Fade, VALORANT’s newest agent, has been released in early access to content creators and journalists. Fade is an Initiator and works best when paired with utility from other agents. Based on early play tests and initial impressions, these are the five best agents to play with Fade.
5. Brimstone
Many of the best interactions with Fade come from her Seize (Q) ability, which creates a zone that decays and deafens enemies. They are also tethered, meaning they cannot leave the area. Although the area is wider than most mollies — i.e. Viper’s Snakebite and similar abilities — there are some abilities that will destroy enemies trapped in Seize like Brimstone’s ultimate, Orbital Strike. If you’re quick on Brimstone, you can open up the sky above trapped enemies and delete the unlucky souls.
Fade also pairs well with Controllers because of her Haunt (E), which marks enemies similar to Sova’s recon dart. That means you can use Brim’s smokes as cover and mow down any marked enemies.
4. Neon
As an Initiator, most of Fade’s best combos are with Duelists and Controllers. Neon is an example of a Duelist that works great with Fade. There are few agents fast enough to keep up with Fade’s Prowler (C) when it locks onto a trail. Neon is one of them. If the Prowler connects with the enemy, it deafens and near-sights them, leaving them extra vulnerable to Neon’s running and sliding peeks. Neon’s Fast Lane walls can also be used like Controller smokes as cover to shoot marked enemies through.
3. Raze
One of the most popular highlights to come out of the first day of testing Fade was a clip from content creator AverageJonas. In it, he uses Fade’s Seize ability off the start of a round. The Raze on his team follows up with a grenade that ended up killing two of the enemies. Raze nades have a big enough area of effect and fast enough damage that they can be devastating to enemies caught and decayed in Seize. What’s more, no one will hear it coming.
Like Neon, Raze is also quick enough to follow those trails and hunt down enemies marked by Fade.
Finally, as is the case with all the top three agents on this list, Raze capitalizes well on the deafen from Fade’s Seize and her ultimate, Nightfall (X). If an enemy is caught by Fade’s ultimate, Raze can double satchel forwards and even use her own ultimate to catch unsuspecting enemies not clued in by the audio cues.
2. Yoru
The last two agents on this list pair extremely well with Fade because of their ability to teleport into the enemy lines. Even though Yoru isn’t prevalent in the VALORANT meta, he can utilize the debuffs that Fade applies to enemies better than almost anyone. Specifically, his Gatecrash teleport and his ultimate, Dimensional Drift, allow him to sneak in behind the enemies and execute them. Both Gatecrash and Dimensional Drift usually have audio cues that alert enemies to Yoru shenanigans. But with Fade’s deafen? No such luck. Even Yoru’s flashes become extremely hard to avoid without the audio cue that lets you know to avert your eyes.
1. Omen
Omen is the best of all the agents who work well with Fade. Most of the reasons are similar to Yoru. Omen’s Shrouded Step teleport and his ultimate are both very noisy. When you’re deafened by Fade’s Seize or her ultimate, Omen is free to do as he pleases. In play tests, it was common for Fade to ult a site and then Omen to quickly follow by teleporting into the backlines. Deafened players were unsuspecting and even had a handy trail pointing to them for the Omen to follow.
Plus, Omen’s smokes and Paranoia flash work well with Haunt.
The combination of Fade and Omen can lead to many moments that confirm VALORANT is in fact a horror game.
