Ranking every agent and ability in Valorant

Valorant is Riot’s response to the success of competitive shooters such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, and Rainbow Six Siege. Valorant, like many other games in this genre, features a cast of characters known as Agents, each with their own set of powers.

Agents are not all created equal. To see the details of the meta, all you need to do is watch a few hours of a competitive Valorant tournament. There are feasible Agents, enjoyable Agents, and Agents that are a bit useless. This guide is based on a number of sites that track each Agent’s pick rate and win rate. Based on Patch 2.09, here’s our tier ranking, from worst to greatest.

Yor

Yoru’s Talents

* Blindside – A flash that appears when you collide with a hard surface; * Gatecrash – A teleport that can be used at any time.
* Fakeout – Tosses out an echo that imitates footsteps in order to deceive opponents.
* Dimensional Drift – A mask that makes Yoru invisible for a brief period of time.

In competitive Valorant, Yoru has a very low pick rate. Yoru is a newcomer to the game, having only been published in January of 2021, thus it’s possible that players are still learning the ropes. That idea is supported by the low win rate. However, it’s more likely that his movement and flashing powers aren’t as strong as Omen and Phoenix’s.

Neither Omen nor Phoenix have a particularly high pick rate, which reveals a lot about Valorant’s current meta. His Ultimate, Dimensional Drift, is by far his most viable ability. This lets you to blend into the background for a short period of time, allowing you to reposition or flank adversaries. Yoru has his usefulness, but for that solo queue grind, there are better options.

Skye

Skye’s Talents

* Trailblazer – Launches a little creature capable of attacking and stunning players.
* Guiding Light – When engaged, a hawk appears that can be steered with your crosshair and flashes players.
* Regrowth – Heals players within range and in direct line of sight, but not herself.
* Seekers – This summons a trinket that follows three of your closest foes.
Skye has a low pick rate but a good victory rate, owing to the fact that she is primarily a passive Agent who performs best when used in a five-player stack. Her skills tend to take you out of the fight for a brief amount of time, just long enough to be picked off by an aggressive opponent. She’s not really advised for solo queue play.

She serves a purpose. Her healing is fantastic for the team, and the targeted flash may be extremely valuable when pushing a site. Skye, on the other hand, is more likely to be found in high-level competitive play than in Unrated games or on the solo queue grind

Breach

The Capabilities of Breach
* Flashpoint – A blinding charge that can pass through solid objects. All players that gaze at it, including your teammates, are blinded.
* Fault Line – An earthquake that may be charged up and directed in a certain direction. Once again, this has an impact on all players.
* Aftershock – A blast capable of passing through walls. * Rolling Thunder – Breach’s Ultimate ability is undoubtedly one of the best control skills in the game, but it can send your teammates flying if you use it on them. To get it correctly, you’ll need some expertise.

Breach’s pick rate is even lower than Yoru’s. You must be a pretty confident Breach player if you don’t want to end up throwing your teammates into the air with the Rolling Thunder ultimate due to the intricate kit and abilities that can cause more harm than benefit to your allies.

That isn’t to argue that Breach isn’t an effective Agent. If employed correctly, his skills can be quite powerful, but they need a degree of cooperation and communication that you won’t find in an unrated game with a bunch of strangers.

Omen

The Powers of Omen

* Paranoia – Fires a projectile that causes players to become blind. This has the ability to pass through walls.
* A dark cover that can be moved about at will. This has the ability to pass through walls.

*A teleport is Shrouded Step. From the Shadows – A tactical map overlay allows you to teleport to any location on the map.

Over the course of Valorant’s first year, Omen has been nerfed quite a little. He used to be a far better option than he is now, with one of the lowest victory rates in the game. Omen’s movement and teleportation powers, on the other hand, are a lot of fun, so he’s not a bad choice for a rookie player.

The main issue with Omen is that it’s easy to get oneself into some sketchy circumstances. While teleporting behind a blinded enemy may appear to be a top-tier move, if you keep dying, it’s most likely because you’re being too predictable. The majority of experienced players are aware of the types of moves Omen will make. As a result, new players will pick up Omen (since he’s entertaining) just to die. Quite a bit.

Cypher

Capabilities of Cypher

* Cyber Cage – Deploys a limited region that inhibits visibility and slows foes; * Spycam – Deploys a camera that can be viewed by reactivating the ability.
* Neural Theft – Use on a dead player to reveal all other alive players for a brief duration.

Cypher was originally one of Valorant’s most popular Agents, and his recon talents made him a fantastic pick-up for beginner players. His tripwires and cameras can be extremely useful if you’re not sure how each map works or where adversaries might be.

Cypher, on the other hand, has had a number of nerfs, the majority of which have been to his tripwires. As a result, his win rate and pick rate have both plummeted. Riot isn’t known for leaving Agents in such a sad state for long, so keep an eye on the future patch notes for more changes to his gear. For the time being, Cypher is a safe bet for novice players, but once you’ve had the chance to unlock different Agents, you might want to branch elsewhere.

Reyna

Reyna’s Talents

* Devour – For a limited time, you can heal dead opponents. This is a quick heal that can literally save your life in some cases.
* Dismiss – Reyna is gone with a pop. Picking up a soul orb (dropped by a slain enemy) allows you to vanish from sight for a short time.
* Leer – A scary eye that Nearsights foes, enveloping them in a cloud of purple fog so they can’t see you approaching. Empress – A fury that speeds up firing and reloading. Killing an enemy increases the duration of the game.

Reyna is a difficult character to place on a tier list. Despite the fact that her kit has been severely weakened by a number of nerfs, she is still one of the most popular Agents in the game, despite her win rate being in the bottom half. What is the reason for this? She is, after all, a lot of fun to play.

Devour is one of the most powerful skills in the game. It enables any skilled player to instantaneously heal adversaries who have been killed. Dismiss transforms you into a smoky ghost for a limited period of time, while Leer allows you to push up and get up close and personal. A proficient Reyna can appear and vanish in the blink of an eye, shooting the entire time. It was a lot of fun. Reyna is the type of Agent chosen by confident players who believe they can breeze through lobbies, despite the fact that her low win rate implies this isn’t always the case.
Phoenix

The Capabilities of Phoenix

* Curveball – A flash that curves left around corners and walls.
* Hot Hands – When a fireball lands, it causes AOE damage.
* Blaze – Creates a flaming wall that prevents players from seeing and inflicts damage.
* Run It Return – Allows Phoenix to place a marker on the ground that you will teleport back to if you die with full health.

Phoenix is one of Valorant’s most enjoyable Agents to play. His flashes are powerful, his walls can manipulate sightlines, and his Ultimate “Run It Back” basically offers you multiple chances to charge around corners and pick off a few kills for your squad. He also has some self-healing abilities because to his Molotov.

Despite his capabilities, Phoenix still has a low win percentage when compared to the other Agents in the game. This is most likely due to the fact that he is an aggressive Agent who has a hard time in the Defense rounds. When do you make a move? When you’re playing Defense, do you ever use the Ultimate? A good Phoenix can still contribute while on defence, but it’s more difficult.

Sova

Sova’s Talents
* Shock Bolt – A bow that launches a shock bolt, and * Recon Bolt – A bow that fires a recon bolt, which reveals adversaries in a small area.
* Owl Drone – A flying drone that can use a dart to mark a player. * Hunter’s Fury – This bow contains three enormous blasts that can go through barriers and reveal them for a brief time. It inflicts damage while also revealing foes within a certain region.
Sova is easily the best recon Agent in the game, yet mastering his abilities to their maximum extent is difficult. Practice and putting in the hours to recall the right areas help him remember the angles he needs to get his recon arrows straight every time.
Sova isn’t higher on this list due of this learning problem. You’ll see him a lot in competitive play, but he can be intimidating to play with at first. Much of that information is meaningless if you’re playing single queue games, especially if your teammates aren’t paying attention to your callouts.

Viper

Capabilities of the Viper

* Poison Cloud – Poison Cloud allows you to hold down an area for the duration of the round. At the bottom of the screen is a fuel bar. It’s crucial to understand when to use the Poison Cloud.
* Toxic Screen – Like the Poison Cloud, activates a long array of gas emitters. There is also a fuel limit.
* Snake Bite – Deploys a poison canister that lasts for a long period and inflicts damage.
* Viper’s Pit – Covers an area in a poison cloud that impairs everyone’s vision and health. It’s ideal for stumbling upon a bomb site.
Sabine, commonly known as Viper, is a snake.