Valorant has been on a real tear recently, with Riot Games blasting out update after update about their new shooter. Riot has revealed a bunch of new heroes for their competitive shooter. And even though the weapon systems in their game are a lot more flexible compared to rival titles, there’s some similarity with the style of the player characters.
Taking their cues from genre competition like Overwatch, Riot has given each of their heroes a backstory to draw from, and Phoenix is the first. Valorant agent Phoenix is from the United Kingdom, and his abilities are just as fiery as his personality. Riot says that “his star power shines through in his fighting style, igniting the battlefield with flash and flare.”
The lore surrounding Valorant is still fairly thin, but it seems as though the new 5v5 shooter will also be borrowing the faction-based story backdrop from Overwatch as well, as it looks like the title is also a name for an in-universe faction of warriors.
Check out the new hero in action in the trailer below.
Hot hands is the primary ability that Phoenix can make use of. By hurling a fireball across the battlefield, the hero can deal damage akin to a grenade. He also has access to a healing ability which allows Phoenix to deal damage and heal himself at the same time.
His second ability is Blaze. The wall of flame plucked right out of the pages of D&D obscures vision and grants a minor offensive debuff to anyone who crosses it. It doesn’t appear to deal significant damage or block fire though.
The most dangerous of Phoenix’s abilities is Curveball. This mass-stun allows the hero to drop enemies with a flashbang-like ability that can be easily used in consort with these other abilities to take down multiple foes.
