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Iso nerfs are coming to Valorant less than a month after the Agent was buffed. Riot Games rolled out a plethora of buffs for the Agent with patch 8.11, giving him his Double Tap shield before even getting a kill and a reset on it upon getting two. A series of changes was announced by Valorant dev @penguinVALORANT on their X handle recently. According to these, Iso will no longer get a Double Tap reset upon getting two frags. Moreover, his Double Tap shield's duration will be reduced from 20 seconds to 12 seconds.
These Iso changes will be available from patch 9.0 onwards. Naturally, the announcement stirred up emotions in the community with Reddit user u/Parenegade saying this about the Agent:
"Dead before the reign could even start."
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One player, u/uzispraydown, compared the Iso nerfs to the Chamber meta before the Agent was nerfed. They believed that it was unfair that the Sentinel got to dominate the game for so long before getting nerfed while the Duelist in question only got his 15 minutes of fame.
Another Redditor, u/moonlitfarewell, noted how the specific Iso nerf with his shield duration was perhaps the wrong choice. They suggested that perhaps nerfing his Orb generation would have been a far better idea since a shorter shield duration is easy to counter.
Many players were upset with the changes, perhaps Iso mains were the most affected. However, for Redditor u/YizusOurSaviour, the changes were fair and quite balanced, stating that the rest of the Agent's kit balances him out.
Interestingly, one user named u/NateyBC diverted attention from Valorant ranked to the actual VCT experience and wanted Riot Games to release the patch quickly. They believed that there was no reason for professional players to play on the buffer version of Iso.
Finally, one Redditor, u/Frameeee, applauded the existing changes but had more changes in mind. They believed nerfing the duration of the shield Iso gains from shooting his orbs should be targeted instead.
How do the Iso changes affect the meta in Valorant?
Riot Games wanted to make changes to the game in a way that Duelists could be played a little differently in team compositions. For instance, buffing Reyna and Neon was meant to improve their pick rate.
The same logic could be applied to Iso, who was also majorly buffed in patch 8.11. The game saw an increase in Iso's pick rate, especially in ranked. Older Duelists, like Jett and Raze, though still popular, found competition from Neon and Iso.
However, with the upcoming nerf, the meta may shift right back to Jett and Raze being most dominant, with a little bit of Neon. The same may be reflected in pro play as well.
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