what made viper so good

DISCLAIMER: WHAT IM SAYING PROBABLY DOESNT MAKE ANY SENSE, BUT IF YOU UNDERSTAND, PLS TELL ME

when i started the game(around when yoru was released i think), i remember unlocking viper cuz i thought she was cool. then i decided to look her up and see if she was any good(ik i shouldved looked her up first and THEN unlocked her but wtv). there was a tierlist and she was like c or d tier. then a couple of months later, viper received a buff or something and then EVERYONE was using her. im wondering what made viper be used so much

Disclaimer not big enough

Well, it was the buff. And icebox was the first map where viper was a necessity, then Breeze.

Fnatic bind also helped establish viper as a sentinel and not a controller.

A couple things. The original buff was extremely strong. When you walked through her orb or wall you took -50 damage in addition to decay rather than the -30 we see today. Her mollies also had a bit higher dps than it does now. The other thing is the map pools. Valorant imo releases maps specific to certain agents that are weak in the meta to give them meta maps, viper got pearl, breach got fracture etc. viper ended up becoming essential on maps like breeze and icebox and then because of her buffs she was strong on bind and split. These things have caused viper to be what she is today