Valorant’s unique agent system comes with a roster of memorable characters, who not only boast a unique set of abilities but also have their very own personalities as well. Each of these Agents allows a player to play out the various Valorant maps differently.
While one encourages a player to be more aggressive and push into plant sites to secure them, others need a player to take up a more defensive role of information gathering and facilitate a slower push.
However, all 11 Valorant Agents are capable of being the best in the game (only in the right hands). Not all of them are player-friendly and offer as much to the rest of the team as others.
And this is exactly why we have an Agent tier list. From our last tier list (which was during the closed beta), the Valorant game has gone through several patches along with an official release and a whole new Agent.
So, we will be making some minor tweaks here and there.
Valorant Agent Tier List:
S+ Tier:
Cypher and Sage retain their spots.
Cypher:
Though Cypher may have received some nerfs to his cage in the previous Valorant patches, he still retains his number one spot on our list.
His information-gathering abilities are still top tier; and in a game like Valorant, having knowledge of your enemy position is one of the most important factors in winning rounds. Cypher's tripwires help to hold off enemy advances during defence and stalls them out long enough for the rest of the team to come into the site.
In attack, however, his Spycams come the handiest. Having knowledge of enemy camping spots helps his team have a more successful push and better fast-plant opportunities.
Sage:
Like Cypher, Sage too has received a lot of nerfs to her kit, primarily to her Slow Orb and Barrier Orb. But these changes hardly affected her game-play all that much, as it was more of a balance tweak. She can still do what she was previously able to, only that it’s just a bit harder to pull her off.
With her Orbs, she can single-handedly stall enemy advances during attacks and even heal and resurrect her allies when required, making her quite an obnoxious Agent to play against.
So, if you love going for characters that have the potential to carry as well as support, then Sage might just be the Agent for you.
S Tier:
Omen:
During the closed beta, Omen’s ‘sleight of hands’ magic tricks and smoke, made people consider him as nothing more than a support character, whose only job is to clear entrances.
However, with some of the recent buffs, Omen has grown to be an incredibly powerful Agent in the Valorant game, and we are going to pick him up a notch in the tier list.
He is now one of the best flanking agents in the game, and when played right, can even turn out to be one of the better entry fraggers than all the other duelists combined.
Brimstone:
Brimstone is all about balance in Valorant. With equal amounts of CC and damaging skills, Brimstone is your Duelist's best friend in the game. His Sky Smokes are some of the best vision-obscuring abilities in the game, and they can come very handy when helping your teammates to aggressively push into a site or stall out enemy attackers.
Opponents generally hesitate to push through smoke without having prior knowledge of enemy positions, so he is able to slow down pushes considerably.
Brimstone is the perfect pick for newer players in Valorant, who’re yet to completely grasp the mechanics of the game. He is pretty player-friendly, and literally, anyone can pick him up.
A Tier:
Sova:
Sova is your walking-talking sonar in the Valorant game. He is all about finding enemy locations and revealing them to the rest of the team. He is a lot like Cypher in that regard; however, he is not as balanced and is better at attacking a site than defending it.
His Shock Bolts and ultimate attack packs a lot of power, and this is why he is so much better at pushing. While holding down a plant site, the amount of information-gathering tools at his disposal can feel rather limited, and he can feel rather vulnerable when he has exhausted all his utilities.
Breach:
Breach is going to come down a notch in the Valorant tier list this time around. Sure! The amount of utility that he has in his arsenal can single-handedly CC chain all five enemies for the entirety of a round, but pulling off these abilities need some precise timing.
Failing the abilities can instead hurt Breach and leave him and his teammates vulnerable. Not to mention he can affect allies as well, and some of his abilities should be used with great caution.
While playing Breach, you need to communicate clearly with the team, so it’s best to use him when you have a premade 5-man team.
Jett:
Jett is the most mobile Agent in Valorant. Though she used to be pretty below average in the tier list, some recent buffs to her smoke and ultimate abilities have finally made her a meta pick.
She is the only duelist above the B tier, and it’s all because of how much longer her Cloud Smokes now last. Jett has some of the highest outplay potential in the game, and though she isn’t all that hard to master, you still need to practice the smoke and jumps a lot to get them right.
Jett can reach certain advantageous positions even before a round starts, and get a lot of early frags.
B Tier:
Phoenix:
Out of all the duelists, Phoenix is a very vanilla choice when it comes to rising in the Valorant ranks. However, like all the other duelists, he comes with a very high-risk high-reward kit that favours aggressive plays more.
His Curveballs can flash enemies (as well as him and his allies), but a seasoned player can very easily avoid them by looking away as soon as they see the ball coming.
However, Phoenix has his moments and he can be quite good at solo plays and entry fragging. He doesn’t bring much utility to the team, but his Hot Hands can come in handy in certain situations.
Reyna:
Reyna is the latest addition to the Valorant squad. And much like Phoenix, she too is a duelist and comes with a vision-denying ability called Leer, which unlike Curve Ball, doesn’t affect her or her teammates.
But, her Leer can be shot down as it roughly has a 100 health, and looking away from it kills the effect.
Reyna is one of the most satisfying Agents in the game. When used right, her ultimate Empress can turn her into a fragging machine, and she can wipe out the entire enemy team all on her own. Her kit comes with both healing and invulnerability, making her incredibly self-sufficient.
However, she does have a higher learning curve, and you will need a lot of practice on her to get her right.
C Tier:
Raze:
Raze might be very fun to play, and an even easier Agent to get right, who can secure an incredible number of frags, but she doesn’t have much in her kit to help out the rest of the squad in any way.
Moreover, if you keep spamming Raze, you will not be able to learn any of the core mechanics of the Valorant game. As you will be constantly concentrating on how to secure kills with her abilities, you will not be improving your accuracy or game-sense in any way.
But that being said, for players who have never played an FPS before, she is the perfect choice. She is an entry-level agent who is sure to get you hooked to Valorant.
Viper:
Valorant Agent ViperViper is the final name on our tier list this time as well because she still has an incredibly high-skill ceiling, and the recent patches have done nothing to change that fact.
For the average player, Viper practically brings nothing much to the table. In the lower ranks, she provides little in terms of both offence and defence. Timing her abilities is one of the most important aspects to her kit, and doing that needs hours of practice and experience.
But in capable hands, Viper can be as devastating as Reyna, and her ultimate abilities can very effectively block off a plant site after a spike is planted.
Preference is important:
Just because our tier list suggests that one Agent is better than the other, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be playing the Agent you feel most comfortable with. It’s always important to have fun first and think of the meta later.