Best agents in VALORANT: Ranked tier list

The character you choose to play matters in every competitive game, and VALORANT is no exception. The best agents in VALORANT constantly change as Riot Games introduces new balance changes. Depending on who gets buffed and nerfed, a trend always emerges, and the list of the best-performing agents in the game always evolves.

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 best agents as of Episode Seven, Act Two.

How we determine our agent rankings

This tier list is determined by several factors, including the agents’ popularity and win rates in competitive, unrated, and professional play, their synergy with other top-tier picks, and Riot’s 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 maining a certain agent due to your personal taste, you can make any pick work with enough expertise. But some agents are just better suited than others. Here’s our list.

Ranked tier list of best VALORANT agents (2023)

S Tier: Jett, Killjoy, Omen, Sage, and Sova

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, and if you’re good on one of these agents, don’t be ashamed to insta-lock.

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.

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 benefited after the end of the Chamber-centric meta, and after getting health upgrades to her Lockdown ultimate and Alarmbot, the turret-wielding sentinel has taken a massive step up.

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. He can help a team enter a site with ease and set his allies up for easy kills on helpless enemies thanks to his smokes and blind. His smokes are the best in the game and offer the most precise placement out of any controller agent.

Sage can exert an incredible amount of map control with her slows and wall and can reverse the momentum of a round with a well-timed heal or resurrection. 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 of her approachability and diversity. Sage is a great agent to start out on if you’ve never played VALORANT before, and she can be successfully utilized in a variety of styles.

Sova is the most overwhelmingly useful initiator agent. His Recon Bolt and drone are essential tools for gathering information, his Shock Darts are vital to any post-plant, and Hunter’s Fury can swing a round in a multitude of viable ways. He also has utility that is easy to understand and implement yet leaves a high skill ceiling for experienced players.

A Tier: Brimstone, Phoenix, Raze, Skye, and Viper

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.

Brimstone‘s post-plant ability is top-tier, and his smokes provide the most comprehensive site coverage. They also last longer than any other agent’s smokes, making him a prime choice for those who like executing onto sites through the front door. The main reason he isn’t in S Tier is because his smokes don’t recharge.

Phoenix has risen up the ranks as of late, partially off of some stellar VCT appearances but also because more and more players are finding success with him in their own VALORANT games. He currently has the sixth-highest win rate of any agent in the game, indicating the players are eager and prepared to bring him back into rotation.

Raze is a destructive force, able to flush hidden enemies out of corners with her paint can grenades and Boombot. In a quick push, Raze can force her opponents into difficult predicaments or surprise enemies by jumping up onto unexpected angles while also toting around her ultimate that can even out a fight with one well-placed rocket.

Skye is also an excellent initiator choice. Skye can hound the opposing team with oppressive info-gathering abilities. She is also the only agent besides Sage who can heal teammates, which is a big asset. Her flashes are also the best in the entire game since they provide audio information even if they aren’t peeked off of. Skye falls in A Tier instead of S Tier because she can be tricky to use effectively for newer players.

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 in the game. Viper succeeds when she is played as a sentinel and used alongside another controller, tending to perform poorly as a solo controller. Her ultimate is also one of the strongest in the game, hence why it now costs a whopping nine ultimate points, a massive nerf.

B Tier: Breach, Fade, KAY/O, Neon

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 just need to coordinate with your teammates to make sure you don’t stun them.

Fade is a great initiator, but there is really no other agent quite like her, which results in being both a strength and a weakness. 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. Yet unlike every other initiator, she has no flash, a key element of VALORANT and other games like it.

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. Yet, put this agent in the right hands and his abilities become unstoppable.

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 can struggle in slower-paced games, but she can be an incredibly viable option in aggressive scenarios. Pair her with a Breach to stun your enemies into oblivion.

C Tier: Astra, Chamber, Cypher, Gekko, Reyna

Astra‘s ultimate ability is a double-edged sword that 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. This is likely part of the reason why she has the worst win rate in the game.

Once a clear S-tier agent that dominated the pro scene, all the recent nerfs to Chamber 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.

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.

Gekko can be one of the toughest initiators to deal with since he brings so much utility to the table, and if used properly, can be a perfect way to push onto a site or defend from an incoming retake. His Dizzy flash can be avoided relatively easily—whether you shoot it down or dodge the projectile—but like many of his different creatures, it still remains a great tool to simply gain information before rushing forward. He ranks low because compared to other initiators, he lacks flexibility, is always tied to where his creatures land, and generally plays at a slow pace.

Reyna has the highest win rate in casual VALORANT play, and also boasts the highest pick rate. So why is she sitting down in C tier? The main reason is because Reyna is the most selfish agent out there. Her utility primarily serves her own needs, which results in a playstyle that doesn’t focus on the needs of her team. If you can pop off on Reyna, great, but don’t forget to help your team out with the objective.

D tier: Yoru, Harbor, Deadlock

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, 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.

Yoru has the potential to be a carrying force, but only if the player playing them has a great individual game themselves. Some Yoru players are able to knock his kit out of the park and come up with some of the most creative uses of utility we’ve ever seen, but those players are few and far between. If you’re looking for a new way to try out the agent, try pairing him with Fade.

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, and, like Viper, struggles as a single controller, and doesn’t have too many great agents that can go with him.

Deadlock is the newest agent to join the game, and players are still figuring out where she can be used best along with unique lineups for her various abilities. She has plenty of zone control and stalling built into her kit, which is a great tool against fast-acting teams who like to rush. Her ultimate ability can also be an instant round winner in a one-vs-one or one-vs-two situation, but there are also a couple of other agents that fill her role at a more consistent rate. Killjoy, for example, doesn’t require sound to cover flanks and other chokepoints with her abilities, while her ultimate can’t be whiffed.

This article will be updated with any changes or the addition of new agents in VALORANT.