Back in 2019, when Riot Games announced project A now known as VALORANT they mentioned that in this game “abilities don’t kill”.
However, with the introduction of agents like Raze and Killjoy, players soon realized that it was not entirely true. Even though guns in this game are really effective, some abilities are also very lethal in some cases.
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Since Riot promised players a game where only gunplay matters, many players shared their frustrations with the game when agents like Raze and Killjoy were added to the game. Some abilities were so effective in dealing with players that 100T Hiko a professional VALORANT player eliminated an entire squad without even actually seeing any single enemies on his screen while only using his abilities.
In a recent question and answer session, Morello who is the character Design Lead in VALORANT explained that the original statement that abilities don’t kill in this game is not entirely accurate. As both Raze and Killjoy were already locked before the announcement, the whole “abilities don’t kill” statement is not actually correct in this scenario.
Riot dev apologized for misleading players:
According to Morello, it was not their intention to mislead players into believing that abilities do not kill in this game. Even though it was not their original intention, plenty of players who love the tactical shooter genre flocked to this game after hearing this exact point. Later he apologized for unintentionally misleading players into believing that abilities don’t kill in this game.
f this promise (abilities never kill) was the thing that made you come to try VALORANT, we’re sorry if we misled you, even unintentionally. But our position is, and has been, that abilities that deal damage are a core part of tactical games—whether it be VALORANT or other tac shooters. We can unpack this topic more in the future if you’re interested!
Ryan “Morello” Scott, Character Design LeadApparently the main role of these abilities was there to create threats and giving players more tactical opportunities. “Guns should be the primary method used to finish off opponents that are preoccupied with a distraction, or trying to avoid the damage“, Morello on why abilities only provide distraction in this game.
Additionally, Morello claimed that in some cases where some abilities are getting more eliminations than they should. In that case, they are now actively trying to fix those parts of the gameplay with upcoming balance patches.
