10 mistakes that are holding you back in VALORANT
Today we look at the biggest mistakes players are making and how to correct them to become a better player.
With VALORANT having launched just over a week ago, there is bound to be a learning curve whether you are a veteran in the space of tactical shooters or this is your FPS game. One thing is for certain, there is no other experience like VALORANT out there and with the game having a unique mixture of gunplay, abilities, and maps, there are bound to be places where you make mistakes. In this article, we go over ten different mistakes we see being made in matches and how to fix them. You are sure to find something here, whether you’re absolutely new or experienced.
1. Bad Crosshair Placement
This is the biggest mistake that we see a lot of people make, especially the newer players. Always try to keep your crosshair at head level when you’re walking around. This is so, when you do see an enemy, you can either just click on their head as it’s already lined up, or you have to move your mouse a smaller distance than you would have otherwise, allowing you to quickly secure the kill.
2. Running and Gunning
In VALORANT, your crosshair can be deceiving. Your bullets will not always land where your crosshair is, as each gun has a different recoil pattern. The longer you hold down your fire button, the less accuracy you have. If you add running to the mix, you’ll be lucky to register any shots. Simply put: stop, aim, and shoot.
3. Always Running
Sound is a very big indicator of where you or the enemies are. The enemies don’t have to physically see you to know where you are. When you’re running, you make a lot of sounds and on the minimap, you can see where your footsteps can be heard, which is indicated by the circle around you. Walking makes it harder for your enemy to know where you are. Do not make the matches easier for them!
4. Not running enough
Following directly the last mistake, not running enough is also equally as bad. While your enemies certainly will have a harder time knowing where you are, there is no point walking from point B to point A when the bomb just went down. You’re wasting valuable time, as you have to get there, find out where the enemies are, get in a position to kill them, and then defuse. Remember, after a plant, you only have 45 seconds to defuse the spike and it takes 7 seconds to defuse. Don’t waste time and play smarter.
5. Buying during eco/save rounds
Just because you have the money for a full-buy doesn’t mean you should. We’ve covered how to master the in-game economy in its own post here. Remember, this is a team game and your economy is shared by the team as a whole. When one team member doesn’t manage their economy well, it hurts the entire team.
6. Disregarding enemy economy
As important as it is to keep a track of your own economy, it’s also crucial that you know what the enemy's economy is looking like. When you pull up the scoreboard at the beginning of the round, you can see how many credits each enemy player has, and that will give you an idea on how well they can equip themselves in the current round. Knowing this alone gives you much-needed information on how aggressively to play or even know that they will have counters to the problems you aim to create for them.
7. Not utilising your abilities
While VALORANT is an FPS game and the gun mechanics are an integral part of the game, you also have abilities at your disposal, which heighten your gunplay. While it can be overwhelming at first to use your abilities as well as figuring out the gunplay, not using your abilities will keep you from becoming a better player. It’s better to use your abilities in a bad way than not use them at all. The more you use them, the more you will know how to become better at using them.
8. Not valuing ultimate orbs
This is a mistake you see being made less in higher-skilled groups, but ultimate orbs are a lot more valuable than many people realise. In higher-skilled games, there are fights dedicated just to get control of these orbs. This is because ultimates, as the name suggests, are very powerful abilities. To get them otherwise, you will need to get kills, die to an enemy, or interactions with the spike (planting/defusing). As these orbs allow you to get your ultimate faster without putting you in danger of facing the enemy, these are extremely valuable and worth fighting for.
9. Peeking inefficiently
With the time to kill (TTK) being as low as it is, every peek is a risk and as such, you need to peek smartly which allows you to get as much information as possible while keeping yourself as unexposed. This means that you shouldn't swing around corners too widely and expose yourself to other angles. This also means not peeking around the corner with your abilities out, as that will put you at a huge disadvantage should the enemy see you with their guns out. Finally, it also means not checking all the corners while you peek at the angle you want.
10. Not communicating
The last one is also the biggest mistake you can make in this game. VALORANT is best enjoyed when you are working with your team and that’s not going to happen if you are radio silent. Giving information to your team about who you say, what you saw and where you saw them, will give them much-needed information for them to utilise, rather than them just going in blind. Use the ping system inbuilt the game for ease.
Conclusion
I hope this short article has helped you realise some of the most common mistakes and how to fix them as a result!. Keep these in mind, play patiently and win more of your matchups! If you liked this article, feel free to hit me up on Twitter or just join our #Digscord in order to meet the people behind Dig that make this thing so great, including the players themselves!
