This weekend, during the grand finals of VCT Masters: Bangkok, developer Riot Games revealed their latest agent for their tactical shooter ‘VALORANT’: Waylay, Thailand’s “prismatic Radiant”.
Waylay’s got the following up their sleeves:
Refract
INSTANTLY create a beacon of light on the floor. REACTIVATE to speed back to your beacon as a mote of pure light. You are invulnerable as you travel.
Light Speed
EQUIP to prepare for a burst of speed. FIRE to dash forward twice. ALT FIRE to dash once. Only your first dash can send you upward.
Saturate
INSTANTLY throw a cluster of light that explodes upon contact with the ground, HINDERING nearby players with a powerful movement and weapon slow.
Convergent Paths
EQUIP to focus your prismatic power. FIRE to create an afterimage of yourself that projects a beam of light. After a brief delay, you gain a powerful speed boost and the beam expands, HINDERING other players in the area.
June Cuervo, Game Designer at Riot Games on the VALORANT project, had this to say about Waylay:
What were your goals and inspiration behind Waylay’s design?
We haven’t had a “space taking duelist” since Valorant’s launch. This subclass of duelist that only Jett and Raze occupy has been an essential part of team compositions at all levels of play, and we wanted to add something fresh to this gameplay space. When designing Waylay’s dash I wanted to capture the creativity of Raze’s satchel movement and the speed of Jett’s dash. Waylay’s tool for creating safety for herself, Refract, allows her to take risks and play off of her teammates’ utility with confidence after dashing. These two things together allow Waylay to act as your entry duelist while not throwing away her life.
How would you describe Waylay’s gameplay style?
Waylay is the tip of the spear for your team. She is flexible and creative with a lot of options for how she approaches taking the site. Since you have a lot of options for how you use your dash, grenade, and ultimate, you can combine these things to attack from unique angles and vantage points to always keep enemies guessing. That said, Waylay thrives in coordination with her teammates. A well placed Sova dart or Omen paranoia can ensure she gets the frag after dashing rather than having to escape with Refract.
How do you think Waylay will shake up the current meta?
Waylay fulfills the same role as Jett and Raze, but has different strengths and weaknesses. Maps where the bombsites have lots of nooks and crannies to dash to such as Icebox and Ascent are maps where Waylay thrives. She isn’t designed to replace our current duelists, but rather provide an option in different team compositions. She could be played alongside a Raze on maps where you might want a double duelist composition like Lotus or Split, or as a solo duelist on Ascent where having a strong execute supported by utility is crucial to success. However, maps like Breeze and Abyss that have a lot of large open areas on the sites can cause Waylay to struggle because she lacks 360 degree cover like Jett.
Season 2025 // Act II will also commence on the 5th, bringing the following tracks along with it:
- Price: 1,000 VP
- Highlight Items
- Free Track
- Byteshift Ghost
- Sloth Tactics Buddy
- They Won’t Know Spray
- Safekeeping Card
- Free Track
- Paid Track
- Tactibear Flex
- Byteshift Knife (Melee)
- Byteshift Vandal
- Doom Wing Phantom
- Refractrix Guardian
- Death Stalker Buddy
- Balisong Brandish Spray (Animated)
- Kill Contract Spray
- Heartless Card
- Diet Milk Card
This act also brings players a new collection, Cyrax, where starforged crystals are given life as Vandal, Ghost, Guardian, Stinger and Fanblade melee skins. A new Battlepass will feature items such as the Tactibear Flex, Byteshift Ghost, Sloth Tactics Buddy, Doom Wing Phantom and Heartless Card. Cyrax will make its way to the game the day after, on the 6th of March.
VALORANT is available on PC via Riot Games’ PC client, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5 consoles as a free-to-play tactical first-person shooter. Game Pass subscribers get bonuses for linking their accounts, including immediate access to all of the game’s playable Agents. You can catch up on the latest VCT Masters here.
