When you’re Riot Video games and also you’re launching a brand new agent for VALORANT, it’s important to stroll a tough path. On one hand, you don’t need an agent that fully breaks the sport and dominates the meta throughout all maps, like Chamber and Astra did quickly after they first launched. However you additionally don’t desire a dud that goes largely ignored.
Trying again the latest trio of recent brokers, it’s nearly actually apparent that Harbor has been a dud. The water-bending controller has been pushed apart by majority of the participant base throughout recreation modes, and even his barely extra frequent appearances on the professional stage haven’t been acquired effectively.
Throughout everything of 2023, for the reason that begin of VALORANT Episode Six, Harbor has persistently been the second least-picked agent, behind solely Astra in accordance with Blitz.gg. Astra, on the very least, was thought of a really highly effective agent when she first launched in 2021, and was fairly standard for a time, so her present standing may be attributed to an overcorrection of kinds by Riot to make her much less dominant. Harbor doesn’t have that to fall again on although; he began weak, and the minimal buffs he’s acquired haven’t made him any stronger.
This weak spot has made him a whole afterthought in aggressive. As of writing, throughout Act One in every of Episode Seven, he’s the least-picked agent throughout nearly all of ranks, together with Radiant and all three Immortal ranks, in addition to the sport’s most populated rank in Silver.
I’ll admit I favored enjoying Harbor when he first launched, particularly on Haven and Pearl, as a result of he was relatively easy to use and he could place a ton of cover between his water walls and Cove abilities. However there was no punch to his package, nothing that helped filter out defenders hiding on websites throughout executes like an Omen’s Paranoia or Brimstone’s molly or Viper’s Snakebite. And his final feels extra like a nuisance than a strong means that might alter a spherical.
Don’t simply take my phrase for it although; when Harbor first launched in October 2022, a number of professional gamers famous the identical weaknesses. NAVI in-game chief ANGE1 identified that he was the only controller without any sort of stopping power, and Sentinels analyst DrewSpark claimed his biggest flaw is that his utility always gives away his position.
Even with these shortcomings, Harbor has seen some utilization on the professional stage throughout 2023, primarily in a double-wall controller duo with Viper. Generally known as the “pizza slice” technique, the two agents use their walls to divide sites into smaller sections that the attackers can filter out simpler. But it surely’s not the preferred; NRG star crashies said that meta was “boring” in an on-stage interview at Masters Tokyo, claiming it simply results in extra Phantom sprays via smoke. The Harbor-Viper comp will also be onerous to look at, particularly if each groups are operating it, because the display screen is dominated by inexperienced and blue partitions.
Since Harbor’s launch, VALORANT has launched two extra brokers in Gekko and Impasse. Presently, Impasse sits within the prime half of brokers in choose fee, whereas Gekko sits just under the midway mark throughout all recreation modes. That is the candy spot Riot needs to be aiming for with new brokers, ones which might be viable and fill a necessity however aren’t overwhelmingly dominant. If Harbor desires to finally attain this level, a extreme improve to his package is required, as he presently is incapable of constructing any important splash.
In regards to the writer
