Over the past year, three new agents have been introduced in Valorant, but their impact on the game has been mixed. Clove is the latest non-binary agent to enter the agent pool. Referred to as they/them, Clove is a controller that could be seen in pro-play from the very first week. Apart from Clove, ISO and Deadlock were the other agents Riot had introduced a few acts back. Usually, agents take around 4-5 months to enter the meta, with some being too weak to ever be considered meta agents. In this guide, we look into each of these agents and which ones are the best to play in 2024.
Clove is ready for Valorant!
Unless Clove is hit with any changes, they look like they’re going to be one of the best options for any double controller team composition. They take playing aggressively around their own smokes to a new level when in their ultimate form. The impact Clove has even after their death is a new aspect added to the game, something that no other agent has in Valorant. If Clove gets eliminated early, they can still outplay their opponent by orchestrating fake rotations and more for the team.
With the option to place multiple one-way smokes like Omen in many maps, Clove has given some serious competition to other controllers like Harbor and Brimstone. Clove can place bigger smoke clouds than a few other controllers, but they have the shortest smoke in terms of duration. Smoke regeneration capabilities compensate for the duration drawback, enabling multiple smokes throughout the round.
Is Deadlock better than Sage in Valolrant?
For years, Sage was a staple agent pick because of her stalling capabilities in Valorant. Unlike the utilities of many other Sentinels, opponents cannot instantly push Sage’s orbs or even break the Sage wall. This forces enemies to hold positions for at least 10 seconds while Sage can call for help and early rotations if necessary. While these abilities, along with her resurrection ultimate, help the team in unique ways, the options Deadlock provides for a team might just outweigh Sage’s pick rate recently. At launch, Deadlock was weak, but later buffs to her wall made her somewhat broken on certain maps.
Unlike the straightforward Sage wall, Deadlock can corner her opponents and contain them in a corner with her wall lineups. This, combined with other agent abilities such as Raze’s grenade or any molly, results in some easy Valorant combos. Her gravity net ability can be used to peek enemies instantly and also for clearing certain angles. Overall, the impact of her wall is something that makes her highly relevant to the game. Opponents who decide to shoot down her wall end up with far fewer magazines. Small advantages like fewer bullets force opponents not to spam or pre-fire random smokes on the map. This detail may sound insignificant, but it does help reduce the total number of unwanted deaths within the team.
Iso needs work!
Unfortunately, unlike the previous two agents, Iso needs a lot of work done. His pickrate for the recent Masters was literally zero, and that itself speaks volumes about the overall work needed on this agent. The Ultimate stands as the only good ability, particularly in scenarios where Iso’s team outnumbers the enemy.. With the present run-and-gun meta in play, Iso’s one-bullet shield ability hasn’t really kicked off, even in pistol rounds. Yoru was completely redone after his initial failed launch, and maybe Riot plans the same with Iso? Only time will tell.For now, rest assured that Riot will introduce buffs to this agent at some point in time.
