During the grand finals of VCT Masters: Bangkok, Riot Games unveiled Waylay, the latest agent to join the VALORANT roster. Hailing from Thailand, Waylay dazzles with her prismatic abilities, transforming into light and darting across the battlefield with unmatched speed and precision. Her unique skill set promises to shake up the current meta and offer players new strategic opportunities.
Waylay’s abilities are designed to make her a formidable duelist. With Refract, she can create a beacon of light on the floor and instantly return to it as a mote of pure light, making her invulnerable during the travel. Light Speed allows her to dash forward twice or once with an upward trajectory, providing flexibility in movement. Saturate lets her throw a cluster of light that explodes on contact, hindering enemies with a powerful movement and weapon slow. Finally, Convergent Paths enables her to create an afterimage that projects a beam of light, expanding to hinder other players and granting her a speed boost.
In addition to Waylay, the new season introduces the Cyrax collection, featuring starforged crystal skins for Vandal, Ghost, Guardian, Stinger, and Fanblade melee weapons. The new Battlepass includes items like the Tactibear Flex, Byteshift Ghost, Sloth Tactics Buddy, Doom Wing Phantom, and Heartless Card.
According to June Cuervo, Game Designer at Riot Games, the inspiration behind Waylay’s design was to introduce a “space-taking duelist” similar to Jett and Raze. Cuervo explains, “When designing Waylay’s dash, I wanted to capture the creativity of Raze’s satchel movement and the speed of Jett’s dash. Waylay’s tool for creating safety for herself, Refract, allows her to take risks and play off of her teammates’ utility with confidence after dashing.”
Waylay’s gameplay style is flexible and creative, allowing her to approach sites from unique angles and vantage points. She thrives in coordination with her teammates, making her a valuable asset in team compositions.
Waylay’s introduction is expected to bring a fresh dynamic to the game. While she shares similarities with Jett and Raze, her unique abilities make her suitable for different maps and team strategies. Maps with lots of nooks and crannies, like Icebox and Ascent, are where Waylay excels. She can be played alongside Raze in double duelist compositions or as a solo duelist on maps like Ascent, where strong executes supported by utility are crucial.
Get ready to experience the brilliance of Waylay and the new Cyrax collection in VALORANT’s latest season starting March 5, 2025.
