For anyone new to Valorant, it is pretty overwhelming with the number of agents available for selection. If you’re new to the game or looking to get into it, this guide will help you understand what agents of each role class are expected to do. We’ll list every role and explain what players playing each role are expected to do. The aim is to keep this guide simple, so do bookmark this page in case you are experimenting with multiple roles.
Duelist:
Agents that fall into this class are the ones expected to engage in a fight first. Why is that? In attack, the primary focus of a duelist is to enter the site and make space for the rest of the team to enter the site. In simple words, start the fight so that your team can enter behind you and proceed with the rest of the round. Once you start the fight, your teammates can help with the fight using their abilities or by straight up eliminating the enemy engaged in fighting the duelist. As a duelist, a very common scenario is lurking on attack, trying to get an entry from a different choke point like the midsection of every map, and the rest of the team follows up once the duelist starts engaging. There are different ways you can play a duelist and not just blindly run into a common chokepoint.
Initiator:
Initiators are the agents who are expected to use their utilities first. Every initiator has an ability that helps the other teammates to enter the site or even to hold off a push. These abilities could be flashes, drones, recons, and stuns. Some initiators, like Breach, have to stay behind walls and use their stuns and flashes based on information from the mini-map. Other initiators, like Sova, have recons and drones which could be sent into the site first to get maximum information about the players’ whereabouts. Initiators are the backbone for any duelists trying to enter the site. With perfect utility usage, initiators can literally feed their team with free kills.
Sentinels:
Sentinels are support agents who are expected to assist their team and play from the back while attacking. During an attack, sentinels are equipped with abilities that can watch for flank pushes, and when played right, they can completely stop any backstabbing plays the enemies have. Abilities like trap wires, turrets, and alarm bots are all important tools that watch the backs of any team while pushing into the site. When defending, Sentinels are the agents who can stall pushes and make time for teams to rotate in for complete backup. A simple Sage or Cypher wall forces opponents to stay behind a chokepoint for 10+ seconds, allowing teammates to make plays knowing that players are all huddled up behind the wall.
Controller:
The controllers are easily the most difficult agents to play. I’d suggest you attempt this role only after experimenting with the other roles. Controllers need to understand the maps in Valorant. Getting as many matches under your belt is crucial before learning a smoke agent. Since this is a beginner’s guide, I would like to emphasize the fact that this is not a beginner’s agent.
Controllers are expected to smoke off common choke points that are different spots while attacking and while defending. These smokes block enemy vision into our team. Based on these smokes, initiators would like to use their utility to help the team enter the site. Smokes, when placed, have to cover the whole chokepoint, making sure there are no gaps within them. Understand that the objective here is to make sure that the enemies have no information about what’s behind the smoke. In turn, forcing them to push those smokes while you and your teammates are ready, holding it.
If you would like to know which agent to start off with for each role, do check out this post. We have mentioned which agents are the best to start off with when trying to master a role.
