Riot Games’ ban hammer hits Chamber hard for Patch 5.03.
Riot Games’ frequent updates aim to keep VALORANT balanced and bug-free so all players can play competitively and not have to worry about external factors affecting their matches unfairly.
For Patch 5.03, Chamber gets a long overdue nerf, while Neon and Jett receive changes to how their Ultimate Abilities interact in-game. Riot Games rounds things off with a bug fix for Jett and a few HUD and animation issues.
Chamber Nerfed
Chamber mains have enjoyed a few months of dominance, instilling fear and frustration in just about any team lineup in casual and professional play.
The polarizing Sentinel’s kit allows him to hold bombsites like a traditional Sentinel with his Trademark (defensively) or bring the fight to the Attackers by peeking aggressively with little to no risk, thanks to Rendezvous.
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 strength has also felt outsized, and we believe that we can reduce the complete power of his kit while still keeping him competitive with the rest of the roster.
Riot Games
This flexibility easily made Chamber the Sentinel of choice for many teams, even in the pro-scene, where top-ranking pros can take advantage of his high economic efficiency through Headhunter and Tour de Force without sacrificing too much on the offensive end.
Rendezvous
- Base Cooldown increased 20s >>> 30s
- Recall Cooldown increased 20s >>> 30s
- Cooldown set to 45s whenever a Rendezvous anchor is destroyed
- The diameter size of the “Ring” Chamber can stand that allows him to activate Rendezvous decreased 21m >>> 15m
Trademark
- Slow Duration decreased 9.5 >>> 6s
Tour De Force
- Ultimate Points Required increased 7 >>> 8
- Slow Duration decreased 9.5 >>> 6s
Headhunter
- Bullet Cost increased 100 >>> 150
Ability Regional Damage Breakup
Neon, Chamber, and Jett receive a few changes to how their Ultimate Abilities interact with their target’s player model.
Neon
Overdrive
- 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
- Leg shot multiplier reduced 1.0 >>> 0.85
Jett
Bladestorm
- Leg shot multiplier reduced 1.0 >>> 0.85
Gameplay Systems Updates
- Added ability to change the “Ghost” keybind outside of Custom Games
Bugs
Agents
- Fixed an issue with Jett’s Tailwind where switching weapons in the middle of the dash would cause the weapon pull-out animation to take longer than desired.
Gameplay Systems
- Fixed a bug where some Reyna/Killjoy HUD elements were still visible after enabling Hide User Interface.
- Fixed a bug where defuse animation wouldn’t consistently play if the orb is tapped in rapid succession.
Nice and Balanced
The Chamber nerfs should help bring the Sentinel Agent back to earth and let the other Sentinel Agents on the roster shine more. While the changes to Neon, Chamber, and Jett’s Ultimate Abilities should help promote accuracy and precision when using these abilities in-game.
Patch 5.03 is a relatively small update that balances VALORANT’s metagame and improves the game’s overall fluidity. All welcome changes for the die-hard VALORANT fan.
