What now?

I have a problem.

I REALLY want to get better at Harbor, but:

• There are no serious Harbor pro VODs on YouTube. Every VOD is one of three categories:
  1. playing Harbor for content and/or playing Harbor but not really trying much (e.g. s0m)
  2. playing Harbor because a viewer asks them to but they don't know how to (e.g. nAts)
  3. playing Harbor but because they don't play Harbor much/at all in VCT they're not super good with him or don't have much tech at all (e.g. Boaster)
• No pros are playing much Harbor in ranked, so I can't go to their Twitch VODs for help, either. Here are a few examples:
  • tuyz: 26 Harbor games in the past year (only 12 of which are on maps currently in rotation)
  • valyn: 16 Harbor games in the past year (only 1 of which is on a map currently in rotation)
  • Mazino: 7 Harbor games in the past year (only 4 of which are on maps currently in rotation)
  • f0rsakeN: 17 Harbor games in the past year (only 10 of which are on maps currently in rotation)
  • BerLIN: 8 Harbor games in the past year (only 5 of which are on maps currently in rotation)
  • Aside from s0m, this is literally every tier 1 pro that has at least 300 rounds on Harbor that I've checked, by the way, so it's not as if I'm being selective with who I'm checking
• The only Radiant (or Immo 3 +, for that matter) I can find on YouTube or Twitch who plays Harbor consistently is Ludilue, and...
  1. He's always going for the corners, gibby jumps, boing boing every single times, etc.
  2. He's gotten so bored of playing Harbor he's one literally tricking Deadlock in ranked now

What do I do if I genuinely want to get better at Harbor? I main Harbor, and I have 175 hours on him, but although my util isn't bad by any means, I feel like I've hit my limit when it comes to getting better simply with reps. If anyone has any advice (other than stop playing Harbor, because uh, no) please let me know.

Thank you so much. 🤍

There was some tiktoker with shorty who kept saying boing boing and all that stuff
He had some good plays

Kirya [#2]

There was some tiktoker with shorty who kept saying boing boing and all that stuff
He had some good plays

ludilue

skibiditoiletfanhuge [#3]

ludilue

Ye him

I wouldn’t even bother, harbor is easily the worst agent in the game rn even if he seems fun to you, it’s just so tiring to learn all his util for it to not be that good on most maps as a solo controller anyways

Kirya [#2]

There was some tiktoker with shorty who kept saying boing boing and all that stuff
He had some good plays

He has some pretty good tech, and I learned quite a bit of stuff from his older VODs (entrying with Cove if your duelists aren't willing to, using pockets in his wall to dodge recon/dogs, throwing down his Cove to get out of sticky situations), but around a year ago he stopped trying to play optimally and started going for clips because it was a lot more fun to him (and yeah, it is a lot more fun, but I'm trying to learn how to play Harbor optimally, and Ludilue won't do that for me anymore—his recent map guides are him teaching his cubby tech half the time, and he's playing Deadlock in ranked instead of Harbor now anyway).

Vod review your own gameplay

Respectfully Harbor is not in the meta rn. You could review vods from 2023 nrg vs loud on pearl or the recent chinese games/LEV games for abyss
Really if you want to rank up omen/astra/clove are prob better but if you want to improve ur harbor these are all the suggestions ik :)

Also going to a custom lobby and practice curving ur harbor walls are pretty helpful for me

4rrowlol [#5]

I wouldn’t even bother, harbor is easily the worst agent in the game rn even if he seems fun to you, it’s just so tiring to learn all his util for it to not be that good on most maps as a solo controller anyways

If anyone has any advice (other than stop playing Harbor, because uh, no) please let me know.

Don't get me wrong... I know Harbor isn't meta on most maps. But that doesn't mean he's unplayable—in fact, I find pretty good baseline value with him on every map. It's not that he's bad, per se, it's just that the optimal way to play him either hasn't been discovered yet or isn't very publicly available.

Just dont play harbor problem solved

Nlhso [#7]

Vod review your own gameplay

This is probably the most efficient way for me to develop Harbor on a specific map-by-map basis; I could look at situations where I didn't know how I needed to play, and find out what I need to be doing in that kind of situation. So there is definitely a lot of merit to VOD reviewing.

The problem is... how do I know if what I'm doing myself is the optimal way of doing things? It's like if you come up with a Cypher setup and you run it a bunch of times and it does well, but only because it's not obvious to people at your skill level how to exploit it, so you rank up and all of a sudden your setup isn't doing anything to stop them anymore. The issue is that I'm not good enough at Harbor myself (or the game itself, let's be honest) to be able to dictate whether or not what I'm doing is valid, or whether it's just working because my opponents are stupid.

cloudberry [#6]

He has some pretty good tech, and I learned quite a bit of stuff from his older VODs (entrying with Cove if your duelists aren't willing to, using pockets in his wall to dodge recon/dogs, throwing down his Cove to get out of sticky situations), but around a year ago he stopped trying to play optimally and started going for clips because it was a lot more fun to him (and yeah, it is a lot more fun, but I'm trying to learn how to play Harbor optimally, and Ludilue won't do that for me anymore—his recent map guides are him teaching his cubby tech half the time, and he's playing Deadlock in ranked instead of Harbor now anyway).

This is because you cant do much more with harbor
Everything else is up to your personal skills like game sense mechanics and etc

H3ENnZ [#8]

Respectfully Harbor is not in the meta rn. You could review vods from 2023 nrg vs loud on pearl or the recent chinese games/LEV games for abyss
Really if you want to rank up omen/astra/clove are prob better but if you want to improve ur harbor these are all the suggestions ik :)

Also going to a custom lobby and practice curving ur harbor walls are pretty helpful for me

I didn't think about that, honestly. There's definitely value in looking at actual pro games and seeing what the Harbors are doing. I'll have to look into that, thank you. 👍

Also practicing walls is something I've done before, but not much. I guess it's a good idea to get in the habit of it if I really want to get better at the agent.

cloudberry [#13]

I didn't think about that, honestly. There's definitely value in looking at actual pro games and seeing what the Harbors are doing. I'll have to look into that, thank you. 👍

Also practicing walls is something I've done before, but not much. I guess it's a good idea to get in the habit of it if I really want to get better at the agent.

Good luck my friend may the harbor buff guide you

cloudberry [#11]

This is probably the most efficient way for me to develop Harbor on a specific map-by-map basis; I could look at situations where I didn't know how I needed to play, and find out what I need to be doing in that kind of situation. So there is definitely a lot of merit to VOD reviewing.

The problem is... how do I know if what I'm doing myself is the optimal way of doing things? It's like if you come up with a Cypher setup and you run it a bunch of times and it does well, but only because it's not obvious to people at your skill level how to exploit it, so you rank up and all of a sudden your setup isn't doing anything to stop them anymore. The issue is that I'm not good enough at Harbor myself (or the game itself, let's be honest) to be able to dictate whether or not what I'm doing is valid, or whether it's just working because my opponents are stupid.

Then you make cypher setups. You adapt in the game. You see Sova shocking a trip next round you place it later, misplace it, etc.

Your harbor works in the lower elos then in the higher elos it doesn't work then you try different things

It's all about the experimenting with a gimmick agent like harbor.

Also if you're so worried about being bad at the game you can just work on mechanics only. Lower ranks doesn't need insane util.

hi cloudberry

H3ENnZ [#14]

Good luck my friend may the harbor buff guide you

OH YEAH I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THAT

What do you think they're gonna do? They did say they're taking a while because he needs "larger scope work" so it could be anything, really

CanadaMan [#16]

hi cloudberry

Hi CanadaMan!

5 stack with ur close friends who play valorant, ask them to help in VOD reviewing ur games, and try to change ur playstyle into an adaptive yet unpredictable one

that's the best solution I can give u rn, I'll let u know if I discovered something more efficient

cloudberry [#17]

OH YEAH I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THAT

What do you think they're gonna do? They did say they're taking a while because he needs "larger scope work" so it could be anything, really

Cascade lasts longer
Wall traveling slower and easier to curve
When you walk in the cove u get slower
In the ult you are slowed (Not for ur teammates) and the stun wont stun ur teammates

Dont rly know tbh with these buff harbor still wont be in the meta cause its impossible for him to stall like an agent like astra or viper

tserc [#19]

5 stack with ur close friends who play valorant, ask them to help in VOD reviewing ur games, and try to change ur playstyle into an adaptive yet unpredictable one

that's the best solution I can give u rn, I'll let u know if I discovered something more efficient

Alright, I'll talk to some friends about it. Maybe my Diamond 3 Chamber one trick friend can help me figure something out. You never know