Major changes are incoming for Skye in Valorant. For more details on that, you can check out this post we uploaded a few hours ago. With Skye being a staple pick for many top-tier teams, how big of a change does this make to the overall initiator meta? Teams like Cloud 9 almost had a Sky agent on every map, and these changes implemented in this update force teams that rely on Skye to shift focus to other agents. Let’s take a look at the viable options available to us now.
Sova’s back?
Just like Skye, Sova was also hit with a ton of nerfs in the previous patches, but now it’s most likely we’ll see him more on every map. All of his utilities are still considered very useful, irrespective of whether he’s attacking, defending, or in the late stage of the round. I honestly feel that the drone is one of the most overpowered abilities available in Valorant. Ask your flash agent to flash for you, and then the drone literally gets the maximum info any abilities could ever give you.
As far as straight-up info gathering is concerned, Sova is right now miles ahead of Skye. Yes, Skye’s flashes still give you info about whether players are in the vicinity, but they could be half-flashed and ready to take the fight. Besides that, players could be positioned anywhere, resulting in the team walking straight into a sabotage of crossfires. The info Sova provides is solid and, if played right, can literally reveal the whole team on the map. Apart from Split and Lotus, Sova seems to be a good pick as an initiator on almost every other map.
Is Fade better than Skye now?
Fade has been struggling to make an impact in the game ever since launch. Her prowlers were considered weak on launch and they even nerfed it after the initial launch to make it easily destructible. But now, since Skye is limited to only 2 flashes, everything changes. Skye has the ability to heal teammates, and that may be one plus point over Fade with regards to team play. Fade has the ability to make combo plays with multiple agents, which include Brimstone, Raze, and almost any Molly agent. Her Seize ability, when in combo with your teammate’s abilities, can result in massive damage to opponents in the early stages of the round. Her recon regenerates, and because of that, late stages of the round or post-plant situations can be dealt with way better than Skye, who might have used all of her utilities in the early stages of the round.
Is Skye completely useless now?
While it is true that the nerfs to Skye have decreased her impact on the game considerably, we have to acknowledge the fact that she is among the only initiators who have an instant pop flash. The splash was so powerful that a nerf to it was coming at some point in time, and it was inevitable. As of now, Skye has only two flashes, and they have to be used wisely during each round. Before the nerf, we could use both flashes initially and wait for the 3rd one to regenerate on its own roughly halfway into the round. Yes, this change is irritating, but she still does have the best flashes among all initiators, including Kay-O. She eliminates the need for Sage and allows for an alternate sentinel pick, which is another bonus for stacked lobbies.
Skye is still going to be meta; we just have to wait and see how the changes to her flashes will introduce new strategies to her gameplay and if it’s any good. Till then, I’d suggest learning Sova and being prepared to use him on maps he’s always dominated.
