Valorant has continued releasing new agents frequently since the inception of the game in 2020. While there were originally only ten agents available on release, the game has now doubled that number with the release of its latest agent Harbor.
Players have been speculating excitedly about what kind of agent Harbor would be, and how his abilities would factor into the gameplay. The official Riot Games announcement describes him in the following way: "Hailing from India's coast, Harbor storms the field wielding ancient technology with dominion over water. He unleashes frothing rapids and crushing waves to shield his allies and pummel those that oppose him." But Valorant players have only begun to puzzle out how best to play Harbor.
Playstyle
Harbor is a controller agent. This means that any player choosing to take on Harbor will be expected to fulfill a certain role within the team. While players are free to choose how they progress in the game, they will always get the most out of their agent by playing in the way that the agent was intended.
The role of a controller is to place down smokes and get their team on-site when attempting to attack. Cutting enemy vision, taking control of areas, and forcing enemies into tight corners is the role of the controller. Harbor is the fifth controller agent introduced in the game, alongside Viper, Brimstone, Omen, and Astra.
High Tide
The E-controlled ability of Harbor is High Tide. Harbor is able to control a wall of water that can hide himself and his teammates from enemy sight as they move in on a location. It also slows any players hit by the wall, which makes it an incredibly useful ability for entering sites as an attacker. Players should use this ability on those occasions or when trying to defuse a spike and needing cover.
High Tide can create a wall directly in front of the player by pressing the fire button with the ability equipped, or a curved wall by holding fire while moving the cursor in the direction that the wall should move. By using alt-fire the player can stop the wall early. Wrapping a curved wall around multiple entrances to a site when defending the spike is an excellent maneuver.
Cove
Harbor’s Q ability is called Cove. Similarly to High Tide, this ability produces water which can be used to shield players and their teammates from enemy vision. However, Cove comes in the form of an orb of water instead of a wall. This should be used on occasions when one particular entrance needs to be blocked from enemy sight.
Cove also has another particularly useful ability, it blocks bullets while the orb is up. This enables players to get themselves and their teammates out of tight corners in which they are trapped or get across open areas where there is little to no cover. Enemies won’t be able to see or shoot players under the cover of Cove.
Cascade
Cascade is another Harbor ability involving water. Cascade is Harbor’s C ability and enables players to send a wave of water through walls to strike enemies and slow them down. While this is both a loud way to enter a site and an excellent way to get out of tight corners, it doesn’t provide a lot of covers, so players should move quickly while using the ability.
The wave can be stopped early by re-firing the ability, this will take enemies by surprise and allow players to hit them suddenly if they and their teammates are prepared. If stopped, Cascade’s wave will stand still and provide some cover. Cascade can slow enemies which makes it incredibly difficult to be prepared to effectively defend a site under attack from a player using Harbor.
Reckoning
Reckoning is the final and most devastating of Harbor’s abilities. His ult-X ability, Reckoning has to be charged by collecting ult points during rounds. When used, it surrounds an area with water and creates “geysers” which concuss enemies standing anywhere in the water periodically.
This makes it incredibly difficult for enemies to be prepared to hold a site against an oncoming Harbor. With his ult, Harbor can clear out a site almost single-handedly as it will be difficult for enemies to beat him in duels while they are constantly stunned by Reckoning. This ult ability should be used for important moments such as entering a site to defuse a bomb or stopping an enemy team from getting on-site to defuse.
Advantages Of Harbor
Lastly, it is important to note the advantages of playing as Harbor. He will likely take an important role as an alternative controller in competitive matches. Viper was a must-use character as a controller for certain maps, while Brimstone has long been considered the best of the controller agents. Harbor will likely make inroads over time toward being at least the second most used controller character.
His advantages come particularly from the curving of the High Tide wall, which no agent except Phoenix can do anything similar to, and the way he can confuse enemies by firing out both Cascade and High Tide in quick succession. This will make it easy to completely disorientate any enemies on a particular site. Harbor, used with other agents such as Yoru, can absolutely destroy a site filled with enemies.