Meta matters in every competitive game and VALORANT is no exception. The relative power of agents and weapons shifts with every change introduced to the game, whether that is through patches or evolving trends in the community.
If you hesitate on which agents to pick or just want to have a better idea of the current meta, here are our rankings for the most powerful agents as of Episode Six, Act III.
This tier list is determined by several factors, such as the agents’ popularity in both competitive, unrated, and professional play, their synergy with other top-tier picks, and Riot Games’ latest balance changes. Keep in mind Riot is actively trying to strike a balance between the power of gunplay and abilities, which means agents widely considered the most powerful over a long period of time are often the most susceptible to changes.
If you’re committed to becoming a main of a certain agent due to your personal taste, you’ll be able to win rounds and even turn the tide with sufficient skills. It’s just more difficult to do so while playing some agents over others.?Regardless, don’t fret if your main is low in our rankings; it doesn’t mean you have to stop insta-locking them!
Ranked tier list of best VALORANT agents
| S-Tier | Jett, Omen, Viper, Killjoy, Fade |
| A-Tier | Raze, Sage, Brimstone, Sova, Skye |
| B-Tier | Breach, Harbor, KAY/O, Phoenix, Gekko |
| C-Tier | Cypher, Astra, Neon |
| D-Tier | Yoru, Reyna, Chamber |
S-Tier: Jett, Omen, Viper, Killjoy, Fade
These agents are the cream of the crop and are essential picks in almost any agent composition on nearly any map. They’re also great picks for when you’re trying to climb the ranked ladder yourself in solo queue.
Jett is the optimal choice for any player who wants to capitalize on opportunities to get kills. She is an attack-sided juggernaut with enhanced mobility, plus her own smokes can be used to help the rest of the team or anchor her own highlight plays. With the right mechanics, Jett is certainly one of the best agents, and she also hasn’t fallen out of the meta in the last three years. If you can master the timing of her movement abilities, she is undoubtedly an S-Tier pick.
Omen’s ability to blind and teleport is unique in the controller category, and his ultimate can provide a variety of different uses to a team. Viper’s ability to place walls, choke off angles, deny defuses, and use her ultimate to establish control over an entire site makes her one of the most diverse controllers as well. Though she is often played as a sentinel and used alongside another controller, she doesn’t perform poorly on her own either. Her ultimate is simply one of the best.
Killjoy is an agent that has boomed in the meta over the last few patches. Her utility has become increasingly useful, and she is the strongest sentinel in that agent class right now. With a Killjoy watching your team’s back, no one can get past you.
Killjoy has also benefitted from Chamber falling out of the meta almost completely, and after getting health upgrades to her Lockdown ultimate and Alarmbot, the turret-wielding sentinel has taken a massive step up.
Fade is probably the best initiator right now, and there is really no other agent quite like her. The information she can gather for her team is comprehensive, and she also has her own follow-up abilities to be able to act on that information. Her ultimate is amazing at clearing sites and retaking them.
A-Tier: Raze, Sage, Brimstone, Sova, Skye
These agents provide a great amount of value to most compositions across a majority of maps. None of them are bad picks, but some agents in the S-Tier category might be better depending on the situation.
Raze is a destructive force, able to flush hidden enemies out of corners with her paint can grenades and Boombot. With a meta increasingly focused on close-range engagements around tight corners, Raze’s utility is perfect.
Sage can exert a great amount of map control with her slows and wall and can reverse the momentum of a round with a well-timed heal or resurrection, but she lacks flank-watching abilities that make the other sentinels in her agent class strong picks, like Killjoy. But, she still ranks in A-Tier because she can be played in diverse ways, and her healing and resurrection abilities are just too powerful.
Brimstone’s post-plant ability is one of the best, and his smokes provide the most comprehensive site coverage. They also last longer than any other agent’s smokes. He doesn’t have the same flexibility that Omen and Viper do to serve different roles, however, which puts him in a lower tier.
Sova and Skye are excellent initiator choices. Sova is built for reconnaissance and sniffing out enemy setups, while Skye can hound the opposing team with oppressive info-gathering abilities. She is also the only agent besides Sage that can heal teammates, which is a big asset. Her flashes are also the best since they provide audio information even if they aren’t peeked off of.
B-Tier: Breach, Harbor, KAY/O, Phoenix, Gekko
These agents can provide a fair amount of value when used properly but often have specific maps where they shine the most. The agents in this category usually require a certain degree of team coordination, so they can be difficult to play in solo-ranked games.
Breach is an absolutely overwhelming agent when used on the right maps. He particularly excels on Fracture and Haven, and can even be used on Lotus. Any map with smaller sites is his main stomping ground. You’ll need to coordinate with your teammates to make sure you don’t stun them.
Harbor is a welcome addition to the controller category, mostly due to his primary wall ability. The length, control, and duration of the wall is such a vital tool, as are his bullet-shielding cover orb and his site-clearing ultimate. He could use a little more offensive abilities that other controllers already have, but he’s still a very viable agent.
KAY/O has some incredibly powerful abilities, but where he struggles is that in order for them to be used effectively, he needs to be on the same page as his teammates. With KAY/O, it’s easy to waste your utility or flash your teammates if you’re not careful.
Phoenix is an alright duelist, but you have to make sure not to set your teammates on fire or flash them. Some players, like Paper Rex’s Jinggg, have shown just how good Phoenix can be when that team chemistry is there.
Gekko is the game’s newest agent, and while his utility being recoverable gives him a huge bonus, his little globs of utility still feel a bit clunky to use. Other initiators still feel better than him at the moment, so we put him in B-Tier. There is certainly potential for growth, though there is a bit of a learning curve for new players.
C-Tier: Cypher, Astra, Neon
Cypher is a master of locking down a site with his defensive utility, but doesn’t offer as much on the attacking side when it comes to getting to sites safely. Still, his ultimate is very useful on either attack or defense, especially after recent buffs. Cypher’s buffs from Patch 5.10 are nice, but they don’t move him into a higher tier.
Astra’s double-edged sword ultimate costs her some ranking compared to other controllers, but the global reach of her stars can still be valuable to a team. The other main reason she is all the way in C-Tier is that she is generally considered the most difficult agent to play. She is truly an agent for those with a galaxy brain.
Neon is a good choice for those looking for an alternative to Jett, but maybe slightly less airborne. Neon’s lack of utility means she struggles in the current meta. In addition, in order to not cut off your teammate’s sightlines with her Fast Lane and not concuss them with her stuns, you’ll have to coordinate together.
D-tier: Yoru, Reyna, Chamber
There’s no agent in the field that’s completely worthless, but in most scenarios, these agents don’t provide the most value to a team. This is because these agents are very self-centered, as in they are good at sustaining themselves, and players on these agents are at higher risk of trying to make plays on their own that don’t help the rest of the team.
Once a consensus S-tier agent that dominated the pro scene, all the recent nerfs to Chamber (most notably via the 5.12 update) have finally knocked him down the ladder. With virtually his entire kit taking a hit in viability, he’s not completely useless, but he’s far gone from the crutch he once was.
The duo of Yoru and Reyna have the potential to be a carrying force, but only if the player playing them has a great individual game themselves. They can both blind and make individual plays, and Reyna can be self-sufficient but they provide little to nothing to the rest of the team, at least compared to other agents.
This article will be updated with any changes or the addition of new agents in VALORANT.
Related: What are the VALORANT agents’ real names? from Upcomer
