at first their balancing seemed kinda reasonable up till the chamber nerf. then every op agent that has existed after that has been nerfed into the ground.
chamber- nerfed so bad people only play him on 2/3 maps and that's not even meta
jett- wasn't even that broken but the smokes don't even give enough time to play around.
skye- only played on bind and by teams(ehem prx) who have been using it for however long, not adapting.
neon- literally op for one tournament then nerfed into the ground, she might not be that bad now but 1 slide 1 wall 1 stun is kinda shit if U think ABT it.
now tejo- no rechargable until on another init agent? lowkey the rockets are like= in value to a Skye flash, the drone is better than a Skye dog but costs more, BUT THE HEAL IS WAY BETTER THAN THE TEJO STUN.
balancing more like killing agents. while I don't even like Tejo meta TS is too much
riot balancing
yall are the type of people to say this shit and then complain whenever the game becomes a mess of util dumps. Its one or the other
jett still gets play, neon still gets play, chamber still gets play, skye probably needs a buff, idk how an agent being niche and only used in specific comps is a bad thing? agent variety is what we want??? surely the ideal meta is you have multiple agents that CAN work on a map depending on style and comfort and comp, which is literally what those agents are rn, you wanted them to be nerfed but still be hard meta? neon jett and chamber are all in like, the perfect place rn imo, i agree skye needs a buff and tejo probably will aswell, but why have you included the other agents?
4 in emea, 3 in china, 3 in pacific, 2 in americas, over stage 1, over kickoff 0 in china, 2 in americas, 3 in pacific, 3 in emea, this feels pretty healthy to me idk, hes not a big part of the meta but teams still see value in him enough to pick
This is goat behavior. Lebron would be smiling upon you, no matter what or who you are (unless you're a global esports fan)
but thats because other agents are just better like cypher or vyse not because chamber is inherently bad. At the pro play level chamber just becomes too hard to consistently get value as he requires a player thats just mechanically superior and even then when you get util dumped what are you gonna do.
I say the only thing chamber needs is a reduction in TP cooldown in order to allow him to hold spaces more oftne throughout the rounds and gain more value by forcing opponents to use util but then again its not like hes particularly bad rn
Tejo is a flawed agent to begin with damage abilities like that should always require lineups
these agents you are describing apart from neon and chamber weren't really broken but its more so just riot trying to switch up the meta to make the game less stale.
Skye and jett have been like top 10 in agent pick rates since forever until 2023.
Also neon still gets play. Neon got buffed and all they did was return her state to before she got buffed.
this tejo nerf is pretty bad since the tejo meta was just playing post plants with rockets and now u can't use them for entry. Tejo is still a great agent but teams will most likely just have to use tejo's utility only for entry. Also this nerf doesnt really affect defence side for tejo.
riot balancing is pretty good in general
i personally think their method of giving agents certain drawbacks instead of actually fixing the problem is pretty weird but yea generally theyre able to provide nerfs that still make abilities useful but allows for the game to require more gunplay and less util spam
yeah sometimes they just don't nerf the actual probem with certain agents but rather just their other abilities. for example chamber had like 10 nerfs before that final nerf with the tp which ruined chambers pick rate. Chambers problem was simply the tp as you could get into super weird aggressive angles and take so much map control for free and if they flash you or clear you or get a kill then you can simply tp out.
For viper, you could use the wall and toxic smoke at the same time for 15 seconds and then they will both be down for 20 seconds and then you can just put both of them back up. You basically had rechargable clove smokes every 35 seconds + a wall that could block off so many spots.
They did a lot of other nerfs before they made it so having both the wall and smoke up at the same time would reduce the use time significantly.
Agents that have been op such as tejo, neon, iso (for like a week lol), astra, and killjoy have all been op is the best and they directly addressed their issues on the first nerf pretty much.
i dont think they did address the issue with Tejo tho is what i mean. I agree with the rest that some agents had too many nerfs that werent overturned once their biggest problem had gotten nerfed and there was also neon iso astra and kj who were the opposite (not so much astra i guess).
I think the Tejo nerf is good enough to allow enough drawback to playing him that people will consider other initiators in place of him
I think the biggest problem with tejo was simply his recycable missiles/salvos which riot removed.
Do you think tejos issue is with something else?
They should hvae made 1 guided salvo that can be rechargable it will nerf him and you can use guided salvo after 40sec.
Neon was not killed by nerfs, she's still extremely playable all while not being a completely broken agent, her nerfs were good.
Agents shouldn't be overpowered where they need to be played EVERY map so they can get value, then that would just negate the point of adding more agents in, just imagine if every team had to run the same ascent default comp every map, the game would just get hella boring lmao.
I actually think riot needs to turn the dial up on more agents rather than just nuking some agents into the ground when they are too strong. Balancing in mutual overpoweredness
have you not been aware of the massively problematic utility dumping currently in the game? Theres no universe that would be good for the longevity of the game
What i see happening is that you have all these agents like skye, sage, harbour, reyna, waylay who are just dead in pro play and might not receive many buffs but instead i think riot should just keep nerfing these top agents like raze, breach, omen, yoru and vyse until you get to a point where skye, kayo and harbor are on an even playing field.
last champs i thought there was so many agent comps you could choose that were good but in bangkok 8 agents recieved 1 or 0 games in pro play, in previous internationals it's normally only 3 agents. There needs to be nerfs to more agents in general I think
Removing the signature ability cooldown is as good as killing the agent. Full stop end of story I will not listen to anyone's reasons. Riot balance team is fucking brainless for doing this a second time and especially brainless cause they just fucking added him.
how is it brainless if hes too op? mind u he still has the best drone in the game and great util.
Removing the cooldown is an insta-kill, there is zero reason to pick him over any other initiator.
what initiator can provide the same value that tejo brings?
also you still have 2 nades. the only thing this will affect is post plant if your attacking
Any initiator with recharge utility is better. Sova instantly clears him in everyway. Breach is only lacking in information comparatively, that is the one slight advantage. Recharge util means more chances to hit sites, say your first plan doesn't work, say you want to default, Tejo with no rechargeable ability is useless. That is the entire point of the game, especially at the pro level. Flexibility combined with efficacy. With these nerfs Tejo loses a substantial portion of his flexibility and his total capability within a given round.
"Any initiator is with recharge ability is better" is just wrong. You're not gonna replace tejo with kayo are you? certain initiators in the game are used differently and tejo doesnt need to be used on every map.
sova and kayo wont replace him on maps such as lotus and fracture which makes initiators more "balanced" but u might not see a tejo on ascent or abyss.
also the problem that valorant has is too much utility. the fact that you have more than enough util to default, hit a site and then play post plant results in an unhealthy game. tejo is a prime example of it. You have to be SMART with your util and not throw it out as you please just cuz you know u will get it back. thats what the devs are literally saying.
tejo is still decent and does provide value that other initiators wont bring and hes now been nerfed to the point where other initiators are a better pick on certain maps. that is balance
i understand their point but this is balance as it gets. we might see fade/skye come back to lotus or even open up for more double controllers.
the meta currently is double initiator and util dump is quite common to the point where teams have sacrificed info related agents (sova, fade and skye) to tejo and breach combo.
What killed the double controller meta of 2023? Was it just the viper nerfs? Or was it Skye losing the ability to use 4+ flashes in an average round that gave info and couldn't be broken? The devs turned a solid agent, even before Harbor/Viper into a dog poo agent rarely picked outside of Bind by a few teams that couldn't implement Fade/Gekko. I don't disagree that Tejo needs nerfs I simply am saying that getting rid of signature ability recharge kills agents. Especially Initiators, who need to effectively 1. Gather Info and 2. Enable Advantageous Fights.
Play out a hypothetical round for Tejo before nerfs: Double salvo to default, drone, salvo recharge, stun, exec on site, plant, play post plant with 3rd salvo recharge. That is 6 salvos....
Now with the nerfs he has 2 salvos, so in that standard sequence I just laid out pick where you salvo...
Look at the other two agents with no ability recharge: Skye and Brimstone. Where are they played? Oh basically only on Bind/Fracture.
So yes, you do replace Tejo with Kayo, and you probably add a Sova too. Every other Initiator with signature ability recharge has more options. In the words of a very smart fella: its crazy that some people need this to be explained to them
WE HAVE PLAYED THESE GAMES BEFORE
nah man youre completely off the mark with this one. The ability to throw 2 nades anywhere on the map at any time is the key thing that makes Tejo such a friendly pick to any team on any map.
The fact that he was broken was an addition to his already OP character design in a game where util like his should be requiring lineups and timing is what made him such a huge problem in the first place.
Changing up his effectiveness on the post plant and nerfing a bit of his zoning isnt going to kill him and the no recharge thing is a pretty big hit however Riot knows he provides something that literally no other agent does. Breach is used in conjuction with Tejo so he isnt a competitior anyway, sova isnt nearly as good on every map like tejo is, skye isnt in the question, nor is fade cause theyre both completely different fundamentally, whats there left, Kayo? Kayo is just a harder to use weaker version of Tejo with a flash instead of a stun.
If tejo doesnt get played they'll probably make an adjustment to make him more playable lol. At least they'll know the extreme ends of where he was overpowered and underpowered.
I like this approach over making small changes then going "oh they're still overpowered" then nerfing again.
Only frustrating thing imo is how slow riot do these changes. Harbour has been known to be underpowered for a while but they are doing jack shit about him, but idk if they are completely overhauling the agent or just buffing him
All of these agents except Skye are completely fine now. Ur rewriting history if you think they werent gameshatteringly broken in their previous states
I do think this one was a little overkill making everything extra expensive is inconvenient and more importantly I don't think his ult is actually good enough to be 9 orbs it is not on the same level as breach ult and more importantly kj and viper ults
These changes though I think make him more of a breach alternative than his own agent though which I'm not sure is great and they should stop removing cooldowns in the future
he's still fine. I agree his ult could be 8 points, but him now having 2 missiles total is a good and balanced change. He can use 1 on an execute and 1 in a post plant, or one in a default and one in a site take, or 2 in a site takes etc. He genuinely has more options now and is less 1 dimensional hurr-durr 2 missiles default, 2 missiles site take and 2 missiles post plant hurr durr. I think only good players will be able to find value from him now which is how the game should be. A molly that can be perfectly placed anywhere on the map at any time will always be a good ability.
If they add a recharge on the rocket he will be fine just make it like 55 second cooldown. So you can have more versatility on the rockets like you can throw a fake b using 2 rockets then you can use one rocket for post
deadass un nerf everything and make everything overpowered so we see some dumbass shit pop up
They should hvae made 1 guided salvo that can be rechargable it will nerf him and you can use guided salvo after 40sec.
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