The newest Valorant Season has just gone live and with it, we're seeing a new agent and new game mode.
Mirror Gaming was invited to preview Agent 23, also known as Deadlock, and she's set to shake up the entire game, especially when her defensive capabilities are utilised correctly. Agent Deadlock is now available in following the launch of Valorant Season 7.
New Valorant Agent Deadlock is a Norwegian operative who uses nanowire technology to secure the battlefield. In a similar fashion to Killjoy, she can lock down entire sites on her own meaning the time of instalock KJ could be coming to an end. She is also able to provide fundamental information to her team even when she's not present, giving her lethal power against flanks.
When playing Deadlock, it was clear that she was more of a sit-and-wait style of Agent rather than pushing and engaging, making her fulfil the Sentinel title she has. You have to spend a fair amount of time in pre-round setting up your abilities to make her the most effective, meaning she really isn't for those players who spend a while picking out their weapons.
Once setting up abilities like her Q, Sonic Sensor, and finding an adequate spot to wait for enemies to push in, you need to be sure that you have good enough angles to safely utilise her other abilities like her C, Q or X. Just like the majority of grenade-like utility, her C, GravNet, makes her unable to shoot when throwing it out, meaning you're vulnerable to attack without the chance for a trade kill.
Deadlock's E, Barrier Mesh, is the same, and despite barriers being generated after it's deployed, in the small period of time while it sets up you're vulnerable to attack and again don't have the ability to counterfire. This meant I was typically having to use these abilities from around corners or in cover to avoid dying when throwing them out.
One downside of her Q, Sonic Sensor, is the fact that it detects noise rather than visuals like Chamber's traps. When enemies flank, it's often the case that they stay quiet either through shift-walking or crouching meaning you can't put all of your trust in your Q to keep your backside protected. One great thing on the other hand though is that it picks up any form of significant sound which includes the usage of abilities.
Deadlock's ultimate ability, X, Annihilation, is spectacular in 1v1 scenarios with cocooned enemies being completely unable to escape without the help of their teammates. If you know an enemy is on a solo flank or if they're the only player left, it's a guaranteed kill as long as you can land the nanowires. It isn't as effective in team fights as the cocoon can very easily be destroyed.
My favourite weapon to use with Deadlock during save rounds was the Ghost, as her abilities lock enemies down making them much easier to headshot. This meant that during full buy rounds, I typically stuck with the Vandal over the Phantom, which is my typical rifle of choice, so a headshot would guarantee a kill.
I feel like Deadlock will challenge Killjoy's dominance in the current meta and I'm looking forward to no longer seeing the latter in every single game. Deadlock is available in Valorant Season 7, which is live now.
