The myriad of nerfs Riot Games had slapped on Chamber the past few months is apparently not enough.
Chamber is, without a doubt, one of the best Agents in the game right now. Even the pros recognize the value that Chamber brings to the table, as evidenced by Chamber’s tournament-best pick rate of 67% in the 2022 VALORANT Champions Tournament.
In a recent blog post by Kevin Meier, Agent Designer for VALORANT, he discusses the changes coming to Chamber in Patch 5.12 and why the VALORANT team has decided to rework Chamber once again before the year ends.
The devs probably did not expect Chamber to become such a powerful meta-defining Agent when he first came out in November last year. However, as the months went by, Chamber slowly but surely crept up the power rankings as teams and players learned his strengths in-game.
Chamber has already received two sets of nerfs this year but Riot Games believes that wasn’t enough, as Chamber is about to get another set of nerfs in the upcoming Patch 5.12.
Third Time’s The Charm?
Chamber was an instant hit when he first burst into the scene back in Patch 3.10. He turned the whole Sentinel archetype on its head with his offensive abilities and gave the term “good offense is the best defense” a whole new meaning in VALORANT.
Many players have already complained about Chamber, and it’s hard not to – the ability to teleport out of sticky situations, watch flank from across the map, and improve the team’s economy without sacrificing offensive capability is something that Chamber can do simultaneously every round. The devs believe Chamber does too many things too well, which is why he is receiving the following nerfs to his abilities when Patch 5.12 goes live this month.
Headhunter (Q)
- Updated Stability Curve
- Spread increased after the second bullet when spamming, This is explicitly meant to reduce low-precision body-shot spam as an effective combat measure.
Headhunter is Chamber’s most cost-effective ability. This ability gives Chamber the flexibility to buy for his teammates without sacrificing his firepower in the round.
While Headhunter was always meant to be used for hunting, erm, heads, players have slowly begun exploiting the ability’s high damage, accuracy, and low recoil to land a barrage of body shots, which is why Riot Games is specifically targeting the ability’s spam-ability in the upcoming patch.
Rendezvous (E)
- Chamber now places a single anchor that can be teleported to while inside its range.
- Diameter increased from 15 meters >>> 26 meters.
- Removed teleport activation height restriction.
- You can now teleport to the Anchor while on different verticality so long as you are within its radius.
- Increased weapon equip time after teleporting from 0.4 seconds >>> 0.7 seconds.
- Headhunter is unaffected by this change.
- Destroying Rendezvous teleport anchor now disables it for the remainder of the round, instead of being placed on a cooldown.
- Chamber no longer incurs an additional cooldown when recalling his Anchor after teleporting.
Riot Games slowly targeted ability effects that present zero chance for counter-play. These abilities are deemed unfair for the rest of the VALORANT roster, but Riot Games made a weird move when they removed Jett’s insta-dash but kept Chamber’s insta-teleport in Rendezvous.
Rendezvous has always given Chamber the ability to take aggressive positions with almost zero downsides. The devs realize this and are already addressing the problem by introducing a host of nerfs for Chamber’s Rendezvous in the next patch.
Trademark (C)
- The trap is now range restricted.
- Trademark will disable when Chamber moves out of range, and reactivate once he is inside.
- Can now be recalled mid-round.
- Does not require line of sight.
- 30 seconds cooldown on recall.
- Destruction remains permanent.
- Initial Arm Time increased from two seconds to four seconds.
- Health Increased from 1 >>> 20.
A ton of players probably always felt how unfairly powerful Trademark is on both sides of the map. Chamber’s Trademark trap remains active even when Chamber himself is standing on the other end of the map. This makes Trademark an insanely powerful defensive tool that gives Chamber the ability to hold two different spots on the map simultaneously.
Patch 5.12 will address this problem directly by disabling Trademark whenever Chamber moves out of range.
Tour de Force (X)
- Fire rate decreased by 57.5 percent.
In addition to specific ability changes, all Chamber abilities that have a slow effect will receive reduced slow, duration, and size.
- Slow effects reduced from 50% >>> 40%.
- Duration reduced from 6 >>> 4 seconds.
- Slow area size reduced by 30%.
In capable hands, Tour de Force is practically a cheat code. While Riot Games have changed the ability’s effect slightly by altering the damage it deals to less vital parts of the character hitbox, it remains a powerful weapon that can easily one-shot enemies.
Like Rendezvous, Tour de Force gives enemies limited options in terms of counter-play, as the ability’s slow effect basically slows players down to a crawl, making them even easier to take down with Tour de Force.
The changes above should make the ability’s effects more manageable for the opposing team and give them more chances for counter-play, such as trading their teammates after they have been taken down by Tour de Force, for example.
With Great Power Comes Greater Nerfs
The changes to Chamber’s kit seem extensive, but the devs say they’ll keep an eye on Chamber and revert or add some more changes depending on how Chamber fits into the meta when Patch 5.12 arrives later this month.
Until then, it might be best to get as many games in with the offensive Sentinel before Riot Games finally puts the clamps on him.
