VALORANT Duelists Agents

While playing VALORANT, you might see a lot of players ragging on Duelist players when they fail to frag. But why do they rage on the Duelist players? If you are confused about who Duelists are and which are the best Duelists in VALORANT, then this guide is for you!

VALORANT has four different roles: Duelists, Controllers, Initiators, and Sentinels. Each role has different agents, each with unique abilities, which is helpful when playing the game. Duelists are often considered to be the most fun VALORANT Agents, and most VALORANT players love to pick them.

What is a Duelist in VALORANT?

There are a total of six Duelist Agents in VALORANT. This class is among the most picked roles in VALORANT competitive games because players find them more accessible than other Agents. As the name suggests, Duelists are the ones who would take duels against the enemies and have the tools to frag out most with the support of their team.A unique aspect of a Duelist Agent is that their abilities recharge when they get kills, unlike other characters in the game, which have time-based cooldowns. Duelists are self-sufficient Agents and are expected to get the highest number of kills in a match, or at least the highest amount of first kills (or first bloods). However, a good Duelist manages to create space for the team and can take first encounters to secure the area on a map. Even if a duelist fails to win a duel against the enemy team but manages to create space for the team or even fake execution to win the round can be a good duelist.

All Duelists in VALORANT:

Phoenix

Since the launch of VALORANT, Phoenix has been in the Agent pool of the game. If you are a new player and want to understand the basics of the game, then Phoenix might be one of the best Agents to get your hands on to learn the game. He is self-sufficient in taking duels, and if he takes damage from the enemy team, he can heal himself with the help of his abilities.

Phoenix’s Abilities:

• Q - CURVEBALL: EQUIP a flare orb that takes a curving path and detonates shortly after throwing. FIRE to curve the flare orb to the left, detonating and blinding any player who sees the orb. ALTERNATE FIRE to curve the flare orb to the right.
• E - HOT HANDS: EQUIP a fireball. FIRE to throw a fireball that explodes after a set amount of time or upon hitting the ground, creating a lingering fire zone that damages enemies.
• C - BLAZE: EQUIP a flame wall. FIRE to create a line of flame that moves forward, creating a wall of fire that blocks vision and damages players passing through it. HOLD FIRE to bend the wall in the direction of your crosshair.
• X - RUN IT BACK: INSTANTLY place a marker at Phoenix’s location. While this ability is active, dying or allowing the timer to expire will end this ability and bring Phoenix back to this location with full health.

Reyna

Reyna is one of the most potent Duelists in the game if you are playing solo competitive mode and have an excellent aim to outplay enemies. Her abilities make her invincible if you go on a killing spree. Although she is a pretty good Agent, we haven’t seen her being picked in a professional game quite often.

Reyna’s Abilities

• Q - DEVOUR: Enemies killed by Reyna leave behind Soul Orbs that last 3 seconds. INSTANTLY consume a nearby soul orb, rapidly healing for a short duration. Health gained through this skill exceeding 100 will decay over time. If EMPRESS is active, this skill will automatically cast and not consume the orb.
• E - DISMISS: INSTANTLY consume a nearby soul orb, becoming intangible for a short duration. If EMPRESS is active, also become invisible.
• C - LEER: EQUIP an ethereal destructible eye. ACTIVATE to cast the eye a short distance forward. The eye will Nearsight all enemies who look at it.
• X - EMPRESS: INSTANTLY enter a frenzy, increasing firing speed, equip and reload speed dramatically. Scoring a kill renews the duration.

Jett

Jett is the most popular Agent and the face of VALORANT. She is undoubtedly the most fun-to-play agent in the game. Jett might seem to look like an Agent that is quite challenging to master, but the more you play her, the easier it becomes. Jett is the Agent to look out for if you want to create flashy moves or highlight montages. There are loads of different Jett players worldwide, but there is always a debate about who is the best.

Her abilities make her movements lightning fast; when the enemies realize what is happening, they are probably dead. If you love sniper rifles, Jett might be the agent you need to lock.

Jett’s Abilities

• Q - UPDRAFT: INSTANTLY propel Jett high into the air.
• E - TAILWIND: ACTIVATE to prepare a gust of wind for a limited time. RE-USE the wind to propel Jett in the direction she is moving. If Jett is standing still, she propels forward
• C - CLOUDBURST: INSTANTLY throw a projectile that expands into a brief vision-blocking cloud on impact with a surface. HOLD the ability key to curve the smoke in the direction of your crosshair.
• X - BLADE STORM: EQUIP a set of highly accurate knives that recharge on killing an opponent. FIRE to throw a single knife at your target. ALTERNATE FIRE to throw all remaining daggers at your target.

Raze

After Jett, the other most popular duelist agent is Raze; just like Jett, you need to keep playing Raze to master her. Unlike Jett, Raze players should have good movement skills, which makes them better than the enemy Raze. Her abilities are explosives and are handy in clearing the corners. If you want to play a flashy duelist, Raze might also be a good option.

Raze’s Abilities

• Q - BLAST PACK: INSTANTLY throw a Blast Pack that will stick to surfaces. RE-USE the ability after deployment to detonate, damaging and moving anything hit. Raze isn't damaged by this ability, but will still take fall damage if launched up far enough.
• E - PAINT SHELLS: EQUIP a cluster grenade. FIRE to throw the grenade, which does damage and creates sub-munitions, each doing damage to anyone in their range.
• C - BOOM BOT: EQUIP a Boom Bot. FIRE will deploy the bot, causing it to travel in a straight line on the ground, bouncing off walls. The Boom Bot will lock on to any enemies in its frontal cone and chase them, exploding for heavy damage if it reaches them.
• X - SHOWSTOPPER: EQUIP a rocket launcher. FIRE shoots a rocket that does massive area damage on contact with anything.

Yoru

Yoru is one of the most exciting Duelists in VALORANT, when he was initially launched, his abilities were less impactful than the other duelists in the game. He then went through a rework, and since then, we have seen him being picked by many players. His abilities help him to penetrate sneaking into enemy sites quickly. Recently we have seen a lot of professional teams using Yoru along with another duelist making him more viable,

Yoru’s Abilities

• Q - BLINDSIDE: EQUIP to rip an unstable dimensional fragment from reality. FIRE to throw the fragment, activating a flash that winds up once it collides with a hard surface in world.
• E - GATECRASH: EQUIP a rift tether FIRE to send the tether forward ALT FIRE to place a stationary tether ACTIVATE to teleport to the tether's location USE to trigger a fake teleport.
• C - FAKEOUT: EQUIP an echo that transforms into a mirror image of Yoru when activated FIRE to instantly activate the mirror image and send it forward ALT FIRE to place an inactive echo USE to transform an inactive echo into a mirror image and send it forward. Mirror images explode in a blinding flash when destroyed by enemies.
• X - DIMENSIONAL DRIFT: EQUIP a mask that can see between dimensions. FIRE to drift into Yoru's dimension, unable to be affected or seen by enemies from the outside.

Neon

Neon is the latest addition to the Duelists roster, she was released back in January 2022. When she was released, players mistook her as a replacement for Jett, but as time passed, players understood that she was different from Jett and could make other plays possible. Neon is very helpful if you want to catch your enemies off guard and run ahead of them; her relay bolts will stun them, giving you an advantage over them.

• Q - RELAY BOLT: INSTANTLY throw an energy bolt that bounces once. Upon hitting each surface, the bolt electrifies the ground below with a concussive blast.
• E - HIGH GEAR: INSTANTLY channel Neon’s power for increased speed. When charged, ALT FIRE to trigger an electric slide. Slide charge resets every two kills.
• C - FAST LANE: FIRE two energy lines forward on the ground that extend a short distance or until they hit a surface. The lines rise into walls of static electricity that block vision and damage enemies passing through them.
• X - OVERDRIVE: Unleash Neon’s full power and speed for a short duration. FIRE to channel the power into a deadly lightning beam with high movement accuracy. The duration resets on each kill.

Duelists Tier List: the best Duelists in VALORANT

There are many Duelists in VALORANT, and ranking them against each other is quite difficult as their utility kit differs from each other, unlike other roles. Still, if you want to rank Duelists in a Tier List, here is how we would rank them:

• S-Tier: Jett, Raze
• A-Tier: Neon
• B-Tier: Reyna, Yoru
• C Tier: Phoenix

We have ranked Jett and Raze on S-Tier solely because when you are running single duelist composition, these two can never go wrong, and you will get the most out of them. In contrast, Neon is an agent heavily dependent on specific maps and sometimes needs another Duelist to accompany her. Reyna and Yoru are quite good agents as well, but their utility kit lacks the potential to maximize team support. Whereas Phoenix has a lot of potential but, other agent's abilities overshadow his capabilities.

If you are looking for different VALORANT guides, you can check out the ones below:

• VALORANT Agent roles explained
• Can you play VALORANT with a controller?
• Who is the best VALORANT Agent?
• How to slide as Neon in VALORANT
• How to Unlock Agents in VALORANT