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Valorant players can tailor their gameplay according to four assorted roles - Duelists, Controllers, Sentinels, and Initiators. In that regard, Riot Games recently introduced Harbor to the ranks of Controller Agents. His sublime and balanced abilities focus on taking map control and blocking direct enemy vision.
Originating from India, Harbor came to possess a certain artifact that allowed him to harness the power of water to aid and protect himself as well as his entire team. He commands the element with four carefully crafted abilities, having complete dominion over the area he is charged with.
Fans can continue to read the discussion below to find out how versatile Harbor can become in Valorant.
Valorant Harbor as an Initiator
Valorant currently features a total of 20 playable Agents that players can choose from. With the variety of abilities that these Agents possess, the lines between each role are blurred with further inclusions.
Harbor’s abilities in Valorant
Harbor is a Controller Agent who brings to the battlefield adept abilities that can quickly block off the enemy's line of sight and disorient the opposing team.
Here is a list of all his abilities with a brief description of each.
- High Tide (Signature ability): Creates a long wall of water that can be bent according to the player’s preference.
- Cove (350 Credits, single charge): Projectile of water that can be thrown to create a bullet-shielding hollow orb of water.
- Cascade (150 Credits, two charges): Deploys a high wall of water with a considerably shorter length that can travel through map structures.
- Reckoning (Ultimate, 7 ultimate charges): Activate the full power of the artifact and send a geyser of water towards the direction of the crosshair that can concuss enemy players and has a forward creep speed.
Harbor in the Initiator role
Harbor’s abilities may not be the fastest, but they are quick enough to surprise the enemy team. The surprise can only be maintained if the entire team paces forward to take sufficient map control and win out isolated duels.
Players can utilize his signature ability to quickly block off enemy vision in certain areas. This will either force enemies to retreat, regroup, or cross the water wall and challenge multiple players head-on. Attacking with a fast-paced tactic can be especially useful with Harbor as he can also cast out the bullet-shielding bubble to secure the spike plant.
Chamber’s trap can become a thorn for any teammate trying to flank and execute a pincer strategy on the enemy team. Harbor can once again manipulate his abilities around such traps that activate in proximity and line of sight to safely bypass them. This makes it easier to initiate on unsuspecting enemies from behind.
Since it can travel through map structures, the Cascade ability can block multiple angles - high or low - even before the player makes an appearance. These walls produce a temporary “slowed” negative buff that greatly degrades the movement of any player who touches the water.
Team composition
The ideal team composition that can benefit from such usage of Harbor should include Brimstone, Chamber, Phoenix, and Viper. Fans and proficient Sentinel players can also choose to swap out Chamber for Cypher, considering the recent update that buffed him.
Since the team will be utilizing Harbor as the primary Initiator, the presence of Viper will ensure a smooth transition into taking map control. Brimstone has the Stim Beacon ability that can significantly boost movement speed, which will be paramount as Harbor’s High Tide cannot last forever.
Deploying the popular Duelist flasher Phoenix will ensure that enemy teams cannot easily avoid flashes, making them easy targets. Chamber, or Cypher, can provide the additional firepower required to take control of the round as well as discourage any flanker from backstabbing.
Timing
While the idea might seem golden on paper, Valorant does not award wins for combining similar and strong abilities in team composition. The gap that ensures the successful execution of an idea is filled by the timely deployment of each ability.
Since this composition takes Valorant’s Harbor in the Initiator role, fans should mark that deploying his abilities will be a green signal for others. The team can decide on which site to take based on preliminary information and execute Viper’s wall ability, blocking off arbitrary angles. Harbor players will need to deploy High Tide and cover other angles in quick succession, along with Cascade, to ensure all angles are covered.
As soon as these abilities are deployed, enemies will start rotating. The window before the opposition regroups is crucial as the team must utilize Brimstone’s Stim and flood the preferred site. Players must coordinate and deploy each of their remaining abilities to lock down the site and secure the spike plant.
Valorant is a hero-shooter that can be played with a myriad of playstyles and varying strategies. Diverse and innovative gameplays usually become highlights as no one thinks that the game can be approached with such a perspective.
However, this team composition can be used on smaller Valorant maps like Ascent and Bind more efficiently than open ones like Breeze.
