Riot Games has announced some of the upcoming changes for their newest title, first person shooter Valorant. Future alterations will be made to agents Viper, Sage, Breach and Cypher. Lead character designer for the game, Ryan “Morello” Scott, revealed some of Riot’s plans during a Twitch Q&A session on Friday, August 1.
Valorant is a game of split-second reactions and very fine margins. That means any Valorant changes made in each patch are forensically studied and assessed by professionals and the wider community.
Most fans will be no doubt excited about the teased release of the newest agent, Killjoy. However, balance changes for the rest of the agents in this popular title will still be on people’s minds. So what specific changes are we likely to see, according to Morello?
Valorant changes: “clever nerfs” incoming
During Friday night’s four-hour stream, Morello gave some interesting insights into what the Valorant balance team is currently working on. He revealed that some “sidegrading” changes would be incoming for operator Sage. This suggests neither a direct buff nor nerf, but instead some shifting of power between her abilities. Whether that means less or more healing for one of the game’s most impactful agents is unclear.
Sage’s fellow operator of the Sentinel class, Cypher, is apparently also in Morello’s sightlines. “I think Cypher probably needs something,” he said in response to one viewer’s question about the high prevalence of the operator in competitive and pro play. Although the developer stopped short of prescribing any concrete changes, he promised some “clever nerfs” at some point in the future.
Another mentioned set of changes were some upcoming buffs to Breach. The explosive-themed operator is entirely about creating “potent break in opportunities for his team,” according to Morello. Meaning, you shouldn’t expect any buffs to his pure combat capabilities. Instead, expect to see his wall-busting abilities powered up.
Lastly, in terms of operator changes, Morello also revealed the team is considering additional buffs for Viper right now. She is no longer in the bottom-tier of operators by win or pick rate. However, Morello acknowledged his team hadn’t “moved the needle quite as much as we’d want” with the changes. “We’re putting some more into testing. When we launch those or not, that’s another story,” he finished.
