- Chamber will be hit with yet another wave of nerfs
- Fade will also be tweaked because she is “overperforming” in certain roles
- Riot will also try to make Cypher a more viable pick with upcoming patches
Riot plans big changes for VALORANT’s top two picked agents, as well as its least-picked character.
Nerfs and Buffs Are Incoming
When you have a hero-based game, with many different abilities and playstyles, it’s often difficult to balance things out. Often, no matter how much time and effort game devs spend on creating mechanics for a new character and making sure they work well within the game’s context, problems still rise up when said character is finally released and played en masse.
This seems to be the case for VALORANT’s Chamber. In a recent State of the Agents blog post, developer Riot Games announced that there are big nerfs coming to the character. “Although we’ve shipped some incremental Chamber updates to address this, the results in competitive and watching Champions show there is still work to be done here and will continue to be a focus for us moving forward,” the post reads.
Riot also explained that significant changes will be coming to Fade and Cypher. Fade was released in April this year and within just a few months, she has become the second most popular agent at Champions with a 54,29% pick rate. On the other end of the spectrum, with just a 6,92% pick rate, Cypher is at the bottom, necessitating a rework to make him more viable.
What Would These Changes Look Like?
Ever since his release in November last year, Chamber has been one of VALORANT’s most popular agents, not least because of his many powerful abilities. Chamber was even named the most popular agent at VALORANT Champions, according to RunItBack.gg, with a pick rate of over 69%.
This has, however, generated complaints from the broader VALORANT community, which states he is too overpowered. Riot has responded with a series of nerfs in Patch 5.03, where his Trademark, Rendezvous, Tour De Force, and Headhunter were changed. Although the company has not explained in detail what the nerfs will be, let’s hope Chamber will not need any more such interventions.
Fade is the second most picked agent at Champions, and Riot has nerf plans for her as well. Although she doesn’t need as many changes, Riot still says that “there are areas—like clearing spaces—where she’s potentially overperforming, so we’ll explore potential tunings to her utility.”
Finally, Riot is “looking closely at Cypher to figure out what updates he might need to find his proper spot on the Sentinel roster.”
