These Are The Top 5 Most Broken Valorant Agents on Release

Owen Harsono Published 04/08/2026

Riot Games releases new Valorant agents from time to time, and let’s just say some of them were completely broken when they were first released. Of course, Riot quickly took measures and balanced them accordingly, but it was hilarious how insanely strong some of them were when they were first released. Below, we’ll take a look at the top five most broken Valorant agents upon their launch.

#5 Killjoy

Coming in fifth on our list is Killjoy, who was pretty busted in the early days of Valorant. She’s primarily known for her Turrets that help her hold down sites. Well, the problem was that her Turrets applied a 72.5% slow back then. For context, it’s sitting all the way down at 29.5% today.

Image via Riot Games

On top of the Turret slows which made defending sites a breeze, it also activated globally. So, even if Killjoy was on the other side of the map, the Turret would still detect opponents and fire at them. Of course, this is no longer a thing, as Killjoy needs to be within a certain range to keep it on.

Her Turret aside, Killjoy’s utility was also much cheaper, and the damage and impact numbers were also noticeably higher back then.

#4 Astra

Up next, we have Astra, who was the most broken Controller agent when she was released. Her Gravity Well and Nova Pulse only had 12-second cooldowns. To give you an idea of how broken the cooldowns were, Riot has since increased them to double the amount.

Image via Riot Games

The craziest part, though, was her stars activating instantly. There was literally no delay to them at all, meaning you could instantly pull or stun people right after you pressed the button. This gave Astra so much value to the point where professional players would literally come up with strategies to bait out her stars.

Unlike today, Astra was essentially a must-pick in every single map because she provided way too much value for a single agent.

#3 Raze

The reason why Raze was so broken is pretty simple: she started every round with two sets of Paint Shells. On top of having double the Paint Shells she has now, her nades also dealt more damage and had a much larger area of effect.

Image via Riot Games

So, you could literally throw two sets of them on opposite sides and have enemies scatter to find cover – but even that is difficult because of how far the Paint Shells spread.

On top of her signature ability, Satchels were also pretty broken because they had a significantly higher radius, allowing Raze to do a Jett cosplay and zoom from one side of the map to the other.

#2 Jett

Speaking of Jett, she’s the next entry on the list, and she was broken for quite a long time for multiple reasons.

Image via Riot Games

Today, you might know that Jett’s ultimate refreshes after you get a kill, but only if you kill enemies with left-clicks. Back then, you’d also get a new set of knives if you killed opponents with your right-clicks. So, you could literally aim your knives at enemy bodies and just spam right-clicks.

Then, her dash was instant. Once you pressed it, she would immediately dash. There is no activation time limit like the Jett we know today, so she could immediately get out of harm’s way with no downtime at all.

But, there’s even more – she used to have three Cloudburst charges, meaning she had three smokes to use, with each of them lasting 10 seconds. She could pretty much become a Duelist and Controller at the same time.

#1 Chamber

If you thought Jett sounded broken, Chamber one-ups her by quite a bit. First, Chamber had two charges of Trademarks, meaning he could place his trips on two different locations. This gave Chamber and his team an insane amount of map control. Today, you only get one.

Image via Riot Games

Then, his teleporting ability – Rendezvous – had abysmal range. Chamber could teleport from one bomb site to the other, letting him effectively be in two places at once. Of course, it also provided him with a free escape. It was faster and more reliable than Jett’s dash.

To top it all off, his Headhunter and Tour de Force were not balanced. Headhunter bullets only cost 100 credits compared to the 150 now, and his Tour de Force fired as fast as a Marshal, allowing him to get easy kills on multiple targets in quick succession. Oh did we forget to mention? His ultimate only cost seven ultimate points.

At his prime, Chamber was doing three things at once: he was your Sentinel, Operator player, and also a Duelist.

For an alternative listicle, you can explore our list of the best Valorant players to see who is really dominating the esport at the moment.

Feature image credit: Riot Games

Owen Harsono

About Owen Harsono

Owen lives for competition, spending most of his gaming hours on Dota 2, CS2, and Valorant. A regular on the SEA Dota 2 leaderboards, he combines his first-hand experience with a deep passion for esports journalism, following the professional scenes of all three esports betting titles religiously. When he’s not writing, he’s most probably betting on esports and watching the latest events.

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