Vyse is a new Sentinel added to the Valorant roster and is set to be released across regions on August 28th. Armed with a unique but unmistakable Sentinel kit, Vyse will actively challenge areas of the battlefield and will punish opponents who don’t back down on her power spike timings. Having characteristics of different Sentinel types with her unique flair, Vyse controls space effectively and is a bloodthirsty punisher in the space she zones with her kit. This guide will explain her abilities, best Maps and counters so players know all about this Agent from day one.
Abilities
Do sentinels now have flashes? Vyse has a set of abilities that are strong in AOE and can disable opponents or cripple their ability to fight back. With mollies, weapon jamming and indestructible walls, Vyse brings a new flavour to the Sentinel and Valorant roster without cannibalising her counterparts’ roles and strengths within the current roster.
While she doesn’t have the traditional flank watch abilities, she fills more of Sage and Deadlock’s Sentinel role where instead of flank watch, she places traps or debuffs on the ground and works around her powerful Ultimate ability to deter opponents and protect space. Here’s a deep dive into each ability and its interactions on the maps and Agents of the Valorant ecosystem.
Razorvine
- EQUIP a nest of liquid metal. FIRE to launch. Upon landing, the nest becomes invisible. When ACTIVATED, it sprawls out into a large razorvine nest which slows and damages all players who move through it.
The Agent Trailer has shown Razorvine to be an invisible AOE damaging ability much like Killjoy’s Nanoswarms. The Target area affects both enemies and friendlies when triggered, and acts as a deterrent to pushing onto zones for control and delay. This also makes it a viable post-plant tool, although the aim with Razorvine is probably to delay enemies getting on and off as they tap rather than use it later on which Nanoswarms can be useful for.
Shear
- EQUIP filaments of liquid metal. FIRE to place a hidden wall trap. When an enemy crosses, an indestructible wall bursts from the ground behind them. The wall lasts for a brief time before dissipating.
Outside of Sage’s Wall, this is an interesting ability because it is an indestructible wall that obstructs movement. While it is conceptually similar, I think it acts more like a Mei wall in Overwatch. The ability to split up enemy teams as it isolates fights makes it easy for teams to focus the area, get a pick and then reset.
Playing with a Vyse, this ability punishes tight chokes prevents follow-up from happening and messes up opponent’s utility windows and power spikes to breach the site. On attack, they can isolate post-plant reclears and punish enemies who are not coordinated in their timings.
A wall materialising behind and damaging vines at your feet? Not a fun time.
Arc Rose
- EQUIP an Arc Rose. Target a surface and FIRE to place a stealthed Arc Rose, or ALT Fire to place the Arc Rose through it. REUSE to blind all players looking at it. This ability can be picked up to be REDEPLOYED.
A flash for a Sentinel? Arc Rose feels like a punishment ability for areas that Vyse initially controls as it needs to be pre-placed and activated to trigger, which differentiates it from more reactive blinds such as Phoenix’s Curveball. That also means it has a window where it can be shot and destroyed before it is cast, and its static nature makes it better for defence and attack.
The flash duration was fairly long, especially for a flash that pops from an invisible spot in the wall, and triggering the flash and re-equipping it can also put it straight back in Vyse’s inventory, whether that be intentional or not.
The ability to push enemies back with flashes gives her variability and control over static chokes on the attack in ways other Sentinels cannot. This also makes her attack viability higher and more balanced in comparison to Agents such as Cypher who feel clunky and limited in their ability outside of their passive information gathering and ability to hold space that they already own.
erhmm… he’s right behind me, isn’t he? pic.twitter.com/ky76vRY3Io
— VALORANT (@VALORANT) August 23, 2024
Steel Garden
- EQUIP a bramble of liquid metal. FIRE to send the metal erupting from you as a torrent of metal thorns, JAMMING enemy primary weapons after a brief windup.
Vyse’s Ultimate is broken in principle as it jams enemy primary weapons meaning they have to fight you with a pistol; most likely the Classic. While that gun is strong for being completely free, its single-fire and low-damage nature makes it much weaker than its oft-used Rifle counterparts.
It’s an ability that counters aggressive ability usage on site executes and stops enemies from fighting back when flooding onto sites. If used when enemies dump utility or position themselves in a point of no return, this Ultimate should get maximum value. Using it in a way where enemies can still run away may only delay the inevitable as opponents regroup and re-hit the space they initially tried to hit. This ability is all about timing and in the hands of a capable player who can read opponents, it can be maximised and punish opponents with impunity.
No gun and blinded? Perhaps this is the most punishing form of CC short of a detain.
Best Map and Counters
Vyse is a very on-and-off Agent due to the nature of how terrain will massively impact her effectiveness in her ability to lock down opponents in unfavourable positions. If teams can just be on elevated platforms to avoid Shear and Razorvine, then her ability as a Sentinel is less powerful compared to other Sentinels such as Killjoy or Cypher who can provide guaranteed information and passive space-holding. With this, maps that are flat with small but clear choke points and large sites on 2 site maps are where she will excel the most while countering her while going through her utility will be difficult at best when hitting the site she is protecting. Considering these factors, we can identify both her best-performing Map in the current Map Pool and her best counter in case Vyse gains popularity and players need an answer to her utility.
Vyse seems like she will be one of the best or worst Agents map to map.
Abyss
The new map and the new Agent go hand in hand. Abyss is both interesting and a map where Vyse should be playable compared to maps such as Icebox where elevation changes on the site make her kit avoidable. Her Sentinel Utility is better on flat surfaces and while it is true that Agents can get onto the boxes on both sites, the reality is that there is enough open space after the choke points for her utility to get good value and interesting uses of the wall can section off major chokes or even force people to jump to their deaths.
The middle space of the site being spacious favours Vyse as her AOE abilities can find easy value while there are plenty of walls for her to set up her flash and swing off those timings. The value of one pick in Abyss is also bigger as alternative approaches onto site require difficult scales up mid and force enemies into choke points where Vyse’s abilities can punish the flood effectively.
On attack, Vyse’s stationary flashes and on-site utility are useful to hold site on post-plant and allow teams to stay on site and keep the space rather than just spamming the spike which can be difficult against Agents such as Gekko and Harbour who can get effective timing windows to safely diffuse. Her ability to hold open space is perhaps the best on the Sentinel roster, and outside of the heaven area in both sites, she controls the on-site space most effectively outside of a Breach Ult knocking everything on-site away.
become the master metal manipulator pic.twitter.com/KxWLaO1k6W
— VALORANT (@VALORANT) August 30, 2024
KAY/O
KAY/O counters strong stationary utility abilities such as Cypher’s hiding behind their wires. The robot also fulfils this niche as if the Knife locates and suppresses Vyse, her on-site utility becomes visible and all but useless and gives a crucial timing window for assailants to control the space she had and execute both on attack and defence. Vyse relies heavily on her kit triggering to hold space, so KAY/O becomes a natural repellent as her utility has to be placed and is therefore breakable when suppressed. Even if her utility returns and is active, if the site has been taken it is not nearly as effective. Enemies already in the post-plant phase on her site will make her utility dramatically weaker.
Much like Cypher, avoiding her site and making her play retake is probably the most optimal option on the attack, but being able to suppress her and ignore her utility is the second best way to dodge her effectiveness, and only KAY/O fulfils this role without actually beating Vyse in a gunfight. KAY/O fragment also provides natural deterrents for Vyse to pop out of unwanted areas timed around her flashes and on-site traps, and KAY/O’s flash can also punish Vyse so she can’t get away when the team floods aggressively.
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