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Valorant has been out now for a while. This June, we saw the beginning of Episode 5, which came with various changes and additions. The most notable tweak was in the ranking system, with the introduction of the Ascendant rank.
A new map, Pearl, was also included. Episode 5 has been a breath of fresh air for players, as it also brought several fixes and changes.
Over the years, we have seen many changes concerning Agents. Some saw huge buffs, moving them from being ineffective to being S-tier. On the flip side, we saw many Agents going from the S-tier to the F-tier.
Five most nerfed Agents in Valorant so far
1) Astra
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Astra is a complex Agent and one on the more difficult end of the spectrum to play with in Valorant. One of the best Controllers in the game before Patch 3.0, she saw huge nerfs after the patch.
The cooldown period on her abilities Gravity Well and Nebula increased to 25 seconds from 12 seconds. This doubling affected how the Agent is played.
Astra went from the best Controller and an S-Tier Agent to a mediocre one. She’s certainly not the best Controller now but not the worst either.
Omen, Brim, and Viper have higher pick rates in the Controller spot, which Astra dominated.
2) Jett
One of the best Duelists in Valorant, with the highest pick rate of any other Agent, Jett couldn’t ‘Dash out’ from being nerfed. Several nerfs have been made to the Agent throughout different patches.
Early patches changed the cost of her Updraft (from 100 credits to 150 credits) and Cloudburst (from 100 credits to 200 credits). The cost of her Ultimate went from 6 points to 7.
The following patches saw more nerfs where her Bladestorm right-click no longer recharged her knives, and the cloudburst charges were reduced to 2 from 3. Patch 4.08 nerfed what made Jett a great Duelist, her ‘Dash’ ability.
Upon pressing the Tailwind ability key, Jett now wouldn’t instantly dash but rather after a short delay. It now provides players with a 12-second window to dash.
Although several attempts were made to nerf Jett, she remains one of the best and most fun Agents to play in Valorant.
3) Chamber
Chamber is one of the most fun Sentinels to play with. His ‘Rendezvous’ ability makes him an aggressive Sentinel who can get those early picks for his team, while his ‘Trademark’ ability can hold out the flanking enemies.
Valorant has been nerfing all Sentinel Agents since the beta launch of the game, and Chamber is no exception to this trend.
Chamber’s Ultimate ability, ‘Tour De Force,’ now requires 8 points instead of 7, where slow duration is decreased from 9.5 seconds to 6 seconds. His ‘Head-Hunter’ ability also saw an increase in per bullet cost, going from 100 credits to 150 credits per bullet.
The ‘Trademark’ ability also saw similar nerfs where the slow duration is decreased from 9.5 seconds to 6 seconds.
The ‘Rendezvous’ ability, which allowed Chamber to escape any situation to safety instantly, also saw nerfs. The base cooldown increased from 20 seconds to 30 seconds. The Recall cooldown period rose from 20 seconds to 30 seconds.
The spread of the area from where Chamber can use his ‘Rendezvous’ ability to teleport to safety has been reduced from 21m to 15m. Previous patches reduced the charge of his ‘Trademark’ ability from 2 to 1 as well.
4) Killjoy
Killjoy remained one of the best Sentinels to play with before the nerfs. She could use her utility to hold a site from across the map.
Many users claimed Killjoy to be an overpowered Sentinel during her early days in Valorant. Riot took notice of it, and changes were made.
Her Alarm Bot and Turret now get deactivated if she is more than 40m away from them. The former’s enemy detection range has been decreased from 9m to 7m.
Her Turret was also nerfed. The cooldown after picking up the Alarm Bot and the Turret were increased to 20 seconds. Nevertheless, Killjoy’s Nano swarm ability remains a great way to stop enemy rushes.
5) Cypher
Cypher didn’t escape Valorant’s trend of nerfing Sentinels. Being in the game since it came out, he was one of the first Sentinels to be nerfed. Often deemed one of the best Sentinels in-game by pros, Cypher quickly got nerfed, and in a massive way.
His Tripwire could previously be reused, but after patch 1.11, they no longer remained reusable. Once the said tripwires are deployed, gamers cannot reuse unused trips.
Cypher used to be ‘the Sentinel’ of choice for the teams, but this is no longer the case with Chamber and Killjoy replacing his role.
Valorant has been making changes to Agents to balance them out and has reworked these characters for them to be more viable to the team. Sentinel Agents have seen the most nerfs since the game launched, and the trend continues to date, with Chamber being nerfed in the latest patch 5.03.
Note: This article is subjective and reflects the author’s opinion.
