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Valorant pros like TenZ and Hazed open up about why Astra’s current kit is not a good fit for the game


Valorant’s latest Agent, Astra, has been quite a hot topic of conversation ever since her release with Episode 2 Act 2, as pros and analysts have endlessly debated on her place in the game’s meta.

When it comes to controllers, Astra does indeed boast one of the most unique sets of skills in the game. In the right hands, the amount of map pressure she can exert is tremendous. However, Astra has a pretty high skill ceiling, and only those players who boast superior map knowledge and game sense can effectively pick her up.

This is one of the reasons why, even though Astra is one of the most overturned Agents in Valorant, people in the solo queue lower ranks hesitate to pick her up.

Recently some of the North American Valorant pros chimed in on the debate and opened up about what makes Astra’s current kit unsuitable for the game.

TSM’s James “hazed” Cobb in a recent tweet shared two primary points as to why he thinks that Astra is bad for the game.

Hazed suggested that she is extremely versatile because of which there is next to no counterplay to what she brings to the table. Moreover, he also felt that:

“She takes away the essence of an FPS. Half of Astra’s round in Astral Form playing a mini-game.”

Even other esports personalities like Tyson “TenZ” Ngo and Jonathan “Elige” Jablonowski talked about how the lack of counterplay makes her incredibly broken in the right hands.

Her orb is incredibly annoying to deal with, and this is something that the pros want Riot to address in future updates.


Valorant’s Astra has no counterplay

When elaborating more on the point, Valorant pro Hazed stated that:

“Obviously, my first point is a matter of game mechanics and imbalances. My second is a much more subjective approach. The abilities should complement the gunplay, but Astra is much the opposite. I will spend 20-30 seconds per round playing Sim City with my orbs. Not very FPS.”

Astra takes away the feel of playing a tactical first-person shooter as it becomes a Valorant mini-game of trying to manage all of her orbs at the same time.

As a solution to the Astra issue, Hazed didn’t feel that there can be an absolute fix to the problem. He said that the Valorant devs:

“Could make her orbs permanent, so you can’t recall them. You COULD make them removable in a way similar to defusing the bomb or capturing an Ult Orb, but it would be silent instead and only take a second to disarm.”

With so many Valorant professionals voicing concerns about how overtuned Astra is, it can be quite safe to assume that Riot might come up with a fix in a future update.

Published 29 Apr 2021, 11:57 IST



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