We are now a few months after the conclusion of VALORANT: Champions Istanbul; we’ve finally had time to let things settle and properly analyze what the best Agents are in Patch 5.10 in VALORANT.
Patch 5.10 was the last significant update to the Agents in the current VALORANT map pool. Since then, plenty of time has passed, and the meta has been established with the matches played; we’ve seen the practical application of all the agents and how they can be played out in the game’s current state. This VALORANT Agent tier list should hopefully help you win more games and improve your play even further.
This Agent tier list is in no way a perfect guide and is based on my opinion and insight as a professional player. Some agents can be swapped based on individual preference and mastery, and for ranked, general outliers like Reyna being an effective agent exist. However, this list helps you improve your game and play the game fundamentally better.
CRITERIA
The agents will be divided into four tiers ‘ C->B->A->S ‘ in the order of increasing importance.
The agents at the S tier are usually must-picks on a few maps and good choices on most. These agents provide the most value in the game’s current state and are usually difficult to replace. You can barely go wrong with these agents, which usually form the base of most compositions.
The agents of the A tier are usually good picks on most maps but a must-pick on one or two, if any.
The agents in the B tier are usually decent picks on some maps, better on others, and not must-pick of any sort. They each have their alternatives. Using these agents as effectively as other, better alternatives take a decent bit of mastery.
The agents in the C tier are not recommended as picks in serious competition ‘ unless your whole game plan revolves around incorporating these agents and you have the mastery and skill required to make them work. These agents usually require a lot of compensation on your part compared to, let’s say, an upper-tier agent of the same role. C-tier picks usually have holes in their kit, which need to be filled by other agents in the team.
The VALORANT Agent Tier List is updated with all 19 agents in VALORANT as of their state in patch 5.10. The B Tier is the most numerous list featuring 6 out of the 19 agents. The S tier only features two agents out of the 19.
Contents
S TIER
The S tier is the tier of the highest-value agents in the game as of right now. The three agents comprising the S tier are:
CHAMBER:
He is one of the strongest agents in the game, with unbelievable stopping power, thanks to his duel-heavy kit. He can disregard a selected choke point credit to his Trademark. Chamber has superior firepower thanks to his free Headhunter and the Tour De Force. Combining this firepower with his Teleport ability, no other agent can compare to his playmaking ability.
An incredible lurker on the Offense, and with the ability to completely shut down rounds on Defense while also making plays regularly beyond just the shutdown rounds on Defense, Chamber offers something unique to his team. Even after his recent (underwhelming) nerfs, Chamber continues to be a must-pick in ranked and in competition, across most maps, due to his undeniable strengths and the relative ineffectiveness of other Sentinel agents.
FADE:
Fade is the go-to initiator on most maps and compositions thanks to her extremely strong kit, which allows her to gain information sufficiently and disorient players trying to tank her utility. She has a solid recon-arrow-like ability in her Haunt; she can open up sites with her information. She also has two haunts, 100 HP each, and can be remotely controlled by the fade to clear crucial angles and corners and nearsighted players on impact.
One of Fade’s biggest strengths is her ability to combo utility with other agents and exponentially increase their value. Her Seize is powerful when combined with another damaging piece of utility, like a Shock-dart or a Raze made, and that’s without accounting for the stopping power the Seize has without any combos. She can also do some insane combinations with her Ultimate and other abilities, like her Nightfall, combining it with a fast Raze satchel entry or even a Showstopper. You could also connect it with an Omen ultimate.
Fade has recently been nerfed, but the implications are inexpensive. It can be played almost identically, bar a few situations where its strength has been reduced slightly. Fade provides so much team-play potential and information while also being incredibly self-sufficient, making her one of the best picks in the game right now to rank up.
A TIER
The A tier features six agents out of the possible 19. The agents featured in this tier are:
JETT:
Jett has gone from almost having a 100% win rate to dropping down to the less preferred Operator / Playmaker agent as opposed to the Chamber now. Jett has undergone multiple nerfs in the last year, and its pick rate has reflected it. Jett’s dash is now considerably weaker and allows for only controlled and time-limited aggression on the Defense, while it remains pretty similar to its peak on the Attack side. The Jett ultimate has been nerfed considerably, and the cost-effectiveness of her kit has gone down.
This has made her a good pick on specific maps, but she is not a must-pick anymore.
KAY/O:
KAY/O is another powerful agent that provides a lot of team-play potential and play-making ability in the form of immensely strong flashes for the team and himself. He gives information with his ZERO/POINT ability and stopping power. He can turn rounds around with one good knife and/or a FRAG/MENT molly. His kit’s value on both sides of a map is vast.
His ultimate can simply give you a free site more often than not when used effectively, and his versatility in his kid allows him to play mind games with his opponents.
However, with his recent nerfs to his flash, his viability as a supportive counter-strike-esque flashing agent has increased. He now full-blinds up to 2.25 seconds with his overhand moment, making him more supportive in terms of usability. When in games, use his oppressive flashes to keep making plays or help your team make plays and disrupt the rhythm and site hits of your opponents.
The ZERO/POINT ability not only shows how many players, but also what players are and also disables them, making it one of the most oppressive pieces of utility in the game.
These reasons have led me to put KAY/O in this patch’s A tier of agents. When used correctly, KAY/O is extremely versatile and oppressive, individually and team-play-wise, making it a great pick to win games.
RAZE:
Raze has been a good pick since the start of the game. Still, with the relative ineffectiveness of the other duelists in the game, we’ve seen an increase in its usage, especially with Chamber taking the place of Jett as the primary Operator. Raze provides unique value to the team, with damaging utility, stopping power, and, most importantly, effective space creation, compensating for the lack of Jett in Jett-less compositions.
Raze’s utility is highly oppressive and helps it be one of the more used duelists, along with the familiarity most players show to it thanks to its early consolidation in the meta. With time, we shall see an increase in the usage of other duelists.
SOVA:
Sova has been a staple of VALORANT since its inception, but with the recent nerfs and economic impracticality in the game’s current state, Sova has seen a downturn in its usage. Sova has been playing second-fiddle to Fade as the primary initiator and sometimes the double initiator with the Breach plus Skye combination on some maps.
Sova still sees its use on specific maps with certain compositions, but it’s the less favorable initiator than the Fade and the KAY/O in recent times. Sova’s lesser usage says more about the value other Initiators bring to the table, rather than Sova’s ineffectiveness, as it is quite a good pick still.
VIPER:
Viper is the most unique controller right now, as it serves a specific pseudo-sentinel, pseudo-controller role in team composition. On a few maps, like Breeze, Icebox, and Pearl, you could use it as the primary controller, and it is a must-pick. But in most other maps, it serves a hybrid role and another controller if used. Viper is still considerably strong post-nerfs and maintains a decent amount of usage. She has strong stopping power thanks to her snakebites and breaks off most hits. She also makes it very hard to hit her sites thanks to multiple one-way smokes Viper can throw and her wall, giving her incredibly strong angles and sometimes even one-ways.
Unlike the other controller agents, on the maps Viper is played, they are the most picked controller. There is little to no choice on maps like Breeze. This has made it an essential pick in the game’s current state.
SKYE:
Skye is similar to KAY/O with very effective and strong flashes, which can be used for teammates and as a self-pop flash. However, her and KAY/O’s self-pop flashes have been considerably nerfed. Her supportive flash has been buffed a lot to rival a KAY/O flash now, but it has to be charged up for a bit before being used. You can also charge up her flash by driving it onto the floor and then using it to pop-flash yourself across corners with a 2.25-second flash duration. This has made their skill ceiling of Skye quite high, and if you can correctly use her flashes, you can probably do a lot with her as an Agent.
Her trailblazer is reasonable to get information and possibly provide a debuff, but the Fade prowlers are better. It is, however, still a perfect intel-gathering tool due to the visibility and controls the trailblazer provides that a Prowler just does not. Skye isn’t the simplest and easiest initiator to play right now, but she remains quite a good pick and will work if the player is capable of playing Skye to its fullest. The more experienced the Skye player, the higher the level of his Skye plays, as it’s an agent that requires individual agent mastery.
B TIER
The B tier features the most agents in any of the tiers. These agents are viable picks and even good picks on a few maps. None of these agents, however, are definite must-picks and usually compete with a number of agents for their place in the composition. However, you’ll unlikely go too wrong with any of them. For example, when the discussion comes to controllers, Astra, Omen, and Brimstone are almost equally valued, with the choice usually being based on preference and what the composition lacks.
Omen:
Omen provides a more duel-heavy approach: throw down your smokes, flash out and swing. He also has a playmaking ability that works when supplemented with support utility by teammates. This allows him to sometimes serve as a duelist/controller hybrid in niche comps. However, he is mainly used as the primary controller, with some stalling potential and a little playmaking ability.
Brimstone:
Brimstone provides quick smokes for fast executes and a team buff that increases your team’s firepower, along with a Molotov and an extremely strong ultimate. This makes it another viable competing pick for the primary controller role. His ult and molly can win you post plants single-handedly, and he has one of the better ultimates in the game. Brimstone is suited to teams that like to play at a quicker tempo, with fast site hits and explosiveness.
Astra:
Astra is also a competitive pick when it comes to Controller agents. Astra is a good pick regarding her team play and global utility usage. Even after the nerfs, Astra has remained viable. Her global utility usage is extremely strong on the Defense side, and four stars are pretty enough to deploy enough smokes to last a whole round, although compensating other utility at the cost of it. Her ultimate is also quite strong and a game-changer when available.
Breach:
Breach is a good Initiator pick, but Fade and KAY/O usually have the primary initiator slot on lockdown. We’ve seen exceptions, like in the Haven double initiator composition, as Breach and Skye are good secondary picks. Breach’s utility is quite possibly the most oppressive in the game, with a wide AOE stun, flashes, and an extremely strong ultimate, which is quite game-changing.
NEON:
Neon is one of the recent agents on the rise in pick rate. Optic Gaming popularized her after they implemented her in their Haven composition. She is also quite popular on Fracture. Her space creation isn’t the simplest to employ in a ranked game, but she works well when set up. Her stuns help clear those pesky angles quite well, and her rotation time on the Defense side is incredibly fast, allowing teams to play some fluid setups.
Killjoy:
Killjoy is the best agent on this list, as it does provide decent value in the compositions it’s played in. It is not the hardest to work with, but I feel Sentinels provide relatively less value than the Chamber and maybe even a sage that can serve a more duel-heavy role. It has a place in the game, but with a nerf to Chamber, I could see it returning to the upper tiers.
Sage
Sage is a decent pick on some maps and viable on a few others. It is a unique pick in terms of playstyle and not the most traditional sentinel, but it helps fill the gaps in compositions that need more dedicated fraggers. Sage can be used almost in a pure fragging role, with minimal focus on her utility. He has a good heal, a very strong ultimate, and a good stopping ability when used correctly on the Defense side.
C TIER
The C-tier features many less usable agents in the current meta. These agents are not the best picks but can work in some compositions. Some of these agents have a place in the meta on some maps, but they have better replacements, mainly in terms of other agents.
Most of these agents, however, can work in ranked, and if you have the mastery for it, you can make them work in species composition. For example, Yoru works quite well with some niche compositions, as shown by teams like Paper Rex Esports and Killjoy on maps like Ascent.
Reyna:
Agents like Reyna will work in ranked but have yet to see use in competitive play. It has also been a niche pick on maps like Icebox. Reyna is quite one-dimensional in how it’s played and heavily requires the Reyna player to frag out heavily to make a maximal impact on the player. However, utility-wise, Reyna is probably the worst agent in the game, providing barely any utility to the team.
Phoneix:
Phoenix has barely seen use since the introduction of Skye and KAY/O. Both agents do the Phoenix role better, even after its recent buffs. We may see an increase in usage of it with time, but Phoenix still feels quite one-dimensional in terms of his use, and the buffs aren’t changing that.
Although we saw increased usage of it, post the buffs only marginally. Victor picked it up on Haven whenever they’ve played it recently.
Yoru:
Yoru is one of the more exciting picks, as it has found its place in some compositions and maps. However, it’s still not a mainstream pick and features the lowest pick rate out of any agent in the game. However, the usage will increase with time, and we may see more Yoru picks. As seen on a map like Bind, it combines well with other agents like a Breach but cannot work as a solo duelist and the primary space creator. It functions well in the chaos of the rounds but needs other agents to set the rounds up for him.
Yoru, Reyna, and Phoenix have recently received buffs, but those buffs are not enough to take them to the next level. The nerfs to the initiators may increase the usage of these agents, but generally, the flashing initiators just do this job significantly better than Phoenix and Reyna in competitive games. However, Phoenix, Reyna, and Yoru are viable picks as secondary duelists after a primary space creator in less team-based environments.
Cypher:
Cypher is one of the most underwhelming agents in the game right now, and it is the weakest sentinel in the arsenal. His kit provides little stopping power, most of it being cheese plays that other players can counter with a slow, methodical playstyle, and his information gathering is not as strong once his setup is found out. His ultimate is the worst in the game and has barely any opportune moments to be used. Even when used, the value provided is very little.
Cypher has the 4th lowest pick rate out of all the agents in the game, the lowest out of all the sentinels. Although it has received buffs in patch 5.10, it still needs to be put up there as a strong pick in the Sentinels. It needs massive buffs and nerfs to Chambers’s kit to be viable once more.
This tier list should help you win more ranked games consistently. If you learn the best agents from this list and play them well, you will see your win rate shoot up and probably rank up a few tiers as well. Watch player POVs of players that infamously play said agents, and grind them out in your games to improve fast and get that >50% win rate on your stats tracker page! These are the best agents to exploit in patch 5.10 and rank up fast, so what are you waiting for?
