Just a few weeks into VALORANT Episode Six, Act Two, the game’s newest agent in the creature-wielding initiator Gekko is fitting right into the meta as a methodical space clearer and entry support. But the agent who debuted just before Gekko has already fallen out of favor and needs a buff to make another splash.
For the second straight act, Harbor is sitting second to last in overall pick rate across all VALORANT game modes (competitive, unrated, and everything else), only above Astra, according to numbers from Blitz.gg. Across act one and two, he’s averaging only a 2.15 percent pick rate, and both he and Astra are lagging far behind the rest of the controller agents. At the pro play level, he’s done marginally better, with a 12 percent pick rate at VCT LOCK//IN, but Astra has retained a much stronger foothold, sporting a 32 percent pick rate at that tournament.
Astra has been around for some time now and even became a popular controller selection within the meta over the past couple of years thanks to her global ability reach and relatively short cooldowns on her suppressive star abilities, prior to her nerfs. But Harbor has only been out for less than a year, and it’s worrying to see an agent fall off so quickly after their release in almost a Yoru-like manner.
As with Yoru, the solution lies in buffing Harbor before introducing a new agent that could cause his stock to fall further. One of the biggest concerns with Harbor’s kit is the lack of offensive firepower. Both Cascade and High Tide very briefly slow those who pass through the water, and since those affect all players and not just enemies, Harbor’s allies are dissuaded from peeking or pushing past the waves. Perhaps if the slow on both abilities is buffed, and if it only affected enemies, it could become significantly more viable.
Related: How to play Harbor in VALORANT (ultimate, abilities, and tips)
The issues aren’t limited to just these two abilities, though. Cove is good in theory, but given that it can be broken pretty quickly in full buy rounds and that it disappears just a second after getting broken, it’s not very useful outside of pistol rounds. Simply removing the decay after it’s broken would be a good fix so that it still provides value as a smoke even if the shield around it is gone. A buff to Cove that allows it to block enemy abilities would also prove useful.
As for Reckoning, it’s a pretty powerful tool for taking control of a site, given its radius and how it forces any defenders to move if they don’t want to get concussed. Still, Harbor needs something to be more relevant. It’s not a bad thing for certain agents to be unpopular; someone has to be the least-picked agent. But to fall to that spot so quickly after release is something Riot is likely keen on avoiding for future agents.
