Valorant just released a new agent called Harbor he’s a water bending controller from India. Controllers are arguably one of the most important agents a team can have! Without one you struggle to get on site when attacking and you likely struggle to defend it too. During the first few weeks of a new agent release players struggle to counter this new agent giving you an advantage if you know what you are doing. This is where this how to play harbor article comes in handy!
Let’s clarify what exactly the role of a controller is. A controller also known as a ‘smoker’ has the abilities that allows them to assist their teammates by cutting enemy vision, taking control of an area, and forcing enemies into choke points. This basically means that your role is essentially to create space for your team members to execute their strategy. Making it one of the most crucial roles that a team can have and needs.
How to Unlock Harbor?
You can unlock Harbor like you can any other agent, this is by reaching Tier 5 of his agent contract. There’s two ways to do this you can either buy the contract tiers for 10 euros or do it the good old-fashioned way by gaining XP. It would take you around 10 competitive games to gain enough XP to unlock Harbor. If you wanna speed up the process you can tick off weekly and daily challenges to earn larger amounts of XP. We suggest doing this in a spike rush game if you are short on time.
What are Harbor’s Abilities?
Like every other agent Harbor has a set of four abilities through which they contribute to their team. Having good aim takes you a long way but it isn’t everything! You can easily outplay someone if you know how to use your abilities.
So here are Harbor’s abilities:
- High Tide – You can ‘Equip’ a long water wall. You can place it on the map by pressing the left button. You can also hold the left mouse button and guide the direction of the wall using your crosshair, while bending you can right click to stop the water early. All players will lose visibility on each side of the wall and enemy players that are hit by it will be slowed.
- Cascade – Upon activating this ability, Harbor will send a wall in the direction you’re facing. You can stop it at any point by pressing the ability button again. The wall blocks the enemy’s sight and slows them if it hits any.
- Cove – You equip an orb in your hand when you activate the ability. You can throw it far by left clicking or underhand throw by right clicking. Upon impacting the ground, it creates a giant bubble of water that works as a shield blocking bullets, keep in mind it only blocks bullets meaning utilities like viper’s poison molly or brim’s fire molly can still go through.
- Reckoning – This is Harbor’s ultimate it costs 7 ultimate points. By using it you can create a large water pool in the direction you’re facing, enemy players hit by it are targeted by successive geyser strikes that concuss them. It’s important to mention there’s a small delay between using the ultimate and the players getting struck by the geysers.
So how can this agent give you that extra edge?
Now that you understand all of Harbor’s abilities, we can give you some tips and tricks that are surely going to give you that extra edge when getting in that competitive game of valorant. As you know each agent’s kits work best on some maps better than others and Harbor’s is no different. Pearl is the best map for this agent which is unsurprising considering he was probably developed alongside the new map. Breeze comes in at a close second with Harbor’s long wall being perfect to get on site, followed by Icebox. Now Haven, Bind and Ascent aren’t bad maps for Harbor but it can take you some time to master his walls for these specific maps but when you do they will definitely make it easier to get on site.
How to use the cove ability?
Harbor’s cove ability is the one that makes him the most special! There’s nothing more infuriating than when you die while defusing or planting the spike because your teammates were incapable of covering for you. With this ability you don’t have to rely on anyone. The sphere of shielding water will block the incoming bullets for you. However it doesn’t last forever it can take around 13 vandal or phantom shots before being destroyed but if left untouched it can last for 15 seconds. You can control this by watching the orb’s colour, when the orb has a golden aura it’s still blocking the bullets when the golden part goes away it turns blue for a couple seconds before fully disappearing. You can also use it to peak and take operator shots or to escape quickly if you find yourself in a tricky and challenging situation.
How to use the high tide ability?
When using Harbor’s high tide ability, you should always hold it rather than just pressing. Being able to adjust the wall to each site gives you a huge advantage. You can wall off multiple entry points to a site with one single wall as well as restricting access to popular hiding spots.
All of Harbor’s walls have a slow effect but it only slows enemy players for about one second and it doesn’t really have an impact on the gameplay. Thought it might make enemies question before pushing through it.
What about Harbor’s ultimate?
Now let’s talk about Harbor’s ultimate ability! You would think the concuss effect would be the most overpowered aspect, but players can easily dodge the geysers. The best part about Harbor’s reckoning is that it functions as an ability that reveals the enemy’s location. When you use this ultimate and enter the area, you’ll be able to see where the geysers have spawned. This will tell you exactly where the enemies are within the circle. Though most players will vacate the area not wanting to risk getting hit by the geysers. This making it an excellent option for retakes and executes.
We suggest going in the range and practicing all of Harbor’s abilities before hitting the competitive queue. Surely with some practice and this guide you will be ranking up in no time! Make sure to check out our other Valorant articles!
