One thing that I think a lot of pros overlook about reyna is that if you're a monster of a player, then reyna is an awesome agent to pick, even if you're in pro. We saw this a bit I think with Something on PRX and we've seen it a bit in the past between a few other pro players. Reyna is that agent that is made for smurfs- so if you have a player that looks like they're smurfing on a pro team, then you've got yourself a good combination between that player and reyna.
Reyna beeing for "smurfing" as you call it is a bit of a misconception, reyna capitalizes in insane reaction time and understanding of surroundings, for example the prx pick on bind was to counter the double smoke meta as f0rsaken could just ignore and say f*** you to the smokes push past them get a kill and create space, watch the old ice box reyna clips of asuna if you want he dominates because reyna is all about surroundings and how fast you react to your surroundings, the problem with her not beeing picked is because she isnt as "easy" to use in a heavy team consecrated play, now by easy I dont mean ease of use what I mean is she is way to big of a risk as as I said it's all about how good you improvise with reyna, that's why prx made her work they have an improvising type play where they play aggressive and see what sticks from there on, wheres most teams have devised plans and comps and plays in advance wich leaves no room for improvisation, sorry for the long line but what I want to push through is that reyna isnt a "smurf" agent and you dont have to be "better" than your opponents to make her work, this is a very very common misconception in valorant, no reyna is all about improvising and why she works in comp is because you have 4 people who you dont know and it's difficult to pull of coordinated plays with them since you havent played with them prior, that's what makes her stand out.
Again sorry for the long texts but while SOMETHING did play reyna on prx he didnt do it cuz he is "smurfing" on them, no hes a mechanically gifted player with very little tier 1 experience so in most cases he is at a disadvantage, saddly it's very difficult to understand pro player discion making and that's why we call to jump some players "aim minsters", I want you to rewatch every SOMETHING clip (if you care) on reyna where it's his quick on his feet decision making (in other words improvising) that makes his reyna so deadly, not his aim not his crosshair placement none of these things. If you did read this sorry for writing so much, have a good day.
@@loilded129 i think this argument is a bit unsound because this isn't 2021 icebox anymore, and asuna and tenz aren't tip-top players. THat kind of player doesn't really work anymore, nor does that playstyle, yknow? ikm just saying that reyna seriously has some options and just isn't used enough maybe in pro. There's at least SOME untapped potential
I ain't readin allat, but what I can say about Reyna's issue is consistency and her Risk-Reward ratio. Everything is just not it. It's a professional's job to stay consistent but it's better if the agent is more reliable and dependable in that deal. Second, if you watched the video. She is very selfish and her kit isn't very teamplay friendly, and it relies on kills so theres more on the risk part. PRX build around Reyna and something is very consistent. Boostio tried and kinda replicated it, with a different set of tools and just choked in the end.
@@joewhosjoe2233 First of being consistent isnt what makes teams successful, taking calculated risks is, second if played correctly reyna can create as much space as a jett/raze can and give frags for the individual at the same time, just watch the bind game prx vs drx, as I pointed out In the "essey"
I think one of the main reasons that Reyna is better in ranked than in pro play is solo queue, most ranked players are solo queuers, just like me, and therefore a self sufficient character like Reyna, Phoenix or Skye is very good picks for ranked, but in pro play, its all teams and Reyna's solo queue reliability is non existent
u say is good because is self sufficient but anyways soloq or pro players are still in a team game and reyna plays for herself, for that is not rentable on any type of match
The only way to balance Reyna is to delete the existence of smurfs by needing a phone number to use an account like overwatch did with this change they can buff her and not worry about smurfs
@@swallowingtherabbitwhole9552although true you technically would be considered as attempting to boost your friends since you ARE a higher rank than on your trio account. It’s not really smurfing but you are more skilled than most plats if you can soloQ to diamond. It’s like pro players making a second account to do challenges, even if they are trying on that account, at the end of the day it’s smurfing. Even if that account eventually hits radiant.
@PlayVALORANT please rework Devour ! My recommendation is a variation of Astra's Gravity Well remodeled in Reyna's theme. @Drysdaylia I wish you would have dived deeper into the kit of Reyna : - Leer : strong, balanced, a signature duelist ability unique to her; - Devour : gain significant leverage if you can still keep visual contact with the victim. Very high potential in ranked (the lower rank the better) that plummets in usefulness in pro play because of well executed trades - Dismiss : creates the potential of denying a trade, with some value in ranked but significantly more valuable in pro play; - Empress : more Devour and Dismiss. Combat Stim is nice but it's mostly more Devour and Dismiss. Depending on rank, the difference in usefulness of Devour and Dismiss tip the balance heavily in favor of lower rank. Additionally, Devour is an excellent ability in the hands of a smurf, probably the most smurf-enabler ability in the game.
Woah this video is so well put together! It feels so weird that theres "history of" videos on agents, i feel so old LMAO. I feel bad for reyna, watching this video amde me think about how irrelevant some agents are in the pro scene which is sad. Especially Phoenix, Yoru and Cypher, i hope riot is working on buffs or reworks for these agents and reyna they really could use smthn to bolster their viability in pro play
I do really like the way her kit is as a fairly new player. Of course I hated her at the start, but you quickly realise that Reyna is never the problem as her kit provides her nothing to do her job except her flash which is far from the best. The only way a Reyna can get kills is by being good, she only simplifies the task of getting multiple ones in the same round. She also is an excellent agent for new players as playing her can help you get confident and try plays you wouldn't try with any other agent. She also allows for some very fun off-meta strats like OP Reyna or the rarely seen but so fun lurking Reyna. So, if I encounter a smurf Reyna, I'm mad at him, not at Reyna.
I feel like Reyna could’ve benefit a lot more buffs in her abilities: - Any allied agents that assisted Reyna in killing her opponent should get heal/dismiss buff depending on what ability Reyna used - Her ultimate could’ve been made so that she can act like a moving stim beacon to her team instead of giving combat stim for herself. (I mean the ult’s name is “Empress” so making her ultimate affect other players would perfectly embody the “Empress” title she has making that her team act like Reyna’s army)
hell naw, reyna is just an agent that just cant be good, if she is smurfing becomes hell and makes the casual player experience way worse, she needs just a full rework to fix it or just leave her as she is in the bad state forever
@@thatoneguyeveryonelikes6929 thats just basically saying other duelists shouldn’t be duelists as well. Other duelists have kits that supports their teammate and I dont see why Reyna cant
11:00 these two kills by derke awakaned many memories and emotions in my brain, bringing me back to when i was choosing my first agent to unlock and reading chambers description
I think to make her viable again they should put 1 charge of devour/dismiss on recharge like skye flash but make cooldown longer something like 40-45seconds or have it recharge 1 devour/dismiss only once after getting 2 kills.
I am commenting this before watching this video, and will probably edit this comment when I've finished watching it, but I just started Valorant (around 20 games of unrated) and Reyna is everywhere, at least one, if not 2 per game. She ends up almost always with the most kills (I'm lying, she ALWAYS ends up with the most kills) and I don't even know why but she looks just OP to me and not very fair to play against, so I was very surprised to see this video in my recommandations since my experience so far has been way different than what the reality appears to be like. 😅
well since you are new, you are probably in (sorry for being honest) but bad lobbies. No one fights together and everyone I just running around. So ofc reyna is going to look op to a newer player bc she is untradeable once someone has died (alone bc they don't fight together) or she can full heal if she is in a half decent position where the enemy simply cant push her out bc they dont understand how to properly.
@@apoca1ypt1c61 Oh for sure I am still a noob at this game, and this is exactly why this is an issue. I don't even know what all the characters do, since the majority of them aren't unlocked, and trying the characters in the practice range just seems useless, you can't even use Reyna's abilities for example. Yet the decides to put me vs a level 143 Reyna while I am level 13 (happened multiple times). There's nothing in this game that even introduces a character to newer players, some of them I've never even encountered in a game yet. Another thing is, as this video points out, this isn't just a "stomping noobs" type of hero, I mean sure maybe it wrecks uncoordinated unrated lobbies filled with newer players which in itself is fine, but dominating lower elo ranked lobbies (I'm guessing below gold? Which is where a big chunk of the player base is? Correct me on that) with players that are somewhat experienced or at least know what they are doing seems like a bigger problem to me. Again I'm fairly new to this game but it seems that not only the fact that you have to figure out everything by yourself already, seeing as the same character go 32-7 every game is just no fun tbh. 😬
@@valentinpicart I understand where you are coming from, i remember the feeling of being overwhelmed by the mass number of new characters, maps, and information. I cant even begin to imagine that now with the new maps and even more agents. If you ever need someone to play with or someone to explain something add me (Him #e z) im lvl 420-something and know this game pretty well. Other that that good luck on stopping those reyna-pubstoppers
The thing about reyna: is that you cant really or change her in any situation to help the team. Reyna's kit is meant to be a gun blazing rambo and feeds of her self to become stronger, her kit is selfish but it get's the job done. Basically like a Chamber situation, most of his abilities requires you two things, place your 2 items somewhere. hold and fire. Chamber's guns put's pressure to enemies against anti-eco's or half buys, nerfing the guns would result mostly remove his ability to counter the enemies economy, nerfing the trips and tps, will remove it's part as a sentinel. nerfing them all, means nerfing chamber's playstyle. There are 2 things about Reyna being a downed agent. 1. Half of your abilities force you to kill. Meaning if you have to aggressive most parts of your match. And you also need to have aim. 2. All of his abilities are counterable at most and some at it's worst, in low elo, Reyna is an absolute pubstomp. but in high elo, She is still in pick. But requires you to have a comms, a reyna with proper support by flashes or disrupting enemies positions is terrifying. But solo q and team play/pro play are different since you can't really force the 4 players on your team, to help you with your entries, or support the angles that you pick, that's why Jett, Neon Exists. I dont know how to change reyna to the point she would useful to the team. so yeah that's just that.
I would argue that the most problematic part of her kit is her heal, since it’s always been a pain in the ass on pistol rounds and it’s only really good against low skill players who can’t reliably headshot. It’s the most significant part of her kit that makes her a pub stomper imo. I would suggest replacing it with an ability that is not tied to the soul harvesting mechanic. Ideally something that lets her play much more aggressively and entry for her team, like a mobility option or LOS blocker (like Jett smoke or Neon wall).
I did thought about an idea to rework her I dont know if it would be balanced but I would like to hear about your ideas so it goes like this her heal instead of healing if you manage to suck health of someone for x amount of time without getting interrupted by any means you get a temporary shield that blocks exactly 1 hit so you are guaranteed to not get instantly one shotted by vandal phantom or op or things like that but its not o useful against shoutguns lmgs and smgs since they fire a lot of bullets that blocking oen wouldn't change much but since it no longer heals she cannot go kill after kill in lower elos without dying since people are not that good that aiming there but now since you have shield you essentially have a free peek or you can use it to get a an advantage on gunfights also now that its a temporary shield the enemy can counter it by shotting into your chest first and spray controlling into your head also this should be added to her ultimate as well when you use your ultimate you just get that shield which makes her ultimate actualy usefull besides being a brim stim and every time you get a kill shield refreshes
As an Immortal Reyna main, she is a terrible agent that relies entirely on personal skill. She also has the highest carry potential out of any other agent, which is why I play her. If you're a solo queue player, Reyna is the perfect agent. Less reliance on teammates utility, healing on kills which lets you take more fights, and one of the most powerful ults for a clutch.
I love Reyna, but hate playing her as I'm not mechanically skilled enough to use her in ranked play - I honestly play more team centric characters like controller or sentinels. Hopefully she can get some actual changes that make her fresh to play again! Unfortunately the selfish aspect seems to be tied to her original game design... hope to see some risks taken from riot at least
Only Reyna main knows what buff Reyna need. No need to bring 4 consumable soul orb, just reduce the gun equip time that's it. It takes more than 2 sec to equip a gun. You can see this in clutch situation where you have to equip gun fast but you saw that your Reyna is grabbing her gun slowly like at that moment the time feels slow and when she completely equip the gun, Reyna was dead. Since past 3 years I am playing Reyna most of the time and I found chamber as its replacement but after nerf I came back to Reyna. Riot should bring some agent to replace Reyna if they can't buff it little.
Lol Reyna is one of the best Agents in the game. Also there is nothing like "Smurf protection" in Val. Riot doesnt care about Smurfs and they never did. Even when you provide undeniable proof where the enemeys even admit to smurf, Riot does nothing other than telling you they can't do anything about it :)
She's a selfish agent. If you're someone who is SoloQing, she's powerful since there's a good chance your opponents aren't coordinated enough to counter a SoloQ warrior that can heal and disappear with every kill. In pro matches, she's pointless since it's a bunch of coordinated 5 stacks that can easily play off each other.
That's not a good idea. She's overpowered in ranked because she can snowball rounds while useless in pro play because she has no utility outside of Leer if she doesn't get any kills. These changes don't fix that. She will still snowball in low elo even with only one Devour since having 3 Leers and 2 Dismisses will cancel that out. Giving her 3 Leers balance wise wouldn't be a "bad" change for pro play, but balanced doesn't mean fair. There's a reason why Skye and Breach were nerfed from 3 to 2 flashes, it was annoying as shit both for pros and casuals and there's a reason why no Duelists have ever had more than 2 flashes. Mind you, Leer, when isolated from the rest of her kit is probably one of the strongest "flashes" in the game so giving 3 of these is not a good idea. Overall, her kit is just not healthy for the game both in pro play and in Ranked, she needs a full rework. Her Leer and Dismiss are both alright abilities, but I think her Ultimate and Devour needs to be completely changed.
I sometimes thought that people hate reyna for the way she is and just try to find reasons just to hate on her when she has proven she's still something even if she doesn't outshine other agents
id love it if they leaned more into her immortality instead of the soul orbs, since that feels pretty unique. idk how one would balance that but it feels like a thing that wouldnt have this huge ranked pro divide.
Maybe more like this: Reyna Ult = each kill gives her +HP based on the HP of the enemy she killed (excluding armor) But this time, her ult lasts half as long as her current ult time
I hate Reyna players. The amount of Reyna instalockers is crazy. I also have a lot of games where Reyna got a 30 kill bomb but we still lose because Reyna is ONLY useful as a lurk. So Reyna players are just farming random ass kills and meanwhile the team is losing because it’s basically 4 v 5. Reyna will never be useful in pro play. That’s just the truth. With teams like FNATIC which value team work and map control she’s useless. And that’s fine. She doesn’t need to be viable in pro play. It’s a very specific environment. There’s a reason she’s only picked on new maps: teams don’t yet understand the map so they go for her cause she is good with duels. So since she’s only viable in ranked where she’s op nerf her. Why would we care about pro play? I would make the ability where she can go invisible (don’t know the name in English) last much shorter to the point where it’s only useful to hide behind another angle. Like I see Reyna players use it like a free scan where they basically go for a reckon. That’s crazy. Maybe the eyes could be switched to normal flashes? And maybe the heal could be less powerful? Sage heals much less. And the ultimate doesn’t need to last the whole round. She’s a duelist. Make it last basically enough to enter site.
Reyna's Identity has always been get a kill for utility, that can remain the same while making her better, by making it so that when she gets a kill she doesn't have to use it then but she can store it for later in the round but for reduced effect
I decided to take a break and uninstall Valorant, and that is partly because of how fed up i am with all Reyna smurfs. This character design is terrible, does nothing for her team and encourages comfortable smurfing. They dont even have to bother with good Neon/Jett positioning or hitting with ults, why would you bother with this if you can endlessly cheese with 150 hp reyna? I just wish that they rework reyna someday, because that character single-handedly makes ranked experience terrible.
When you think of all of the dualists, they each get back one ability after their second pick. Yoru gets his teleport back, Raze her grenade, Jett her dash, etc. The fix to Reyna is a simple one. Reyna should be able to use her first heal and dismiss while having line of sight on an enemy, rather than killing them. The second use of these abilities should require a kill. and before anyone starts with pro play vs solo queue bullshit, no game should ever be balanced around it's top 1%. What makes the pro players...professional is that they take what everyone could do, and refine it to the point they're amongst the best. When a game balances a hero, agent, champion, or whatever else you want to call their respective character(s) to the upper echelon of the games skill-cap, the people maining said character are doing better or worst depending on buffs/nerfs, over improvement - for the skills that the top percentage either lack, or have. That's why I don't fuck with games that nerf characters too much, whether the changes are justified or not. When you introduce a new element to your game (in the form of agents), you have an obligation to your player-base to make sure that the new element does not get released in a game-breaking state, that they don't completely overshadow the other characters in their role, that their abilities don't get released in such a strong state - that every game your team mates instalock said agent in fear that if they do not have one - they're throwing. I will say this, Riot does have good intuition on releasing balanced agents, as most of the time the new agents just have some culmination of different abilities already in the game (I.E blinds, smokes, traps, concuss, mollies (and by extension any other dmging abilities), walls, scans, etc.) On the flip-side of the coin, once the agent is out - they only really giver 2 fucks about it if it's a dualist. (yoru rework, phoenix buffs, i'm sure a reyna readjustment is coming) while Cypher players have been wanting buffs for years now, and Chamber continues to be a meme pick. Honestly, it kind of feels like Riot is so ass at designing sentinels, that they intentionally bottle-neck their abilities to make dualists shine more.
nothing new has happened to phoenix except for minor things. The reason his pick rate dropped is just bc of that reason. New agents came in who were better and phoenix stayed the same. Along with the new double initiator and controller meta, jett is just better.
Valorant solo que is so detached from pro play its not even funny. At the highest level it is mandatory to communicate with your teammates and use your collective ability to overwhelm or outplay the enemy. In solo que however you get actively REWARDED for screwing over your teammates. Thats what makes reyna so infuriating to play with or against. Reyna is so hard to punish if your team doesnt communicate properly and most Reyna's will be smurfs or ego players who think they are gods amongst men and will happily bait their teammates to get easy kills or play risky angles that can feed the enemy free kills.
lock Reyna in competitive for all players under Gold 1 problem solved 💀 Or (less dramatic) accounts under a certain amt of level.. So Reyna would be free of charge after level (x).
1v5 agent that smurfs can capitalize on to punish lower ranked players for their amusement. Otherwise a pretty mid agent if played by someone within your own skill bracket, imo her ult shouldn't give her unlimited heals, couldn't give a shit about the fire rate but hitting reyna for let's say 80 just to start comm'ing it then realize "oh, nvm, it literally doesn't matter" unless someone is able to immediately refrag you is not a fun experience. You wasted your life essentially, died for free, even though you did put her to half health it just becomes null and void. I like she has to choose to either heal or go immune in situations but that's about it. Then if she's ulted she can do it as much as she wants which I hate. (just the opinions of a lowly plat player) I feel like when she's in her ult she should still have to choose between a heal or immunity and make it maybe just refresh her charges on those abilities when she activates her ult.
Honestly if Reyna gets nerfed to the point where she isn’t playable I think that would be better for the game. Smurfs would have to work harder to dominate and ppl would get a contributing team member more often. Like honestly what would we lose if Reyna was unplayable? Nothing integral to the game. Ppl wouldn’t have the agent that is fun for them to play. And everyone else would lose the agent they hate playing against. Even if Reyna isn’t opressive her being in the game is of ko value. As is evident at the pro play level , when there is a coordinated effort she is less effective. There are agents that do her job, Jett chamber and I’m sure we will get another agent in the future. Her flash architype could easily be put onto a future agent and we would lose nothing in the long run of the game. Even her ultimate is garbage because it just gives her a fire rate buff and she doesn’t have to press her abilities to heal. Very mediocre. She doesn’t do anything that can’t be replaced and reworked to be healthy for the game
the difference between pro play and ranked games is in pro play they play as a team. there are a lot of coms and they’re trying to win to further themselves to a visible, tangible prize that ALL of them get. in comp… most reyna’s are solo queued, or boosting a friend. she’s such a selfish character, its easy to climb the ranks with her bc you can ego peek without a worry - as long as you get a pick you’re safe. people in comp are playing as a *team* to help *everyone* win. they just care about boosting themselves. she’s an awesome character for doing that. but she’s not a team player, and she never will be. it’s not who she is, game or story wise. she does her own thing. i doubt they’ll try to balance her any further.
"hazed, mixwell, dapr" who is this guys? ashudasuhdhu, just ask to someone really important in the cenario (some participant of champions semi finals), reyna is not a teamplayer agente, and her kit is trash and selfish
Reyna isn't bad. There just isn't a pro player that is confident enough to talk the talk and walk the walk when it comes to Reyna. The game is only 3 years old, give it more time. Reyna is the easiest agent to solo-win a round even with shit loadout. Someone someday will figure that out.
In tournamantes and shit were team work is essential no shit Reyna wouldn’t be picked. She is basically made for people like me who don’t care about team work and just want to kill and be selfish. I have my reasons but some of y’all are just so annoying.
"Riot didn't have the same smurf detection it has today" 💀💀 bro literally yesterday I got smurfed on twice in a row and the last one was basically admitting it in chat and throwing rounds. I'm iron 3 btw
4:25 So you're tryin to tell me that riot has smurf protection? Either they dropped it several months ago or 1 person having over 50% of the kills in its team is kinda normal below diamond
i have a really stupid idea to rework reyna make her ult to be a like a regular piece of util but nerf it to just heal and dismiss give her 2 charges of that then her leer gets a like spot affect and then have her get a ability to increase her movement speed and then her ult is just heal and movement speed increase trust
Nowadays you need to get to level 20 to play ranked, but before the leveling system was introduced you only had to win 10 unrated games. Also riot has been constantly improving their smurf detection since launch to try and make smurfs rank up faster. Definitely still far from perfect though.
I think reyna doesnt need to be a competitive agent, shes a ranked agent and its ok, not every agent need to be competitive based, and also we ranked players dont need to play like the pros, we can learn from them, but soloq is not proplay
all reyna needs is a flash rework. it’s so garbage since you can peek from behind cover and can see for a short second. i think a decent change could be a short flash when the eye is shot or when it runs out
Pro play and solo queue are two completely different battlefields. In solo queue is every man for themselves most of the time and you’re most likely playing with people you’ve never met and this also goes for the enemy team. These characters thrive when opponents make mistakes and don’t communicate properly In pro play, teams have played with each other for months up to years now, they know how they play and they know how to follow up each others plays and because of how more coordinated they are, less mistakes are less likely to happen and you need characters that are pro active instead of reactive. Jet is proactive, she goes in and gives space for her team while reyna has to wait and HOPE for someone to make a huge mistake and the enemy team already knows that if they play a certain way reyna can’t do anything.
i think she need a rework if they want her to be seen in pro play she needs another ability that she can use without killing someone even if its a nerf it will make her more playable in pro play
reyna need her 4 dismisses vack she had the lowest abiliies in the game without getting kill and most ppl dont get 2 kill every single round at least give her three dismisses
these reyna too bad videos are nonsense when she is the highest picked agent in ranked and 99% of people watching this vid play in ranked and not the vct
I personally think that for buffing reyna they need to change the flash and change how do the orb spawning works or even changing her role because the problem of reyna it's not that people are getting mad at riot for changing it it's because any major change could make her being an initiator instead of a duelist I thought of maybe adding reyna 3 orbs and making her heal heal 75 instead of 100 but that would make it an initiator more than a duelist or maybe for kinda fixing their entry problem while she's dismissing just after that in a small area concuss the enemies so at least it can give a little of utility to the team. Conclusion: Changing reyna's numbers it's useless unless mayor changes occurs in her ability set like concussing enemies near her or so. So the most inteligent thing is leave her alone or make a little rework
@@MackOP3 In my opinion, the most reasonable thing is to just buff the flash. make the flash shoot like gekko's blind skill or make it like the haunt skill fade that detect people's position. and all Reyna's problems not being picked on pro play are over. considering that Reyna is one of the strongest agents in Lore, so why not?
In solo-q she has a 99% pick rate due to her self-healing and evasion abilities. Especially against the newbies in this game who don't know that you have to hide or shoot at her orbs. That's why she's most preferred-pick for smurfs too.
