The new Scottish Controller Agent Clove crosses the line between life and death on the Valorant battlefield with aggression and team utility. Hailing from Edinburgh, Clove’s heritage is reflected in their voice lines as their storytelling in-game lines give a glimpse into the character they are. Clove is also an important Agent for representation as they are the first non-binary agent on the roster with they/them pronouns. They represent an important character for those in the LGBTQIA+ community and are as unique as the other agents on the Valorant roster.
Abilities
All of Clove’s abilities have an aggressive edge to them that incentivises them to take duels like a duelist without fear of risk or dying. Their abilities are useful are centred around the concept of life and death and being useful after death or coming back alive. The aggressive edge will have a lot of people playing them recklessly but they have no entry abilities so it’s important to understand the line between aggression and feeding.
Meddle(Q)
- EQUIP a fragment of immortality essence. FIRE to throw the fragment, which erupts after a short delay and temporarily decays all targets caught inside.
Much like Fade’s Seize, Meddle is a powerful combo ability that will give Clove agency in their duels. The decay effect temporarily reduces HP for targets that are hit with the ability. Paired with damaging abilities such as Shock Dart or Raze’s grenade will allow for easy frags. The enemies that are hit will be very weak and a fight against decayed opponents will heavily favour Clove’s teammates. Clove can also swing the area that they have decayed since Meddle has a large area of effect.
It is useful in clearing small spaces and swinging aggressively for favourable 1v1s. Much like the rest of their kit, it gives them a short time window of power against opponents. Much like a duelist Clove will need to either swing or combo this ability to get any value out of it making it either inherently risky or requiring coordination. Someone in the team will need to take the space cleared by this ability for it to be useful.
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— VALORANT (@VALORANT) March 27, 2024
Ruse(E)
- EQUIP to view the battlefield. FIRE to set the locations where Clove’s clouds will settle. ALT FIRE to confirm, launching clouds that block vision in the chosen areas. Clove can use this ability after death.
These are Clove’s smokes and the reason why they are in the controller category. Much like Brimstone, they use a screen to place their smokes but the screen is centred on them so their smokes will be limited by proximity. This also makes them have limited lurk potential and they will have to get relatively closer to stay within proximity of their team to smoke off areas. This means they will likely have less usage on the bigger 3 site maps and will be more useful on maps where Brimstone is still viable such as Bind or Fracture when it’s back in rotation.
The unique part of Ruse is that they can use this ability after death meaning it’s the first agent that can actively select and affect the battlefield after death by channelling their ability. This gives them inherent power that other controllers do not, and can be super useful in tight clutch situations where vision denial can get a plant down or block off an angle an enemy is using to watch the spike. This new capacity to affect the battlefield even after death fits into the character that Valorant have designed and it’s a neat little advantage that their squad has even in skirmish situations at the end of the round.
Clove’s personality shines through with their abilities and voice lines.
Pick Me Up(C)
- INSTANTLY absorb the life force of a fallen enemy that Clove damaged or killed, gaining haste and temporary health.
Much like a Reyna Devour, Clove gains the life force of a fallen enemy for temporary health but with the addition of haste. As an ability it feels stronger than Devour as it doesn’t require Clove to maintain a line of sight to keep healing, rather Clove just heals after channelling their ability. However, it only has one cast but the haste Clove gets is very underrated as it makes them a harder target to hit and gives bonus movement which is always a positive in shooters.
Although it relies on someone on the enemy team dying, irrespective of whether the player plays the Clove aggressively or passively, it should be easier for Clove to use this ability to its full potential compared to Reyna as the optionality of their aggression makes it good in mid to late rounds or as a healing and buffing ability after an initial skirmish.
Clove comes back to life to wreak havoc in the battle.
Not Dead Yet(X)
- After dying, ACTIVATE to resurrect. Once resurrected, Clove must earn a kill or a damaging assist within a set time or they will die.
Clove becomes invincible in a corporal-like form from where they died and returns to the living after a short duration. Then they need an assist or kill quickly to stay alive. While good in skirmish situations, enemies can chase your body after you cast the Ult making it not fully safe. Much like a Phoenix Ultimate, there is risk in the resurrection and running to teammates would be a good idea after channelling the Ultimate. This is also the crux of the aggressive playstyle that Clove can play as it’s a 7-cost Ultimate that can be fairly quickly charged especially if she is on spike planting duty.
Clove never spends too long in their junction between life and death. The longer they spend, the harder it is for them to return. And that's a frightening thought. #BuildTheWorld pic.twitter.com/82DVLstp8x
— VALORANT (@VALORANT) March 25, 2024
Playstyle
It’s important to note that Clove’s playstyle is the antithesis of a lot of other Controllers who have to play their lives to provide utility for the team. Weirdly, Clove encourages those ego peeks, W-keying playstyle and confidence in space-taking through ability advantages. To use their kit to the fullest, it will require players to play a high-risk, high-reward playstyle which is reminiscent of an entry duelist.
This is perhaps why many Duelist mains have taken to playing them on launch, as Clove’s kit encourages them to take 1v1’s, and rewards them greatly for winning these isolated matchups. Many compare them as a hybrid of Reyna and Phoenix with smoke abilities, and the design theory matches many of these characteristics.
Best Synergy Agents
These are the agents when paired with Clove, have the best synergy and have the potential to turn fights favourably. From a meta Duelist to a Recon Initiator, Clove pairs well with an aggressive playstyle.
Raze
Raze’s Paint Shells and Clove’s Meddle are a great combo to take space or get kills without the risk of swinging an area. Much like the combo between Fade and Raze in Seize-Nade, this combo works in a similar pattern but Meddle has a larger AOE effect compared to Seize which makes it a superior combo.
Raze also has post plant utility if she doesn’t use the Satchel, Paint Shells or Boombot which is an underrated feature as Clove has no real Post Plant utility that can force enemies off the spike. Speaking from an attacking perspective, abilities that have post-plant potential cover some of the shortfalls that Clove has in terms of after the has been set.
Raze and Clove can explode onto the site together much like a duel entry due to Clove’s immortality and the range of Raze’s entry makes it so she can attack areas that Clove cannot when hitting sites as Clove has no space-closing abilities. This means that Clove can fight close quarters while Raze can satchel onto the anchor that is either deep in the site or on the defender’s side to fight them when executing a hit.
Raze and Clove can be a hard-hitting duo.
Sova
Sova is interesting as long as he has lineups, the Shock Dart-Meddle combo can be executed from far away which is different from the Paint Shells-Meddle combo which has some inherent risk due to Raze’s nade having less proximity. This cheeky combo can work both on attack and defence and force teams off certain angles when entering or delaying enemy pushes on defence. As a space-taking combo, Sova not having to be there means that the Duelist can take the space that Clove and Sova have provided which makes it both a punishing area control combo and doesn’t have the lag or delay of someone having to move after channelling their abilities.
If Sova’s Recon Bolt catches someone in the open, Clove can also throw Meddle or just swing the angle giving them a favourable exchange. Sova reveals enemies and Clove takes the fight. It’s an underrated combo that works and Clove can resmoke the angle if enemies arrive with reinforcements. In this sense, there is a layer of security as long as Clove wins their duel that duelists cannot provide when they get a 1v1 kill.
As mentioned previously, Sova also has plenty of post-plant utility and space-holding potential in comparison to Clove who has to W-key to get value. Sova being able to be effective while playing conservative angles helps Clove unleash their aggression without fear of the whole of their team dying if the initial push fails.
While Raze and Clove can attack from multiple angles, Sova can have Clove’s back as Clove pushes deep onto the site to look for an engagement. In this sense, Clove can push onto the site without fear of pesky off angles or flanks from within the site from behind.
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