Since many players in the VALORANT community comprising of both professional and casual players unanimously agreed that Bucky’s right-click was just too effective during combat in VALORANT, Riot finally listened.
The VALORANT patch 2.06 was accidentally revealed ahead of the planned release. It addresses some of the pain points that players were complaining about for some time now. Apart from Yoru and Viper, the infamous shotgun Bucky was being way too dominant in all skill buckets.
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Furthermore, some players were just using Bucky to rise through the rank ladder using mobile agents like Jett and Raze. A shotgun isn’t supposed to kill your opponents from a long distance. But that doesn’t matter if you use Bucky’s alternate firing mode that narrows the overall spread of the shotgun pellets than its default firing mode.
This alternative firing mode’s range was tuned a bit too aggressively. And it actually outperformed rifles in distances that were unheard of in the tactical shooter genre. Following many complaints from the community, Riot finally agreed to nerf the Bucky for good.
Bucky Nerfs Patch 2.06
~ Bullet spread decreased (Left-click & Right-click)
Damage Nerfs:
// 0m–8m is 20dmg per pellet
// 8m–12m is 12dmg per pellet
// Beyond 12m is 9dmg per pellet
~ Reduced amount of pellets in a right-click shot from 15 >>> 5
Based on the changes made to Bucky, it seems like Riot has significantly decreased the range at which Bucky can be effective while using its alternative firing mode.
As Bucky was outperforming other weapons in longer distances, the damage reduction per pellet and the reduction in the overall pellet count should work in tandem and eliminate the overwhelming presence of Bucky in all skill buckets.
Read More: VALORANT Patch Notes 2.06: Massive Yoru and Viper Buffs
It will interesting to see how the gameplay loop changes for all those shotgun-only players following this massive Bucky nerf.
