Summary
Clove is the sixth Controller agent to be added toValorant, and Riot has provided them a set of incredible abilities, making them directly a part of the game’s meta. To begin, their Pick-Me-Up ability allows the user to absorb the life energy of a dead enemy that they have damaged or killed, granting temporary health and haste.
Besides that, they have the ability to smoke (Ruse), even after dying, making them one of a kind. Their Meddle ability is also quite useful as it temporarily decays all the enemies caught inside it. Finally, the Not Dead Yet ultimate revives Clove, and the player must earn a kill or a damaging assist inside a set duration to remain alive. In the section below are some tips that will help you play as Clove inside Valorant.
7Ensure Proper Communication With Team
You might think that proper communication is an obvious thing that everyone must practice, regardless of the agent they are playing. That remains true, but you should specifically lay a lot of stress on communicationwhile playing Clove inside Valorant. Proper communication is necessary because if you play separately from your team, the post-death abilities will not have a major impact. So, you must ensure that your moves are in tandem with your teammates.
Essentially, after death, Clove’s smokes can only be placed within a specific radius of the agent’s body. If you remain far away from the team, the primary benefit of deploying smokes after death becomes useless. Moreover, if you lack communication, you won’t be able to correctly use Clove’s ultimate as the opponents can easily kill you without proper cover from teammates. As a result, you must be precise with your comms while playing Clove.
6Learning The Basic Meddle Lineups
Meddle is considered by many users in the Valorant community to be an overpowered ability. The decay caused by the same will allow you to straight away one shot the opponent. This could come in handy when your team decides to advance and target a set location on the map.
To use this ability to its full potential, you must learn the basic Meddle lineups to decay the opponents playing the commonly held angles. For example, you’re able to learn the lineup for A site default on Sunset to decay the opponent playing behind the boxes, which can be a tricky angle to clear out.
Two other excellent examples could be knowing the lineup for the back site on Split’s B site or the lineup for the cubby on Breeze’s A site.
5Play Like A Mix Of Duelist And Controller
Although Clove falls under the Controller category, you can play them as a mix of Duelist and Controller. The kit possessed by the agent incentivizes a frontline playstyle compared to traditional Controllers like Brimstone and Omen. As a result, you must help your Duelists with creating space on the map and making entries into the sites.
With the ability to heal yourself like Reyna after damaging or killing an enemy, it wouldn’t matter much if you take significant damage from enemies. In addition, the movement speed boost will be pretty helpful and can provide you with a massive edge while taking duels. Nonetheless, you should remember that you are still a Controller and that the team gets the necessary smokes as they attempt to ambush a site. Failing to provide the same can turn out to be detrimental.
4Learning One-Way Smokes
One-way smokes can be a potent thing to have in your playbook while playing Valorant, and they can give you a crucial advantage over opponents. When employing the one-way smokes on different maps, you need to take into account factors like the map layout, chokepoints, and common enemy paths.
Mastering the art of using the one-way smokes with Clove will enable you to disrupt the enemy movements on the map, gain valuable map control, and also secure advantageous aim engagements. All of this will lead to increased chances of converting the rounds and eventually the entire match.
Some prominent places where you can use one-way smokes while defending would be Mid on Split, and A main on Bind. On the other hand, the one-way smokes on attack wouldn’t be that useful, but you may use them during post-plant situations.
Accordingly, you can head into a custom game and try coming up with creative ways to use the one-way smokes.
3Don’t Give Needless Peeks
One thing everyone recommendswhen using Cloveis to play freely and not be afraid to take the duels. Compared to other Controllers in the game, you don’t have to worry about remaining alive to smoke, which makes their kit very useful if you play aggressively.
However, you must not confuse aggressive gameplay with that of giving needless peeks and dying. Even though the smokes can be used upon dying, they will still leave your team with a player down for the period of the round unless you haveyour ultimate available.
A common problem with novice Cloves is that they easily provide opponents with an unnecessary pick. Thus, don’t give needless peeks and prefer double-peeking the angles with a teammate to get the trades.
2Assist Teammates Even After Dying
The biggest upside of Clove’s smoke is that you don’t have to remain alive to cast the clouds and provide cover for your teammates. This completely changes the game’s meta andhow the controllers are used. With Clove, more and more team compositions will be made using two Controllers.
One Controller will provide the smoke at the initial stage of the round. In the meantime, Clove’s smoke will be saved for the late round once the particular agent dies after providing the team with an entry into the site. Thus, using the agent, you will be able to assist teammates even after dying in a round.
Suppose your teammate ends in a 1 vs. 1 or 1 vs. 2 position, the smokes you can provide after dying can make the clutch possible by giving cover from a tight angle.
1Experiment With Combos Using Meddle
Another thing you could employ while using Clove in Valorant would be to combine the Meddle ability with that of other damage-dealing abilities of your teammates. This can land you a direct free kill without even having to take an aim duel. Although you would require a considerable amount of coordination, performing and executing the combinations successfully will offer your side a significant upper hand during a round.
For instance, you can throw the Meddle combined with Raze’s grenade at A main on Lotus to deal significant damage to the attackers looking to get an early peek. You may also combine these with Breach’s stun to prevent the enemies from escaping easily.
