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Valorant heavily depends on team composition as players experiment with different and bizarre teams to gauge the effectiveness of several combinations. It is always recommended to have at least one Controller irrespective of the map, as different maps feature a diverse choice of Controller Agents as per their effectiveness.
Harbor is a new agent recently added to Valorant in Episode 5 Act 3. Meanwhile, Viper has been one of the most effective Controller Agents for the Breeze map since the beginning. She is an OG agent who marked her arrival in the game in 2020.
Riot Games released Harbor early for some content creators to try out and also revealed the details of his abilities. While Breeze is a signature map for Viper, the introduction of another versatile Controller will undoubtedly shift the meta-team composition, with many wondering which is the better pick.
Harbor vs Viper in Valorant: Facts, abilities, and more
Harbor
Role: Controller
Origin: India
Abilities
- Cascade (C): Harbor can send a wall of water forward and through walls. Reuse the ability keybind to stop the wall at the current position. Enemies are slowed if hit with the wall.
- Cove (Q): He forms a water shield dome around where the ability is thrown. The shield can block bullets, but it is breakable. The water dome disperses after the shield layer is broken.
- High-Tide (E): Harbor can use his artifact to form a wall of water. Hold FIRE and move crosshair to bend the wall of water as per requirement.
- Reckoning (X): Harbor’s ultimate ability affects a large area on the map, and the enemies in the area are hit with a water torrent that concusses them.
Viper
Role: Controller
Origin: United States
Abilities
- Snake Bite (C): Viper can throw a poison canister toward a targetted location that covers a small area with poison.
- Poison Cloud (Q): She can deploy an orb to a targetted location. Reusing the ability keybind releases a cloud of toxins around the orb and acts as smoke fueled by her toxin fuels. Viper can pick up the orb and reuse it.
- Toxic Screen (E): Viper can deploy a long line of orbs that can travel through walls. Reusing the ability keybind releases her toxins and forms a long wall of poison. This ability is fixed in position once deployed.
- Viper's Pit (X): Viper’s ultimate ability releases a poison cloud and covers a large area of the map. The ability can last an entire round, with Viper having a short window to go out and come back into the cloud.
Map Control
Viper has been the top Controller pick for Breeze. It is a huge map with wide areas that cannot be checked simultaneously. Viper’s wall can reduce players' labor by blocking off a section of the map. But as compensation, Viper cannot use her wall anywhere else once it has already been deployed.
The introduction of Harbor to Valorant will be fascinating, especially for Breeze. His ability directly competes with Viper’s wall. Harbor has the added benefit of shaping and bending the wall as the situation calls for it, something Viper cannot do. Harbor does not permanently place his wall, though. It has a long cooldown, but it can be reused completely differently next time if the player wishes to.
Lineups
Harbor does not possess any ability to inflict damage on enemy players directly. Players have to depend on the placement of their abilities and mechanical expertise in-game. Harbor cannot play post-plant lineups.
Viper can take safe positions and prevent enemies from defusing or planting spikes. Her Snake Bite ability can be used for lineups and even convert kills in Valorant. Viper is the clear victor in this comparison.
Flexibility
Viper can only use her smoke orb repeatedly, given that the player can retrieve the orb. Her smoke can only cover a small area in the entry position or part of the hallway.
Harbor can utilize his smoke only once but provides protection from bullets to a degree. Harbor’s ability to reuse his wall makes him a more flexible Controller. Players can use the water wall ability even through walls and create new strategies in different scenarios in Valorant.
He even has a single-use ability, Cascade, that can travel a certain distance and block enemy vision. The wall has good height, and enemy players using Jett cannot get an updraft or a clear line of sight, unlike Viper’s Poison Cloud, which has a radius and no height.
Valorant's Breeze is an extensive map where map control is paramount. Valorant is a game where players can quickly be punished by the enemy team with the smallest of slip-ups. Controllers like Viper and Harbor make it easier to take control of the map.
Harbor will be released next week, and fans will be sure to find new methods to play this new Controller.
