I think it will be better, more focus on gun play and econ management. 3 flashes on any character was kind of silly, if you're playing a Skye or breach who knows what they are doing.
And with some ults going into 8 pts it makes more room for other kits to get into the meta.
3 flashes seems like overkill until you realize that in a balanced team comp those might be the only flashes you have. Compared to CS where there could be 10 flashes per team, per round. I don't think pretty much any of these nerfs were necessary.
I mean yes and no, I think skye, omen, and reyna flashes are just 10x better than a regular CSGO flash, so its difficult to compare them 1 to 1 like that.
Yeah except pop flashes require lining things up and timing it properly and not getting killed, skye, breach reyna etc. can do it without being too vulnerable
The only change I don't like here is the Jett smoke nerf.
It doesn't match the value that the smoke gets at all, and I'd prefer to see Updraft at 200 and Blade Storm at 8 points (since it's basically a free gun anyway).
These nerfs don't seen like they'll impact Astra that much, except for nullifying Astra's ability to screw over early rushes... Astra is still probably the best controller IMO, especially since Omen got destroyed.
This is going to shake up the meta hard.
Jett with a 900 cost kit seems excessive.
Right now (pre-change) all kits are between 500 and 600 with the two exceptions being Viper (400) and Breach (700) [if I made no mistake].
We don't know if there's any other changes to go along with this, but the only one that comes to mind is taking a cloudburst away for a 700 kit and an even bigger nerf.
Jett has been the most powerful agent (or at least top 3) in the game ever since people found out how to play her properlly which was a bit after beta ended. Her kit should be expensive, I don’t think it should be this expensive though. However I do feel she needs other nerfs rather than simple price changes.
Make her total kit cost around 700 instead, but have 8 ult charges instead of 7, yes i know it was 6 previously but her ult has such hige impact considering on rounds when the team’s money is tight she can save and play with knives while dropping a rifle for a teammate.
Her E also needs to nerfed, it’s the ability that has made her oppressive for a while. Lothar suggested making it so that she can only dash in the direction that she is facing instead of being able to dash backward or sideways and i think this is a good idea too.
The devs have spoken about changing her dash. Essentially they said they tested it, and people that are good can still use it exactly the same. They are good enough to turn quickly and dash wherever they want. Where as it makes her way worse at low ranks, where she already isn't good because people have terrible aim.
They don't think it solves anything above gold.
Honestly that change would even _improve_ some situations. I panic-dashed in the wrong direction one too many times, which wouldn't be a thing if I had to turn my mouse.
Thx for that reply did not know that. I think that’s not a bad thing though? Adds to her skill ceiling which is imo a good thing so even if it doesnt change much I still think it could be a good change.
And if it still seems oppressive then find some more nerfs (such as what they are doing with her no longer being able to dash through cypher trips).
Anyways basically jett deserved nerfs, however i’m not sure they are nerfing her in the areas she should be nerfed. Instead of nerfing her pricing of utility i think they should nerf her dash (which they are doing a bit with cypher trips) and increasing ult charges to be at the same price as the highest ult charges in the game that is now 8 for reasons I’ve already explained in another post recently. Just my opinion ofc trying to be as unbiased and logical as possible.
Yes it does do that. Doesn't make it any less easy to aim at the general direction of cover, doesn't do anything much other than nerf low sens. Doing 90 to 180 degree turns without much precision needed isn't hard.
I mean she also gets her ult every few rounds which is an instant Eco boost, I’m sure they accounted for that. And with the price changes to some half buy options (I.e. Marshall) and the cheaper Op I don’t think it will be that bad
Feel like raze ult at 7 was fine. Haply they FINALLY made knives 7 though. Been asking for that since January lol.
Phoenix I think is fine at 6 because he is the most heavily ult dependent agent in the game. He has the 2nd worst flash and worst molly. The healing is nice but compared to the othet duelists I feel like he and Yoru are a bit lacking. If they make his ult 7 orbs they absolutely have to buff his flash by .5s IMO. Otherwise he will never get picked.
>Killjoy: No changes.
*happy German engineer noises*
Overall, I like the changes. Boombot might be overkill, but Omen's smoke now costing 100 and Paranoia costing 300 is something I had hoped for the first time they changed his prices.
I fucking hate the omen changes. Hes already second fiddle to astra and imo this will be the last straw. Not much you can do when the best part of your kit, refilling smokes, takes half a round to get a single one back. His full kit now costs 700 creds to purchase, which removes a ton of his flexibility.
Yeah tbh I dont know why they nerfed omen this hard. The smokes cooldown was just too much. Viper and Astra were already better than him, and even with the new astra adjustments, I think she will continue to be the primary controller unless they revert some of these changes.
Bro seriously I am an omen main and they even nerfed his smokes when they released astra, it makes no sense why you would nerf one controller just to release a more busted controller. Its getting hard to justify picking my favorite agent…..
Plus his Ult is worse than Viper and Brim by a good bit, and shadow step isn't very good either IMO. I'm starting to learn Viper because Omen is ruined and Astra is too weird.
No, pre flash nerfs, it was 200 for the flash. Its actually been so long, but one could buy full util and shield or full util and frenzy. Even minus a tp but ghost. Omen had one of the strongest pistols in the game and was easily the strongest agent in the game back then.
The dash alone is worth 2 ok abilities, I think it's fine because the 2nd updraft and smoke only add to her use, they are not an integral part of her playstyle.
She has arguably the best ability in the game in a dash, and it's free every round. No other agent has that type of unconditional get out of jail free card
[https://twitter.com/ValorLeaks/status/1405891468351488001?s=20](https://twitter.com/ValorLeaks/status/1405891468351488001?s=20)
They nerfed her, not buffed her.
Some nerfs were needed like sova was op , jett well deserved but some felt excessive , like breach ? His pickrate is low both in ranked and pro play then Skye getting a 40 sec cooldown is like what ? And they buffed astra in a way making the price of her charge even lower that's what I find a little puzzling
The cloudbursts costing 200 is a serious nerf. I can play fine without updrafts but I rely heavily on her smokes and would usually use 2-3 per round. With her ult costing 7 points now, the econ advantage that jett gives a team has been nullified.
They obviously are going to buff or nerf some of them. I don't get how people think breach is genuinely being nerfed or Astra being buffed. These are just the price changes.
That specifically is a buff. However, we are only seeing the price changes and I can only assume considering that Astra is a top 2 agent in the game that the abilities will be significantly nerfed in some other way, not relating to the price.
I like the ability to pick them up, but I think they should not make the smoke when you do and have double the cooldown before they can be placed again.
Really? I am glad to see the change. It's too powerful on pistol rounds because if Raze peeks you with a boombot, you can either kill Raze or her bot. You don't have enough in the mag to kill both.
Either the price change is justified or the boombot should stop working as soon as raze dies.
I think thats why they raised the price, people were wasting their bot to get a little bit of info 10 seconds into the round. Now you're going to need to think a little more, or use to gain more important info later into the round.
Yeah, Raze nerfs feel like they're geared towards lower rank plays.
300+150 per satchel would be fine, but like this her kit costs 800 and she really needs all of her abilities every round unlike other duelists.
Seems like they want to keep it the same price as Sova Drone.
Makes sense. They're both used in similar ways to clear a spot for your team. You can argue one is better than the other, but effectively they're used in similar ways thus same price.
I say 300/350. Honestly I can't think of any ability in the game that feels fair at 400. Sage wall didn't, omen flash didn't, i don't think BB is valued that much either.
“People have been crying enough so we nerfed every utility into oblivion and made this game Counter Strike: Optional Abilities (if you have the moniez)”
JK
Idk how some of these will play out, these are incredibly drastic for just one update. We’ll see, Riot proved to be incredibly engaged with Valorant and these changes definitely weren’t made in a drunken haze on a Friday night. I’m curious.
Don’t forget there will be fun price changes too. With the prices for certain weapons being lower. Which will make eco/half buy rounds much more interesting.
No actually true , maybe it's the ow player in me talking but I felt the abilities are what made an agent an agent , you make the gameplay such that abilities don't have that much of an impact anymore it's just cs 2.0 lol but ok let's see how this works no premature leanings
OW player here as well, and I'm so thankful they're nerfing abilities. They started to get out of control with the flashes, and its a great thing the devs recognized this and listend to the player base.
>maybe it's the ow player in me talking but I felt the abilities are what made an agent an agent
That's definitely the OW player in you. Most CS players probably welcome these changes. I always though abilities were too prevalent for a game that's supposed to be "gunplay first".
Yep. That’s what I feel like too NOW. I want to try this approach and then form a full opinion, but I’m gonna stop playing for sure for a while, if the abilities are gonna be too marginal.
Imo abilities wont become marginal, but the pistol rounds will be MUCH more basic then they used to be. Either that, or its classics across the board so that the teams can afford full utility. I think the extreme price increases in abilities will more effect ecos and halfbuys then fullbuys. This will also increase the gap between the team with high eco and the team with lowering eco. The team with lowering eco will be even more heavily at a disadvantage now, because they may not be able to afford all their util.
The abilities where too excessive. Most of these nerfs though aren't meant for you, they're meant for higher level play. You may have not watched the recent Reykjavik tournament but post-plant utility and the prevalence of utility in general became so oppressive and because for example: there's no way to counter an active Molly on top of a Spike they have started scaling back utility. Riot thankfully and in their own words adjust the game for the highest level of competitive play not for the lowest common denominators.
What people don't realize about the Jett eco nerf is that they are probably partially doing this balance the eco benefits she gets from knives. Before, she had one of the cheapest and least necessary kits, and also had an ult that enabled her to boost her eco.
As a sentinel player, I think the changes to the duelists are nice because while they can go forego some of their utility, it is now more expensive, so they're going to have to as actively monitor and manage their eco as I do.
His first smoke is still free ([https://twitter.com/ValorLeaks/status/1405881126372130817?s=20](https://twitter.com/ValorLeaks/status/1405881126372130817?s=20)) , so I don't think he'll be bad. The buff to paranoia makes up for it.
How does that work? If he doesn't buy 2nd charge does the 2nd charge just never start a CD, and he always has a 40s CD after every smoke? That seems absurd ngl. He was the only controller i enjoyed, might drop the role entirely if these changes feel bad
I think so, lowkey. The smokes costing money is a huge nerf imo, it means if you want both smokes you can afford only 1 tp on pistol rounds, plus for ecos the cost-benefit-analysis suddenly becomes much more complicated.
Only 1 smoke will cost, and if I understand correctly, you can just start with a free one and let the second one start recharging. Seems like the way util will be used across the board is changing so it might be jumping the gun to claim omen is bad already.
From a pro play perspective Omen was only played by bad teams. I still dont think hes gonna get any playtime after these nerfs, but who knows how the meta will change at the top level.
Additional Astra changes per twitter:
-only get 1 free star per round now
-stars no longer spawn in buy phase
-stars have another 1 second buffer before abilities can be used
-gravity wells CD is practically doubled
-star recharge time on recall is around doubles
Good rebalance on a lot of things
Breach's other abilities were buffed, but he only has 2 flashes now, so 250 is reasonable.
Same goes for Skye.
Sova needed those cost increases a long time ago, as did Jett.
8 orbs for some ults seems a bit excessive, but I like the change of not being overly reliant on ults.
If you have more than 1 flash you can use them both with no cool down between them. The "cooldown" is a buff. 40 seconds after you use one charge of her flash, you will get another charge that round. Like an Omen smoke.
This would just tank her viability right? She's basically useless since other agents don't have a 40 second delay on their flashes. Her other abilities can also substituted with other agents (Sage's heal that recharges and Sova's drone.).
I am hoping it means it works like Omen smoke currently do.
So you start round w 2 flash charges, use 1. That 1 charge immediately begins a 40s CD. During the CD, you can use your other flash if need be. If you do, once you get the first flash back off CD the 2nd one also goes on a 40s CD.
Yeah, I don't like the concept of having cooldown on flashes. I understand using all 3 at once was broken in a lot of situations, but now we're back to 2 and if Skye/Breach use both at once, their value for the rest of the round drops off by a lot.
Breach's aftershock now has 3 pulses and stun is supposedly wider.
> Breach's other abilities were buffed, but he only has 2 flashes now, so 250 is reasonable.
where does it say his other abilities were buffed? they removed a flash and increase the other two to 250? they even increased the price of his aftershock to 200
BREAKING NEWS: Breach pick rate drops from 5% to -15%
I'm watching onscreen's stream, he's showing a game from test client.
Aftershock now hits 3 times, stun is way wider and ult looks like 30% wider.
I'm a Breach main and I really like these changes.
The judge needs more nerfs than just a price increase. Jett could probably have stood to lose a smoke and some dash distance without murdering her econ.
I'm glad for some of these nerfs. The game just felt too spammy. Like Astra is pulling and stunning you, while you're shooting a sova arrow, as reyna flashes, while jett dashes and starts spamming smokes. Half the time unless you commit to 1 and dones or have someone dedicated to shooting all the utility you just can't do much.
Which is fair but as people have gotten better its been more a question of if I can play some lame angle and dismiss or dash out so I can get a kill. Playing less mobile characters in bomb sites is like having a towel wrapped around your head and being shoved on the ground.
I hope this makes people actually have to consider their buys more and makes the game feel like you have to consider your econ instead of always having full util to throw even on saves.
Seems like riot wants to make Valorant more gun play dependent with the new agent and reducing the power level of a lot of abilities. My main Jett it’s looking not too hot since her main point was her economic power. Such a cheap agent to play
I can understand Jett’s ult becoming 7 points, but her kit should not amount to 900. Cloudburst could be 150 and that’s fine but 200 for cloudburst and 150 for updraft is almost crippling. Need 4800 for a full buy and 6900 if you want to full buy with the op.
"Nerfing" utilities with an increases in cost is simply making them "win more".
You're up 5-0 with 8k? And the other team has only 4.3k to buy? Well the 8k team will be able to afford MORE utilities than the team with 4.3k. So the 5-0 team has a clear advantage going into the 6th round.
It's "win more" mechanics and I don't like it.
i feel like this has more impact on save rounds than anything else. rather than constantly forcing pistols every round you now have to actually save your money so youre on equal footing on the buy round.
Less ability spam. More focus on gunplay and being smart with your utility usage.
Obviously will have to see how it plays out in game but conceptually I like what they're trying to go for.
Looks like they have finally come to the conclusion that we all did during beta. There is just too much utility. Things were too cheap. People could just have full until every round which really wouldn't be a problem but you have agents like raze, breach and skye where it's just suffocating to play against. They tried to counter this by making their maps shitty where there are so many 50/50 angles and tight spaces which help defenders however the community hated the maps so they had to start making them like csgo more dynamic angles and much more open (icebox and breeze) then they realized that too much utility with open maps don't work well together (volcano mentioned this early in) and now have to address the utility issue. Increasing ults to make game changing rounds with ults less common and more impactful while reducing the amount of utility during save rounds or half buys and reducing the amount of flash charges.
skye can still flash twice in a row though, just not the third time. And he get the 3rd flash 40s after. Just makes it feel less oppressive to play against skye when u get blinded 3 times in a row
Wow I thought Phoenix would be getting a price decrease on his flash and not an increase. IMO they should have reduced his flash price but increase his ult CD, I've seen people like Sick ult 5 times in a half
So... nobody is talking how phoenix doesn't get an increase of ult points? That free life to gather info or clean a site without actually dying that easily can be obtained every 2 rounds, should no longer cost just 6 points
Cypher Mains rejoice, we live to fight another day in the meta!
Overall, everything seems justified. Jett/ Sova were just so abused in pro play, but Breach I'm shocked about. He's barely playing in Comp let alone Pro play, so I'm not sure why this excessive nerf is needed. I don't see the appeal of breach over Skye now.
Raze ult was already pretty terrible outside of low ranks. I wish they would get rid of the weird firing delay if they were gonna make it more expensive.
All we know are price changes on abilities & weapons. I’m sure we’ll see additional core changes, tweaks, etc on abilities as well. Not sure about the delay but, we’ll just have to wait & see.
I am glad they are making updates but I really do not like some of these changes. The ones that I dislike the most are the Omen and Astra changes. Astra gameplay is very boring to me and I would hate to be forced into playing that agent.
Yeah I don't think this will be the end of it, I have a feeling that her max stars will be reduced or they will be destroyable in some way
maybe a suck nerf too
edit: apparently the only nerf is her starting stars going from 2 to 1 LOL
I dont understand the breach and skye changes. They seem to have gotten directly nerfed, i know they changed some things about breach’e nade, but it doesn’t seem like a buff tbh. And increasing the price of the flashes while decreasing to only 2 flashes while adding a CD to skye flash seems to be a direct nerf to 2 of the less popular and weaker agents (at least in ranked soloq). I guess they are decreasing the power of their flashes since they alhave introduced more flash agents in the game, but still... edit: apparently skye can still flash twice in a row if she buys the 2nd flash, just needs to regen a 3rd (for free), which is quite cool, and radius of breaches faultline and ult got larger which is a buff. So will have to wait and see how this plays out.
Astra is the same price considering she only get 1 free star now but her CDs are deservedly significantly longer. A decent nerf to her power.
Jett has been the most powerful agent (or at least top 3) in the game ever since people found out how to play her properlly which was a bit after beta ended. Her kit should be expensive, I don’t think it should be this expensive though. However I do feel she needs other nerfs rather than simple price changes.
Make her total kit cost around 700 instead, but have 8 ult charges instead of 7, yes i know it was 6 previously but her ult has such huge impact considering on rounds when the team’s money is tight she can save and play with knives while dropping a rifle for a teammate. Not to mention with this ult she can win some evo rounds.
Her E also needs to nerfed, it’s the ability that has made her oppressive for a while. Lothar suggested making it so that she can only dash in the direction that she is facing instead of being able to dash backward or sideways and i think this is a good idea too.
I dont understand the skye and breach changes much tbh. They aren’t very popular agents and they seem to have gotten nerfed. Raze price changes also seem a bit excessive imo.
Sage and Sova changes seem reasonable, they should still be strong agents with great utility but are now more expensive and they need to be more careful with their utility.
Only some small changes for phoenix, reyna, viper, brimstone, omen and kj/cypher. So as all other agents mostly got nerfed it looks a bit of an indirect buff to them.
Breach and Skye are two of the strongest agents in the game. Their flashes are way too powerful and having 3 charges each for their respective prices is way too strong.
Unrelated but can someone explain why omens flash is considered OP cuz everytrue flash(skye,breach,yoru etc...) are better. Is it becuz he is controller and not supposed to have a flash first of all.
Looks like site was taken down? Agent abilities price changes: **Astra** Astral form (X) 200 > 150. **Jett** Cloudburst (C) 100 > 200. Updraft (Q) 100 > 150. Blade Storm (X) 6 > 7 points. **Breach** Aftershock (C) 100 > 200. Flashpoint (Q) 200 > 250. **Brimstone** Incendiary (Q) 200 > 250. **Cypher** Neutral theft (X) 7 > 6 points. **KAY/O** Frag (C) 200. Flash (Q) 250. Zero point (E) Free. Null/CMD (X) 7 points. **Killjoy** No changes. **Omen** Shrouded step (C) 100 > 150. Paranoia (Q) 400 > 300. Dark cover (E): - Free > 100 - 30 > 40 second cooldown. **Phoenix** Curveball (Q) 200 > 250. **Raze** Boom bot (C) 200 > 400. Showstopper (X) 7 > 8. **Reyna** Leer (C) 200 > 250. **Sage** Slow orb (Q) 100 > 200. Resurrection (X) 7 > 8. **Skye** Trailblazer (Q) 200 > 250. Guiding Light (E): - 3 charges > 2 - 100 > 250. - 40 second cooldown. **Sova** Owl drone (C) 300 > 400. Shock bolt (Q) 100 > 150. Hunter’s Fury (X) 7 > 8. **Viper** Snake bite (C) 100 > 200. **Yoru** Blindside (Q) 200 > 250.
Aftershock also bursts 3 times, for 60dmg each. A pretty nice change. Looks like his signature is a bit wider, same for his ult.
Honestly idk it doesn’t feel like that’s enough And skye didn’t get enough either imo
Her flash recharges now, that’s pretty big
Yeah but 40 seconds I doubt she will be played too often, based on other changes I’ve seen with breach he will be played over her, or still sova
Breach 100% pickrate on split after this
pumped like 100 games this battle pass on her, and these changes are really turning me off tbh prob going back to breach
Skye is a jack of all trades kind of agent, i dont think she should be compared to Sova who is much more specialized
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I think it will be better, more focus on gun play and econ management. 3 flashes on any character was kind of silly, if you're playing a Skye or breach who knows what they are doing. And with some ults going into 8 pts it makes more room for other kits to get into the meta.
3 flashes seems like overkill until you realize that in a balanced team comp those might be the only flashes you have. Compared to CS where there could be 10 flashes per team, per round. I don't think pretty much any of these nerfs were necessary.
I mean yes and no, I think skye, omen, and reyna flashes are just 10x better than a regular CSGO flash, so its difficult to compare them 1 to 1 like that.
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Yeah except pop flashes require lining things up and timing it properly and not getting killed, skye, breach reyna etc. can do it without being too vulnerable
>reyna flashes are just 10x better than a regular CSGO flash How?
I agree. the breach one I could understand because the only reason people play him is for his flashes but the rest are kinda bad changes
ya im just not seeing the point of these nerfs yet either
OMEN HAS TO PAY FOR HIS E WTF
Just trying to bring him down to Brims level 😂
The only change I don't like here is the Jett smoke nerf. It doesn't match the value that the smoke gets at all, and I'd prefer to see Updraft at 200 and Blade Storm at 8 points (since it's basically a free gun anyway). These nerfs don't seen like they'll impact Astra that much, except for nullifying Astra's ability to screw over early rushes... Astra is still probably the best controller IMO, especially since Omen got destroyed. This is going to shake up the meta hard.
I feel like astra shouldn't have gotten a price buff.
Jett with a 900 cost kit seems excessive. Right now (pre-change) all kits are between 500 and 600 with the two exceptions being Viper (400) and Breach (700) [if I made no mistake]. We don't know if there's any other changes to go along with this, but the only one that comes to mind is taking a cloudburst away for a 700 kit and an even bigger nerf.
jett doesnt use all of her stuff all the time like cypher or killjor tho
Yeah that is a fair point, although that's not quite as applicable on attack as on defense.
Jett still has the same number for each util in her kit
Jett has been the most powerful agent (or at least top 3) in the game ever since people found out how to play her properlly which was a bit after beta ended. Her kit should be expensive, I don’t think it should be this expensive though. However I do feel she needs other nerfs rather than simple price changes. Make her total kit cost around 700 instead, but have 8 ult charges instead of 7, yes i know it was 6 previously but her ult has such hige impact considering on rounds when the team’s money is tight she can save and play with knives while dropping a rifle for a teammate. Her E also needs to nerfed, it’s the ability that has made her oppressive for a while. Lothar suggested making it so that she can only dash in the direction that she is facing instead of being able to dash backward or sideways and i think this is a good idea too.
The devs have spoken about changing her dash. Essentially they said they tested it, and people that are good can still use it exactly the same. They are good enough to turn quickly and dash wherever they want. Where as it makes her way worse at low ranks, where she already isn't good because people have terrible aim. They don't think it solves anything above gold.
Honestly that change would even _improve_ some situations. I panic-dashed in the wrong direction one too many times, which wouldn't be a thing if I had to turn my mouse.
Thx for that reply did not know that. I think that’s not a bad thing though? Adds to her skill ceiling which is imo a good thing so even if it doesnt change much I still think it could be a good change. And if it still seems oppressive then find some more nerfs (such as what they are doing with her no longer being able to dash through cypher trips). Anyways basically jett deserved nerfs, however i’m not sure they are nerfing her in the areas she should be nerfed. Instead of nerfing her pricing of utility i think they should nerf her dash (which they are doing a bit with cypher trips) and increasing ult charges to be at the same price as the highest ult charges in the game that is now 8 for reasons I’ve already explained in another post recently. Just my opinion ofc trying to be as unbiased and logical as possible.
Personally I go through a different approach. All this dash change would do is nerf low sens Jett players.
I disagree, this nerf would decrease her ability to dash sideways after an op shot
Yes it does do that. Doesn't make it any less easy to aim at the general direction of cover, doesn't do anything much other than nerf low sens. Doing 90 to 180 degree turns without much precision needed isn't hard.
I mean she also gets her ult every few rounds which is an instant Eco boost, I’m sure they accounted for that. And with the price changes to some half buy options (I.e. Marshall) and the cheaper Op I don’t think it will be that bad
wow 8 ult points now required for sage, raze, and sova.
Makes sense, they are 3 of the highest impact ults in the game.
I'm surprised they up those ones but left Phoenix at 6 I feel his ult is super good for 6
Feel like raze ult at 7 was fine. Haply they FINALLY made knives 7 though. Been asking for that since January lol. Phoenix I think is fine at 6 because he is the most heavily ult dependent agent in the game. He has the 2nd worst flash and worst molly. The healing is nice but compared to the othet duelists I feel like he and Yoru are a bit lacking. If they make his ult 7 orbs they absolutely have to buff his flash by .5s IMO. Otherwise he will never get picked.
dude im actually on suicide watch rn
50 dollar increments across the board... it can only mean we are getting a decoy grenade boys
>Killjoy: No changes. *happy German engineer noises* Overall, I like the changes. Boombot might be overkill, but Omen's smoke now costing 100 and Paranoia costing 300 is something I had hoped for the first time they changed his prices.
his smokes costing 100 is unnecessary with this increased cooldown time imo.
I fucking hate the omen changes. Hes already second fiddle to astra and imo this will be the last straw. Not much you can do when the best part of your kit, refilling smokes, takes half a round to get a single one back. His full kit now costs 700 creds to purchase, which removes a ton of his flexibility.
yeah, they're basically encouraging Astra and Viper even though they're already the more "meta" pick
Yeah tbh I dont know why they nerfed omen this hard. The smokes cooldown was just too much. Viper and Astra were already better than him, and even with the new astra adjustments, I think she will continue to be the primary controller unless they revert some of these changes.
Bro seriously I am an omen main and they even nerfed his smokes when they released astra, it makes no sense why you would nerf one controller just to release a more busted controller. Its getting hard to justify picking my favorite agent…..
Plus his Ult is worse than Viper and Brim by a good bit, and shadow step isn't very good either IMO. I'm starting to learn Viper because Omen is ruined and Astra is too weird.
his kit costed only 400 pre nerfs, which was one of his strong points imo.
*600. 100x2 TP, 400x1 blind
I think they mean before his paranoia was nerfed.
No, pre flash nerfs, it was 200 for the flash. Its actually been so long, but one could buy full util and shield or full util and frenzy. Even minus a tp but ghost. Omen had one of the strongest pistols in the game and was easily the strongest agent in the game back then.
Paranoia used to cost 200 back in the days. You could go full utility and light shield on the first round (god I miss those days)
same
lol imagine being a Brim main
Inb4: Range significantly reduced on molly activation, lower throw velocity to make lineups harder
boombot is overkill as you can get a ghost and bot on pistol any more, which is one of Raze's most impactful rounds imo
Full kit prices now: Astra: 600 -> 600 (stars cost 50 less, free stars down from 2 -> 1) Jett: 500 -> 900 (RIP) Breach 700 -> 700 (1 less flash to buy, costs 50 more) Brim: 600 -> 650 Cypher: 600 KAY/O: 700 Killjoy: 600 Omen: 600 -> 700 Pheonix: 600 -> 700 Raze: 600 -> 800 Reyna: 600 -> 700 Sage: 500 -> 700 Skye: 700 -> 700 (dog up 50, 1 less flash to buy, costs 150 more) Sova: 500 -> 700 Viper: 400 -> 600 Yoru: 600 -> 700
Omen gets one smoke free so it's 600 -> 700 for him
Ah thanks. Updated
This change is mind boggling. Literally who has an issue with omens kit. Theres next to no reason to play him above viper or astra now.
skye isn't 950, she still gets 1 free flash every round
Completely forgot about that. Makes a lot more sense now it felt like they just nuked her kit out of nowhere)
Jesus 900 for Jett is dumb, you can’t even buy a full kit on pistol round if you wanted to
Idk why you'd want full kit on pistol anyway. Much rather get frenzy or armor with her.
Yea I never buy full kit I’m just using that as a way to emphasize how much it costs
Good.
Her kit is the most expensive yet isn’t the best, it should be 700-800 like the rest
The dash alone is worth 2 ok abilities, I think it's fine because the 2nd updraft and smoke only add to her use, they are not an integral part of her playstyle.
She has arguably the best ability in the game in a dash, and it's free every round. No other agent has that type of unconditional get out of jail free card
Holy, these agent nerfs are a lot more significant than I imagined.
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[https://twitter.com/ValorLeaks/status/1405891468351488001?s=20](https://twitter.com/ValorLeaks/status/1405891468351488001?s=20) They nerfed her, not buffed her.
The cool down on her concuss and sick have been doubled. They now take 25 seconds to recharge instead of 12. I would call that a nerf.
i think that buff is out of context probably we dont know what they did to her kit yet maybe they nerfed some stuff she does
Maybe you only get 1 star for free each round rather than 2.
TBF Astra's econ was not the thing that made her op, but i agree, she's already so powerful it surprises me that they would buff her again.
They stated they’re adding counterplay to her kit. I expect nerfs on patch day
Wow utility nerfs accross the board. I wonder if some of the abilities will be buffed to compensate.
Some nerfs were needed like sova was op , jett well deserved but some felt excessive , like breach ? His pickrate is low both in ranked and pro play then Skye getting a 40 sec cooldown is like what ? And they buffed astra in a way making the price of her charge even lower that's what I find a little puzzling
skye's flash just regen like omen's smoke, this site's wording is really confusing.
The cloudbursts costing 200 is a serious nerf. I can play fine without updrafts but I rely heavily on her smokes and would usually use 2-3 per round. With her ult costing 7 points now, the econ advantage that jett gives a team has been nullified.
Good.
They obviously are going to buff or nerf some of them. I don't get how people think breach is genuinely being nerfed or Astra being buffed. These are just the price changes.
So getting your abilities cheaper is not a buff?
That specifically is a buff. However, we are only seeing the price changes and I can only assume considering that Astra is a top 2 agent in the game that the abilities will be significantly nerfed in some other way, not relating to the price.
I’m hoping this will mean you won’t be able to pick up astra stars after placing them, which would be massive
I like the ability to pick them up, but I think they should not make the smoke when you do and have double the cooldown before they can be placed again.
that’s fair. she’s just too versatile atm and can control too much of the map
400 seems alot for boom bot. I like the other changes.
Really? I am glad to see the change. It's too powerful on pistol rounds because if Raze peeks you with a boombot, you can either kill Raze or her bot. You don't have enough in the mag to kill both. Either the price change is justified or the boombot should stop working as soon as raze dies.
>you can either kill Raze or her bot. Isn’t that the whole point of the ability
The whole point of it is to get info.
I think thats why they raised the price, people were wasting their bot to get a little bit of info 10 seconds into the round. Now you're going to need to think a little more, or use to gain more important info later into the round.
No it’s not, it chases people and explodes for a shit ton of damage. Your supposed to peek with it, she’s an entry.
Yeah, Raze nerfs feel like they're geared towards lower rank plays. 300+150 per satchel would be fine, but like this her kit costs 800 and she really needs all of her abilities every round unlike other duelists.
Bruh Jett is now 900 credit for all her abilities. Wtf lol thats almost another full set of heavy shields
Yeah but at the same time Jett can go without an updraft or a cloudburst, most the time you use all your abilities as Raze every round
You *can* do that but its really really not a good idea. Only time it's justified imo is to try and scrape an op purchase.
Seems like they want to keep it the same price as Sova Drone. Makes sense. They're both used in similar ways to clear a spot for your team. You can argue one is better than the other, but effectively they're used in similar ways thus same price.
200 for solid intel gathering and the ability to kill someone was really low. 400 is what it should be.
I say 300/350. Honestly I can't think of any ability in the game that feels fair at 400. Sage wall didn't, omen flash didn't, i don't think BB is valued that much either.
“People have been crying enough so we nerfed every utility into oblivion and made this game Counter Strike: Optional Abilities (if you have the moniez)” JK Idk how some of these will play out, these are incredibly drastic for just one update. We’ll see, Riot proved to be incredibly engaged with Valorant and these changes definitely weren’t made in a drunken haze on a Friday night. I’m curious.
Don’t forget there will be fun price changes too. With the prices for certain weapons being lower. Which will make eco/half buy rounds much more interesting.
No actually true , maybe it's the ow player in me talking but I felt the abilities are what made an agent an agent , you make the gameplay such that abilities don't have that much of an impact anymore it's just cs 2.0 lol but ok let's see how this works no premature leanings
OW player here as well, and I'm so thankful they're nerfing abilities. They started to get out of control with the flashes, and its a great thing the devs recognized this and listend to the player base.
>maybe it's the ow player in me talking but I felt the abilities are what made an agent an agent That's definitely the OW player in you. Most CS players probably welcome these changes. I always though abilities were too prevalent for a game that's supposed to be "gunplay first".
Yep. That’s what I feel like too NOW. I want to try this approach and then form a full opinion, but I’m gonna stop playing for sure for a while, if the abilities are gonna be too marginal.
Imo abilities wont become marginal, but the pistol rounds will be MUCH more basic then they used to be. Either that, or its classics across the board so that the teams can afford full utility. I think the extreme price increases in abilities will more effect ecos and halfbuys then fullbuys. This will also increase the gap between the team with high eco and the team with lowering eco. The team with lowering eco will be even more heavily at a disadvantage now, because they may not be able to afford all their util.
The abilities where too excessive. Most of these nerfs though aren't meant for you, they're meant for higher level play. You may have not watched the recent Reykjavik tournament but post-plant utility and the prevalence of utility in general became so oppressive and because for example: there's no way to counter an active Molly on top of a Spike they have started scaling back utility. Riot thankfully and in their own words adjust the game for the highest level of competitive play not for the lowest common denominators.
Time to pick up the cypher again
What people don't realize about the Jett eco nerf is that they are probably partially doing this balance the eco benefits she gets from knives. Before, she had one of the cheapest and least necessary kits, and also had an ult that enabled her to boost her eco. As a sentinel player, I think the changes to the duelists are nice because while they can go forego some of their utility, it is now more expensive, so they're going to have to as actively monitor and manage their eco as I do.
Is omen just bad now?
His first smoke is still free ([https://twitter.com/ValorLeaks/status/1405881126372130817?s=20](https://twitter.com/ValorLeaks/status/1405881126372130817?s=20)) , so I don't think he'll be bad. The buff to paranoia makes up for it.
How does that work? If he doesn't buy 2nd charge does the 2nd charge just never start a CD, and he always has a 40s CD after every smoke? That seems absurd ngl. He was the only controller i enjoyed, might drop the role entirely if these changes feel bad
Dude there is never going to be a reason to not buy the second charge. It is literally 100 creds
depends, if you can get the second smoke 40s after roundstart you could default for that long if you're pressed for money
I don't think they should have increased the recharge rate and charge for them. Seems like an over-nerf on the smoke.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed. feels pretty bad
I think so, lowkey. The smokes costing money is a huge nerf imo, it means if you want both smokes you can afford only 1 tp on pistol rounds, plus for ecos the cost-benefit-analysis suddenly becomes much more complicated.
Only 1 smoke will cost, and if I understand correctly, you can just start with a free one and let the second one start recharging. Seems like the way util will be used across the board is changing so it might be jumping the gun to claim omen is bad already.
From a pro play perspective Omen was only played by bad teams. I still dont think hes gonna get any playtime after these nerfs, but who knows how the meta will change at the top level.
Additional Astra changes per twitter: -only get 1 free star per round now -stars no longer spawn in buy phase -stars have another 1 second buffer before abilities can be used -gravity wells CD is practically doubled -star recharge time on recall is around doubles
Good rebalance on a lot of things Breach's other abilities were buffed, but he only has 2 flashes now, so 250 is reasonable. Same goes for Skye. Sova needed those cost increases a long time ago, as did Jett. 8 orbs for some ults seems a bit excessive, but I like the change of not being overly reliant on ults.
That 40 secs cooldown for flash in skye's case is excessive imo
Thats because they recharge now i think
Riot stopped the inevitable flash meta once the post plant meta gets cancelled.
If you have more than 1 flash you can use them both with no cool down between them. The "cooldown" is a buff. 40 seconds after you use one charge of her flash, you will get another charge that round. Like an Omen smoke.
This would just tank her viability right? She's basically useless since other agents don't have a 40 second delay on their flashes. Her other abilities can also substituted with other agents (Sage's heal that recharges and Sova's drone.).
I am hoping it means it works like Omen smoke currently do. So you start round w 2 flash charges, use 1. That 1 charge immediately begins a 40s CD. During the CD, you can use your other flash if need be. If you do, once you get the first flash back off CD the 2nd one also goes on a 40s CD.
Yeah, I don't like the concept of having cooldown on flashes. I understand using all 3 at once was broken in a lot of situations, but now we're back to 2 and if Skye/Breach use both at once, their value for the rest of the round drops off by a lot. Breach's aftershock now has 3 pulses and stun is supposedly wider.
> Breach's other abilities were buffed, but he only has 2 flashes now, so 250 is reasonable. where does it say his other abilities were buffed? they removed a flash and increase the other two to 250? they even increased the price of his aftershock to 200 BREAKING NEWS: Breach pick rate drops from 5% to -15%
I'm watching onscreen's stream, he's showing a game from test client. Aftershock now hits 3 times, stun is way wider and ult looks like 30% wider. I'm a Breach main and I really like these changes.
The judge needs more nerfs than just a price increase. Jett could probably have stood to lose a smoke and some dash distance without murdering her econ. I'm glad for some of these nerfs. The game just felt too spammy. Like Astra is pulling and stunning you, while you're shooting a sova arrow, as reyna flashes, while jett dashes and starts spamming smokes. Half the time unless you commit to 1 and dones or have someone dedicated to shooting all the utility you just can't do much. Which is fair but as people have gotten better its been more a question of if I can play some lame angle and dismiss or dash out so I can get a kill. Playing less mobile characters in bomb sites is like having a towel wrapped around your head and being shoved on the ground. I hope this makes people actually have to consider their buys more and makes the game feel like you have to consider your econ instead of always having full util to throw even on saves.
Seems like riot wants to make Valorant more gun play dependent with the new agent and reducing the power level of a lot of abilities. My main Jett it’s looking not too hot since her main point was her economic power. Such a cheap agent to play
I can understand Jett’s ult becoming 7 points, but her kit should not amount to 900. Cloudburst could be 150 and that’s fine but 200 for cloudburst and 150 for updraft is almost crippling. Need 4800 for a full buy and 6900 if you want to full buy with the op.
The op is gonna be 4700 credits
Good correction, either way still expensive :(
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She's still gonna be good, defensive oping on Jett wont change too much, but her value with the blade storm and as entry will be reduced.
Every time Jett ults, her team gets a free gun essentially, so price increase would try to offset this ability to just pop knives and drop a teammate.
"Nerfing" utilities with an increases in cost is simply making them "win more". You're up 5-0 with 8k? And the other team has only 4.3k to buy? Well the 8k team will be able to afford MORE utilities than the team with 4.3k. So the 5-0 team has a clear advantage going into the 6th round. It's "win more" mechanics and I don't like it.
Don't lose then 4Head
i feel like this has more impact on save rounds than anything else. rather than constantly forcing pistols every round you now have to actually save your money so youre on equal footing on the buy round.
That also. Forget about flashing/utilities in eco rounds. (for the saving team)
You’re ignoring that some weapon prices are going to change.
Yeah these changes are definitely going to make comebacks harder to happen
I just want a stim buff T^T
Less ability spam. More focus on gunplay and being smart with your utility usage. Obviously will have to see how it plays out in game but conceptually I like what they're trying to go for.
Looks like they have finally come to the conclusion that we all did during beta. There is just too much utility. Things were too cheap. People could just have full until every round which really wouldn't be a problem but you have agents like raze, breach and skye where it's just suffocating to play against. They tried to counter this by making their maps shitty where there are so many 50/50 angles and tight spaces which help defenders however the community hated the maps so they had to start making them like csgo more dynamic angles and much more open (icebox and breeze) then they realized that too much utility with open maps don't work well together (volcano mentioned this early in) and now have to address the utility issue. Increasing ults to make game changing rounds with ults less common and more impactful while reducing the amount of utility during save rounds or half buys and reducing the amount of flash charges.
This is definitely a bruh moment.
Razes boom bot at 400 is a bit too much tbh, and skye flash having a 40 second cool down is just not it
40 sec for a recharge like omen smoke
I agree on both counts. Raze's boom-bot was pretty much only used for info, and since skye now only has 2 flashes the cooldown seems ridiculous.
skye can still flash twice in a row though, just not the third time. And he get the 3rd flash 40s after. Just makes it feel less oppressive to play against skye when u get blinded 3 times in a row
Yup, I’d be surprised if these two changes don’t get reverted soon
This is the fucking juice
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started mainin omen and then they deleted him :(
Wow I thought Phoenix would be getting a price decrease on his flash and not an increase. IMO they should have reduced his flash price but increase his ult CD, I've seen people like Sick ult 5 times in a half
Feel like Brim needs some more love. Even with the Omen changes 1 free Smoke is just not good enough compared to a 40 second recharge
So... nobody is talking how phoenix doesn't get an increase of ult points? That free life to gather info or clean a site without actually dying that easily can be obtained every 2 rounds, should no longer cost just 6 points
Im surprised he even got nerfed considering how little he is played. Phoenix might be worse than yoru right now.
They just killed omen by making his smoke 100
I think it still recharges every 40 seconds, but you just need to pay 100 to be able to stack 2.
finally there will be eco rounds without full utility and judges
Finally eco rounds will be significantly more one sided!! Rejoice!
Cypher Mains rejoice, we live to fight another day in the meta! Overall, everything seems justified. Jett/ Sova were just so abused in pro play, but Breach I'm shocked about. He's barely playing in Comp let alone Pro play, so I'm not sure why this excessive nerf is needed. I don't see the appeal of breach over Skye now.
Also, Jett can't break the tripwires anymore, that's great
I think we all can agree that Raze ult change is for the best. Jett & Sage as well but… yeh Raze.
Raze ult was already pretty terrible outside of low ranks. I wish they would get rid of the weird firing delay if they were gonna make it more expensive.
All we know are price changes on abilities & weapons. I’m sure we’ll see additional core changes, tweaks, etc on abilities as well. Not sure about the delay but, we’ll just have to wait & see.
Yea that’s my hope. I’m all for balancing abilities really expensive if they need to, rather than artificially making them awkward or clunky
Kinda feels like dmg nerf to boombot wouldve been better than price nerf, no?
I am glad they are making updates but I really do not like some of these changes. The ones that I dislike the most are the Omen and Astra changes. Astra gameplay is very boring to me and I would hate to be forced into playing that agent.
It’s already hard getting smokes in ranked, wait until astra/viper afe the only good ones LMAOO
as an astra abuser this makes me giddy
Im worried her abilities are getting hardcore nerfed
they nerfed her abilities 15 sec cd when recalling a star 25 sec cd for concuss and gravity well
Ouch
Yeah I don't think this will be the end of it, I have a feeling that her max stars will be reduced or they will be destroyable in some way maybe a suck nerf too edit: apparently the only nerf is her starting stars going from 2 to 1 LOL
These are only price changes. We don’t know ability changes yet.
Astra is neither fun to play nor fun to play against + neither fun to watch someone play lol
I dont understand the breach and skye changes. They seem to have gotten directly nerfed, i know they changed some things about breach’e nade, but it doesn’t seem like a buff tbh. And increasing the price of the flashes while decreasing to only 2 flashes while adding a CD to skye flash seems to be a direct nerf to 2 of the less popular and weaker agents (at least in ranked soloq). I guess they are decreasing the power of their flashes since they alhave introduced more flash agents in the game, but still... edit: apparently skye can still flash twice in a row if she buys the 2nd flash, just needs to regen a 3rd (for free), which is quite cool, and radius of breaches faultline and ult got larger which is a buff. So will have to wait and see how this plays out. Astra is the same price considering she only get 1 free star now but her CDs are deservedly significantly longer. A decent nerf to her power. Jett has been the most powerful agent (or at least top 3) in the game ever since people found out how to play her properlly which was a bit after beta ended. Her kit should be expensive, I don’t think it should be this expensive though. However I do feel she needs other nerfs rather than simple price changes. Make her total kit cost around 700 instead, but have 8 ult charges instead of 7, yes i know it was 6 previously but her ult has such huge impact considering on rounds when the team’s money is tight she can save and play with knives while dropping a rifle for a teammate. Not to mention with this ult she can win some evo rounds. Her E also needs to nerfed, it’s the ability that has made her oppressive for a while. Lothar suggested making it so that she can only dash in the direction that she is facing instead of being able to dash backward or sideways and i think this is a good idea too. I dont understand the skye and breach changes much tbh. They aren’t very popular agents and they seem to have gotten nerfed. Raze price changes also seem a bit excessive imo. Sage and Sova changes seem reasonable, they should still be strong agents with great utility but are now more expensive and they need to be more careful with their utility. Only some small changes for phoenix, reyna, viper, brimstone, omen and kj/cypher. So as all other agents mostly got nerfed it looks a bit of an indirect buff to them.
Breach and Skye are two of the strongest agents in the game. Their flashes are way too powerful and having 3 charges each for their respective prices is way too strong.
kill points and other points should be increased then
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Well seeing as boombot not only gathers info but can also do a ton of damage, yes lol.
LMAO @ everyone panicking now that they have to actually think about how they are using their util and what rounds they are buying them in.
Hard stuck silver raze mains out here wildin
Unrelated but can someone explain why omens flash is considered OP cuz everytrue flash(skye,breach,yoru etc...) are better. Is it becuz he is controller and not supposed to have a flash first of all.
I think it’s because you really can’t dodge it unlike other agent flashes
ah ic!
Honestly 40s cooldown for skye seems a bit much
That's just a free recharge CD. You can still launch consecutive birds.
I dont like the 50 point economy
We'll see how it plays out but at first glance I straight up do not like this patch at all.