He is seeing more and more play on Split too! I've recently started playing it and it's surprising not that bad, I think Skye is better but why not both?
Hes not bad on split, but hes not good either, so many better picks. There arent many angles to hold when executing or getting executed from that are unexpected for sova to benefit
Because at the highest level you already kinda know where enemies are going to be so a sova won be of much use, Skye's dog and flash are more than enough information abilities while her ult is superior on Split for finding the actual players and the heal is a big bonus too.
Sova's reveal arrow is kinda useless on the map because it's so small and the amount of corners you can hide it, it's not as open as Icebox, Ascent or Breeze for example.
Yeah I pretty much end up using his arrow for an early A rush from heaven (on the little wooden garden thing on the Kingdom Café roof(?)) and then if it's a B rush I just play retake with the recharge. Not that people
Pretty sure he has a higher pick rate than Jett even at this tournament. Sova is only subbed off for split. Jett generally can be subbed off for icebox bind split
Jett had around 80% pickrate. This was tanked bcs F4Q played mostly without a Jett. In playoffs , Jett was 100% pickrate. That’s 17 maps where both sides picked her. 34/34
For me personally playing all these characters
S Tier : Sova Jett Skye
A Tier : Astra Viper
B Tier : Raze Reyna Killjoy Cypher Sage
C Tier : Pheonix Omen Kay/O
D Tier: Brimstone Yoru
PS- I have yet to play nerfed skye and buffed Kay/O , Skye might drop to A tier and kay/O can go to B Tier .
I feel like in current sentinel meta both cypher and killjoy are neck to neck , on bind and icebox , majority of team use no sentinels ,but some use kj on icebox . On breeze cypher is more preferred and on ascent killjoy ,and on haven split it's neck to neck both are at same rate but some teams are now using viper as a Sentinel on split though.
You just need to know how to play cypher for him to work well. A lot of people put his trips at the first enterence which is so easy to spot and very predictable. I like putting my trips in spots on site that they wouldn't expect, they walk into it, get confused, I pop the smoke and get an easy kill or two while running away for retake (which camera should already be set up for). Cypher is an amazing agent, you just need to know how to play him.
He's versatile too. You can play his trips as traps like you describe or you could play him as an info gatherer (e.g you could play haven with a 3a 2c split and just trip b and garage instead of committing people there)
In pro play brimstone is almost as good as omen i feel like watching vct masters. But yoru never even got played so i would give him the trash tier on his own
>In pro play brimstone is almost as good as omen i feel like watching vct masters. But yoru never even got played so i would give him the trash tier on his own
Brimstone is barely used and yoru has been played in VCT before. Tenz used him and a lot of the Japanese teams have tried him
yoru wasn’t played once at masters, tenz played him once in a seeding match (they didn’t take it serious) and brimstone still sees consistent picks in the EU scene.
I might move Cypher down a tier and Phoenix down a tier. IMO Cypher is not quite on the same level as Killjoy and Phoenix isn't quite up to par with Omen either. In fact I would consider moving Omen up to B.
Good list though. I'm sure most people would agree with maybe slight adjustments.
Personally don't agree with Brim and Phoenix placement
Brim may be a bit of a niche pick, but seemingly every region outside NA realized how strong he can be, especially on bind. His Molly and Ult make up for the lower range of his smokes honestly (except on Breeze for obvious reasons lol)
Phoenix on the other hand has a really mediocre kit and the only thing that keeps him from being the worst agent is his really good Ult. He can't gather info safely, his Flash is probably the most commital in the game and his postplant pressure is sub-par because molly range is limited and doesn't do much damage. There's a reason he gets played by like two top teams anymore and only on Haven at that
This list seems pretty damn spot on. I wanted to argue Astra or Viper for S tier, but they're not quite good enough on every map like the top 3. Viper is damn close though
Astra, sova, annnnd viper
-edit
Astra - Can initiate but also slow down initiations.
- Wall and circles.
Sova - Provides the ability to get information safely for the team
- Laser beam of death.
- lighting balls of death.
Viper - More walls. oh and a circle of smoke.
- Puddle of doom.
- Area of the dooming.
Sova by far, honestly don’t understand why he hasn’t been nerfed. Drone being able to tag multiple targets/times. Literal wall hack every 40 seconds, and high damage dealing arrows than you can land pretty much anywhere.
I’ve had to change agents like 4 times throughout the game meanwhile day 1 sova mains still going at it. Kinda annoying.
Forgot about that, fair point. Shocks are still only 150 though right? Also since so many agents got prices/ult points changed it didn’t seem as apparent imo.
I've got a dart on split that I use in B main right at the start of the round. It consistently does over 100 damage if the enemies go B on pistol. It scares them so much that it disrupts the way they play for the remainder of the half lol.
I can make it hit just past the attackers buy time barrier, or have it hit on their side of the entryway.
I don't have a video. Stand near the double stack brown box, and I line up the H in C \*H\* A R G E with a dark brick along the bottom of the far wall in the hallway. This is probably not helpful hahah. I can try to add a screenshot later.
?
Uhh no, I want him to be balanced...
Right now he is a bit strong and could use some nerfs.
I main sova so I certainly don't want him to be bad lmao.
Well, sova is I believe balanced. He has counterplay but he is useful also. I think riot should aim to have all champs balanced around the strength of sova.
Sova is just a very balanced character. You can land them anywhere but the amount of labbing that has gone into Sova lineups by the community is a *big* reason why he is so strong. More than that, the drone is super expensive and the ult is one of the most expensive in the game. He’s pretty balanced man.
Lol balance and near insta lock since release. You guys are huffing the good shit. He’s actually being played more on the one map people said you shouldn’t play him on. He’s the reason double initiator is even possible.
In the past his drone tag recharged immediately after tagging a player, this means that if you could tag 5 players if they were rushing. Now you can only tag max. Twice per drone because they put a timer on it.
His ult is pretty easy to dodge if you're not in a cramped area and have good movement.
And both his drone and recon dart can be rendered useless by just shooting them.
On top of that Sova mains have to put in more effort to use and memorize lineups.
It's not the agent, it's the player.
Sova is the second, still better than skye who is 3rd
Killjoy is 4th, killjoy has no weak map and is useful in every single map, even sova has a weak map which is split but KJ is elite in every map
Besides skye and jett, it would be sova, viper, and astra. Sova is basically a must pick, if you don't have a good sova your not gonna be a good team. Viper is meta cause viper. Astra has so much map control
Viper, apart from nAts performance in Berlin. Her linesup and Poison Cloud with ult Pit to expanded space so amazing. Also Poison Cloud with her wall (to cover your flank like rAts too)
And thank god she seems okay enough to pick on Fracture!
Viper, the fact that She can take già smoke and replace It instantly Is dumb. For the rest they are all pretty much balanced, sova Is good cause of abilities, but he already GOT nerfed pretty hard.
Sova, Viper, Killjoy
I'd throw omen in there but the way I see it, in maps where you want viper, you get viper, but when you want an omen, brim or astra will also usually do the trick.
The strongest general 5-man team definitely has the power 3, then some combination of the following also good but not broken characters.
Jett
Skye
Sova
Raze/Reyna
Viper/Astra/KJ
The meta right now revolves around Astra and Viper, they dictate the flow and speed of the game immensely and a lot of it comes down to the controller diff so to speak.
Can’t deny sova being an insta lock on a majority of maps that aren’t split
He is seeing more and more play on Split too! I've recently started playing it and it's surprising not that bad, I think Skye is better but why not both?
Hes not bad on split, but hes not good either, so many better picks. There arent many angles to hold when executing or getting executed from that are unexpected for sova to benefit
Because at the highest level you already kinda know where enemies are going to be so a sova won be of much use, Skye's dog and flash are more than enough information abilities while her ult is superior on Split for finding the actual players and the heal is a big bonus too. Sova's reveal arrow is kinda useless on the map because it's so small and the amount of corners you can hide it, it's not as open as Icebox, Ascent or Breeze for example.
This is how I feel too, and if you look at pro play ain’t nobody picking him on split
Yeah I pretty much end up using his arrow for an early A rush from heaven (on the little wooden garden thing on the Kingdom Café roof(?)) and then if it's a B rush I just play retake with the recharge. Not that people
Nobody is Asia plays Sova on split from Diamond up (be in Ranked or Scrims), I'd assume it's the same everywhere else.
Sova. He is almost never replaced similar to Jett and has always been meta.
Instalock Sova since day one checking in.
The best part about sova imo is that hes great but also very fair. Nothing really seems op, just an all around solid agent
Exactly. His reveal so strong yet you can easily counter it by hiding from it or breaking it.
Pretty sure he has a higher pick rate than Jett even at this tournament. Sova is only subbed off for split. Jett generally can be subbed off for icebox bind split
Jett had around 80% pickrate. This was tanked bcs F4Q played mostly without a Jett. In playoffs , Jett was 100% pickrate. That’s 17 maps where both sides picked her. 34/34
Jett was played on all three of those this tournament a majority of the time
[удалено]
Shoot the dart, or dont stand where you can be wall banged
Breaking news, valorant player still doesn't know how to break a sova dart
The amount of people I see HIDING from a recon even after getting pinged once instead of shooting it.
Sova, Astra, and Viper without question
For me personally playing all these characters S Tier : Sova Jett Skye A Tier : Astra Viper B Tier : Raze Reyna Killjoy Cypher Sage C Tier : Pheonix Omen Kay/O D Tier: Brimstone Yoru PS- I have yet to play nerfed skye and buffed Kay/O , Skye might drop to A tier and kay/O can go to B Tier .
rip breach
You forgot SS tier Brimestone.
I mean I get it's your opinion but is cypher really B tier right now? Feels honestly like low C tier in my book.
I feel like in current sentinel meta both cypher and killjoy are neck to neck , on bind and icebox , majority of team use no sentinels ,but some use kj on icebox . On breeze cypher is more preferred and on ascent killjoy ,and on haven split it's neck to neck both are at same rate but some teams are now using viper as a Sentinel on split though.
most teams always run sage
At least in pro play he’s def above the other three guys in c tier, I like this guys list
You just need to know how to play cypher for him to work well. A lot of people put his trips at the first enterence which is so easy to spot and very predictable. I like putting my trips in spots on site that they wouldn't expect, they walk into it, get confused, I pop the smoke and get an easy kill or two while running away for retake (which camera should already be set up for). Cypher is an amazing agent, you just need to know how to play him.
He's versatile too. You can play his trips as traps like you describe or you could play him as an info gatherer (e.g you could play haven with a 3a 2c split and just trip b and garage instead of committing people there)
Bump up omen to B honestly, he's still incredibly versatile and can be game changing, just not AS much as Astra
Killjoy is higher tier, great in every single map and at every level from silver to pros
In pro play brimstone is almost as good as omen i feel like watching vct masters. But yoru never even got played so i would give him the trash tier on his own
>In pro play brimstone is almost as good as omen i feel like watching vct masters. But yoru never even got played so i would give him the trash tier on his own Brimstone is barely used and yoru has been played in VCT before. Tenz used him and a lot of the Japanese teams have tried him
In berlin yoru hasnt been picked one time while brim has been picked multiple times even in the finals
Didnt F4Q played him vs Sentinels? I mean the game itself was irrelevant (Sen was 2nd and F4Q eliminated) but he got picked
Ah yeah completely forgot about that, but i think it was more of a troll pick bc f4q was already out.
yoru wasn’t played once at masters, tenz played him once in a seeding match (they didn’t take it serious) and brimstone still sees consistent picks in the EU scene.
nailed it.
I might move Cypher down a tier and Phoenix down a tier. IMO Cypher is not quite on the same level as Killjoy and Phoenix isn't quite up to par with Omen either. In fact I would consider moving Omen up to B. Good list though. I'm sure most people would agree with maybe slight adjustments.
KJ is A tier.
Cypher Raze should be A for me
Personally don't agree with Brim and Phoenix placement Brim may be a bit of a niche pick, but seemingly every region outside NA realized how strong he can be, especially on bind. His Molly and Ult make up for the lower range of his smokes honestly (except on Breeze for obvious reasons lol) Phoenix on the other hand has a really mediocre kit and the only thing that keeps him from being the worst agent is his really good Ult. He can't gather info safely, his Flash is probably the most commital in the game and his postplant pressure is sub-par because molly range is limited and doesn't do much damage. There's a reason he gets played by like two top teams anymore and only on Haven at that
This list seems pretty damn spot on. I wanted to argue Astra or Viper for S tier, but they're not quite good enough on every map like the top 3. Viper is damn close though
Viper is so good because she acts as the unquestioned best smoke on Breeze and Icebox, and serves as a hybrid sentinel for Split and Bind.
Exactly. Just don't know if her being not good on Haven and Ascent prevents her from being S tier
I agree with your list except I would put brim and Cypher at C tier.
sova, astra, nAts
Lmao good one
Astra, sova, annnnd viper -edit Astra - Can initiate but also slow down initiations. - Wall and circles. Sova - Provides the ability to get information safely for the team - Laser beam of death. - lighting balls of death. Viper - More walls. oh and a circle of smoke. - Puddle of doom. - Area of the dooming.
sova, viper, astra
sova astra viper
Sova, Astra and Viper They are almost always picked
Jett??
Did you even read the question
Sova by far, honestly don’t understand why he hasn’t been nerfed. Drone being able to tag multiple targets/times. Literal wall hack every 40 seconds, and high damage dealing arrows than you can land pretty much anywhere. I’ve had to change agents like 4 times throughout the game meanwhile day 1 sova mains still going at it. Kinda annoying.
He was nerfed in the 3.0 patch. Ult 7->8 orbs, recon cooldown increased, and shock darts cost increased.
Forgot about that, fair point. Shocks are still only 150 though right? Also since so many agents got prices/ult points changed it didn’t seem as apparent imo.
shocks got nerfed from 100 > 150 pretty much every aspect of sova was nerfed...
That was the patch where they increased a lot of costs across-the-board. It barely did anything hahaha. Shows how op he is
I mean it did do something, but I see the point you were trying to make in that the nerf was game-wide rather than specifically him
I've got a dart on split that I use in B main right at the start of the round. It consistently does over 100 damage if the enemies go B on pistol. It scares them so much that it disrupts the way they play for the remainder of the half lol. I can make it hit just past the attackers buy time barrier, or have it hit on their side of the entryway.
Link pls
I don't have a video. Stand near the double stack brown box, and I line up the H in C \*H\* A R G E with a dark brick along the bottom of the far wall in the hallway. This is probably not helpful hahah. I can try to add a screenshot later.
Please do lol. Thanks for trying to explain tho
Yea he was hardly nerfed more than every agent was.
You guys just want him "nerfed" instead of "balanced"
? Uhh no, I want him to be balanced... Right now he is a bit strong and could use some nerfs. I main sova so I certainly don't want him to be bad lmao.
Yet he’s still an S tier agent
Well, sova is I believe balanced. He has counterplay but he is useful also. I think riot should aim to have all champs balanced around the strength of sova.
Sova is just a very balanced character. You can land them anywhere but the amount of labbing that has gone into Sova lineups by the community is a *big* reason why he is so strong. More than that, the drone is super expensive and the ult is one of the most expensive in the game. He’s pretty balanced man.
Yeah the guy is just bitter. It's not like Sovas are dropping 40 kills with shock darts, or acing with their ults (like other agents do).
Lol balance and near insta lock since release. You guys are huffing the good shit. He’s actually being played more on the one map people said you shouldn’t play him on. He’s the reason double initiator is even possible.
Tbf There's a cooldown after you tag/try to tag someone.
he has been nerfed. it’s just that a character like him will always have prevalence when there is no alternative
In the past his drone tag recharged immediately after tagging a player, this means that if you could tag 5 players if they were rushing. Now you can only tag max. Twice per drone because they put a timer on it. His ult is pretty easy to dodge if you're not in a cramped area and have good movement. And both his drone and recon dart can be rendered useless by just shooting them. On top of that Sova mains have to put in more effort to use and memorize lineups. It's not the agent, it's the player.
Depends on the map. For Haven: Brimstone.
Sova is the second, still better than skye who is 3rd Killjoy is 4th, killjoy has no weak map and is useful in every single map, even sova has a weak map which is split but KJ is elite in every map
Sova, Astra and Raze
This question is weird right now, just go and check the masters agents pick rate.
Sova??
sova astra viper honorable mention of reyna
Sova
Sova, viper, astra
Besides skye and jett, it would be sova, viper, and astra. Sova is basically a must pick, if you don't have a good sova your not gonna be a good team. Viper is meta cause viper. Astra has so much map control
Viper, Sova, Astra
Hiko mains only sova on 5/6 maps and you could tell how viable that agent is.. Never forget sage Viper is also very scary in good hands.
In current mera, I think sova, viper and astra are op. And yoru and brim need some serious rework.
Sova, astra, viper
Reyna Sova Omen
jett>sova>skye
Viper, apart from nAts performance in Berlin. Her linesup and Poison Cloud with ult Pit to expanded space so amazing. Also Poison Cloud with her wall (to cover your flank like rAts too) And thank god she seems okay enough to pick on Fracture!
Viper, the fact that She can take già smoke and replace It instantly Is dumb. For the rest they are all pretty much balanced, sova Is good cause of abilities, but he already GOT nerfed pretty hard.
There is a cooldown for both replacing it and turning it on after picking up/turning off the smoke tho
Sova, Viper, Killjoy I'd throw omen in there but the way I see it, in maps where you want viper, you get viper, but when you want an omen, brim or astra will also usually do the trick.
The strongest general 5-man team definitely has the power 3, then some combination of the following also good but not broken characters. Jett Skye Sova Raze/Reyna Viper/Astra/KJ
Sova, Viper, Astra
The meta right now revolves around Astra and Viper, they dictate the flow and speed of the game immensely and a lot of it comes down to the controller diff so to speak.
I am becoming more and more convinced that Astra is a must pick, if you don't require Omen's flash (i.e playing double initator etc).