The Best Valorant Controllers On Each Map
When it comes to Valorant, there are a lot of aspects as well as features for you to comprehend and get used to. You will not only be looking for the best Agent to take over the battlefield with, but you will also have to pick the role you want to play on the team.
From Sentinels to Duelists, there is a wide variety of characters players can choose from. Alternatively, if you'd rather herd your opponents around and keep them guessing, then the Controller class is what you are looking for!
Having a good Controller on your team is crucial to winning on any map in the game. However, there are some Agents who shine better on specific maps than others. It is necessary that a player practice and get familiar with more than just one Controller so you can have a good impact when building a team.
Also, you should also practice your favorite Controllers on each map, so you know all the lineups, etc. All about using smokes to guide their enemies to their awful fate, Valorant's four controllers are truly a force on the battlefield.
Previously, anything but Astra or Viper was considered a throw in Valorant. However, since the 4.04 patch, where Astra and Viper got nerfed, there is a lot more uncertainty in the air on which Controller is the best in the game.
In this article, we will tell you about the four Controllers in Valorant: Omen, Brimstone, Viper, and Astra. Along with that, we will also let you know about the best controllers on each map of the game.
Moreover, we are going to rank all of the Controllers for each map by three categories. Firstly, there is “Optimal,” meaning it is the best pick for the map. The second category is “Viable,” meaning it might not be the best pick, but it can certainly work out)The third category is “Not Viable,” meaning if you pick this Agent on any given map, it is a throw).
Ascent
Ascent is the only map in this list that does not have an Optimal pick. The reason for this is that all three of the traditional smoke agents are Viable on this map. Brimstone is great, especially using his Stim Beacon to explode out of choke points.
Astra is super useful, and this is arguably her best map considering A main and B main have those tight choke points, and her gravity well can be used in those situations. Omen has some lethal one-ways, plus his recharging smokes and paranoia can be very useful when executing a site.
Viper is the only Agent who doesn’t fall under the Viable category for Ascent. She is Not Viable, and there are way too many lineups that are required to actually get some use out of her on this map.
Even with those useful orbs and molly lineups, there are way too many workarounds for Viper on this map.
Bind
It is a well-established fact that there are plenty of maps in Valorant where having two Controllers can be beneficial to take map control and stop rushes. Bind is one of those maps, and in the Optimal category, we have two Agents that are Brimstone and Viper.
Even after the nerf, Viper is extremely useful on this map as she can throw a wall that covers all of B site, including Hookah and long, and then uses her orb in one of the spots on A, like short or throw a one-way outside of shower.
From a defensive perspective, this allows one Agent to cover three out of the four choke points on the entire map. However, Viper is a very difficult Agent to play if you are the solo Controller on Bind. That is where the double Controller meta comes into effect, specifically on this map.
While Viper almost fills the sentinel role on defense, it is hard to rely on her wall and orb lineups to block off all of the CT choke points that you need when you are attacking. This is where a traditional smoke Agent like Brimstones comes into the scene.
Brimstone’s smokes last longer than any of the other smoke Agents like Omen and Astra. When you take B site and have Brimstone smokes down, those smokes are going to last longer and will prevent the enemy team from retaking the site as fast as they possibly can.
On the other hand, Omen is definitely Viable on this map and is perfectly fine whether you are a solo smoke or a double Controller with Viper and Omen. Omen’s paranoia can have a lot of value in stopping a push, especially when you are playing in Uhaul, because it can blind all of short A.
Furthermore, Astra was definitely the meta Agent when it came to this map prior to the 4.04 patch. However, now that she only has four stars, it is really difficult to use all of those stars in a defensive way when you have all of the four different entryways or when you are attacking across the map.
Breeze
There is not much that has changed regarding the meta in Breeze, where Viper is still the Optimal Controller, and there is no debate on that. All three of the other smokes are Not Viable at all, in players’ opinions.
Viper’s wall is just too powerful and divides the sites in half, which allows your team to entry out of site. Moreover, Viper’s orb and molly combo can lock down B site and stop pushes which allows your team to rotate on such a big map like Breeze.
Fracture
Fracture was very similar to Bind in the fact that a double Controller setting with Viper and Astra was super popular prior to the 4.04 patch. Similar to the way that Bind changed after the 4.04 patch, Brimstone has replaced Astra’s meta, and Viper is still very Viable on this map.
So, for the Optimal category, we have Viper and Brimstone on this map, and for the Viable category, we have Astra. Although Astra is Not Viable as the sole controller, she is still Viable if she is paired with Viper, that gravity well still exists, and she can really block those choke points.
Lastly, we have Omen, whose smokes simply don’t last long enough in a map with such tight choke points, especially coming from CT, where the defenders can rotate really fast.
Haven
In Haven, it is interesting to see how the meta has changed on this map. Previously, it was an absolute throw if you were not picking Astra on this map; universal smokes, five stars, and you can suck from anywhere on the map.
Now that Astra has four stars, it is much more difficult to pick her on this map. Most pro teams have been rocking Omen on this map, and the value that you can get from the blind or the paranoia is huge when you are executing site.
Moreover, Omen’s rechargeable smokes can allow you to take map control when you are playing a slow default heavy round. For all of those reasons, Omen falls into the Optimal category.
On the other hand, Brimstone has a super small range on his smokes. Although the smokes do last long a long time, if you are defending on A site and the attacking team decides to rush C, there is no way that you can help your teammates with a smoke and can help to slow down the rush.
As far as Viper is concerned, she has never been meta on this map, and unfortunately for the Viper mains, she might not be useful. There are tons of lineup larrys with smoke orbs, molly lineups, etc., but unfortunately for the average player, Viper just isn’t meta, and that is seen across all of the pro matches as well.
Coming on to Astra, she falls into the Not Viable category because she just doesn’t have enough stars. If the attacking team decides to throw a fake toward A and you smoke off short and long, as well as have a third suck ready for them waiting.
After that, if the team just decides to throw a fake, and they end up coming up C, you essentially have no utility for the rest of the round because your suck will be recharging, and two of your stars are already gone. For these reasons, Astra falls into the Not Viable category on Haven.
Icebox
Icebox has always been one of those Viper-only maps, as she was the only Controller that you needed. Despite the big nerf to Viper, many players still think that she is the best Controller on the map.
Using a Viper wall to play passive and retake on B site is still the meta despite the changes that have been made to B site on Icebox. However, since the new patch has rolled out, a slight meta change has been seen, and some teams rocking double Controller on Icebox.
The Guard, one of NA’s best teams right now, pulled out Omen and Viper on this map and had some really amazing plays with Omen’s TP. For that, Viper and Omen belong in the Optimal category.
Brimstone belongs in the Viable category because his smokes are super useful on almost every single map. Lastly, we have Astra who belongs in the Not Viable category.
Split
There is one Controller here who can do something that every other smoke Agent can’t, and that is Omen with the one-ways. Omen’s one-ways are insanely powerful on this map, and you can throw a one-way on, A main, A Haven, in Mid, or in B main.
This makes stopping a push on defense beyond easy, so for the sole reason of one-ways, Omen is the Optimal pick on Split. Contrary to every other map that we have covered so far, all the other three Controller Agents, Brimstone, Viper, and Astra, are all Viable on this map.
Brimstone is extremely good because of his long smokes, Stim Beacon to explode out of choke points, and his molly is super powerful. Viper is still really strong on this map as well; lots of orb one-ways and Viper walls to take map control.
Astra is Viable on this map, too, because there are very tight choke points on Split, especially on a site like B. If you have a gravity well waiting and you can combine that with a Raze nade or a KAY/O molly, it makes it almost impossible to push through that without baiting out the util first.
So, for those reasons, Brimstone, Viper, and Astra fall into the Viable category, and there are no Agents that are Not Viable on this map.
Hope you found this article helpful, and if you have any more queries, do let us know in the comments section. Good luck!
