Riot Games has dropped a new amazing duelist agent in Valorant, Waylay today. Hailing from Thailand, Waylay steals it before your enemies can even blink. With a kit focused on high mobility, aggressive site entry, and a new debuff called Hindering, she’s here to turn up the meta in ways we haven’t seen since Jett and Raze first appeared in the game.
From her ridiculous double dash to an ability that lets her transform into pure light, Waylay is Riot’s answer to the long-standing dominance of movement-heavy duelists. But is she too strong? Will she replace Jett? Or will she have weaknesses that keep her in check? Here are all of Waylay’s abilities, strengths, and how she fits into your ranked games.
Waylay’s Abilities in Valorant
Waylay’s abilities are designed to help her take fights on her own terms. If she’s dashing into a site at light speed or disorienting enemies with her unique debuffs, she tries her best to make defenders miserable. Let’s go ability by ability and see what makes her the power in the fight.
Refract
Ever wished you could teleport out of danger after you commit to an aggressive push? That’s exactly what Refract does. Waylay places a beacon of light on the ground, and at any time, she can reactivate the ability to move back to that location, completely invulnerable while traveling.
Here’s how this ability works:
- Instantly creates a beacon of light at her current location.
- Reactivating it teleports her back to the beacon as a streak of pure light.
- She is completely invulnerable while traveling.
This means Waylay can take risky duels, dash in aggressively, and then yeet herself to safety before things take a bad turn. The best part is that, unlike Jett’s Tailwind, she doesn’t need to pre-activate anything—she can go in guns blazing and then escape safely.
Light Speed
Waylay’s Light Speed ability allows her to dash twice in quick succession, and the first dash has a vertical component, allowing her to take unexpected off-angles.
Here’s how it works:
- Primary fire: Dash forward twice in quick succession.
- Alt fire: Dash once, but still insanely fast.
- Only the first dash allows upward movement.
Light Speed is what makes Waylay such a deadly duelist. With this, she can reposition instantly, close gaps, or even bait out utility before engaging in a fight.
Saturate
Saturate is Waylay’s utility ability, and it introduces the brand-new Hindering debuff. This effect doesn’t only slow movement but also impacts fire rate, reload speed, recoil recovery, and even jump height.
It works as follows:
- Throws a cluster of light that explodes on contact with the ground.
- Any enemy caught in the explosion is Hindered, making them slower in multiple ways.
- Reduces movement speed, fire rate, reload speed, recoil recovery, and even jump height.
Imagine getting hit by this grenade mid-fight. Suddenly, your movement is sluggish, your gun becomes unresponsive, and even trying to jump out of danger is a struggle.
Convergent Paths
Waylay’s ultimate ability, Convergent Paths, turns her into a true battlefield disruptor. She creates a massive expanding beam of light that slows and hinders enemies caught in its path while giving her a massive speed boost.
This ability works as:
- Creates an afterimage of Waylay that projects a beam of light.
- After a brief delay, the beam expands, applying the Hindering debuff to all enemies inside.
- Waylay gets a powerful speed boost, letting her move even faster while her enemies are slowed.
This ability can completely shut down site retakes and force defenders into bad positions. Enemies trapped in the beam will struggle to fight back effectively, while Waylay and her team can move in freely.
How Strong is Waylay?
You might have a question in mind: Is Waylay broken? She definitely has the potential to be meta-defining. She’s the first true “space-taking” duelist added to Valorant since launch, and Riot made sure she has all the tools she needs to be a great success.
Waylay’s Strengths:
- Insane mobility – faster than Jett in most scenarios.
- Refract makes her incredibly safe – she can take risks without throwing her life away.
- Hindering debuff is a nightmare – slowing movement, fire rate and a lot of other things make it very tough for enemies to fight back.
- Great for aggressive entry plays – Light Speed + Refract lets her get in and out with no trouble.
Waylay’s Weaknesses:
- No self-smokes – unlike Jett, she can’t create instant cover for herself.
- Vulnerable after using Refract – once she teleports back, she has no other escape tools.
- Needs a team to follow up – she can make space, but she needs teammates to capitalize on it.
Waylay is a great addition as a new Valorant agent for coordinated teams and aggressive solo plays, but she might struggle in lower ranks where teammates aren’t as quick to react.
