Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone realizes it. Here are a few general mistakes every agent type makes and how to fix them. Understanding what you are doing wrong is the first step to getting better! So, let’s get better at Valorant together.
Every agent role plays differently. You don’t want to be playing a Sentinel as a Duelist or a Duelist as a Controller. Understanding your agent, their role in your team, and the best way to utilize your abilities is important to put your team in a winning position. But sometimes, you need to fill, so understanding common mistakes every role makes is important to not replicate them. Starting with the most aggressive agent roles to least aggressive, here are three common problems for each type.
No Hunting! Duelists are going to die a lot. But putting yourself in bad positions is detrimental to the team. If a Duelist gets the initial pick, great! However, this does not mean they have to push to seek out every known enemy. This could lead to a bad push. A duelist role is to shepherd the rest of the team to a site safely; going out of your way to kill could lead you to an untradeable position and ultimately a disadvantage. Keep your team and their positions in mind when crossing a chokepoint into asite.
Duelists need to have supreme confidence to do their role well, but sometimes too much of an ego will get you killed. Waiting for an initiator to start your initial push instead of just egoing inside will not only help you get an easier duel, but it’ll allow you and the rest of the team to be on the same page when executing a fight. The Duelist’s job isn’t to just “go kill”, but to make a safe space for your team to work in.
Leave the lurks and the flanks to the Sentinels on attack, their kit will allow them to do that better than you. Your job is on the site. You might be able to get kills mid, however your team will be stuck in a site lobby because they don’t have the adequate abilities to get onto site safely. So please, just entry. It’s okay if you die, it happens a lot.
Always remember, keep your confidence high and hype yourself up. Encourage the rest of your team with that positive energy you built up. You have to be okay with getting baited often but be careful not to speedrun dying by putting yourself in bad positions.
Using abilities to set yourself up for immediate kills instead of information for the rest of your team can be detrimental for the round. Sometimes information of enemy positions can be more useful than a quick frag. More information for the team will lead to better decisions and easier fights. Baiting your ability (ex: Sova Drone or Skye Dog) for your Duelist to work off of is better than pop flashing for yourself. Your abilities matter more than the Duelists’ later in rounds.
Using your abilities to initiate without the rest of the team understanding what you are trying to accomplish will be a waste of time, credits, and abilities, since nobody will be able to follow up on whatever you’re doing. Communicating during pre-round on what you’re trying to accomplish will help others (especially the Duelists) to act on your abilities quickly. Even pinging helps if you don’t want to use a mic (but please, I beg you to use a mic).
Stall. Proactively to stop a push if they come death-balling toward you. Initiator abilities must be used proactively because they allow others to act upon their use. Holding them for yourself does nothing.
Remember your abilities are not only for yourself, but for others. Communicate what you would like to do and rack up those assists. Control the tempo of the game and help your Duelists by making their duels easier. In return they will give you safety. Initiators should be second entry to Duelists, so they work together best!
It is important to close off angles to help your team take a site but using all of them can be detrimental to your team’s post-plant situation. If a Defender realizes that they are outmanned on a site push, they can give you the site and retake with the rest of their team. Using all of the smokes available to you now becomes pointless. It is important to save at least one smoke for post-plant so that it is easier to defend the held position.
Placing a smoke that just covers a position can negatively affect your team, making it harder for the Duelist to clear spaces. Covering enemy chokepoints works best because there would be no need for any of your teammates to push that. It creates a wall that would be dangerous for the enemies to penetrate. Covering an angle on site, can sometimes allow the enemies to play inside the smoke. Cutting the site in half from a front portion and a back portion makes it more difficult to clear the site safely for a Duelists. It is important to try to smoke an area that the enemies cannot play inside of.
Playing a Controller aggressively can hurt the team more than playing a Duelist aggressively. A controller’s abilities are significantly more important than a Duelist’s abilities later in the round. Make sure that you are not the first one dying in the round and please do not entry for your team.
Controllers are the most important role in the game. They affect the outcome of the round more than any other agent role. Making sure your smokes are placed well, is the most important thing you can do as a controller. Post-plant lineups are also helpful, but not necessary, so make sure you stay alive and leave the aggressiveness to the Duelists and Initiators.
A Sentinel’s role in the team is to be the site anchor. If a player on another site is calling for reinforcement, the other players should rotate instead of you. Your abilities allow you to hold your own on site as well as lurk for information on enemy positioning. Catching the enemies off-guard or letting your team know that the enemies are rotating is more beneficial than you leaving to help your teammate in a fight. Sentinel players have to be comfortable playing on a site alone a lot. Only rotate when the other team is beginning to plant the spike on the other site.
Being predictable is inadvertently giving the enemies information without having to do anything. If you play the same setups every round the enemies will learn how to play around it.Learning multiple setups for a single site will help eliminate that site as an option for the opposition. At least 3 setups will make you unpredictable and a nightmare to confront.
Unlike Duelists and Initiators, who don’t have to do much in the pre-round, Sentinels usually cannot stop to take a break. Pre-round is important for setups so there is no time wasted mid-round. And sometimes, especially if you’re not a Sentinel main, it is easy to forget to set up. It happens from time to time, and it can be easy to get preoccupied with something in-game and even out of game. So just try to remember to set up what you need to set up before the round starts.
Sentinels bring confidence to the team on Defense and safety for rotations on Offense. Remember to set up utility to put your team at an advantage and try to get as much information as possible with lurks and site lockdowns.
Mistakes are made constantly, which is okay! Sometimes players don’t realize what they are doing wrong until it is pointed out. Remember to keep encouraging your teammates and play for them rather than yourself. When everyone helps out, communicates, and commits to the duty of their role, games are easier, and more fun to play.
