VALORANT New Agent Reveal – Clove (Abilities and Impressions)

Clove: VALORANT’s New Agent

On the final day of Masters Madrid Valorant’s newest agent, Clove, was revealed. Clove is a controller agent who is designed for aggressive play.

We’re going to review Clove’s ability and where they may fit in the meta for both ranked and more organized play.

Abilities

Pick Me Up (C): Activate to absorb the life force of a fallen enemy that Clove damaged or killed, gaining haste and temporary health.

Similar to Reyna’s Soul Orbs and Iso’s Double Tap, Pick Me Up is active when killing or getting a damage assist on an enemy. Activating will give Clove a speed boost and a 100 HP overheal that lasts for 10 seconds. The healing is all temporary, to both armor and hp.

Meddle (Q): Equip a fragment of immortality essence. Fire to throw the fragment, which erupts after a short delay and temporarily Decays all targets caught inside.

The projectile has the pathing of Harbor’s Cove. If an enemy is in the radius they receive a temporary 90 hp decay. The ability explodes after a few seconds mid-air and only affects an enemy if there is line of site. This means the ability cannot hit an enemy through a wall or object if they are within the radius.

Ruse (E): Equip to view the battlefield. Fire to set the locations where Clove’s clouds will settle. Alt Fire to confirm, launching clouds that block vision in the chosen areas. Clove can use this ability after death.

Clove’s main smoke ability. The mechanics of placing the smokes are essentially the same as Brimstone’s. The differences lie in that Clove has 2 smokes that recharge, the smokes last 15 seconds, and Clove can place any available smokes while dead.

Not Dead Yet (X): After dying, activate to resurrect. Once resurrected, Clove must earn a kill or a damaging assist within a set time or they will die. Reactivate to cancel early.

After death, Clove has a few seconds to activate the ultime. After activation, Clove is placed in a state similar to Reyna’s dismiss. This state of invulnerability can be canceled before the duration ends. From there Clove has 12 seconds to get a kill or damaging assist to remain alive. If Clove does not, the ult ends and Clove dies similar to a Phoenix ult ending.

How to Play Clove

Based on Clove’s abilities still having an impact after death, Clove is best played aggressively. So much so that Clove can arguably first to go in to spearhead an attack. This is because they can use their smokes once dead. And if Clove gets an assist or kill can heal with Pick Me Up. Clove will be a menace with shotguns, especially the Judge. Playing around smokes allows Clove to force close fights with a Judge. Pick Me Up allows healing from the first encounter and a speed boost to escape or quickly engage with another enemy. Finally, Meddle is great for leaving enemies at low health to one-shot with the Judge from longer ranges.

Clove has flexibility in how they use their smokes. The smokes have a recharge rate of 30 seconds allowing for slow play, and both charges can be placed at once for quick burst executes. Clove’s smokes can recharge continuously through the round whether dead or alive. This promotes continual usage when dead as well. The range of Clove’s smokes makes them pair well with Viper. If Viper is set up in one portion of the map and plays passively, Clove can play aggressively on the other end. If Clove dies they can use their smoke on the side opposite of Viper for continuous pressure.

Clove in Ranked

Being designed for aggressive play, Clove will most likely be a fairly popular choice in ranked. Clove’s kit has a lot of capabilities for solo play while retaining useful team aspects in smokes. Not only does Clove have this team element, but they can use these smokes after dying. This allows Clove to play more aggressively without the risk of losing the team’s smokes.

The rest of the kit is fairly good supplements to make solo plays. Pick Me Up is a weaker version of Reyna’s Soul Orbs. Nonetheless, this gives a good heal to chain together fights. The ability is weaker than Soul Orbs because the healing portion is only temporary. Meddle is great for overwhelming an enemy to set up a kill with the decay effect. In games where 5 stack hits are more prevalent, Meddle is more likely to get even more value as well. This ability isn’t too lineup-dependent because it explodes midair and the radius is large enough that on-the-fly plays can be made with it.

Clove to the controller role will most likely be what Chamber was to the Sentinel role. They can play aggressively to frag out and have the utility required to fulfill the role they are in.

Clove in Organized Play

Clove’s primary competition is Omen who is very strong in the current meta. It is too hard to justify replacing Omen for Clove. Clove will definitely eat into Omen’s pick rate, but will by no means be a replacement. Omen’s Paranoia is such a strong ability in setting up teammates and anchoring a site that he will continue to be a mainstay.

Maps where Omen isn’t as dominant as well as maps where Brimstone is the main dome smoke Controller will be where Clove has a good chance of having a higher pick rate. Icebox is likely a good spot because Omen doesn’t have many good positions for throwing Paranoia. Meanwhile, Icebox’s meta is all about denying a plant/defuse and Meddle can combine with other agents’ damaging utility to kill planters/defusers and stall. Bind can potentially be a spot where Clove sees some play due to the prevalence of the Judge and the small area of the map. The small area makes Meddle a higher chance of hitting enemies and allows Clove to smoke across the map with her limited range when dead.

In Conclusion