Riot Games’ new Valorant agent is almost here and he’s perfectly poised to knock a fellow Duelist from the top spot in Episode 7 Act 3. It’s safe to say that the Valorant meta could do with a shake-up soon, with Reyna a dominant force in this FPS and easily the best Duelist agent available right now. With any luck, though – looking at what new agent Iso can do – he’s exactly what this shooter needs.
Whether you’re purely focused on climbing the Valorant ranks, or you enjoy playing one of the best FPS games out there more casually, Duelist agent Reyna is easily one of the best options available at the moment. She might not be quite at the top of our own Valorant tier list, but the stats speak for themselves. She’s a popular agent and the most effective Duelist in Valorant. Thankfully, though, the new Valorant agent Iso looks unstoppable in this gameplay footage and we could be looking at a huge shake-up in the meta moving forward.
Stat tracking sites Valorbuff and Tracker Network both show that Reyna is one of the most popular agents (based on pick rates), and one of the most successful agents (based on win rates), in Valorant at the moment. When it comes to kills and player kill-death ratios, she’s also top of the pile with an average of 1.14 K/D and around a 14% share of kills. Whether you’re using the best Valorant crosshair codes or not, it’s clear that Reyna is a dominant force in this FPS.
This, of course, is due to her impressive kit – which lets her heal herself through Devour and become intangible for short amounts of time with Dismiss. She can also super-charge herself in key moments (boosting fire and reload speeds) with her ultimate: Empress. Just looking at these Reyna plays below, it’s clear to see how good she can be.
However, Iso – who is expected to join the roster on October 31 with Episode 7 Act 3 – is shaping up to be a fantastic alternative to Reyna for Duelist players. This should diversify the meta somewhat, at the very least.
As you can see in the following gameplay, which showcases the new Duelist you can dominate your enemies with, Iso is going to be able to debuff enemies with Undercut – which applies Fragile – and summon a bullet-blocking shield wall with Contingency. He can also pull enemies into a one-versus-one arena using Kill Contract and bolster his shields during an aggressive push when needed.
He might not be able to heal himself like Reyna, but he’s going to afford Valorant players more protection while attacking and will be quite hard to dispatch of in the right hands.
Do we think Reyna will be knocked off the top spot, though? Well, as much as we think this would be a healthy change to the current meta, we find it hard to believe that she’ll just drop off into irrelevance without some sort of nerf. That, from what we can tell right now, isn’t going to arrive in the Episode 7 Act 3 update. Leakers just aren’t talking about it alongside the other balancing changes, at the moment.
So, while you’re checking out these exciting new Valorant weapon leaks and getting familiar with Iso’s kit, expect to still see Reyna in your games – and expect her to be a force to be reckoned with. Although, as a fellow Duelist, if anyone can upset her dominance, it’s Iso.
