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How to teleport your way up the ranks with Omen, Valorant’s shifty lurker
Omen takes some time to master, but if you’re committed, they offer some of Valorant’s most unique gameplay while opening up the match for your team in ways few others can. Here’s how to get started.
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Omen is one of the best heroes in the game at controlling the map and, at the moment, is the defacto controller you should be picking to help make space and smoke sites for your team. Always starting with two smokes, you’ll be ready to make plays for your team the second you drop into the pistol round.
Paired with the ability to teleport a short range, Omen can catch off angles, get into unexpected spots,and, with his ultimate, drop behind enemy lines to prepare for a retake. Omen’s kit is versatile and relies on a good mix of game sense and creativity to truly maximize his potential, letting you prowl around like the lurker that you are.
Shrouded step (C ability)
Shrouded step teleports Omen a short distance, leaving an audio cue behind as a tell. Using this, Omen can head to the top of crates and previously checked spots with ease, but don’t let the expected plays limit your creativity with this ability.
While his audio cue tips off enemies, it is also something you can use to toy with the other teams’ heads. One play that is often used with Omen, is to hold a line of sight and, after taking some shots from one angle, teleport to the other side of the lane, reappearing where the enemy isn’t aiming.
Many players will expect this while being close enough to hear it. trip them up by staying on the same sight-line. This takes reading your opponent a little, but you should always use everything to your advantage, audio cues included.
Pairing with smokes is another good tactic. Drop both of your dark covers onto a site or lane, and use Shrouded Step to teleport into one of them. The enemy will have to guess which cloud you’re in, drawing eyes away from your allies. This is another situation where you can fake your shrouded step, and do something completely different. Using this method as a way to push into your smokes, lets you push aggressively and gives you big playmaking potential. It will be up to you to decide on whether you use it to feint or to flank.
Always look for new spots to hang out. Hanging out on top of the tube on Icebox or the top of crates that only Omen and Jett can reach provides angles which players rarely expect to be held. Even if they have their suspicions, it is not the first priority for a player to check, so look for your spots. Look to take advantage of the verticality Valorant offers. While these spots can be riskier, they let you hold spots which players probably won’t check first.
Try going for the quick pick, then disengaging from your angle to a safer spot to keep the enemy guessing. Just remember to change up your spots. Camping the same high angle is only as good for as long as it takes the enemy team to catch on to your antics. Change the areas you hold to keep them guessing, or you’ll find yourself facing down a 5 on 1 with nowhere to go on top of your little crate.
Teleporting with teleporters
We meant it when we said to get creative. On maps with teleporters, you can throw abilities into them to feint like they’ve been used. The only problem is, abilities don’t make the same sound as players.
Here’s where the creativity comes in. Omen can jump and then cast Shrouded Step in MID-AIR. By doing this, Omen can use his momentum to fly through the teleporter, which gives off the authentic sound of a player entering it, before snapping back to where you originally cast it. Just make sure that someone is covering your origin point to make sure it’s clear, or you might just end up dead.
Paranoia (Q ability)
A slow moving flash-type ability, Omen sends out a floating Paranoia that travels in a straight line, nearsighting anyone caught in its radius. Just like the game’s other flashes, it can nearsight your teammates too, so be mindful not to sewer your allies.
Like Breach’s signature, Paranoia can be sent through walls and objects, so it’s a good idea to set up the ability behind cover and let it travel to where you think your target is before you try and fight. It moves slower than you think, so finding the right timing will not happen overnight. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself getting taken out by people you thought you had the drop on.
While you might not always be able to get the most of your Paranoia, you can use it to enable teammates. Sending out the ability so it travels beside your teammate can give them one of the easiest kills in the game thanks to thefree nearsighted enemy left mere feet from your squad.
Dark Cover (E ability)
Omen’s signature ability recharges every 35 seconds and comes fully stocked with two charges at the start of every round. By default, when using dark cover, from now on referred to as smokes, you will have two options in how to deploy them.
The default way opens up a map that Omen can navigate using the mouse, increasing the distance of the smoke by using the LMB and decreasing the range with the RMB. Be mindful when in the map menu while using smokes, as Omen will move if you do and it’s easy for an enemy to sneak up on you if caught in the middle of the ability.
If you want to be more aware of your surroundings, or find yourself in a situation needing to send it out quickly and directly opposite of your line of sight, sending out a quick smoke while on the run can be a great way to close distances on unfavorable positions.
There are many, many spots to put Omen’s smoke which can net you value over the course of a game. Depending on where you plan to push from, Heaven should be a near guarantee for receiving your smokes. In the early rounds it can be good for peace of mind, preventing the odd peek from Heaven. Enemy teams often don’t have enough range to contest from Heaven it in the early going but, once the vandals, guardians and operators introduce themselves, you will be glad for some momentary relief from the shooting gallery.
Similarly, when attacking from one of the long approaches, smoke is the only safe way to approach a point like C on Haven. With two large, view-blocking smokes, Omen can block off the line of sight for someone behind the crate on point as well as whoever is on back site, all with the same smoke. This leaves the other smoke available to cover the garage. Quick smokes like these are very powerful, either drawing out the enemies’ abilities to try and stall where they now know you are pushing, or to force off the smarter players so that your entire team can get an easy bomb plant.
Use your smokes on areas that the enemy must push through to reach you. Look for areas that require them to push through the smoke into the open so that, even if they get a kill, they can still be traded out purely due to the bad position you’ve put them in. Entry points, and spots that force terrible angles for the enemy are always preferred. While this comes in handy on defense more often, it can be invaluable during the post-plant phase.
We’ve covered heaven and talked about those long, punishing lines of sights that we block off first, but there is a hidden option that can be used with smokes.
Ultimate: From the shadows
Omen pulls up the map and can choose any location to teleport to. Once you pick your location, an ethereal body appears where Omen will teleport to before he materializes, giving the other team a chance to destroy his shrouded figure. Omen can cancel it and return from near certain death or materialize after 4 seconds, able to roam about to his heart’s content.
Using his ultimate will give off an audio cue and obscure the map for the duration of the ability. There are great ways to use this to obscure the map for the other team, but it’s more of a bonus effect than something you should be playing around. Use it to counter a Sova who is ulting your team while they plant by blurring the map and making their search for prey boil down to guess work!
Buy strategies
While his abilities are good, the most useful ones come free of charge. Dark cover comes fully stocked at the beginning of each round and, barring any specific plays, you won’t need anything else for the pistol round. Use your extra credits to buy a Frenzy or a light shield if you wish, but it’s not necessary with how good the base pistol currently is.
After round 1, a Stinger and a light shield can keep you ahead of the enemy and there’s no harm in buying more of your abilities at this point. Just don’t try to force them out. Their abilities are not spammable and, more often than not, you will be further ahead holding off on using them if the situation seems foregone.
Once you have enough for the rifles, the choice is yours. While Omen can use an Operator the way Jett can, using highground for early pick offs, he lacks her escape capabilities so avoid ambition if you buy the Op, or it will be an expensive gift for the other team.
Map strategies
Omen is a controller so it goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: Do not entry-frag with him. Paranoia may work as a good pushing tool, but you should be using it to set up your team as much as you are for yourself, the same way a Breach or Skye can rely on their teammates to clean up flash kills.
Where you use your smokes will depend on which point you push or which point of yours is getting pushed. On defense, preemptive smokes on commonly peeked points can give your teammates the time to set up, providing a huge advantage if they engage in a fight. Otherwise, you can quickly drop the smoke on a spot that is being pushed to, hopefully, stem the attackers’ momentum.
Look for spots to use your shrouded step to get the high ground when enemies don’t expect it and, when using your ultimate, vary your spots. As tempting as it is to always go for spawn, sometimes the hidden nooks and crannies around the map will serve you better, offering more cover and being less predictable than the spawn teleport.
Playing behind your duelists and your initiator means that, oftentimes, you will also have bomb responsibility. Being able to control sight lines as you push is a huge benefit when moving on the bomb. Depending on how the first push goes, you can smoke to escape, even using your ultimate to go to the empty site opposite the one your team pursued to support from elsewhere.
Just like with Jett, look at every map for spots to exploit and spots to pounce from.
