Best Initiators Agents in Valorant | Ranked Worst to Best

Initiator agents are designed to do what it says on the tin- initiate. This isn’t a class where you just run in and try to 1v5 however, your initiation usually comes from your abilities and the utility they can provide. Whether you’re a nature lover and are the embodiment of Skye or you keep getting killed by Sova’s Hunter’s Fury everytime you try to defuse, Initiators are always a vital part of any successful Valorant team!

KAY/O

KAY/O is the 16th agent to be added to Valorant and is the newest initiator agent on this list. He specialises in suppression and self-enhancement. He can be used as one of the most effective initiators in a well coordinated team.

His FLASH/DRIVE (Q) is always welcome as any form of blind can help overpower overpeeking enemies and take a position. His ZERO/POINT (E) is the bread and butter of his kit, with the majority of his gameplay revolving around it. Throwing a suppression blade, he is able to suppress enemies in a 15 metre radius for eight seconds. This gives his team enough time to rotate and kill the enemies- especially as during the suppression, agents are prohibited from using abilities. This doubles as both a crowd control and scouting ability.

This all sounds like an overpowered kit, except for the fact that his kit deals lacklustre damage, with his FRAG/MENT (C) causing area of effect waves of damage in a small area. This means that unless combined with one of his suppression abilities, enemies can walk out of the damage zone.

The fact that the damage isn’t burst, drastically lowers his damage output, combined with the ability doing less damage towards the edges of the zone, it is somewhat underwhelming.

His ultimate NULL/CMD (X) is a very effective ultimate but sometimes requires a coordinated team which when playing solo is very sparse. Energy pulses are emitted from KAY/O, which have a short suppression period for enemies hit. He gains a 15% fire speed buff and can be revived for 15 seconds after if he is killed.

KAY/O has a very linear kit and struggles to be utilised when playing alone. His empowerment isn’t very noticeable and the suppression in his kit seems to be repetitive and sometimes ineffective.

Breach

Breach can mess with enemies from the safety of behind a wall, especially with his Flashpoint (Q), Aftershock (C) and Rolling Thunder (X). Breach focuses on the principle of low risk, high reward, as he sparsely has to expose himself to both help his team and impact his enemies.

His Flashpoint (Q) is a blind with the added benefit of being able to go through walls, but with a short charge up time, experienced players can react to this and avoid the blind entirely. His Aftershock (C) is similarly easy to avoid and dodge, which creates a problem for Breach as it is the only damaging ability in his kit.

His Fault Line (E) is an extremely powerful displacement ability which concusses enemies hit by it for 3.5 seconds. When concussed, enemies move slower and fire slower. The range of the ability can be increased based upon cast time, but obviously the longer the ability is being cast for by Breach, the more exposed Breach is and the higher the risk of being killed is.

His ultimate ability Rolling Thunder (X), is a larger and more effective version of his Fault Line (E). It has a larger area of effect and concusses enemies for six seconds in contrast to Fault Line (E) being 3.5 seconds. Enemies caught in Rolling Thunder (X) are also knocked up.

Breach’s play style really revolves around being able to concuss and displace his enemies instead of dealing direct damage to them. With his Aftershock (C) being easily dodgeable, he lacks any real damage. A good Breach player will learn to play around this handicap and allow his team to deal the damage to the enemies he crowd controls. He is always useful in any team with a couple of duelists but is a somewhat risky pick otherwise due to his lack of damage.

Skye

Skye is almost the perfect initiator agent, except for her being exceedingly difficult to pick up. Once mastered however, she is one of the best agents to play, excelling in all areas of the game. Her kit is very versatile as it includes crowd control, damage, healing and scouting abilities.

She excels at helping her team in any way she can, with her kit revolving around adapting to the gamestate and what she is needed for. Trailblazer (Q) transforms her into a Tasmanian tiger. Although the damage and concussion are a nice addition to the ability, the real use comes from being able to scout a tough corner or angle with low risk. Experienced Skye players will use this effectively as they only have 5 seconds to make the most of it- especially as it has a very short sight range.

Her Regrowth (C) is one of the few abilities in the game that can heal Skye’s allies- and can heal multiple at once. She can heal allies up to 100hp over 5 seconds. Teammates are required to be in her line of sight, meaning that inexperienced Skye players may find themselves out of position trying to heal allies and end up being punished for it. Skye also cannot heal herself so this risk is exacerbated as she may on the worse side of a trade later on.

Guiding Light (E) is more advanced of a blind than the ones mentioned previously in KAY/O and Breach as Skye can control the hawk trinket. The added bonus that comes with Skye’s blind is that an audio cue is played when her blind is successful.

The drawback of Skye’s blind is that she cannot fire when using the blind, as she is controlling it with her crosshair- which leaves her exposed. The hawk trinket can also be shot down due to it having 60hp- something that isn’t a problem with other blinds.

Skye’s ultimate Seekers (X) sends out three seeker trinkets to locate and scout the nearest three enemies. They have their vision drastically decreased for three seconds once scouted. These seeker trinkets are able to be destroyed, but unlike their hawk and tiger counterparts, they have significantly more hp- 150 to be exact.

Skye excels as an agent when placed in the right hands. It is definitely worth putting the time and effort into learning Skye as she will always be one of the most useful agents in any team composition once mastered. This is what her drawbacks are however, as she can more often than not end up baiting the user if they are inexperienced.

This could include following the seeker trinkets into a trap or moving too soon after a hawk trinket- just because the audio cue plays, doesn’t mean that every enemy was blinded.

Sova

Sova has been around since the beta of Valorant, yet still remains a mainstay in competitive and non-competitive play. Although not as versatile as Skye, he is the ultimate recon agent. He can figure out what the enemy team plans to do at the beginning of a round- providing the Sova player knows the lineups.

Two of Sova’s basic abilities are recon based, being his Recon Bolt (E) and Owl Drone (C). The former being an arrow that can be shot and charged up to reveal enemies in a large area, meaning that if the enemies are hard pushing a specific area, Sova can find out in an instant.

Walls are also not a problem for this due to Sova being able to make the Recon Bolt (E) bounce up to two times, to really get the obscure angles and get a full range of vision. Sova masters will learn and know the lineups for his Recon Bolt (E) for every map from the get go. They can be shot however, meaning that good players will limit the time that they are scouted for.

Sova’s Owl Drone (C) allows the player to take control of a drone which is capable of scouting and tagging enemies by firing a dart. The dart, once stuck to an enemy, scouts them for 3.6 seconds. The drone can be shot down however, but is somewhat time consuming due to it having 120hp. Sova is also at risk whilst controlling the drone, so make sure you use it when you are safe!

Shock Bolt (Q), is one of Sova’s damaging abilities and like Recon Bolt (E), can be bounced off walls twice. It is very similar to the aforementioned ability, except that it does small area of effect damage instead of scouting enemies.

His ultimate Hunter’s Fury (X) allows Sova to fire three arrows that can go through walls over six seconds and damage enemies. These require multiple hits to kill an enemy but reveal any enemy hit by one.

Sova is the best initiator in the game due to the fact that he can scout out the whole enemy team without having to use his ultimate- unlike Skye. Sova also has a relatively shallow skill curve, with the key factors in becoming a good Sova being learning the lineups on maps and correct positioning when using his Owl Drone (C).