VALORANT, like all competitive multiplayer games, is a balancing act. While certain decisions seem like no-brainers, others conjure up a complicated dilemma in search of a sweet spot where every character, map, weapon, and player can thrive.
Though VALORANT’s 22 agents have each been through periods of being insta-locked and times where they were always considered a throw pick, these days the game has been fairly balanced. It seems like no agent is outright F-tier, and few are considered extremely overpowerful. Yet as players hone in on new strategies or establish new practices for each agent, they inevitably will have to be changed again.
So, which agents need the most help right now in order to get back into the meta? And which agents need their ego shot down just a tad? Here is our list of four agents that currently need adjustments, either buffs or nerfs.
Nerf: Neon
Neon is a bit of a niche agent pick but has become a duelist that players select at the very top level. Though she isn’t as classic of a choice as Jett or Reyna, for players that value speed and spontaneity with a chaotic playstyle, she is a great agent. Overall, we think Neon needs a nerf to just one of her abilities.
Neon’s ultimate ability, Overdrive, is truly a special addition to the game because of how it makes use of tracking, a mechanic otherwise seldom used in VALORANT. The best way to get value out of the ultimate is to track your enemies’ movements with the beam as they try to run away. And most of the time, if you can catch someone, you can kill them. There are few things more annoying than being struck down by a rampaging Neon.
Related: How to play Neon, VALORANT’s speedy agent
The use of tracking here as the ability’s primary mechanic is fine. The bigger problem is that this beam deals not only deals too much damage, but Neon is also able to run and slide around the map as much as she wants to. This means normal agent movement patterns, like walking, head height, and crouch mechanics can be thrown out of the window. As Neon flies, jumps, and slides across the map in Overdrive, the only way to kill her is to have good tracking yourself.
The problem here is not that the ability is strictly overpowered, but that the combination of using a particular gun mechanic to both enable and stop the ability requires some fine-tuning. Overall, we think Overdrive needs a nerf since the beam itself is too powerful.
Buff: Harbor
Harbor is an agent that has unfortunately felt lackluster from the very beginning. His release is regarded as one of the worst in VALORANT’s short history, and he has a whole host of issues that prevent him from being able to function successfully in his role as a Controller. Harbor, undoubtedly, needs a serious buff.
The Indian agent feels clunky and slow when using his water-based utilities. His walls and smokes are very difficult to place correctly since he has no alternate view to place them like Omen, Astra, and Brimstone, some of his fellow Controller agents. He also can’t look on the map to see clearly where his utility will go before he places it, like Viper. This creates a huge learning curve that makes it very difficult for any player to pick up Harbor for the first time.
Another aspect of this problem with utility placement is that every piece of Harbor’s utility will always give away the player’s position, no matter how you try to use it. This inherently nerfs the agent from the moment you choose to lock him in, and there’s no way around it. While you could argue this is the same for Viper, since she plays in a more Sentinel-oriented style, it doesn’t hurt her as much as it does for Harbor. Her utility can also be activated from long range.
These fundamental oversights in Harbor’s design unfortunately will always be an issue for anyone who tries to play him. He functions best alongside another Controller agent who can better divide up a site from afar.
Nerf: Fade
Fade is the strongest, yet most unorthodox, Initiator in the game right now, and it is putting her in a class of her own. We think it’s time she needs to be brought down a level.
Her biggest problem is that her ultimate, if used correctly, basically guarantees a site retake or team wipe. Nightfall is way too strong—it completely cuts out all sound for any enemy it hits, while also giving away their exact position. And if this wasn’t an issue in itself, Fade’s utility on its own basically gives her a mini version of Nightfall in her pocket that she can use every single round.
Related: Best agents to play with Fade in VALORANT
Fade’s playstyle is all about combining her abilities together, and if a player hits a combination of Haunt plus a Prowler landed on an enemy, they have virtually “solo-ulted” that one player. Her Prowlers on their own are also incredibly powerful. They move quickly and due to this are more difficult to kill than other utility in the game, like Raze’s Boombot or Skye’s Seekers.
In addition, Fade is the only agent in the game that has this combination of deafening, tracking, and blinding capabilities. With a strong Fade player on your team right now, you can bulldoze straight through the opposition. Time’s up.
Buff: Skye
Once the queen of the Initiator agent class, Skye has fallen down the list of favored agents, and it is largely because of her fellow Initiator mentioned above.
Skye’s two biggest strengths are still excellent reasons to lock her in for your ranked games. Her flashes not only fully blind her enemies, but also give her teammates information via a sound queue as if enemies were in fact flashed or not. The only downside is that her flashes are very easy to misguide, leaving many new Skye players accidentally flashing their teammates. The other main reason to pick Skye is that she is one of only two agents in the game that can heal her teammates.
Related: Best and worst VALORANT agents for each map
The main problem is that Skye’s other utilities—her Trailblazer and Seekers—have become virtually obsolete after Fade and Gekko entered the scene. Trailblazer, Seekers, Thrash, and Prowlers all feel strange coexisting, and there are clear winners and losers between all of these abilities.
Seekers are basically just a worse version of Prowlers at this point, their only advantage being they guide themselves and Skye is able to send up to five out at once. Prowlers provide the same stun at far less of a cost and are easier for a player and their teammates to act on since they can catch enemies off guard much more than Seekers can. Thrash is arguably also better than Seekers at this point since it is self-guided and completely detains hit enemies. It also can be multiple times.
So, either Fade needs a nerf or Skye needs a buff. The question is: How do you buff her given how usefulness via her other abilities? I don’t envy the Riot devs, that’s for sure.
