Valorant is the first-person shooter game from the Creators of League of Legends — Riot. It took the world by storm when it was released in 2020 and has been one of the most played FPS games ever 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 is not easy — or cheap. The agents are divided into four types: Duelist, Sentinel, Initiator, and Controller. We have got you covered if you want to learn more about Initiators.
Initiators are agents that help flush out enemies out of cover. Their skills are tweaked to give combat advantages to their teams when charging into a push. Sentinels are agents that play defense and are often in the back lines to utilize their abilities fully. The description in the game reads :
“Initiators challenge angles by setting up their team to enter contested ground and push defenders away.”
This is how Riot describes Initiators. They make tactically sound strategies and help their team initiate attackers and push the defenders back. Initiators apply immense pressure through their abilities to make the enemies flee or regroup. This role works in any scenario and is a great help in carrying out counterattacks. Each Initiator is unique, and they have skills that vary from healing to reconnaissance. Being an effective Initiator requires you to know the agents well.
Let’s check one of these Initiators out and help you figure out if she will suit your playstyle.
Skye
Skye is a beast-tamer from the vast lands of Australia. With her animals as utilities, she’s an initiator filled with blinding abilities and team healing. Her selflessness excludes her from healing herself, but she can heal everyone around her — quickly filling everyone up after a near-death experience. She can detect and concuss enemies with her skill set, and her blind can be directed for a more aggressive and tactical play. Despite her limited intel-gathering abilities, she can disable them for some easy picks off of enemies.
A team with an experienced Sky can be guaranteed a faster push and more resilient survivability. She excels in quick point takes and fast-paced assaults. Her abilities are best paired with duelists like Jett and Raze to take down enemies when Skye disables and reveals them quickly. Skye does not heal as effectively as Sage, but being able to recover her entire team now and then is a breath of fresh air in a game where you are constantly trying to escape the line of fire and initiate one. If you are considering using a supportive agent that can hold her own, let us help you get to know Skye a little bit more and see if she finds your fancy.
Skills
Regrowth – 200 credits
When you press C, Skye equips a healing trinket that heals allies in a wide area around her. Regrowth has a 100-hitpoints pool that Skye can use on and off whenever you press and hold the Fire Button until it’s depleted. The healing ability heals for 20 hit points per second, making it a little inferior to Sage’s healing abilities. This ability can heal up to two teammates back to full health or heal more agents and distribute the health pool for less.
A disadvantage to this ability is it requires Skye to keep the healing trinket equipped, making her helpless against attacks while healing her team. But you are getting to heal teammates with a one-bullet remainder of life to tip-top shape while in the heat of battle is nothing short of incredible. Skye cannot heal herself, so use this skill with your team in mind, and you can reverse an otherwise dire situation to your advantage.
Trailblazer – 250 credits
When you press Q, Skye equips a Tasmanian tiger trinket. Pressing the Fire Button will have Skye take control of the agile beast, which lasts for five seconds. During this time, the beast’s footsteps are audible and have a limited view. You are pressing the Fire Button again while the tiger’s perspective will have the beast pounce and explode on an enemy agent. The pounce damages them for a maximum of 30 hitpoints and stuns enemies within the small blast radius for a maximum of four seconds. The beast has 100 hit points and can be shot down even before you can pounce.
Trailblazer is best used to quickly check corners and gather intel before committing to a push. Unlike Sova’s drone, Trailblazer can disable enemies, making it more of a threat to enemy agents and forcing enemies out of corners. Using the Tasmanian tiger will require you to be decisive and fast on your feet since the five-second timer is short. Valorant is a game that makes players rely heavily on intel, so make the most of what you can with the five seconds you have.
Guiding Light – 250 credits
This is the signature skill of Skye. Pressing E equips Skye with a Hawk trinket. Pressing the Fire button will send a hawk forward by default and fly for 2.5 seconds. Pressing E again while the hawk is still in flight will detonate it blinding anyone in the area for two seconds. When the bird hits a wall or an obstruction, it ricochets off, so you need to time when to detonate Guiding Light efficiently. This ability gives your teammates non-visual intel because of the verbal cue “Blinded!” Skye will shout out when an enemy is blinded.
A different trait of this ability enables Skye to control the flight path of the hawk. By continuing to press the Fire Button, you can direct Guiding Light by moving your crosshair. Use this versatility to make the hawk turn tight corners and blind enemies from hard angles much like Phoenix’s blind — but better. The only downside is that with enemies fast enough, they can easily shoot down the go-hitpoint hawk if you delay detonating it too much.
Seekers – 7 Ultimate Orbs
This is the Ultimate Skill of Skye. Pressing X equips Skye with a Seeker trinket. Skye releases three man-o-war-looking seekers to track down the nearest enemies wherever they are on the map. For the next 15 seconds, these floating jellyfishes will roam around the map running after the nearest agent they’ve locked on to. Each Seeker has 150 hit points and can be shot down by enemies. If the Seekers get to hit enemies, they are nearsighted for three seconds.
Seekers is an excellent way out of blind-filled maps or when defending a site and you are not sure where enemies will pop out of. It is best used aggressively, so you and your teammates will benefit significantly by following the seekers to the location of the enemies. Once they are nearsighted, it would be an easy pick for your allies. Using this tactic can even give you an edge over enemies aware of their impending doom. They have to choose between shooting at the floating gelatin or the agent aiming at their heads. Either way, this is a sure guarantee to keep your enemies at bay and behave for a little while you diffuse or plant the spike.
It is also best to use when hunting down that last pesky and elusive agent that seems to disappear into thin air. The Seekers will find this agent down for you. All that’s left for you to do is to position yourself and your team to take turns in shooting down the poor, blinded soul.
Skye Bonus Tips
- Stay behind the Duelists. Skye’s skillset is great for initiating a push or an ambush, but her survival rate will easily drop if she goes ahead. Her first three skills will halt her movements while she handles these beasts, leaving her vulnerable to attacks at this time.
- Guiding Light is an excellent intel tool. This skill can not only blind your enemies but give away their position. Despite the limited intel it gives, it is still better than no intel at all. There is never a round when it is harmful to use this skill unless you are blinding your teammates instead of the enemy team.
- Positioning is key. Using most of Skye’s skills leaver her vulnerable, but being too far away will render her abilities too far and too late. So study the map and analyze the situation to position yourself in the perfect spot. Be safe while controlling your beasts and ready to shoot down enemies with your team at a moment’s notice.
Do you think Skye is for you? Her skills are very straightforward, with the capacity to be versatile depending on how you use them. Enemies try to hunt her down when they hear her using her skills, so they find good hiding spots. She can restore her allies from near-death and turn things around. Skye can heal everyone around her but herself, so expect a very selfless playstyle.
Skye is one of the staple agents in every match when used efficiently. She will not necessarily be the top fragger in every game, but she will be the one to make her team survive ’til the end. Skye needs to constantly communicate with her team and be careful of using her blind. If you are ready to take on her role, log in to Valorant now and watch Skye turn the battlefield upside down.
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