Chamber’s release last year saw the Agent quickly rise to the very top of Valorant’s meta, so much so that he’s become a must-pick on nearly every map in both ranked and professional play. Today, Riot Games has revealed changes for the game’s latest patch that are aimed at nerfing his impact somewhat; specifically, his Trademark trips.
It’s a change that is likely to cause some controversy given that, at a glance, it reduces Chamber’s effectiveness as a sentinel, the role he is designed for and puts a stronger focus on duelist-like gunplay. Riot, however, has indicated its vision for Chamber isn’t to have a strong, universal intel and slow ability via trips but to hold down spike sites with gunplay. Here’s what Riot’s Jeff Landa said on the matter in today’s patch notes:
“Right now, Chamber’s Trademark outperforms other Sentinel tools in both reliability and power, which feels inappropriate given the amount of defensive combat tools Chamber has spread across the rest of his kit. We believe Chamber’s identity is defined by his unique weapons and defensive combat mobility, so we are decreasing his level of global flank protection/information and increasing counterplay on a single premium trap. This means Chamber will have to make a choice based on if he wants to play selfishly around his Trademark, or place it to help his teammates instead.“
Jay Watford, lead Agent designer, and Dan Hardison, game designer also weighed in with “a quick note about Sentinels:”
“When we think about the Sentinel role, we think about its overall ability to keep map control and defend space. We believe that Sentinels and Sentinel players should have many options and methods to control and defend, whether it’s through the use of Sage’s reactive slow abilities, Cypher’s flank-watching gadgets, or defensively-oriented combat and guns like Chamber. Like all our Agents, it’s important to carve out sharp strengths and weaknesses for Chamber in the roster. If you take him for his weapon arsenal and disengage, you should feel as if you’re giving up a strength—like traps or stall—that his peers excel at. As usual, all eyes are now on Chamber changes, and we’ll adjust if we see him suffer disproportionately on defense relative to attack.“
Elsewhere in today’s patch notes, Fade’s utility has been given improved visual effects to increase clarity. Here’s the full overview:
FADE
- Nightfall (X) – You should now see a decreased amount of flickering textures on diagonal walls when casting Fade’s ultimate. Also added VFX for additional clarity and visual impact.
- Seize (Q) – VFX change to the orb for a more dynamic presentation in 1p and Agent select
CHAMBER
- Trademark
- Cost increased 150>>>200
- Charges reduced 2>>>1
- Audio range increase
COMPETITIVE UPDATES
- Party Lead Transfer — You can now change the lead of your party
- Current party leader can right click the player name they want to transfer the responsibility to, and choose “Make Leader” in the drop down menu.
- A number of small tweaks and updates made to the UI
You can check out where Twinfinite ranks Chamber and Fade compared to other Agents in our tier list ranking here.
