Shroud explains why Omen is “so good” after Valorant buffs

Brad Norton

Valorant’s full release came with a wide array of balance updates including powerful buffs to Omen. These changes have pushed the Controller-type Agent up a tier according to Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek.

Omen comes boasting a rather unique kit in Valorant. While he’s able to obscure the vision of opposing players and block off certain lines of sight, he wasn’t an overly popular pick in the closed beta.

Following a huge set of changes to every ability upon Valorant’s full release, former CSGO pro shroud now believes Omen is among the best Agents in the game.

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Omen’s latest buffs have bumped him up a tier.

“Omen is so good now,” shroud said at the beginning of a June 8 upload. The launch patch introduced a new change that particularly impressed the Mixer streamer: Omen is now able to enter a “phaser world” to more accurately place his smokes.

In doing this, it allows for new combat opportunities, according to shroud. “The fact that you can perfectly see the circle, and how high you can raise it, you can make weird one-way peeks,” he explained.

Smokes slowly drop to the ground after being deployed higher up.

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“You can put the smoke [so] the top of it is at head-level,” he said. The utility will then gradually fall down until it reaches the ground, and “if you time it right” with a perfect peek, your opponents “can’t see anything, but you can see their legs.”

This one-way smoke allows players to push onto a site, or flank with minimal risk. Enemies won’t be able to see beyond the vision-obscuring ability. However, with the perfect timing, you’ll quickly be able to spot them before the smoke drops.

Not only has this particular change improved the Controller, but the numerous adjustments were all majorly positive to shroud. “They buffed the s*** out of him. Omen’s incredible now,” he finished.

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The June 2 release day patch tweaked multiple Agents and fixed a number of crucial bugs to boot. Even shroud was surprised at just how much was crammed into the launch update. 

Despite thinking that the game was rushed out of the gate, the Mixer streamer has changed his tune since Valorant’s full release: “It’s actually crazy how much they fixed. I really didn’t think they were ready for launch but they’ve done a stellar job.” 

About The Author

Brad Norton is the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. He graduated from Swinburne University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and has been working full-time in the field for the past six years at the likes of Gamurs Group and now Dexerto. He loves all things single-player gaming (with Uncharted a personal favorite) but has a history on the competitive side having previously run Oceanic esports org Mindfreak. You can contact Brad at brad.norton@dexerto.com