Learning and Mastering VALORANT’s Duelists featuring EMUHLEET
Emuhleet is Dignitas’ signature Duelist player on our VALORANT team. Here’s her tips and tricks to mastering the game’s flashiest and most iconic role.
Duelist is perhaps the most intense position that VALORANT players can pick up. With an emphasis on making flashy plays and racking up kills, Duelist players will almost always have the spotlight on them. Emmalee “EMUHLEET” Garrido, the Duelist player on Dignitas’ VALORANT roster, is no stranger to having the spotlight on her, and in this guide, she details everything you need to know to be an elite Duelist player yourself.
Picking the Right Duelist
There are more Duelist agents in VALORANT than characters in any other role. The game’s five dedicated duelists all bring something to the table in any team composition, but when it comes to learning the role, some characters will be better suited for new players more so than others.
To get a feel for which Duelist is the best fit for you, play a few games with each character. Whether it’s the elusive nature of Reyna that catches your eye, or the flashy, play-making abilities of Yoru, be sure to give every Duelist a shot — not just to understand how they fit your playstyle, but to have a better idea of what they do in case you’re ever matched up with or against one.
I think a lot of players need to understand the Duelist they are picking and how they can work around the other agents on their team. That's the exciting part about Valorant. There are so many other agents and different combinations that you can work around with your agent.
However, if there’s one Duelist that you should start your journey with, it’s Jett. The agent doesn’t bring a whole lot to a team composition in the utility department outside of her four second smoke, Cloudburst (C), but she still has myriad uses when it comes to engaging and finding kills.
The easiest duelist to learn if it's your first time playing the role is probably Jett. She is pretty basic for the most part, and her ability to dash can help you get out of tricky situations which is always nice.
Jett’s dash, Tailwind (E), is the character’s most recognizable and signature ability. It allows her to either jump straight into the mix or back out a sticky situation with ease. The best way, however, to use Tailwind is to dash out of or around a fight once you have a feel for the enemy’s positioning. Move to an objective slowly in order to get a better understanding of where the enemy players are positioned, and if you feel the need to get to safety, use Tailwind to throw the other team off your scent.
Don’t use Tailwind to blindly dash onto a spike site or into a choke. There’s always a good chance that an enemy player is going to be waiting for you around a corner, so using your best mobility move to engage them without any information isn’t ideal.
Leading the Charge
Entry-fragging as a Duelist is a responsibility that you’ll almost always have to take up. The role’s ability to quite literally go into a gunfight “guns blazing” is one of the major intrigues of playing Duelist. And while you don’t want to use a major ability such as Yoru’s Gatecrash (E) or Jett’s Tailwind (E) to jump straight onto a site, you’ll still want to act with a bit of haste considering you’ll be leading the way for the rest of your team.
When leading the way for the rest of your team on offense, you’ll have to be able to think quickly and react and even faster. If you decide to rush a site at the top of a round, but realize that it’s not going to work out, don’t be afraid to make the call to rotate. The quicker you make the enemy team react to your moves, the better chance you’ll have at finding success later in the round.
Sometimes when you are a Duelist, it can be a difficult job when you are always going in first and some sometimes find yourself unsuccessful. If you find yourself in this situation, you need to remember that Valorant is most certainly a team game on purpose. Don't be afraid to talk to your teammates and ask them what you want them to do with you so they are aware of your plans and can use their ability to help you succeed even more. You might even find yourself creating some really awesome friends in ranked games like I have!
When playing Duelists, try to get rid of the mindset that you’re destined to be the center of attention. All five players on a VALORANT team have the same capabilities of turning a fight in their team’s favor. Just because you’re playing a Duelist doesn’t always mean you have to take the game into your own hands.
Sure, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to secure kills thanks to your kit, but above all else, communication with your teammates is going to always be the biggest factor in securing those kills.
Finding Success on Defense
We’ve spoken a lot about what it takes to play Duelists on offense. And while they’re certainly known for their prowess during the attacking rounds, they most definitely have their uses on defense, as well.
On offense, it’s possible to make a lot of head-turning plays all on your own as a Duelist. But, when you’re defending, you’ll want to look to your more defense-oriented teammates for an assist.
On Defense, I think it's important to learn a lot of different plays you can do with your agent combined with a teammate. Keep in mind you want to utilize your support agents to their best ability because there is no I in Team and this is a team game!
For example, if there’s a Cypher player on your team and they place a Spycam (E) around a choke, you should be communicating with them to know when it’s safe to peek around that choke and secure a few kills for yourself.
Another useful tactic that Duelists can pull off with Sentinels is using their information to rotate on defense. If a teammate playing Cypher or Killjoy is able to gather information on the attacking team’s strategy and movements, you, as a Duelist, can react quickly to move around the map and hunt down enemies.
Agents like Jett, Yoru, and even Raze can use their mobility abilities to get from site to site quickly and secure kills on attacking playing that could be pushing without expecting a quick rotate.
Coming up with multiple plays will also turn you into an unpredictable player and more successful in your duelist fragging abilities. You also might want to keep in mind that you want to set aside time to dry run these plays with your teammates so everyone is on the same page as you.
With that final tip we hope that you now better understand the Duelist role in VALORANT. Try to apply these tips in your own games to make steady progress and climb the ranked ladder.
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