The best support agents in VALORANT – support characters ranked

VALORANT agents are divided into four distinct roles—duelist, sentinel, controller, and initiator—to give players an idea of what each character’s ability kit is intended to do. Duelists take fights and create space, sentinels catch enemies trying to sneak by, controllers cut off the enemies’ sight with smokes, and initiators gather info.

As a team game, some teammates need to take on a more supportive role so the others can focus on winning their duels. When it comes to supporting the team, most agents outside of duelists have the ability to do so, but this is where initiators tend to thrive the most.

Here are the best support agents in VALORANT.

The 10 best VALORANT support agents, ranked

Since a support role can come in many forms in VALORANT, this ranking is based on how well an agent’s utility kit can help their teammates get kills and set them up for success.

10) Omen

Omen is great at setting up smokes for his team, even if they’re not in the same area on the map since his Dark Cover has pretty good range. The fact that his two smokes regenerate every 30 seconds means he has even more opportunities to provide his team with cover and block-off angles.

His Paranoia ability is a very strong blind that can pass through walls and hit the line of enemies as they try to enter or protect the site. So even if Omen isn’t fighting on site with his team, he can still support them as he’s rotating with a huge blind from the outskirts. 

To top it off, he has his ultimate, From the Shadows—which many players believe could use a buff. The intended purpose of the ult is to teleport anywhere on the map, but Omen can also use it to benefit the whole team by scouting out sites before everyone else enters or by safely picking up the spike if it’s dropped in a dangerous spot.

Related: Best VALORANT agents to play on Sunset

9) Killjoy

Killjoy is arguably one of the best agents in the game right now, and her ultimate has a lot to do with that. Killjoy’s Lockdown essentially allows her team to take the space they need on a site, whether it’s on attack or when playing retake. 

Enemies who get caught in her Lockdown are usually free kills for the team. Even if no enemies are caught, it provides the team with 100 percent certainty that the area is clear, and that’s often enough to set the team up for success for the rest of the round.

8) Viper

Viper’s toxic personality suggests she’s not a team player, but her entire utility kit has something that can help her teammates get more kills. Her Toxic Screen, Poison Cloud, and ultimate all trigger a decay on enemies who come in contact with it, draining their HP the longer they stand in it. It’s not uncommon for Viper’s teammates to get spam kills through any of that utility.

Meanwhile, her Snake Bite molly pushes enemies out of their hiding spots and makes them vulnerable to a follow-up attack from one of Viper’s allies.

7) Sova

Two of Sova’s abilities are used to track down the enemy—his Recon Bolt and Owl Drone. With the right lineups, it’s possible for him to get a lot of good scans out of his Recon Bolt, revealing the exact location of where the enemy is hiding. When deploying his Owl Drone, he can get an aerial view of an area to check if the coast is clear without anyone having to put their life on the line.

To an extent, even Sova’s ultimate, Hunter’s Fury, can help his teammates get kills. While the enemies are busy running around to dodge the Hunter’s Fury, Sova’s teammates can use this to their advantage and shoot down the distracted targets.

Related: The 10 most impressive character designs in VALORANT

6) Fade

A lot of the time when Fade is throwing out her utility, it’s not just for herself—it’s for her team. On attack, Fade can safely throw her Haunt to pinpoint any enemies that might be hiding. This can be followed up with her Prowler which automatically chases down enemies caught by her Haunt or ultimate. Otherwise, she can manually control Prowler to check corners and clear a path before the rest of the team enters the site. 

Similarly, Fade’s Nightfall is one of the best ultimates to get your team onto a site because it either forces the enemy to retreat and give up space, or marks, deafens, and decays anyone it catches. Once Fade’s team knows where the enemies are hiding, they can go for some easier kills.

She can even use her Seize to trap and decay the enemy while an ally throws out a grenade or molly for a deadly combination. That’s one fun way to take the enemy out with utility instead of guns.

5) Breach

With stuns and flashes in his kit, Breach was made to help his team take space. The best part is the fact that all of his utility goes through walls, so he doesn’t necessarily need to be up close to his teammates to support them—he can be on the other side of a wall or blocked off and still be able to help out. 

And because his Flashpoint goes through walls, it’s pretty easy to avoid blinding nearby allies and difficult for enemies on the other side of the wall to dodge. Meanwhile, both of Breach’s two stuns, Fault Line and Rolling Thunder, give him and his teammates great opportunities to get kills while the enemies are concussed. Just don’t get headshot by the stunned enemy because that would be very unfortunate.

4) Astra

Astra gives up some of her fighting time to go into her Astral Form and place down her stars to help the team out. Her stars can either be used as smokes, stuns, or displacements, so she’s very versatile when it comes to supporting her teammates. In fact, to make the most out of her utility, Astra is an agent that needs more coordination and communication with her team.

Cosmic Divide, her ultimate, also helps her team secure the win after the bomb is planted. Whether the team needs to defuse or stop the defuse, Astra’s wall will protect her team by blocking the enemy’s view and gunfire, forcing them to eventually run through it or wait it out if there’s time.

Related: Best agents, tips, and tricks for new VALORANT players in 2023

3) Sage

As one of the two healers in the game, Sage should be one of the first agents to come to mind when talking about support. The interesting thing about Sage is that she has a choice to either heal herself or heal her teammates. But ever since her Healing Orb was changed in Patch 5.12 to heal significantly less of her own health than an ally’s, she has even more of a reason to save her heals for her team.

Players can get really creative with Sage’s Barrier Orb, but when it comes to supporting her team, the wall can simply be used to protect the team. Whether it’s protection while planting or defusing the bomb, while trying to res a fallen KAY/O, or while getting out of sticky situations, Sage has your back.

But by far, the most supportive thing Sage can do is resurrect one of her fallen allies with her ultimate. This gives the resurrected teammate one more chance to get some kills and win the round. They even get to keep their gun and save money if they end up surviving the round, so Sage’s ult can also indirectly help the team’s economy, even if it’s just a little.

2) KAY/O

KAY/O is currently the only agent in the game who can suppress the enemy team’s abilities, and that’s a huge deal, considering how important utility is to gain the advantage in a round. For example, if KAY/O’s ZERO/point knife happens to detect and suppress two or three enemies defending a site, there’s little stopping the attackers from charging through and taking over the round.

KAY/O takes this one step further with his ultimate, NULL/cmd. While his ult is active, any enemy within a pretty big radius will be suppressed and unable to use their abilities. And even if he’s taken out while in his ult, he’s still super useful. He not only still has vision, but his suppression effects will also still be active for a little bit. His body can also be used as bait—while an enemy is busy chipping away at that 850 HP, KAY/O’s ally can swing and get the kill.

Related: Best VALORANT agents for playing Team Deathmatch

1) Skye

Skye is the true definition of a support agent in VALORANT. She has everything she needs to provide the best support for her team—flashes, heals, and scouting. Aside from her ultimate, her kit requires her to put her gun down to utilize her abilities. 

So instead of taking more fights for herself, she’s often got her hands full with controlling her Guiding Light to flash or her Trailblazer to scout out the area. Even if she wants to heal her allies, she needs to hold out her Regrowth and wait until the team is healthy.

Thankfully, her Seekers ultimate doesn’t require any extra work from her, leading her team directly to the three nearest enemies. Any enemies who get caught will be nearsighted, making them easy kills for any of Skye’s teammates to take.