Riot Games has once again revealed what they have in store for VALORANT players with the upcoming 5.03 patch by deploying those changes on their official PBE servers.
VALORANT is a popular 5v5 tactical shooter from the developers of League of Legends, and within a short amount of time, they have gained a pretty solid foothold in this competitive market. One of their key selling points was their agent balancing.
To test out big changes before they move to the actual servers, Riot Games uses PBE servers to test out new changes similar to how they operate in League of Legends. It turns out that Chamber, a popular agent, is going to be receiving some massive nerfs in the 5.03 PBE patch to make him more balanced in the current roster.
Based on the results from the recent Masters event in Copenhagen, we all can agree that Chamber, in his current state, is outshining his competition dominantly. And to remedy that, the balancing department at Riot is looking to take away some aspects of his power. Almost every part of his kit is receiving a nerf with the upcoming patch 5.03, based on the 5.03 PBE patch notes.
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Aside from Chamber, Neon and Jett will also receive some minor changes that should lessen the impact of their damage-dealing ultimate abilities. Suffices to say that it will be interesting to see how it affects the agent meta in VALORANT.
Full 5.03 PBE Patch Notes
AGENT UPDATES
Chamber
As players in both ranked and pro play have mastered Chamber, his strengths have started to overshadow his weaknesses, making the counterplay to Rendezvous and his arsenal not as effective as we’d hoped. Chamber’s overall power has also felt outsized, and we believe that we can reduce his kit while still keeping him competitive with the rest of the roster.
Rendezvous (E)
- Base Cooldown increased 20s >>> 30s
- Recall Cooldown increased 20s >>> 30s
- Cooldown set to 45s whenever a Rendezvous anchor is destroyed
- Radius Size decreased 21m >>> 15m
Chamber’s Rendezvous is intended to be powerful at holding space, but the generous radius allowed him to take more space than intended. This change should require Chamber to exert more effort to access off-angles.
We hope that a harsher punishment for destroyed Rendezvous anchors, and the reduced radius will demand Chamber mains to be more careful in their use. This change also brings the counterplay of Chamber’s destructible objects more inline with the behavior of other destructible objects in the game.
Trademark (C)
- Slow Duration decreased 9.5 >>> 6s
Tour De Force (X)
- Ultimate Points Required increased 7 >>> 8
- Slow Duration decreased 9.5 >>> 6s
Headhunter (Q)
- Bullet Cost increased 100 >>> 150
It’s important that Headhunter is a powerful sidearm for Chamber but at its current price point Chamber doesn’t have to engage in making difficult economic decisions as meaningfully as other Agents. This should most noticeably impact Chamber’s decision making on pistol rounds and save rounds.
Ability Regional Damage Breakup
We’re adding a breakup of ‘regional damage’ to all of the abilities that affect certain body segments differently—similar to our weapons—so that precision is rewarded (eg., a headshot vs a legshot).
Neon
- Damage per shot reduced 22 >>> 18
- Killzone increased 15m >>> 20m
- Leg shot multiplier reduced 1.0 >>> 0.85
- Headshot multiplier increased 1 >>> 3
Chamber
- Tour De Force (X) leg shot multiplier reduced 1.0 >>> 0.85
Jett
- Bladestorm (X) leg shot multiplier reduced 1.0 >>> 0.85
