn’t necessary and were always playing really well with strong comms.

What would be your advice for someone trying to climb to Radiant? 

My first advice would be to enjoy the process. If you don’t necessarily want to start a pro-career, there’s no rush in improving yourself. Achieving Radiant is great feeling – I can’t deny that. But it’s not as meaningful as the whole grind.

If you feel stuck, consider taking it as a signal that there’s something blocking you. It could be your aiming, decision making, lack of knowledge, or even just the mentality. It’s always a great idea to reflect and think about what could be wrong.

These are probably more deep and will bring you long-term improvement, but in terms of short-term success, I think the best thing someone can do is to keep taking duels and every time you die, ask yourself what the reason for that was.

Was your aim bad? Did you reload when it wasn’t necessary? Did you move while shooting? There can be plenty of reasons and try to blame yourself instead of your PC, ping, or whatever else.

Thanks for the interview! Where can our readers find you?

You’re welcome! I run the Valorantdaily Instagram account and you can find me on Twitter at @yamii411.

We hope this article will help you get to Radiant! To track your climb and other stats, see your Valorant Player Profile at Mobalytics.

The post Valorant Interview with Turan “Yami” Selvi, A First Time Radiant appeared first on Mobalytics.