VALORANT has just officially welcomed the 27th new agent, Waylay, a female warrior from Thailand with a skill set revolving around light energy and extremely powerful space control ability.
With the brand new debuff effect “Hindering”, Waylay will not only bring a new breeze to the Duelist role but also be an important factor in changing the situation in matches. Join Sforum in the article below to learn about Waylay’s skill set, and analyze how the new female agent can affect the VALORANT meta.
Waylay’s Skill Set
Like every other agent in VALORANT, Waylay also possesses four skills with two basic skills, one signature skill, and one ultimate. However, what makes her stand out is the ability to create a Hindering effect, directly affecting the enemy’s rate of fire, recoil, reload speed, and movement.
Saturate
Waylay throws a beam of light that explodes upon impact, applying Hindering to affected enemies, slowing their movement speed, fire rate, and reload speed.
This is an extremely useful crowd control skill, giving Waylay an advantage before engaging directly with enemies in situations of attacking or defending a site.
Light Speed
Waylay can dash forward twice at high speed. If she uses Alt Fire, she will only dash once but has more control over the direction of movement.
This is a skill that allows her to move flexibly in combat, similar to Jett’s Tailwind or Raze’s Blast Pack. The first move can be vertical, allowing her to reach high positions easily.
Refract – Refract
Waylay creates a beam of light at her standing position, then can activate the skill to quickly teleport back to the location where the beam was placed. During the teleport, she is invulnerable.
This is a tool that helps Waylay create spectacular outplays, allowing her to escape dangerous situations or put unexpected pressure on the opponent.
Convergent Paths – Convergent Paths
Waylay creates a beam of light that extends in a straight line, all enemies in the area are affected by the Hindering effect, while she is also given a large amount of movement speed.
This skill is an ideal tool for Waylay to initiate a fight or retake a site. The large area effect of Hindering will make it difficult for the opponent to react, while the increased speed allows her to easily close in on the target and take them down.
How does Waylay change the VALORANT meta?
With her unique skill set, Waylay is not a pure damage agent like Jett or Raze, but she focuses on controlling space and creating tactical advantages for her teammates. Some highlights that can affect the meta are:
Effective map control ability: Saturate and Convergent Paths are 2 extremely powerful skills in controlling the site, especially on narrow maps like Bind, Ascent or Icebox.
Flexible Duelist: Although not as fast as Jett’s Updraft + Tailwind, Waylay’s Light Speed + Refract combo is quite flexible, as it not only helps her get into the site but also supports her teammates in getting information in the early game.
Put pressure on the enemy: The new Hindering Debuff effect is a pretty scary mechanic, helping to reduce the enemy’s combat effectiveness and forcing them to play more cautiously.
Despite her strength, Waylay still has some weaknesses in self-defense in direct combat. If competing on large maps like Breeze or Abyss, the Thai female agent will become less flexible and easily exploited by the enemy.
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