Valorant Episode 4 Act 1: Does Neon Have What It Takes To Be the Next Meta Duelist?

After a long wait for Valorant fans, Episode 4 Act 1: Disruption is finally out with some new tweaks to the popular competitive FPS title. Just like previous Acts, the game has a new Battle Pass along with a plethora of changes to its many weapons and maps.

However, the big news of Episode 4 Act 1 revolves around the game’s latest Agent in the Manila-based Neon. The new duelist has a set of shockingly cool electric abilities, and fans received their first look at it when Riot Games revealed the character with a trailer titled ‘Spark’.

After a week of waiting for fans, the Agent has finally dropped with Episode 4 Act 1, and players are already getting some reps with the Agent and her new set of abilities as well.

The duelist class in Valorant has some great choices, with Jett being a class above the rest. However, does Neon have the tools to overtake Jett as the meta duelist in Episode 4 Act 1?

Well, to start off, the Agent has got a pretty impressive set of abilities to play with. For 200 credits, players can purchase the Fast Lane, which works similarly to Phoenix’s Blaze. While Blaze only creates a single wall, Fast Lane provides two walls that players can walk between and gain solid positioning.

Fans may believe that this makes the Fast Lane a better choice than Blaze. However, unlike Blaze, Neon can’t curve the two walls of Fast Lane, which makes the Blaze still usable in certain scenarios.

For 200 credits each, Neon players can also purchase two Relay Bolts, which provides a concussive blast. Unlike regular grenades, the Relay Bolts can detonate on two surfaces that it makes contact with. This helps fans to cover a lot of ground on a single bolt.

Along with that, the High Gear ability of Neon allows players to sprint considerably quicker than running with a knife. They can even slide with Neon by right-clicking, and it works similarly to Jett’s dash. This ability is free of cost; however, it has an energy bar just like Viper’s abilities. Plus, the slide charge resets after two kills.

While the Sprint & Slide combo should help players out a lot, it also comes with some limitations as well, which includes not being able to cancel the slides. This prevents players from jumping during the animation to gain easy peeks.

Finally, with Overdrive, Neon shifts into high gear as players will have access to the deadly lightning bolts she shoots out of her fingers. Along with the deadly bolts, her sprint bar also replenishes as well and fans can go on a tear with it.

The bolts are quite powerful, as it hits for 22 damage anywhere on the body. With its fast fire rate, and little to no recoil, fans can gain a lot of quick kills with it easily. The damage dropoff is quite low too, as players can still dish out 20 damage anywhere on the body from a distance.

In the end, it seems like Neon has all the goods to be a great duelist in competitive Valorant. While it has some limitations with abilities like High Gear, fans can still churn out brilliant performances with her.