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With patch 2.03, Reyna received some major changes that essentially changed the Valorant meta gameplay.
Reyna is one of the top-picked Valorant agents. With her meta gameplay, players can dominate the opponent team with the proper use of abilities. Reyna’s Devour and Dismiss abilities allow her to gain back the footing after a battle.
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With patch 2.03, the developers at Riot Games severely nerfed the Devour and Dismissed ability. However, to balance it out, they tweaked the condition for a soul orb drop. These changes essentially cause major changes in meta gameplay.
Valorant players have to be extremely careful and calculative about how they use their abilities. They have to work more with the team rather than dominating throughout.
The Valorant developers explained in the patch notes that the changes were done to balance Reyna and take a step towards her “pub stomp” potentials.
The changes to Reyna and how it affects the Valorant meta gameplay
Reyna is a duelist type agent introduced in Valorant Episode 1 Act 1. She soon rose to the top of fan-favorite agent due to her unique abilities. With her Devour and Dismiss abilities, Reyna can take on multiple opponents sequentially while having the upper hand. However, recent changes have been made so that Reyna’s previous gameplay meta may not be as effective as before.
With the latest patch 2.03, developers at Riot Games have increased the cost of Devour and Dismiss abilities from 100 creds to 200 creds and decreased the charges from 4 to 2. To counterbalance this change, the developers also incorporated the soul orb drop conditions.
After the update, opponents will drop a soul orb if Reyna is hit just before dying. Reyna can essentially get a soul orb even if she didn’t fire the killing shot but hit the opponent at least once.
Due to the changes, Reyna needs to focus on teamwork more than before. She can’t essentially take on an entire squad all by herself.
Valorant players are not particularly happy with the changes. However, it was a necessary change to bring Reyna down and make her equal to other agents. After the patch notes release, Reyna was trending on social media due to her changes.
How can Viper meta become more prominent at the professional level?
Viper has dwindled as one of the agents with the lowest pick rate. Recently a Radiant player broke down Viper’s strengths and weaknesses. Based on the discussion, it was apparent that as an agent, Viper is quite hard to master. However, she has the capability to turn the tide of the match at any moment.
It was also noted that Viper is more commonly picked in maps such as Icebox and Bind by professional players. Viper is extremely useful in maps such as Icebox, with its long paths and the entire structure in general.
The developers at Riot Games have been focusing on controller-type agents recently. The upcoming agent is already confirmed to be a controller type, and both Omen and Brimstone received buffs in recent patches. The developers have also promised to give Viper some buffs in the upcoming patches to help with her pick rate.
With Reyna not being as appealing as she used to be and Viper becoming a more common pick at the pro level, a Viper meta could easily replace the Reyna meta in Valorant.
