Valorant's Character Classes
We’re past the boot camp stage in Valorant’s lifespan, and into the much-anticipated closed beta. The verdict is already in from those lucky few who have gotten to play the game, and the response is overwhelmingly positive.
It was a bit of a questionable scenario for Riot to be going with the hero-based tactical FPS gameplay, needing to follow in the footsteps of Rainbow Six Siege, and Overwatch and needed to be distinct enough with its playable characters to stand out, while not making the same mistake that those two titles did.
Luckily for us, the big minds of Riot have managed to take the bests aspects of those two games and combine them with other features to churn out an incredibly polished, balanced, and well-rounded tactical five versus five competitive FPS.
Each hero has a set of four abilities. The first is an ultimate which acts similar to the ultimates that you should be used to. You are required to earn the ability before you can use it, and you do that by scoring kills and completing objective-based tasks.
The second is the signature ability. This is an innate ability that you have at your disposal every round and varies in cooldown between characters.
Then there are two purchasable abilities. These are extra bits of utility that you can buy pre-round to try and nudge your team over the edge when it comes to offensive or defensive capabilities.
Similar to Overwatch, the playable characters have been divided into classes. Four, to be exact: Duelists, Initiators, Sentinels, and controllers.
Duelists are what you might expect, given the name. They are the characters that are going to find themselves with the purest aggressive capabilities to help them in firefights. It is going to be the class that entry-fraggers and slayers are going to be most attractive to, with kits designed to push into enemy territory.
Initiators are more about information gathering, and providing data to your team, rather than initiating gunfights. Here is where you may find your IGL cast, with hero kits focused on reading the enemy team, and making tactical calls on what to do mid-round.
Sentinels are your support class for Valorant. It’s home to your Mercy players, Doc mains, and those who would prefer to add value behind the front lines, keeping their team in the fight, and the bomb site out of enemy hands.
Controllers are also self-explanatory, being your crowd control and entry denial characters. With these guys, you’re going to be cutting off entry points, rotations, lines of sight, and influencing the map to give your team the tactical advantage, through positioning and time.
It’s a routine and formulaic approach to team-based warfare, but an approach that has seen success in recent times. With the game already looking so good in the early stages of its life, one can only imagine the heights to with it’s going to rise once it’s given the proper time and development.
We may have an Overwatch killer on our hands, ladies and gents.