Ignore the "controller" label. It's holding you back. Harbor is a brilliant blend of controller, initiator, and even a dash of duelist. Because of this, he isn't a one-to-one swap out with other agents and strategies.

Now, he's certainly got controller vibes. All his tech blocks sight lines, but in unique ways. If you try to play him like a simple smoker, though, you're doing it wrong.

High Tide can be sculpted to block off multiple opponent entries or to just cleave site in two. For the initial part of a round it's better than Viper wall given the flexible shape, and after cool down it can be redeployed in a new way for post plant or retake. Or you can use it like a Phoenix or Neon wall, where you or your teammates take space and strafe out for deep, off angle kills. This allows some initiator and even duelist aspects to his play, but it also pairs very well with agents more traditionally in those roles through tagging tech (e.g., Haunt) and pop flashes.

For Cascade, people keep comparing it (negatively) to smokes. Stop trying to put a square peg into a round hole. It's not a smoke. It's as much initiator tech as controller tech. The wave moves at running speed, so you can send it up an entry path to take massive space quickly. This can be used as a bluff, to counter a expected Op or pop flash (e.g., Haven A long, Bind B long), to allow quick repositioning in tense moments, or just to get the team close to a location prior to popping out with teammates' tech. There are, of course, many ways it can serve the same role as a simple smoke, but that's way too narrow a way to think about this unique ability. It's dynamic tech your team can actively play around, not just set-it-and-forget-it tech like a Brim smoke.

Cove: Say it with me -- "Cove. Is. Not. A. Smoke." At least, not a controller smoke. Sure, it's a big sphere. But, I'm surprised by even high-level analysts complaining that Cove is a shitty smoke and complaining that it's too pricey. It's worth every penny. Just don't casually toss it onto a choke point 2 seconds into the round. That's a massive waste.

Cove is a rather large and fast-deploy vision- and bullet-blocking sphere.

Cove changes the game during spike defusal. Oppers holding spike are well countered. Attack-sided players with poor guns can't spam the defuser. An attacker with any gun can't jiggle/tap/jiggle/tap to get the defuser off spike and play for time; they must either commit to a spray (giving the defuser plenty of warning to react appropriately) or they have to push (also plenty of warning from the audio cues). Getting half and repositioning around Cove is in the cards in a wide range of scenarios. If there are two on the defending/defusing team versus one on the attacking team and its down to gun play, spike defusal is basically a lock if Cove is still in play. There's just so much room for creative ideas with Cove in the post-plant phase.

Cove is also a get-out-of-jail-free card after a kill, after getting into a bad corner, or in tense reload moments. This is a much bigger deal than I see it getting credit for. Cove deploys plenty fast enough for these purposes, and you can use it for teammates as well. For self-saves, just tuck, deploy, and get out of there. It allows for many one-and-done angles in the vein of using Chamber's teleport and Reyna's Dismiss, as long as you can tuck after the first kill. This is where a bit of Duelist flavor comes in. And if use the Cove for, say, a reload, you can choose to safely (unspammably) re-engage an opponent from any angle you choose out of the large sphere.

Cove is also so big that it's great for a lurk or dash out. Jett can dash into Cove instead of Jett smoke, and she will be non-spammable in Cove (much better than her own smoke) and will have a larger sphere to play out of.

Is your teammate starting to plant after a rotation and the bad guys are crashing in quicker that you expected? Toss a Cove over the planter, and the spike will land and your teammate will have cover to get out.

It's just such a good piece of tech. Stop thinking of it as just a shitty, breakable smoke!

And think of Harbor as a mix of many roles. Just as Chamber has been embraced as a mix of duelist and sentinel despite his label, with team comps and play strategies evolving given his flexibility, so too should Harbor be used as a flexible mix of several roles, and with a team comp and play strategies that feed off those aspects of his tech. He's novel and effective, and he's super fun if you enjoy the tactical thinking part of the game.

Anyway, my two cents.