With the VALORANT patch 1.07, Riot Games finally addressed players’ complaints about how overpowered the shotguns are in the game.
Since VALORANT is a tactical shooter, there is a huge penalty if players try to shoot while moving. However, as the game has some hero shooter elements mixed in, agents like Jett can just cause havoc as she can just dash into the player’s face on a whim and use shotguns like the Judge or Shorty to easily win that 1v1.
After many player complaints, seems like Riot Games is finally nerfing the shotguns in the game. While in the previous small patch Riot did nerf the shotguns in the air, in patch 1.07 Riot decided to reduce the aim punch of all the shotguns.
Basically, all the shotguns in the game like Judge and Shorty won’t be as impactful beyond 10 meters. Furthermore, they even reduced the damage and increased the price in some cases to balance these shotguns in the game.
VALORANT patch 1.07 weapon:
All shotguns aimpunch update
- When getting headshot by a shotgun, the aimpunch will be lower than all the other weapons
All shotguns tagging tuned for targets beyond 10 meters
- Hitting an enemy past 10 meters will apply a different tagging value to them instead of the standard tagging
- New tagging: 30% slow for .5s on a smooth curve going back to normal speed
- The goal of these changes is to improve the feel of playing against shotguns and to ensure that they don’t end up doing odd things. For example, tagging or aimpunching people from longer than expected ranges and then a teammate ends up killing someone who’s debuffed, or makes it hard to fight back against a weapon that should be deadly up close but fairly non-threatening outside its effective range.)
Shorty nerf
- 1st falloff range reduced from 9m >>> 7m
- Updated headshot multiplier from 3x >>> 2x (now the same as Judge and Bucky)
- Our goal here is to make Shorty users work a little harder for the kills they get by requiring them to be a tad closer to their target.
Judge Nerf
- Price increased from 1500 >>> 1600
- Desire here is to see if giving the Judge a little hit—paired with the other shotgun changes—moves the needle when playing against this gun. We’ll continue to monitor and make other changes if necessary
Vandal got some buffs:
Vandal buff
- Increased firing rate from 9.25 >>> 9.75
- Increased damage from 39 >>> 40
While all the shotguns in the game got some much deserved nerf, Vandal for the first time received some much-needed buff with an increased firing rate and damage. Since the official launch, it was obvious that Phantom was just outperforming Vandal in almost every metric.
- More Related: Riot Games explains why footsteps in VALORANT sometimes feel closer than they actually are
Even in professional play, Vandal was almost non-existent. So, in order to close the disparity between the Phantom and the Vandal, Riot decided to buff the Vandal. “Goal is to bring the Vandal in closer competition with the Phantom. We believe these weapons aren’t that far off in competition and hope these changes will do that“, Riot Games on why they buffed the Vandal.
