VALORANT is a strategic team-based shooter with a unique approach, showcasing a diverse roster of characters—known as agents—each bringing distinctive abilities and combat approaches. To facilitate balanced team composition, Riot Games has organized these agents into four distinct roles.
Currently, VALORANT features 26 agents distributed across four specialized classes: duelists, controllers, initiators, and sentinels. Let’s explore these classes and the agents within each category.
Duelists
- Jett
- Phoenix
- Neon
- Raze
- Reyna
- Yoru
- Iso
Duelists excel as independent combat specialists. These agents generate significant impact by providing aggressive momentum to team compositions.
A duelist’s primary role involves seeking combat encounters and securing eliminations, whether it’s obtaining the initial pick or winning crucial round-ending situations. Armed with movement abilities, deterrent tools, flash mechanics, and deceptive elements, they’re tasked with creating opportunities for their team. While many players associate this role with high elimination counts, this isn’t necessarily accurate. Though securing kills is important, duelists can’t effectively create space without assistance from other roles, emphasizing the game’s collaborative nature.
Controllers
- Astra
- Brimstone
- Omen
- Viper
- Harbor
- Clove
Controllers specialize in dividing battlefield zones to enhance their team’s chances of success. Each controller possesses smoke abilities, which can be utilized both offensively and defensively to obstruct enemy vision. They can also impede movement, disorient, or obscure vision. Notably, Clove maintains the unique capability to deploy smokes post-elimination.
Initiators
- Breach
- Gekko
- KAY/O
- Skye
- Sova
- Fade
- Tejo
Initiators specialize in gathering crucial information and clearing strategic positions, supporting their team’s duelists in space creation. These support-oriented agents thrive on offense, typically enabling their teammates’ success rather than pursuing solo plays. Breach, Gekko, KAY/O, and Skye provide various forms of flash or stun abilities, while Sova and Fade excel at enemy detection. Tejo stands out by combining premier initiating capabilities through his ballistic guidance system, establishing himself as a powerful choice in the current competitive landscape.
Sentinels
- Chamber
- Cypher
- Deadlock
- Killjoy
- Sage
- Vyse
Sentinels are defensive specialists who excel at securing areas and monitoring flanks during both attacking and defending rounds. These agents play a vital role in a game centered around Spike placement and defusal, helping their teams maintain control of strategic locations. Chamber, Cypher, Deadlock, and Killjoy employ sophisticated equipment and surveillance tools to fortify sites, while Sage can effectively disrupt enemy advances and rotations using her slowing orbs and wall barriers. Vyse brings a distinctive set of abilities to the table, enabling unique enemy containment and punishment strategies—including the unprecedented ability to disable opponent weapons.
What should an ideal VALORANT team comp look like?
A balanced VALORANT team typically incorporates at least one agent from each class, creating a versatile composition with both offensive and defensive capabilities. However, teams frequently deviate from this standard, particularly in professional matches. Additionally, fielding multiple agents from the same class has become an increasingly popular strategy.
Double controller and initiator compositions can deliver exceptional results in ranked VALORANT matches. While these combinations are frequently seen in professional play, casual ranked players often gravitate toward double duelist setups. Though having two duelists isn’t inherently problematic, it can prove disadvantageous when facing teams with superior utility-based agent selections.
Team compositions are also heavily influenced by specific VALORANT maps. For instance, Viper demonstrates particular effectiveness on Breeze and Icebox but sees limited use on maps like Ascent—except among professional teams such as LOUD and Paper Rex, who frequently utilize her as a pseudo-sentinel across various battlegrounds.