Valorant is the latest game from Riot Games that has suddenly taken over the world by storm. It is a competitive 5v5 FPS that blends together elements of Overwatch and Counter-Strike. This creates something truly exceptional in a world where every developer is trying to capitalize on the battle royale genre.
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Valorant Core Gameplay Design and Characters
The game takes the standard Counter-Terrorist vs Terrorist gameplay and throws in some hero shooter elements. You and your team pick agents from a diverse roster of 12, at the time of writing and fight to outgun and outsmart each other in battle.
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There are 4 classes of agents in the game – Initiators, Controllers, Sentinels and Duelists. Initiators set up angles, Controllers provide support, Sentinels provide great defensive capabilities and Duelists are expected to frag out. Let’s discuss these agents and their balance in detail.
Sova
Sova belongs to the Initiator class of agents. He uses his bow and drones to gather information about his opponents without getting in harm’s way. His signature is a Recon bolt, which can reveal the location of enemies through walls. The two other abilities include 2 shock darts, that are the same bolts but inflict damage. He also has an owl drone, which can shoot darts at an enemy to reveal their location across walls.
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His ultimate allows him to fire off three heavy-hitting beam shots from his bow, that can pass through walls. Sova is perfectly balanced as all his abilities have counters. His recon darts and drone can be shot off, shock darts and his ultimate can be dodged off, thanks to generous telegraph animations and audio cues.
Breach
Breach is the only other Initiator, as of now in Valorant. He uses his robotic hands to stun his enemies. His signature is Faultline, which dazzles enemies in its path for a short time, slows down their movement speed and caps their rate of fire. His other two abilities include Flashpoint, a flashbang that can pass through walls.
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The other ability is Aftershock, a fusion charge that passes through walls and damages anyone in its blast radius. His ultimate is rolling thunder, which is an amped-up version of his signature that is more devastating and covers more radius.
Breach is also well balanced. All his attacks, including his ultimate, can be easily dodged, thanks to the generous telegraph windows and clear indicators of blast radii.
Brimstone
Brimstone is a military officer who belongs to the controller class of agents. He uses Sky Smokes, smoke clouds he can summon anywhere in a particular radius on the map as a signature ability. His other abilities include an incendiary grenade that inflicts fire damage to anyone stepping over its radius. He also has Stim Beacons, which are devices that can be thrown and give fire rate buffs to anyone in its radius. His ultimate is Orbital Strike, a circular laser that is sure to kill anyone caught in its fire.
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Brimstone perfectly defines his class as a controller. His abilities can be easily dodged, again thanks to fair telegraph animations and distinct audio cues. Most of his abilities are the area of denial tools, that are meant to scare enemies off from pushing a portion of the map, and failure to comply will result in their death. So, he is a perfectly balanced character.
Omen
Omen is widely recognized as an edgier version of Reaper from Overwatch. He is a master of trickery and uses that to outsmart his foes in battle. His signature ability is dark cover, which is also a standard smoke cloud that he can throw anywhere on the map.
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He also has two other abilities and an ultimate. Shrouded Step allows Omen to teleport to a specific range. Paranoia is a flash grenade that passes through walls in a straight line, anyone caught is blinded instantly. His ultimate, into the shadows, allows him to teleport to anywhere on the map.
An Omen main should use trickery and cunning to deceive his opponents. As for balance, his abilities do have counters. His teleports aren’t instant and can be cancelled by shooting off his shadow. His flashes can be sidestepped to dodge and smokes don’t inflict any damage. So, he is also fairly balanced.
Viper
Viper is the titular poison queen in Valorant. She has a myriad of poison devices in her belt. His abilities give non-lethal decay damage. This decreases your HP at 10 per second and recovers 20 per second once you’re out of it. Her signature, Toxic Screen is a long line of poison emitters that creates a wall of toxin.
Her other two abilities include Poison Cloud, which is a smoke that can be carried by her to place in another spot. The other ability is Snake Bite, an area of denial tool that is a small pool of toxin which inflicts decay damage. Her ultimate, Viper’s Pit is a large cloud of toxin that reveals their location and inflicts decay damage to anyone who enters it and can be sustained infinitely if Viper is inside the cloud.
Viper is widely regarded as the most underpowered agent in the whole roster. Her area of denial tools doesn’t punish the player as harshly as they should. Rather you’re encouraged to keep pushing through the toxins as her ultimate only ends if she dies.
Sage
Sage belongs to the class of Sentinels. She is a healer and uses her abilities to provide support to her teammates. Her signature move, Healing Orb can heal a fellow player or herself over the course of 10 seconds. The other two abilities are Barrier Orb and Slow Orb. Barrier Orb creates a wall that can block off certain points. Her slow orb is a projectile that creates a zone where any player passing through will be slowed and will make noise. Her ultimate, Resurrection Orb can resurrect a downed player.
Sentinels are great are providing support and choking off points on the map. Sage is a fairly balanced character as she can only heal once or twice in a round. Her barriers can be broken down, and her ultimate leaves her vulnerable to attacks during the course of the animation.
Cypher
Cypher is another Sentinel in Valorant. He is the spy character in Valorant who uses his kit and gadgets to gather information about his foes. His signature ability is a SpyCam, a mobile camera that shoots darts at an enemy. If hit. the opponents can see you through walls until you remove the tracking dart. Cypher can also take this camera from its initial position and place it elsewhere. His ability, Cyber Cage is a simple smokescreen. Trapwire is a wire that can be placed in between two walls, anyone who crosses the wire gets his position instantly revealed and is stunned at their position for a fair while. His ultimate, Neural Theft reveals the position of all enemies momentarily from a dead body.
Cypher is great for holding off sites and preventing retakes. His ultimate may be a tad bit underpowered, but his amazing signature abilities make up for it. The trapwire and spycam can be countered by shooting them off. Overall, he is pretty fairly balanced with ample counters and clear audio cues.
Killjoy
Killjoy is one of the newer agents to the game. She is also a sentinel. Don’t be fooled by her looks, as she can pack a hefty punch. Her signature is a Turret, that fires off in bursts when it detects an enemy. Her ability, nano swarm, is a grenade that can hide in plain sight, It can do a lot of damage if you step on it.
Alaarmbot is also one of her abilities, which spawns a bot and sticks onto an enemy, making them vulnerable for a while. Her ultimate, Lockdown is an area of denial tool that stops enemies dead in their tracks.
Killjoy as an agent has one of the most powerful kits, as her turret can give you some good beating before going down. Her ultimate can be cancelled by shooting off her lockdown device. But even with that, she can be a tad bit overpowered sometimes. Overall, she is fairly balanced.
Jett
Jett belongs to the Duelist class of Agents in Valorant. These characters have abilities that make them great entry fraggers. This class of agents are the sole reason that has sparked countless debates over the balance of the game.
Jett has the best mobility in the game. Her signature, Tailwind allows her to dash a certain distance at an incredibly fast pace. Updraft allows her to jump to higher spots and scope out the field. Her Cloudburst is again, smoke grenades but blue in colour. Bladestorm is her ultimate that gives her a set of 5 accurate throwing knives. These are perfectly accurate in midair and can one-shot enemies with a headshot. Killing an enemy successfully refills all the knives.
Jett has a very high entry barrier as an agent. Anyone can pick up Jett and start flying around the map, but it takes a lot of effort, skill and practice to use her to the fullest. She can be a force to be reckoned with in the right hands. As for balance, I believe that she is fairly balanced and is the perfect choice for AWPers.
Phoenix
Phoenix is the fire guy in Valorant that is also a member of the Duelist class. This is the point where some design decisions and their reception by the community lead to some balance issues. Phoenix uses Hot Hands as his signature ability. This is a Molotov that damages other players but heals you. His other two abilities are Curveball and Blaze.
Curveball is a flashbang that curves around corners and blinds anyone who sees it. Blaze is a wall of fire that heals Phoenix uses to deny an area to his opponents and heal himself. His ultimate, Run It Back allows him to respawn at his current location within a particular time if he dies or the timer runs out.
Phoenix has a really interesting kit. But it does make him seem a lot more powerful than some of the other agents, especially against Viper and his toxin wall. There is a stark divide in how the character is used in different levels of play. In lower and intermediate levels, Phoenix usually uses his abilities to heal himself after a bad fight rather than deny control to his foes.
This makes dealing with Phoenix a chore as he would mostly hide and heal after taking a little bit of beating. In higher levels of play where the pros don’t care that much about HP as fights at that level are more about outsmarting opponents rather than outgunning or outshooting them. This does fare a lot better for what Phoenix should’ve been in the first place, a semi-aggressive predator.
Reyna
Reyna is the purple witch Duelist in the game. She is also one of the newer agents in the game. Reyna uses Dismiss as her signature ability, which makes her invincible for a couple of seconds after getting a kill. Her Devour allows her to feed on her downed enemies’ health. Leer allows her to cast an eye that blinds anyone who sees it. Her ultimate, Empress gives her firing, reload and equip speed buff and infinite charges of her soul orbs.
She also suffers from the same problems as Phoenix does. She is a situational agent that only be devastating if she frags out insanely. In lower levels of play where fights are messy, Reyna can easily frag out and be a tank while at higher levels, where fights are more tactical and quicker, fragging insanely becomes a lot more difficult. Reyna is mostly balanced but her ability to heal completely after an engagement can feel cheap sometimes.
Raze
Raze is the duelist that has sparked the most controversy regarding her balance. She has been nerfed multiple times in patches. She is a Brazilian girl that has a knack for explosions. Her signature is a cluster grenade, that explodes into three mini grenades which explode and deal further damage. She also has two other abilities – Boom Bot and Blast Pack.
Boom bot is an RC car that charges towards an enemy if detected and explodes on contact. Blast Pack is a pack that can detonate after a certain time and give boost jump to Raze. Her ultimate, Showstopper is a single shot Rocket Launcher with a very generous and devastating area of damage.
Raze, I think as an agent lacks depth. Her kit is purely damage focused. Her grenades are overpowered and her ultimate only requires you to aim in the general direction of your opponent for a cheap kill.
She is one of the more shallow agents in the game, easy to pick up and nothing much to master. There are some tried and tested ways of baiting her firepower, hence the devs and the pros generally don’t use her. As for balance, she can be overpowered at clearing corners and one hit kills because of her aforementioned kit.
Valorant: Overall Analysis Of Game Balance
Balance is a tricky thing to pull off, especially in such intensely tactical games. Actually, the perception of balance is more important than balance itself. One more thing to consider while balancing things out is that the game should still be fun to play.
Riot Games has managed to mostly pull it off. All my character analysis have words like “tad bit overpowered”, “fair” and “balanced” which means the balance is there. But, there is a caveat.
In a multiplayer game such as Valorant, there are at least 3 levels of player and game balance – the beginner, the intermediate and professional. The game should feel mostly balanced and even in all these levels. But as it stands right now, the lower and intermediate levels of play do suffer from some annoying issues. An agent like Phoenix will mostly use his abilities to heal rather than deny or force players out of hiding. This makes him annoying to deal with and ruins the perception of balance.
Similarly, Reyna will mostly use her Devour after a kill to regenerate lost health rather than Dismiss to move or scout an area, which can also be a hindrance to the overall balance. All of this makes these agents the more obvious choices for most players at these levels as other agents like Sova and Jett require a considerable amount of time and practice to get good with.
However, the team over at Riot Games is continually working on the feedback and releasing new patches every now and then that address these issues. As it stands, the game is mostly balanced with a few rough edges here and there that could easily be ironed out.
Valorant: What We Expect From Riot In The Future?
I personally, am very delighted with what Riot is doing with Valorant, for the most part. However, there is some stuff that I would like to see changed in the future. I really like that all agents are unlocked for trying out in The Range, the training grounds. This lets you choose which agents suits your playstyle and hence, which ones should you unlock first. However, I do also think that obtaining newer agents should be made a little easier with requiring a lesser amount of XP to unlock them. This would be beneficial as the newer players can remain hooked if they get something new often.
In terms of agents, I would like to see more agents like Sova and Jett, which are a bit more difficult to pick up and even harder to master. Agents like Raze which are purely damage focused and can feel cheap should be avoided altogether. Most agents, if not all should have abilities that would help either them or their team to outsmart the enemy rather than to outgun them. Riot has promised that newer agents won’t be duelists, so that’s good news.
Also, competitive and unranked leaderboards also need some changes. I don’t know for sure how the leaderboard rankings impact the ranking system, but the focus on more kills is at odds with the team and role-based nature of the game. A scoring system with MVP rewards like Counter-Strike should do the trick here.
Overall, Valorant is a blast to play with a really high skill ceiling. We sincerely hope that it finds a strong foothold in the esports scene. What do you think about Valorant and it’s game balance? Tell us down in the comments and for more video games and anime news, stay tuned to the Profaned Otaku.
