Abhay Singh
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11 Min read Welcome to our Valorant agent tier list for climbing ranked! We created this list with the help of our high ELO experts (Immortal 3+) who play in NA, EU, and OCE.
This is a general list that is meant to be helpful whether you’re playing solo or with a squad, but it does lean more towards coordinated teamplay rather than trying to carry lone-wolf style.
Click the icons for champion builds, counters, and more!
To learn more about our methodology and other explanations (like agent difficulties), click here.
Note that at the beginning of the patch, we will give predictive placings based on the buffs/nerfs. Check back midway through the patch for an update (if it’s still the same, it means we predicted correctly!).
| Tier | Agents |
| S-tier | Iso, Neon, Raze, Clove, Jett, Omen |
| A-tier | Cypher, Gekko, Reyna, Sova, Viper, Killjoy, Chamber |
| B-tier | Fade, Yoru, Skye, Breach, Phoenix, Deadlock, Astra, Sage, Brimstone, Harbor |
| C-tier | Kay/0 |
Here are the explanations why we’ve placed each agent in their tiers. If you have any questions please ask in the comments below and our experts will reply as soon as they can.
If you have trouble facing a particular agent, check out our article on How to Play Against Every Valorant agent.
Iso is a more ranked-centric duelist; however, with the new changes made to how his ability Double Tap works, Iso is one of the strongest duelists.
He can easily counter players using the operator and is much more tank-like allowing your team to easily follow up his entry onto a bombsite. Additionally, Iso’s abilities can easily be paired with other characters for effective outplays.
Neon is a fast-paced character that allows players to play as aggressively as they want. Neon’s kit is very good for entering a bombsite and exceptional when paired with teammate abilities.
The changes made to Neon’s Fast Lane, High Gear, and Relay Bolt make Neon an S-tier agent. These changes make shooting Neon very difficult while allowing her to be fully accurate and reward players who can quickly react.
Raze is the only duelist who can get some information on her own, make space, and is the strongest defensively. She is an all-around agent who can make many solo plays with her blast packs. Raze is arguably the best duelist as she still shines with her huge AoE damage potential and high mobility.
The newest agent introduced, Clove is a very strong ranked option who boasts a high win rate out of the gate. They offer rechargeable smokes which creates a high floor for Clove, but on top of this they are able to play aggressively with a temporary heal ability, a self revive ult, and can use smokes after death.
Omen is the controller with the kit most suited for making individual plays, but also has a near sight which can be used for team play as well. He can also play many angles that may not be cleared or flushed out with utility in a less coordinated environment.
Jett is great on both offense and defense. She can make space on offense for the team and is still a good Operator and/or aggressive pusher on defense. Her Ultimate can also win eco rounds where enemies may take non-ideal fights during anti-ecos where a Blade Storm kill yields a teammate the enemy’s rifle. Nerfs knocked her down by lessening the duration of her smokes and dash, but her kit fundamentally allows her to carry games. For those looking to maximize her potential, be sure to check a detailed Jett guide from Stryda for expert tips and strategies.
Patch 7.09 brought some large buffs to Cypher’s Trapwires. He is much more effective in anchoring down a push from multiple enemies due to his traps re-arming if they are not destroyed. His Trapwires are much harder to deal with and have global range. His kit is more complex than Killjoy’s, but it has a higher ceiling, which makes him the top Sentinel choice.
The biggest beneficiary of the Skye nerfs, Gekko is the fastest rising agent. All of his abilities are in a good spot in terms of power, but his strength comes from how quickly Wingman and Dizzy regenerate once they are picked up. Gekko is able to operate as a solo initiator due to the uptime of his abilities if they are strategically thrown in a spot to be easily retrieved.
The smurf agent. Reyna is designed to be selfish and play for herself, making her the Ultimate Solo Queue Ranked agent. In less coordinated play swings off of a teammate’s contact is much slower or non-existent which allows Reyna to dismiss or heal. In more coordinated play she suffers from her lack of movement which is why Raze and Jett are ranked higher.
Sova still gets good value across most maps in rotation. The changes to Cypher make his Trapwires much more difficult to deal with. Sova’s Shock Darts are a great counter to the new traps.
In organized play where double controller is a staple, Viper is one of the strongest agents in the game. However, in ranked environments, she’s less prominent, mostly seen on Breeze and Icebox due to the need for another controller on other maps.
Nonetheless, Viper remains a very good pick that can control the outcome of a game with her oppressive abilities. The recent changes to her toxins, poison cloud, and the removal of her second snakebite, players must now play more conservatively and carefully choose when and where to use her abilities for the success of the team.
With buffs to other agents in the class and a nerf to Killjoy’s Turret, there is a lot more variance in the agent class. Killjoy is still a very strong pick and has the benefit of being a very easy agent to play and get value from. Map rotation and buffs to her competitors is what prevent her from being in the top tier.
Chamber is still a good option as a primary Operator on a team. In ranked he is great for fragging as he has an escape mechanic. Picking him does limit the team’s map control due to only having one trap.
Fade’s kit is very strong and pretty easy for teammates to play off of even with minimal communication and coordination. Each piece of her kit can get value and she does not require as much precision as Sova does to scan an area.
Yoru’s kit has plenty of merits to it, but in many instances, it leaves him vulnerable unless he is well set up by teammates with information and initiator utility. This is very hard to come by and other duelists have movement that is far more flexible, making it easier and providing a larger margin of error in capitalizing on teammates’ utility. However, Yoru does have a very high ceiling and is a coordinated team away from being a great pick at duelist.
Skye requires excessive communication and teamwork to get the most value of her kit, but her kit is so strong in gaining information, setting up teammates, healing others, and can even be used to set herself up.
He is a strong agent, but requires so much coordination to play effectively. He is an agent that improves as the rank gets higher becomes better.
Phoenix’s kit is rather selfish, and has a lot of aspects for individual plays, but he is overall limited due to not being able to make space like the S Tier duelists. He is also boxed out by Reyna as a duelist with no movement abilities because of her superior healing and ability to avoid a trade.
Deadlock received numerous buffs with Episode 8. Her kit is much stronger at stuffing large pushes which is more common in a ranked setting, but her fundamental lack of gaining passive information makes it hard to justify picking her regularly. She does offer some intriguing synergies and is an agent worth trying out if you find yourself getting run over by 5-person pushes often.
With the addition of Clove, Astra is in an even worse spot. She is boxed out by Viper for her stall as well as Omen and Clove for a global controller as these two have far better individual playmanking ability.
Sage is a glorified duelist who can be used for stuffing 5 man rushes. Being the only character that can heal herself with no stipulations is great to have, but the amount of healing is minimal. Her wall allows for some hero plays, but in most scenarios her overall usefulness is low outside of niche scenarios such as planting on Icebox.
Brim is very easy to play and a great way to help the team with smokes while focusing on gunplay. Other than Bind, the current map rotation definitely favors the other Controllers.
Harbor is stronger when used in a double controller team composition. Even though he took a big hit due to the Skye nerfs because Skye’s flash synergized very well with Harbor’s wall based smokes. Harbor still pairs very well with other agents such as Gekko. Additionally, with the new changes to Viper, Harbor’s ability kit is now closer to Viper’s stalling capabilities and has a better place in the competitive meta.
KAY/O has a very strong kit overall, and can make individual plays with his right click flash, but it did get nerfed quite a bit. His utility that is stronger is based around setting up others, and doesn’t flourish as much in a solo queue environment.
These are some powerful team comps that we recommend for each of the Valorant maps.
Here are some additional options that you can interchange based on your agent pool.
Just make sure to build wisely, so if you’re replacing Omen, you may want a Brimstone and so forth.
For more details, check out our dedicated guide on our Team Comps by Map.
Overall, the criteria for S/A/B are as follows:
These ratings are more suited for newer players (Iron, Bronze, and Silver) and relate to how much time and experience you need to be useful to your team compared to other agents.
Here are examples for each:
Brimstone is an ideal agent for beginners with abilities that are very straightforward and easy to understand.
They can all be safely used from behind cover and are useful even when you’re playing from behind.
Cypher’s abilities require you to have additional macro understanding compared to Brimstone.
You need to understand where to place your gadgets, how to balance between switching back and forth to your camera, and how to use your gadgets in combination with each other.
Defending can be more forgiving for a beginner, but on offense, you need to learn how to lurk and where flankers are likely to come from to make your Trapwires useful.
His ultimate is also harder to activate compared to Brimstone.
To be an effective Sova player, you need to spend time in custom games to practice your ability lineups with your arrows.
If you don’t it can be incredibly easy to whiff your Shock Darts and your Recons may land in areas that provide no value.
Because of the amount of time commitment he requires and due to how easy it is to mess up his abilities, he is quite hard for beginners to pick up compared to other agents.
As always, we welcome all discussion and feedback so please leave any comments/questions below! Be sure to check out our Valorant site to find the best character ability lineups for every map.
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Iso
Neon
Raze
Clove
Jett
Omen
Cypher
Gekko
Reyna
Sova
Viper
Killjoy
Chamber
Fade
Yoru
Skye
Breach
Phoenix
Deadlock
Astra
Sage
Brimstone
Harbor
Kay/O
