Valorant Episode 3 Skye nerfs can actually be a major buff for the Initiator

Valorant's upcoming patch 3.0 is bringing a lot of changes to the game overall. These changes will drastically change the meta by nerfing agents and changing how the economy works in the game.

Agent balancing plays an important part in competitive games, including Valorant. Developers spend hours making improvements in order to achieve perfection and maintain everything to keep the game running. This is something that every competitive game developer keeps in mind in order to keep players satisfied.

It is well known by now that Riot has decided to increase utility prices and decrease weapon prices. The decision will undoubtedly make a big impact on the game when the patch hits the live server this Tuesday.

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The changes made to Skye in Valorant

Valorant has made several changes before bringing the next update to their players. Some of them are visible, and some are hidden away. One of them was the tweak made to Skye, which makes her quite a threat to this balance.

Skye Changes | #VALORANT pic.twitter.com/GFHMZCNxij

— Mike - Valorant Leaks & Info (@ValorLeaks) June 18, 2021

Skye’s utility prices have increased by 50 credits each, making Trailblazer 250 credits (originally 200) and Guiding Light 150 (originally 100). Not only that, Skye can now carry two Guiding Light charges, which originally had a three charges limit. All of these things surely look like a nerf when shown on paper. But that's certainly not the case in this situation.

G2 Lothar, aka Jakub Szygulshi, had a tweet recently showing Skye’s hidden changes that can make Skye more aggressive than she used to be.

Why do I think Skye actually got an insane buff in the Ep3 patch pic.twitter.com/bwwGcbf404

— G2 Lothar (@LotharHS) June 19, 2021

As seen from the clip, this hidden change is not quite noticeable when looked upon at first glance. But if investigated closely, the animation, which Skye made before popping her flashes, is gone. This is similar to Viper’s Toxic Screen ability, which can be activated with no extra animation. Allowing her to use her charges without interruptions.

Skye's pop animation (Image via Riot)

Earlier, this pop animation caused hiccups during a gunfight when activated. The removal of this animation allows Skye to use her flashes on command without limiting her from using weapons temporarily.

However, it is yet to be seen if this small change will make a bigger impact than intended. Till then, Skye’s nerf will surely be a prominent change in the next patch of Valorant.