The long wait is finally over and millions of gamers across the world are eager to try their hands at Riot Games’ newest tactical shooter, VALORANT.
VALORANT can be a little daunting for newcomers, especially those that don’t come from a background in first-person shooters. Separated into four distinct classes, there’s a total of eleven agents to play, each with four unique abilities. The game has seventeen guns to choose from, four maps as well as two different game modes to try out.
If you’re a beginner to VALORANT and this sounds like a lot to learn, there’s no need to worry. Here’s a few of the agents that will make your journey to becoming a head clicker all the more smooth.
Sage is perhaps the best agent for newcomers, thanks to the utility she provides to herself and her team. If supporting your teammates while learning the ropes sounds ideal to you, then maybe Sage is the way to go. Her heal is her signature ability, meaning it can be used every round for free. The heal can be used on herself or an ally, bringing them to full health, and is incredibly useful especially for those just jumping into the game.
Sage also can place down a wall which can completely block off an angle, relieving a lot of the stress involved in keeping track of your surroundings. Sage has an area-of-effect slow, which makes killing foes caught inside much easier. Sage’s ultimate is a resurrection, which can be used to bring a fallen ally back to life. This essentially gives you an extra teammate, which is invaluable when learning the game.
The support qualities that Sage supplies to her team make her not only the best agent for newcomers to play, but also one of the strongest agents in the game for players of all skill levels.
Much like Sage, Brimstone’s kit makes him incredibly useful at all levels of the game. He’s a controller, which means he excels at physically controlling areas of the map. Brimstone has the unique potential to provide support to his team while also dealing massive damage to enemies who dare enter contested ground.
Brimstone’s signature ability is Sky Smoke, which places three smokes down in a selected area of the map. Brimstone doesn’t even have to peek to place down these smokes, which is useful for beginners who may not have the skill advantage in duels.
Stim Beacon is a placeable field which grants Brimstone and his allies rapid fire. Brimstone also has an incendiary grenade launcher, and his ultimate is an orbital strike which deals massive area-of-effect damage over time in a selected area,
Simply put, information is the key to winning games in VALORANT. Sova is one of the most useful agents when it comes to collecting information on the enemies’ whereabouts. Sova’s signature ability equips a bow and arrow which when fired, reveals all the enemies surrounding the shot.
Sova also has a pilotable spy drone, so players can peek around angles without exposing themselves to danger. Sova’s other ability, Shock Bolt, equips a bow and arrow which shocks enemies when fired. Hunter’s Fury, Sova’s ultimate, is a hyper-long range attack which can go through walls.
If playing safely and defensively is your play style, then maybe Sova is the agent to try out. His ease of gathering information makes him the perfect agent for beginners to play who aren’t too confident in their skills, but still want to prove valuable utility to their team.
Okay, maybe this all sounds boring to you. If you’re a beginner, but still want to jump right into clicking heads, then look no further than Raze.
Raze is unique in that all her abilities are straight damage. Each of her abilities are an explosive, in the forms of an auto-piloted Boom Bot, a Blast Pack, a cluster grenade and a rocket launcher.
Raze has an in-your-face playstyle that is easy to learn, but requires the skills to win in duels and gun battles.
