Is Valorant's New Agent Too Strong?

Valorant has officially launched, and with the launch, a new character and map have arrived. Reyna is the new duelist character on the roster. If you saw her gameplay trailer, you might’ve been confused, and if you haven’t played her yet, maybe you still are. To boil it down Reyna is a glass cannon duelist with all of her abilities, but one, based around kills. So, if you’re a fragger, then you might want to think about maining her.

 

Leer (C) works like an Omen flash. It’s an orb that near-sights enemies. It’s deployed at a fixed distance, and it stays deployed for a short amount of time. It only affects enemy players if the Leer is on their screen. So, you can turn away from Leer without lasting effects. You can also hide behind cover to avoid its effects. It can also be countered by shooting it. Shooting the Leer isn’t usually the preferred strategy because you’d have to flick from the Leer to the enemy Reyna that may also peek you. Shooting the Leer leaves you at a disadvantage.

The best places to put Leer are in places with long lines of sight like B-Long on Bind. Reyna players should avoid putting it in close-quarter areas like Showers on Bind because an enemy in close proximity would still be able to see.

Reyna’s signature ability is interesting because it links two abilities to the same resource pool. Devour (Q) and Dismiss (E) are abilities that Reyna can only use after securing a kill. Once an enemy player dies, they drop a Soul Orb. Reyna uses these orbs for her signature abilities. The orbs only last 3 seconds.

Devour allows Reyna to heal lost health. A unique trait of this heal is that it can over-heal Reyna. If she starts the round with no armor and she kills an enemy then uses Devour, she’ll over-heal to 150 total health. She can never heal over 150. It should also be noted that Reyna’s over-healed health doesn’t count as armor, so there is no damage reduction like with armor.

Dismiss allows Reyna to be intangible after killing an enemy. Her model becomes somewhat transparent, and she gets a speed boost. It makes her immune to any damage or status effects. She can walk through sage slows with no problem, and she can even evade a Breach ultimate. The only effects she can’t avoid are flashes and near-sight abilities. This includes Leer, Omen’s nearsight, Breach flash, etc.

Reyna’s signature abilities, and it sure does make her strong. Upon killing, Reyna’s Devour automatically activates without consuming the dropped soul orb. With the leftover orb, she can activate Dismiss, making her invisible. She has slight audio cues that can help you discover her location, but it’s not easy. Empress has a passive combat boost too. The boost grants her a faster fire rate and faster reloads. Reyna’s ultimate does have a time limit, but it resets with every kill.

 

While her signatures and ultimate are strong, I believe the controversy comes in with Leer. The biggest benefits from her kit are locked behind kills, but Leer makes Reyna’s ability to secure kills too powerful. She seems like a glass cannon character, so it’s weird that they’d give her such a powerful tool to start snowballing. Two near-sights seem too strong. One charge would make Reyna players more careful and less gung-ho. It’s like Raze having two nades, except a little less obnoxious.

Hopefully this guide has helped you figure out Reyna, whether you play her or needed more information beating her. 
 

Fredrick Otto Jr,
Editor, NoobFeed
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