Ultimate abilities are a massive part of any hero-based game, and Valorant is no different. A properly-timed ultimate can secure a round win, or even outright guarantee it.
Ahead, we'll give you our opinion on the best and worst ultimates in Valorant as of Act 3 Episode 1, along with our reasoning behind our selections.
S-Tier
In S-tier, you'll find the ultimates for Pheonix, Jett, and Valorant's newest agent, KAY/O.
Pheonix has, arguably, the best ult in the game. It's a free life when played correctly, and can even bring you from 1HP to 100 as soon as you activate it.
Blade Storm is the most skill-based ult in Valorant. It's C-tier in Bronze and S-tier in Radiant.
Regardless of rank, it's the only ultimate that offers a free weapon - more than enough to push it into S-tier.
KAY/O's ult is the most recent addition and is already incredibly strong. It suppresses everyone near him and allows him to be revived when he initially dies - one of the more unique ults we have right now.
A-Tier
Showstopper could be S-tier, as it's as close to a guaranteed kill as an ability can offer.
Still, you only have one shot and can now be countered by a KAY/O knife. When you combine that with the recent cost increase, it's a solid A-tier ultimate.
Sage's resurrection is nearly an S-tier ult as well, but it's too situational.
Sova has one of the best zoning/stalling ultimate in the game right now - second only to KAY/O.
Rolling Thunder got a recent buff that pushed it into A-tier. It's one of the more versatile options for taking a site or delaying a plant/defuse.
B-Tier
In B-tier, we have the rest of the strong zoning/stalling ults: Orbital Stirke, Viper's Pit, and Lockdown.
All of these ults have their strengths and weaknesses and an argument to choose one over the other.
I've ranked them in order of how powerful I think they are, but I'm not married to the order and could be persuaded into a different one.
Seekers makes the B-tier as an improvement on Cypher's ultimate. It costs one more ultimate point, but reveals player location for a longer time, blinds them if hit, and doesn't require a dead body to cast.
"Give me a corpse!"
C-Tier
Empress is a strong ultimate and can be a round-winner in the right hands, but it's far more generic than any of the others on this list.
Basically, it gives you invisibility when dismissing, a pre-nerf number of orbs, and Brimstone's Stim Beacon effect.
Astra's ult also seems too situational to be ranked higher than C. If used incorrectly, it can do more damage to your team than benefit,
Neural Theft is like a stronger version of Sova's dart. It's very useful in some situations and lackluster in others.
D-Tier
In D-Tier, we have the two information/flanker abilities. From the Shadows might be the weakest ult in the game.
It's expensive, and usually does little more than a well-placed Sova dart - at the risk of your life.
The same can be said for Yoru's ult. Sure, it gives your team a decent amount of information, but so does a good Sova lineup - and for a lot less.
Both of these ults can be used to flank opposing teams or rotate with the bomb, but neither are too efficient at the former function.
So, that's my opinion on the current state of ultimate abilities in Valorant.
Disagree? We'd love to hear your thoughts.
