Valorant is the first-person shooter game from the creators of League of Legends — Riot. It took the world by storm when it released 2020 and has been one of the most viewed FPS games since. What makes Valorant unique is the roster of their Agents with their own set of skills. Mastering the agents is one of the keys to fully mastering and enjoying the game. This will prove difficult because unlocking agents in Valorant isn’t easy — or cheap. The agents are divided into four types: Duelist, Sentinel, Initiator, and Controller. If you want to learn more about Duelists, we’ve got you covered.
Duelists are agents that have the greatest firepower in the game. The description in the game reads :
“Duelists are self-sufficient fraggers who their team expects, through abilities and skills, to get high frags and seek out engagements first.”
This is how Riot describes Duelists. Plain and Simple. Duelists are the cornerstone of damaging and cleaning the enemies’ ranks in the game. It’s fair to say that most agents have the same level of importance in the game (I’m looking at you, Yoru), but Duelists are critical in a straight-up gunfight. They are the true carries in the game and generally have the most kills at any time.
That said, there are a total of five Duelists in the game with unique personalities: Raze, Jett, Yoru, Phoenix, and Reyna. Each one of them has very different skills and therefore his/her specialty and playstyle. Let’s check one of these Duelists out and help you figure out if she will suit your playstyle.
Reyna
Reyna is one of the most straightforward Duelists In the game. There isn’t much about using Reyna that’s confusing, however, you’re required to have above-par reflexes when using her. She is not an Agent designed to stay and hold. Her skills are intended for those one-on-some gunfights in which she has an advantage against single or multiple enemies.
If Reyna isn’t killing enemies left and right, she doesn’t contribute as much compared to other agents. She has only one skill that isn’t frag dependent and this requires her to constantly be able to put down enemies. Once she obtains momentum, Reyna is an unstoppable force on the battlefield. She can blind enemies and continually keep her health at the max most of the time.
Skills
Harvest – Passive Skill
Whenever an agent dies within three seconds of taking damage from Reyna, they leave behind a Soul Orb that Reyna can use for her other abilities. This looks like a floating purple orb right where an enemy agent has fallen in battle.
Leer – 200 credits
Reyna creates an ethereal, destructible Sauron-looking eye that renders enemies looking in its direction blind and deafened. This is her only skill that can contribute to team play as all her other skills are more – self-powerups. This is perfect for setting up a surprise attack from a hiding spot. Enemies will need to shoot the eye to regain sight, buying Reyna enough time to take down her prey. You can see what the Leer skill looks like below.
The orb can be destroyed and the number of bullets required can vary from gun to gun. Weapons like the Operator and Guardian can destroy it in one bullet. Leer can be deployed even through walls, making room for more creative and tactical approaches to an assault. This skill is highly favorable because, unlike most blinding skills, this only affects enemies and is an effective tool to delay enemies pushing in.
Devour – 100 credits and 1 Soul Orb
The skill Devour required a soul orb to be activated. This means that this skill is useless unless Reyna gets a kill prior. Once you take out an enemy, quickly press Q to gather the soul orb to heal Reyna. This heal is fast and, if your HP is more than half, often heals you above the 100HP threshold. The excess health is time-limited and has a limit of 50 points just like the game’s armor. So if you still have your 50 armor, you won’t get an excess HP. If your armor is, for example, 25 points, then you can get a maximum, of 25 points of extra health from this skill.
Devour is such a potent healing skill surpassing even Skye and Sage’s healing. This can often make Reyna seem unkillable as she always has max health whenever she’s on the battlefield. Even if you kill from a long distance (like an Operator kill range), you can still Devour a Soul Orb. but the catch is you need to maintain a clear line of sight with the orb. If you move around a corner and lose sight of the Soul Orb, the healing will stop midway. Also, when you heal using Devour, enemies can see the line from the orb to Reyna. They can use this to pinpoint your location, so be smart when using this skill.
When Empress is active, Devour is automatically cast when in range of a Soul Orb. Additionally, the Devour Skill is practically unlimited during this time because it doesn’t consume a Devour Skill charge.
Dismiss – 100 credits and 1 Soul Orb
This is the other skill that requires the use of Soul Orbs. Pressing E will activate Dismiss and renders Reyna invulnerable to attacks and gives her an ethereal appearance for a few seconds. During the duration of the skill, you won’t receive damage even from other agents’ abilities like Brimstone’s ultimate. You can walk through any infliction without a scratch, but you will also be rendered unable to attack or perform other skills during this phase. You can walk around for the duration of the skill.
Dismiss is a great skill when you are in the middle of a crossfire or other enemies are lurking. You can use this skill and assess the situation, position yourself in a cover or escape the scene altogether.
When Dismiss is used while Empress is active, Reyna will be both invulnerable AND invisible. There is also a slight increase in movement speed during the duration of DIsmiss. This makes Reyna kill and practically disappear in the middle of the fight. You can easily pop up on the enemy flank and take them down. When used correctly, this skill can make Reyna a literal phantom in the middle of the battlefield.
Empress – 6 Ultimate Orbs
This is the Ultimate Skill of Reyna. Activating Empress gives Reyna temporary increased fire rate, increased reload speed, increased speed when switching between weapons and skills. In addition to this, the screen is slightly darkened while all enemies in view are highlighted bright red to make them easily distinguishable even when slightly showing behind corners. Empress makes Reyna an absolute death machine on the battlefield and fighting her in this state should be done with caution.
As mentioned earlier, the Devour and Dismiss skills are affected by Empress. Whenever Reyna kills an enemy while Empress is active, the Empress skill timer resets and gives Reyna a fresh few seconds to continue her hunt. When used proficiently, Reyna can easily get multiple kills or even an ace when Empress is active.
Reyna Bonus Tips
- Use Leer creatively. Casting it far from you will divide your enemies’ attention on whether to shoot you or the Leer eye. This short moment of concussion is enough for Reyna to take out multiple enemies easily. You can also cast Leer up in the air, this gives the eye a wide range to blind multiple enemies in the area. When attacking, utilizing this proficiently can greatly increase your chances of victory. If you’re defending or outnumbered, Leer can change the tide of battle and benefit Reyna and hear teammates greatly. You can also cast this blinding ability through walls. Check the mini map to see where it’ll end up.
- Remember that Leer is unique as it doesn’t blind your teammates. Blinds from agents like Phoenix and Yoru blinds everyone indiscriminately and sometimes causes teammates to fall victim and die in the crossfire. Coordinate with your team to maximize the Leer skill to its max effectiveness. Don’t be shy to use it liberally.
- Weapons with slow fire rate can benefit greatly when Empress is active. The particularly strong but slow weapons like the Operator, Bucky, and Judge will become even more deadly when their fire rates and reload speed are improved by the skill. It will just be a matter of aiming properly to bring home the bacon.
- The main deciding factor for Reyna is actually choosing between Devour and Dismiss. If you are in the clear and your health is low, then use Devour to regain your health before jumping back into action. If there are multiple enemies or your position is easily in the crossfire, use Dismiss to get yourself to safety and strike at an opportune time. Dismissing too early can make you an easy target while using it too late can put you in a position where you’re pinned down by multiple enemies.
Do you think Reyna is for you? If you want to try her out before unlocking her contract, then head over to the Range and use her to practice and memorize her skills. If you’re feeling even more confident in using this killing machine beauty from Mexico, then go ahead and jump right into a Competitive match to see just how good you are with Reyna. After all, experience is the best teacher.
