Valorant’s Jett-Operator meta was honestly getting out of hand as more and more professional teams relied on it because of the minimal amount of counterplay that it offered.
Riot is finally looking to make some changes to the duo by bringing some much-needed nerfs for the Operator.
In the lower ranks of Valorant, the Operator may not be as effective or as overpowering as one might think. However, once we go up the ranked ladder, the sniper is indeed one of the most oppressive weapons in the right hands, especially when used by a decent Jett player.
So the Operator getting a nerf in the next patch comes as good news for the competitive aspect of the game.
Valorant’s Operator is getting a nerf
In an interview with Team Liquid's Lucas 'Mendo' Håkansson, Valorant dev Nick Wu Smith talks in-depth about some of the changes that the Operator will be receiving in the coming patch.
Wu in the interview has suggested:
"It feels more like OP is overperforming in aggressive, offensive use cases. Players have gotten really good at peeking with this weapon, and I think it's overperforming in a way that's getting really frustrating and it feels like there's not a lot you can do about it."
So in terms of changes, the Valorant dev said that the Operator will be receiving the following nerfs:
- Price 4500 to 5000
- Scope Movement Speed 76% to 72%
- Scope Deadzone 30% to 15% movement speed - inaccurate aiming sooner after moving, slowly become accurate after 2.2 seconds.
- Fire Rate 0.75 to 0.6
- Equip Time 0.3s to 0.5s
- Leg Shot 127 dmg to 120 dmg
- Jump Land Accuracy -> slightly longer inaccuracy time after landing from a jump
Apart from the price hike, one of the biggest changes is that the weapon will not output the same amount of damage to every part of the body. The Operator will now have a reduced damage of 120 when shooting legs, thereby improving survivability even with light armor equipped.