Leave Neon nerfs, Valorant community call this patch 9.11 feature a "gamechanger"

Players took to the r/VALORANT subreddit after the release of Valorant patch 9.11 to discuss the changes. While the Neon nerfs are a major aspect of this update, players seemed to be equally concerned with the new ping system. Riot Games has overhauled how pinging works in Valorant, potentially changing how the game will be played going forward.

The Valorant ping system change is so drastic that players are calling it a "gamechanger" even before its incorporation into the game. User Artyy14 pointed out that it was a relief to them that players could no longer sit behind smokes and spam during afterplant scenarios. They said:

“The ping system is a gamechanger. No more 3 ppl playing afterplant behind the smoke. Thank god i hate this playstyle so much. It hurts that people just leave the site after the plant instead of defending it.”

Even though many players are complaining about the new ping system, some were pretty positive about it. u/Otherwise_Procedure3 commented on how the game would be more tactical now instead of just point-and-shoot. They replied:

“Yeah it makes the game just a bit more tactical I'd say. Good players will adapt quickly”

User interfaceTexture3i25 also joined in on the positive side explaining that this was a good update since the pings were not necessary as you could already see the locations and spike on the minimap.

Comment byu/celz9 from discussion inVALORANT

On the other side, u/still_biased complained that since most of their ranked teammates hesitated to use voice comms, this update would essentially worsen the gameplay experience as it was taking away another method of communication. They said:

“Don’t use mic and many of my comp games people don’t use voice comms. Just another way for Val to be anti-player.”

Finally, a u/Cedar_Wood_State said that they thought players were only complaining since they were already accustomed to a particular style of gameplay. They further went on to add that if the changes were made in reverse order, the community would still be complaining.

Comment byu/celz9 from discussion inVALORANT

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What is the new ping system in Valorant?

Changes coming with Valorant patch 9.11 (Image via Riot Games)

The new ping system in the game brings two major changes. They are:

• Smokes now block in-world pings from traveling through them and instead land on the smoke.
• Pings made on the map no longer appear in the world and are only displayed on the minimap.

These changes are pretty drastic as they take away the ability to ping the spike in afterplant situations. This is set to change how the game has been played since the title's inception and potentially bring more innovation to Riot's tactical FPS.