Valorant is one of newest and most popular free-to-play hero first-person shooters out there, created by Riot Games. The game focuses on multiplayer fighting, with two competing teams of 5 across several unique maps. Valorant takes place on a future Earth, where agents, the playable characters, possess unnatural abilities brought about by advanced technology. While Valorant doesn’t have an overarching story or detailed lore, there are still backstories for agents across the four unique classes.
In total, there are currently 15 playable agents, divided amongst the Duelists, Controllers, Initiators, and Sentinel classes. This article focused on an overview of the Controllers class, explaining the class’ purpose, best use, and unique abilities. There are currently four Controllers available to play, and we’ll also discuss every agent’s unique abilities, alongside their gameplay uses as well.

What is the Controllers class?
The Controllers class is an interesting one, focusing on providing support to hold territory. First off, these aren’t characters controlled with Controllers. Controllers are experts at taking care of enemy territory, separating enemies with walls, smokes, and slows. As in their name, Controllers try to control the map, keeping enemies at bay or providing strong defense for a teammate’s location. These agents have the ability to change the entire game, whether by stopping enemies in their tracks or keeping your team’s territories untouchable.

As mentioned, this Valorant agent role, consists of supporting agents specializing in controlling the map. The thing is this support class doesn’t mean just defense. The four Controllers have different levels of offense and defense, although it can be said without a doubt, that they’re not limited to supporting defensively. These agents can make life incredibly difficult for an enemy team, supporting their teammates along the way. Omen, a top offensive play for many (and an agent further explained below), is a Controller and also an incredibly offensive agent.

Controller Agents Explained
There are a total of four agents within the Controllers class, up from three over the last few months. Taking up a little over a fourth of the total agent-base, there’s a big chance that you’ll see at least one or two Controller class agents on both your and the enemy’s teams. These four; Astra, Brimstone, Omen, and Viper; will have their abilities and uses explained in this section.

Astra
This Valorant agent is the 15th available within the game, making her the newest to Valorant. She’s one of the most unique agents available, thanks in part to her cosmic theme and unique gameplay wants. Astra is built for players who know a Valorant map well, especially since her abilities and strong knowledge can built a defense for nearly any attack. She’s a very quick agent too, with her abilities lasting nearly as long as a third of its cooldown.

Astra has five abilities, including her Basic utility gravity well, launching a black hole to pull in players and attach the Vulnerable debuff (a full 2X damage while active). Her other two basic abilities follow heavy utility as well, controlling the enemy team physically. One of her basics launched a pulse, stunning agents after a brief delay. It has a rather large radius and can prove incredibly useful when a team is clumped together in a space. Her other basic is a smoke cloud, and Astra is actually able to place two at once. These smokes, or nebulas, are pretty big too. There’s also Astra’s signature ability, astral form. Astral form allows her to fly around the map to place her abilities, in a birds-eye view. That fits well with her ultimate which creates an impenetrable wall across the map. These abilities have a great chance to hold off enemies, well into the game.

Brimstone
Where Astra focuses on quick movements and high utility abilities, Brimstone opts in for abilities which balance high damage and great support. He’s easily one of the most useful agents with the right playstyle, thanks to his easily usable abilities and confusion capabilities. Just as good with offense as defense, he’s pretty balanced and good under most players.

Brimstone has four abilities, most of which are nothing alike, probably for good reason. The first basic ability is a stim beacon, which creates a field to increase fire rate, reload speed, ADS speed, and recoil recovery. Brimstone’s other basic provides an incendiary grenade launcher, which deals immediate damage, in addition to creating a fire zone to damage. His signature equips a map with the ability to launch smokes from any position. These are long-lasting, offering some great pushing opportunities. Lastly, there’s Brimstone’s ultimate Orbital Strike, which, like its name, calls in an orbital strike. Massive damage and infinite range help push this ability to one of the best offensively.

Omen
Often considered a must-have on a good team, Omen is an insane Controller. Although he lacks damaging abilities, he can more than make up for it thanks to his incredibly helpful abilities. Omen can also act well as an attacking force, such as with a Duelist. After all, he is often considered one of the best agents in the game, not just as a Controller.

Omen’s abilities are pretty similar to other “mysterious” characters in other “not-known” video games, although he has some unique aspects. With four abilities, he has a lot of utility potential. His first basic allows him to teleport forwards a short distance, great for quick movements. Omen’s other basic, Paranoia, launches a blind orb which can deafen and blind enemies. His signature allows him to send out an orb which bursts to obscure enemy vision. Omen’s ultimate is one of the most useful, thanks to its infinite range. Choosing a spot within a tactical map, Omen can teleport to any place in the game. It’s that good.

Viper
Viper is an often-underused character, thanks in part to her Sentinel-based skills in a Controller package. She doesn’t have an exceedingly high damage per second output, although her abilities can help push her killing ability to within 5 seconds. It’s all dependent on the player and situation to use Viper’s abilities and skills to their highest.

She holds four abilities, each of which is best for groups. Viper’s basic abilities are great at splash damage, offering canisters with the Vulnerable debuff and a gas emitter which launched a poison cloud. Her poison cloud and signature ability, which creates a wall of damaging gas, rely on fuel which drains as abilities are used. Viper’s ultimate is the most useful of the bunch, spraying a chemical cloud which reduces vision range and maximum enemy health. It can also last forever with a 15 second refuel period, or if she remains inside.

Winning as a Controller
This Valorant agent role, Controller, is a mixed bag. Combining both offensive and defense, there’s a lot of potential with each agent. Astra’s likely the most helpful for dividing teams, with physical abilities such as her map-wide wall. The second controller, Brimstone, focuses on balancing damage and support. With full map offense and smokes, he’s pretty helpful throughout the game. Omen is helpful no matter what, thanks to his teleportation and map-wide movement potential. Lastly, there’s Viper which can act as a Sentinel replacement to your standard Controller. She has her abilities to multiple friendly damage and can work well in close groups.

Even with this overview of the Valorant Controllers role, it is still quite tough to remember each agent’s use. It’s even harder to learn when and where to use each agent during a game. That’s why we recommend Boosting Ground, one of the top Valorant boosting services available. Boosting Ground offers professional services to help assist and support players towards achieving their Valorant goals. Whether it is helping win competitive games, boosting ranks, or winning placement matches, the service is incredibly helpful. It might seem tough to ask for help, but with Boosting Ground’s professional team, you’ll learn how to use each Sentinel character and grow your skills.