The BEST Agent for YOU in Valorant Ranked 2026: The nAts Mindset #9 transcript

Hello everyone, the NutsMindset project. All of you is always asking the same question, what agent to play to rank up or even harder, how do you choose perfect agent for yourself? So in this video, I'm going to show you how to find perfect agent for you and why picking the right one could completely change your rank. Before I move to each agent and I'll give all of you suggestion what agent is it easier to rank up and what agent is fits you better, let's just speak quickly about four classes we have in game.

We have controller, duelist, sentinels and initiator. In my opinion, controller is one of the most important roles in rank because of the blocking area power like uh smoking, right? All of us knows that it's pretty complicated to play the game without the smokes. Duelist is the one who is creating the space, who is taking the fights in attack and both in defense. Sentinels is the ones who is keeping the areas in defense.

In attack, they're the ones who is trying to create a space for the team like playing alone or gaining the information there in the safe and aggressive way. And initiators, they are the ones who is helping the team with the steps, with abilities, initiating abilities. They're the ones who is helping duelist to take the fights and they also at the same time they can gain information in the safe way because of their initiating tools.

At the end of each role, I'm going to be suggesting you the agents that is good to play right now in rank and also I'll give all of the skills you need to have for each agent so it will be easier for you to decide what agent you want to play. So let's start with the duelist because I think duelist is the main role that people messing up a lot with and they say like it's easiest role to win, right? It's easiest role to start playing the game, right?

Some people say that. So first skills you need to have to play duelist. You need to be fearless and you need to be patient. Why fearless and patient? Because fearless first of all, you are the one who is taking the fights and you are the ones who is trying to get the entries. And why I said patient? Because sometimes you can't get entries, you can't get overwhelmed with abilities, but you need to be patient and also your team are able to help you.

Why these things are very important? Because if you don't have it, you will either be too much fearless and you will be always going in front, you will be dying first and your team won't be able to help you. Or if you'll be too patient, too passive, you will not be able to create enough space for the team and that's it. So, let's move to each dualist one by one. Jett, the most basic one. I would say main overall is this agent to find the kills with the old just because of opportunity of surviving, because of the dash, because of the smokes also.

That's mainly for defense. For attack, Jett is the one who can easily also go take the fights because you also have the escape opportunity. You just press the dash, you just go. For the XX, Jett is the one who's also helping for the XX straight dashing into the area, aggressive area with the smokes and trying to survive there and the any flasher trying to help him with the fight. Neon feels herself a bit better in the fights just because of the stun potential.

And every time you want to come and you want to force the areas, you want to fight enemies in some certain areas, you always have stun, you always have Neon wall. And even if something goes wrong, you have always slide. So, Neon is like very fast. The only difference between Jett and Neon is if there is something blocking you in the choke, let's say Viper molly, Kay/O molly or something, you can not really like throw it like Jett is doing, but also very strong in that case.

First of all, Phoenix has amazing old and I would say that's one of the greatest agents right now for right because of the flash potential, because of the old and old is just like six old. And you have amazing molly, you have still wall. The wall is long and it takes a lot of time to stay. So, that's why I think it's good. Another duelist that is can create a space in terms of like diving somewhere. It's like Jet because of the satchels.

So, Neon I think they cannot they have to run through something as a Race always you want to throw a nade, you want to go with a satchel strike to fight somewhere. But, it's pretty complicated to play Race on the large maps. You still flying and there is not enough like movement possibilities. You just flying all over the big maps. So, that's why for example, no one is playing Race on Breeze, right? No one is playing Race on Icebox.

Few people will say that is the one of the best agents for the rank just because you always heal, you always get the region, right? You always have opportunity with the ulti to get the same thing. But, I think nowadays Phoenix is a little bit better in that thing because you have ulti, you have flashes and it's the flashes will be a bit better. But, Reina flashes is still very strong and I think on some certain ranks it's very, very good.

But, I think Phoenix is a bit easier to play anyway if you get used to it especially in the current meta. Write down in the comments the reason why you choose an agent and why you want to play it. But, Reina opportunities you have flashes that people force to break and that's why Reina is very good on the large maps. We have heal, we have invisibility, right? You kind of help team with these abilities. But, if you're hitting good, if you're shooting good, and if you're getting kills, that's a very good agent to play.

One enemy remaining. So, let's move to Yoru. Yoru is the agent who is diving somewhere because of the double dash, right? Potential. The only issue in rank and that's why I wouldn't suggest to really play it in rank because it requires you to have a very good initiator with you in controller. So, you need to combine all your free abilities because it will be just hard to go somewhere and utilize your double dash, your slow, your ulti.

That's why it's a very good agent for the competitive, but not right now for right. Yoru right now is in the very bad conditions, but I'll anyway touch it. Yoru has teleports, he has one flash and Yoru has incredible ultimate nowadays because of every nurse he had. It's not very good to play it. Overall, the idea of the agent that you can either walk some- somewhere and TP away, or you can just TP towards the side with a team, and you always have flashes.

You cannot play Yoru solo duelist, you want to play always as a second duelist. And that's why you would have opportunity to flash for your duelist first, and after you have flash for yourself and you just TP inside. But I have only one flash now, so I'll flash it. Okay, I don't think it's a great agent to play in ranked. I would say very good agent to take zones because of his double damage, and double damage is canceling opportunity to use the ability for the enemies.

Plus, you have a shield that is protecting you from the bullets. I think Iso is very good in terms of ulti. Again, solo Iso I'm not sure because solo Iso cannot create a space. We can do this. And for the ranked, I don't know how it will how much it will be comfortable. As I was saying in the end, I'm going to be giving you suggestions for this current meta, top three duelists and the skills you need to have for the duelists.

Top one is Phoenix in my opinion. You can use it on most of the maps, and I think from all of them, he's right now feeling himself the most comfortable, and in ranked it's like perfect in my opinion. Second is Reyna, and I think Phoenix and Reyna is the ones that you need to mix up if you want to go with the duelist role. And I think top three right now is going to be Neon just because everyone is running in and Neon is still not getting nerfed.

Yes, you still can play Jett here and there. You still can play Yoru and Reyna. But for me Phoenix and Reyna right now feels more comfortable. You're doing more for yourself and for the team. So, that's why that's my opinion. Let's move slowly to controllers. As I said, controllers one of the most important roles for I am. Let's start with Astra. From all of the agents has no issues with the range and you can be on one part of the map and use the smoke for other part of the map and I think that's very, very good.

The only issue with the Astra that you need to press the stars and the moment you press the stars you still need to wait to press them. If you want to go rush somewhere, you pretty much saying that enemies that you're going here. You need to be very creative on Astra. You cannot just play in one way because your pull, your stun not always very good to block the enemies especially nowadays pull where it takes few seconds to activate it.

So, that's the only negative Astra has. First amazing thing he has, he can put his smokes immediately so he can pop on his iPad or whatever it is and instantly press the smokes and instantly land them. It's not like Astra you're pressing the stars one by one. Here he can land instantly three smokes. Plus you have a Brim Molly that will solve the Astra issue that you cannot hold some certain areas. And I mean Brimstone has an amazing ultimate.

So, I think. Yeah. Open up the sky. One enemy remaining. If you want to start winning rank more, check this video. I think Gekko is very good in rank specifically. Yes, the smokes after the death is not the greatest right now, but because of all you can always fight and the glove helps you to be more aggressive controller if you want to be because on Brimstone Astra you don't really want to be like super aggressive because you want to survive.

You want to help the team with abilities, but with the glove it doesn't matter because even after the death you can still go and place the smoke and ultimate is also helps you to consistently fight. That's a very good controller if you want to mix up something like if you don't want to be doing this, but you want to be very aggressive and you want to still have smoke. I think love is very good for that. Harbor is very hard and it's very methodic, I would say.

Even if you want to practice that role you don't have a team it will be very complicated because in rank your team wants to play around his abilities and I wouldn't suggest to try him if you don't have a team for practice. But he's very good because of the blocking opportunity. But yeah, not what I can nothing. I don't think mix is very strong right now. You still want to choose other controllers over him. Yeah, he has some surprising things like with the stone and heal, right?

Harbor and the mix I wouldn't suggest these agents to try in rank. Omen is the standard, right? So you can be very aggressive, you can be very passive. You have Omen blind that will help you what the brim can do, right? With the stopping you just open the different way. Plus you can always escape. That's what other controllers cannot do. You can be in a such a bad position that you can just TP away. The only thing is ultimate.

Ultimate is like also TP. So it's not like Astra Astra wall, Brimstone, Brimstone ultimate. Very good controller if you want to be like aggressive, passive at the same time. It will take so much time to learn how to play in it on specific moments. But, that's why he's like very stabilized, I would say. And if you know, if you master both of these play styles on him, you'll be very You cannot unfortunately play it as a solo controller because of the limited smokes possibility.

You have a wall, and you have a Viper bubble, but it's still not enough to block everything. And you're pretty much doing even worse than Astra is doing it. You're basically throwing a wall later on. You're throwing a bubble if you want to exit. That's why it's not very good. But, Viper is amazing in terms of creating a passive pressure on the map. And blocking the enemies because of the toxin. On some certain maps like Breeze, Icebox, yes, you can play it as a solo controller because the way maps is being played.

And on Bind, as I'm always doing it, I'm picking it as a second controller because you can play on that map. If you don't really want to master Omen, you still can just play Clove and just go for the fights. But, if you want to learn something like big and later on understand, "Okay, I learned something like a big role." Because learning Omen is going to take time. And Clove is not like very hard to play. It's pretty easy agent to play.

But, Omen will require time. And if you manage to master Omen, that will be like going to be achievement. So, that's why I'm putting top one Omen for rank, Clove and Omen. Second is Astra. And top is Brimstone and Viper just because of the map dependent because Astra you can almost pick it everywhere. Killjoy and Cypher you can also pick it almost everywhere but Brimstone and Viper it's all depending on the map. That's why I'm putting them specifically like together because all five of them is like very important.

Yes, in competitive no one is really picking Killjoy just because you want as I said blocking abilities, right? Because all of them has like their potential with that. So, yeah. As I was saying sentinels is the ones who supposed to keep the zones and the provide information. Let's start with Chamber. He is keeping the zone by himself, not by ability yes he has the trap but the main strength of him is he has a TP where he goes and he's trying to take the zone with operator most of the times.

That's why this agent requires you to have a very good operator skills and you need to be also fearless because you need to go into some crazy places you need to create the space for your team in terms of like defense specifically. In attack it will be a little bit complicated but for defense you need to be very annoying it doesn't really make sense to just stay passive. Cypher is the safest from all of the sentinels to keep the zones because of the Cypher camera cages and traps he has.

You can play passive, you can play aggressive on Cypher just because of the variety of his abilities. Deadlock I think it's very complicated and if you solo queue and you don't really want to play Deadlock alone because you want people to play around your abilities and plus it's also a bit complicated to find the value for your ability. If you really want to master Deadlock I think you need to have a good duo so you can combo your grab net.

You can play around your traps. And you also need to be very smart with your wall. Killjoy, I think for me is the balance between all of them. You can just pick up your turret. Plus you have two mollies that have an amazing blocking opportunity. Plus you have Killjoy ulti that is also very complicated sometimes to break. You have always abilities instantly contact. If you want to like play super aggressive sentinel, that's one of the greatest for you if you're searching for that.

Sage, here you need to be very smart. Yes, you can take the fights here and there. But Sage is the best in terms of blocking. And you cannot just throw away your slows always. But Sage like has a wall, but you need to be also smart when you want to use the wall, when you want to use heal, when you want to use slows. Breach, I think is the hardest to like play because uh you need to be very smart the way you want to use your abilities.

He has like an amazing tool in terms of breaking abilities and taking the BP well, but his TP is not immediate like Chamber one. So it's a little bit complicated to play on him and I wouldn't suggest him in ranked. Yes, if you will master it, you will be very annoying to play against. I still think for rank, your team needs to play around him. So, right now I don't suggest him. Turbinio, the last man standing, and he's on the run.

Luckily, he does it. He's getting there early, but Seven's just that bit better. Even though Viper's got nerfed, I still think Viper's is one of the greatest to block the area just because of the thorns, the wall, and the flesh. That's the only sentinel that has a flesh, right? And you can literally be like sitting on your setup, something happen, press the flesh, go instantly picked. And the ultimate is also very good.

Yes, it's even though the radius changed and it's got a little bit smaller, I still think Viper's is very strong. And my top three will be for rank for you to be comfortable in rank. I think it will be Killjoy top one, Viper's top two, and Chamber and Cypher top three. >> itself. Plant is not secure. Nats is still here. He's been left with his side. He's in control of it again. It doesn't matter the number or the odds.

He's always good for it. Nats is outstanding at his job. I wouldn't take Sage, Reyna, and Deadlock. I think it's a little bit complicated to play on them. Why am I putting Viper's top two? Just because it's still, in my opinion, super easy to play it in defense. Yes, attack is a little bit complicated because you don't really have abilities to play around, but you still can lure, you still can go with the team, and you have an amazing abilities to play around later into the round.

But for me, Killjoy is still the best in everything what all of the agent has for rank. Do not like go deep into the agent. It's easiest to play. Let's start with Breach. You have stun, amazing blocking ability, and you have flashes. But, flashes is like very easy to dodge, right? So, you need to be smart when you're using the flashes. You need to always know where you're going to throw a flash. You need to always know when you want to throw a stun, how you want to throw a stun.

You don't want to stun your team. Also, we have the issue with Breach ulti. Breach ulti is getting one-tapped. It's very good one. It's very initiating supportive initiator, but I don't think you can play it alone on most of the maps because you need abilities to take the zone. Breach is the only agent that doesn't have that opportunity from the initiator. Fade has three initiating abilities, two prowlers and a reveal.

And the reveal is cycling, right? 60 seconds. It's very good if you just want to like play like aggressive. For example, if you wanted to play duelist, but you want to still like move a little bit more to initiate, then that's the greatest for you. You can always go with a duelist and throw a prowler, pick with a prowler, or pick with a duelist. You still need to be a little bit smart with your reveal because you want to still provide information to your team, especially help on the XX with reveals.

But, it's still one of the initiators that you can play very aggressive. You don't need to be always on the back and trying to support with the flashes or something. You want to be with the duelist, and you want to try to fight with it. I would say Gekko is the one who is like a little bit more complicated and tricky than Breach. So, we have Wingman, right? But, we use Wingman only for the spike. And we have flash that is pretty easy to break, and we have Gekko molly that is also not as easy to find the value.

And you need to know when exactly how to use your abilities. And I still think there is other initiators that's worth to learn and master rather than Gekko. I think Gekko is at the end. KAY/O has a knife, so the blocking power. KAY/O has molly, again the blocking power, plus flashes. But KAY/O is the one who is like trying to support a lot of teammates with the flashes, block the enemies with the knife. So, you need to be also very smart.

But you still can be aggressive, you still can throw a flash, but I would say it's a bit less How should I say aggressive? As against the Breach, you can always expect when that ability is going to happen. That's why Fade and Skye are very aggressive. You can always be with the team, you can always fight. The way Skye flashes works, it's very, very fast. And that's why you can be always with the team, you can literally stay in the smoke with your dog, which is throw a flash and go fight immediately with the Skye.

Skye dog is also very good for the fight. Skye ulti is also amazing. Fade and Skye one of the best initiators if you want to fight with your team. If you want to be involved in all of these fights. If you want to be very aggressive, that's two of them that you really want to learn to. Emperor's both shut down and our reinforcements arrive as Nats gets himself into position. Paranoia coming through, but he plays it close enough and purple gets a third.

On for an ace. Has the fourth. Can he find it? No. Wayne will steal it away. Sova is the opposite of Fade. You need to be very smart with the way you use your abilities. You cannot be with your team because you need to always try to help them from the back. And you're most of the times on the back, you're most of the times not on time to be with your team. You don't have abilities to literally fight with your team, and that's why he's always at the back.

So, if you want to be very aggressive initiator, it's Skye and Fade. If you want to be very passive initiator, it's Sova. Breach is the one who is also helping from the far back with the missiles. If you don't exactly still do the drone for the team. So, it also takes time and you always far back. You throw your abilities from the far back, and that's it. Your game is literally your ability game is over at that point.

You anyway standing far back. So, that's why super passive is Sova and Breach super aggressive and Skye and Fade and in the middle Breach, KAY/O, and Gekko. In my opinion, all of them good. My top three will be Fade, Skye, Sova. Top one is Fade, top two is Skye, top three is Sova. And honestly, it's not about the top one Fade that you now need to go play Fade all of the maps. No, you need to play all three of them, but it's a lot map dependent.

It's still very important to also play Breach, KAY/O sometimes because it's also very good agents and it's also good to master, but I think for rank is these three will be very very good. Especially now that so lot of people likes to play aggressive, I think Fade and Skye will be more interesting for people to use. My advice how to choose a role. If you want to be very aggressive and you want to be ahead of the team, be the first contact, and keep the game in control of your hands on the first fight, duelist will be the main role for you.

If you want to be also very aggressive, but you want to be second, third contact, you don't want to be the first one, aggressive initiators is the role that you want to link to. If you want to be on the back with your team, but you still want to protect your team, you still want to help your team with the steps and all of that stuff, passive initiator is the role for you. If you want to be alone, if you want to be playing your own game most of the times, not always working, sentinels is the role that you would like to lean to.

If you want to be in the middle, if you want to be like sometimes very passive, if you want to be sometimes very aggressive, and you're not sure where exactly you want to end, you don't really want to play sentinel, you don't really want to play duelists, controller is the role for you because controller is very stabilized in that case. I hope everything of that will help you. Thank you everyone for watching. Please subscribe to the channel, leave a like, leave a comment, and see you in the next video.