In Valor, there are four core agent roles, and in every single role, you'll find characters that are super similar to one another. Except, they're not. At all.
In fact, it feels like a lot of characters don't even belong in the same role. But what if I told you that there's actually more than four roles, and the four roles that Riot gives us are not actually correct at all? There's a lot we gotta break down and talk about, so let's get right in. So first, let's talk about the Duelist role, and the Duelist role has a freaking whopping seven- characters, but a lot of them don't share similarities at all, and only two of them see consistent play in the pro meta, both Jet and Raze. Now the reason that Jet and Raze are both seeing substantial pro play while the other duelists simply do not is because they're in the category that I would call a sub-role called Space Takers.
They are characters that have the means to get onto site, get across areas at a very quick pace, and in doing this, they're gathering information, they're claiming space, and they're allowing their team to follow up with them during a site execute in a way that few other characters can. It doesn't make a lot of sense to put the other duelists in the same category as Jet and Raze because they just can't do what Jet and Raze does. They can't fulfill that role in a composition.
But there actually is one other character that I would put in the Space Takers category that still doesn't see substantial meta play, but occasionally on a couple of maps we have Neon. And Neon... does have the means in order to take space like Jet and Raze does because she can run very fast, she can slide.
But unfortunately, because competition matters, Jet and Raze have always just done those things better. And even though Neon is literally sprinting across, it's just a lot slower than double satcheling or dashing, so it's not quite as effective. but still overall i think the kit deserves to be put in the same sub category now the second category of duelists i would call duelers and these are characters that primarily have a kit that enables them to take angles or challenge 1v1s and they do it better than other characters do So, characters like Reyna that has a flash and benefits if you actually get a kill.
Iso that gets, like, basically a lot of his utility from winning and taking 1v1s. Phoenix that gets to flash, clear cubbies, and, you know, take space on site. And then You.
which is a weird one because I do think that you could classify You as a space taker as well. In a sense, doesn't quite fit perfectly in either space takers and duelers, almost like a hybrid of both, but sometimes being something that is a mash of two sub roles inside the duelist category doesn't make them better because they're using some of their kit for other things when if it was better to enable space taking, then that function in a pro composition would actually be. be better. But let's not get too far into that.
Let's move on to the next role, Initiator. But before we do, we have in-depth guides on the Skill Cap website over Duelist, Initiator, Controller, and Sentinel. So if you really want to level up your gameplay and climb to Ascendant, Immortal, or even Radiant, you got to check out our in-depth guides that break down step-by-step exactly how to climb through the ranks with targeted tips and tricks that will let you improve as quickly as possible. And if you don't believe- us we offer a improvement money back guarantee so you don't climb you don't pay so there's literally no downside and that's how confident we are in our product so check it out right now and the links down below now there are currently six initiators in the game but i think that they deserve to be in two subcategories first up is the set uppers and these are characters that have the ability to enable other plays and characters in their comp so they can help set up their team for plays and swings They can stun or clear certain areas, allowing their team to follow up, and sometimes it can be more fundamental, like doing a team strategy around their utility or their ultimate.
And first off, I have Gekko. Next off, I have Breach, which makes a lot of sense. He's always trying to...
enable and set up a peek from a duelist for instance like a neon or a raise and then last up we have kao which of course kao does have a little bit of utility that does gather information which we'll talk about in a second so he does have a little bit of an overlap but mainly he is a set upper trying to set up coordinated plays with his team trying to enable his team with pop flashes and knives into executes and ultimates into executes. Now, the next sub-role inside the initiator category would be information gatherers, and this one's pretty self-explanatory. Characters that have utility that gather information about where other enemies are, right? So first off, we have Sova, where he has both his drone and his dart. He's using it to gather information, transferring that to his team, and allowing you and your team to make plays off of it.
So in a way, you're still setting up your team. but you're doing it primarily with just getting more information, finding out where people are, finding out what people aren't, and using that to have some sort of strategical advantage. Very similar way, we have Fade. Similar thing, two very, very similar abilities on Fade, whether it's Eye or Prowler, gathering information in a very similar way. That's why Fade fits perfectly into the info-gathering sub-role.
And then we have Sky, which is a bit of a combination, definitely kind of similar to KO in the set-uppers, where Sky does have some set-up abilities, like the Flash. but also information gathering primarily with the flash sound cue if you're discovering any people, with the dog being able to gather information as well. But I would say that Sky kind of crosses that line, toes that line a little bit, just like Kao does on the other end of the spectrum, but still firmly in information gathering.
The next up, we do gotta talk about Controller. And Controller's gonna be a little bit more straightforward. This distinction is one you've heard quite a bit, but I'm also dividing it into three different things instead of just two. So first off, line smokes. Smokes that go and split the map.
You could even call them split smokes or whatever you want to call them. Basically, having the means to wall off an entire section and using that to take space, right? And it's super important for maps like Breeze, for instance, and the only controller in this role is Viper. If you have a map or strategy that demands a line smoker, then only Viper will fulfill that role because Viper is very unique.
Now, this might not always be the case. There could be other characters that get added to this in the future. But for now, it's primarily only Viper. Next up, we have dome smokes.
You know, circle smokes. Smokes that get to cover certain targeted locations and you can make plays off of them and take space off of them. And it's basically only Brim and Omen. And you're gonna say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, there's two other- smokers that you haven't even talked about, but we'll talk about them in the second, in the third category. But Brim and Omen both fulfill that job very well.
Of course, Brim and Omen don't share a lot of other similarities with how they play. You know, Omen can lurk in a way that Brim cannot. Brim has more stalling capability.
Omen has a flash. There's a lot of differences between these characters, but for their primary purpose, the smoking aspect of them, they share that fundamentally in a way that these both could be played. on any map that needs to cover certain specific spots that a dome could cover, but if you need a line smoker, neither of these characters are gonna do it for you.
Now, last up, I'm gonna call the third category assistant smokes, and these are smokes that historically, this can change, but historically have not been played by themselves, they're smoke controller characters that demand to be paired with another controller. They are primarily going to be using their utility to create some play, set up some strategic advantage, and not necessarily do the fundamental job of smoking off X-Sight line, executing onto sight. They are often going to be used in conjunction, whether it's Astra with a Harbor, or whether it's freaking Astra and a Viper, or whether it's Harbor and an Omen, or whatever the case may be. Now, while these characters I'm putting in three categories, these categories don't necessarily have to stick because they're based primarily not like the other sub-rules that I talked about where those are based more on the utility that those characters provide. These are more based on how these characters are actually used because honestly, I don't think just dividing them by Lion Smoker and Dome Smoker and putting Viper and Harbor up against Brim, Omen, Astra makes any sense when those characters are not grouped in that way pretty much at all.
Even if, you know, Harbor is technically a line smoker, you could make the argument that doesn't mean that he could play that role. But there is a world where maybe they buff Harbor a ton. Maybe he is going to be strong enough to do it. You never really know. Buffs, reworks to characters can change how strong characters are, how they're being used.
So I'd say that the controller role is a little bit flexible, dependent on how people are using it at the given meta. but let me know down below how you feel they should be grouped if you have a different idea. And last up is the Sentinel role.
And honestly, I don't really think the Sentinel role needs to be divided any further than just space denial. They are space denial characters, pretty much all of them, either cut information or cut the ability to take space. That's pretty much what they do.
They deny these things from the enemy, whether they're doing it with utility, whether they're doing it with slows, whatever they're doing it with, they are denying space. Now, we talked about Jet and Raze as space takers. These, the entire Sensible world is a space denier. Now, I will say that one of the things that's interesting is Sage differentiates herself as being the only character that doesn't gather any information with her utility at all compared to all the other Sensible.
So you could say Sage is a non-information gatherer while the other ones are. But I really think that the entire Sensible world is pretty fine. As is.
There's not even really a lot of Sentinels to need to further divide them. But similar to the controller role, would you divide them in any way? How would you do it in the comments down below?
But anyways, these are the ways that I think you can further divide the roles in Valor. To make it more clear about what they actually do and mean. Because if you say, I need a duelist, I need an initiator, I need a controller.
What does that actually mean? It doesn't mean anything. unless you further divide the roles and give clarity to what the characters within those roles actually do.
Anyways, let us know if you agree or disagree with this video, and smash that like, subscribe if you enjoy the content. Check out Skillcapped if you really want to get cracked just like that. Thank you, and we'll see you next time.