Hi vlr, today we are obvisouly gonna talk the new agent Waylaw, and I want to give 3 early thougt about her. But before starting a quick reminder of her spell in case you didn’t has read the spell yet :
- Waylay, have one spell that allow you to do 2 dash in a raw
- A spell that allow you to backdash safely if you reactivate it, a little bit like a Pheonix ult with the exception than if you die, you die, you have to reactivate it to actually backdash.
- Her last spell apply in a zone a new debuff named « Hindering » that basically slow everything even your jump speed.
- A finally ultimate also apply Hindering in a large zone, but also give you a mouvement speed buff
First thing I want to say is that : it seems that her backdash ability is an amazing counter to trap sentinels, you can trigger all their abilities and still backdash safely. You gonna say Yoru can do that too, but thats not really true because it takes 0,5 second for Yoru to be safe, and it’s largely enough time to die, and if I understand correctly, for Wayley it’s gonna be the same casting-time as Chamber : 0,1 second before being safe, so it will be more doable in her case than in Yoru’s case.
So yeah : 1st thougt, she counter every trap sentinel, Deadlock, Vyze, Killjoy, maybe a little bit less Cypher because triggerring Cypher trap doesnt destroy them anymore. And she may be the correct answer to doble sentinel composition.
Next we’ve got Operator, i’ve seen people says that she may be a strong operator but i’m not fuly sure of that, for exemple Jett can keep a lign for long and press her dash if she hear something, she will hold the lign during the full process, always ready to kill. If you want to use operator with Waylay backdash, thats mean you can’t keep the lign at the moment you press the button, so basically you have to keep a lign, go back if you hear people, press the button and and retaking your lign, and this sounds a really bad use of the ability. But they are a 2nd way you can operator with Waylay ability, you can use your dobledash to repositionning yourself after an operator shoot, but the feasability will eavily depend on the ekip-time of the spell, and it may be too long to be efficient. If it’s 0.8 second like majority of spell it will be way too long, and you better walk out the lign, then use your dash, kinda as an Omen could do with his teleport.
So 2nd thougt : Waylay is not Jett prime, she may even not be a top agent to play operator. Using the backdah mean you can’t keep a lign the full round and you have to peak on an almost perfect good timing with a weapon that is not really good to take a peak, and using the frontdash mean you will probably have to shoot, then walk out of the lign, then dash, wish is ok but not optimal.
Finally I want to speak about ability that gives Z axis to agent, aka vercitality agent, because it’s an underated subject, among the 10 agent coming from beta, 4 of them have a spell that allow you to play on the Z axis, among thoose 4 agent, you have the most picked controler ever : Omen, and the 2 most used duelist ever Jett and Raze. After beta, Riot has never release an agent that have verticality, except one : Chamber, that just destroyed the meta. And so we arrive today with Waylay that is release and she can indeed play on Z axis. So I’m not saying she will be broken only because she can play on z axis, no it’s obviously not enough to be a good agent, but I think it’s an important point especially for duelist. Duelist are usually not that good in defense, but playing on Z-axis help you to find new position that other agent can’t take, to surprise your opponent.
So 3rd thougt : The fact Waylay can use Z-axis is a good sign of her being good, because verticality ability may be one of the key for a duelist, especially in defense where they have less impact, and you have to compensate it by surpising you opponent, by being in a spot that few agent can access.
So in conclusion maybe I’ll change my mind in 2 weeks, but my early thougt on Waylay is to think she might be strong. Having z-axis spell is a good basis, and being able to rollback if she gets trapped is a good point.
But everything will depend on the answer of the question « How you enter on site with her ? », with only dobledash ? Meaning you will not have your weapon in hand, and no landing smoke like Jett. With only backdash activated, that isnt really a diver spell. Or with both ? but they synergise poorly. We will see in the future. But for now vlr, I’m really curious to have your opinion on her, and I hope we can debate on that subjectin the comment. Byye…
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