Riot dev team is terrible

#1

c4rrotstix

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I have waited for months now for a substantial patch change. We have had omen being the only used controller on most maps for ages now, neon's been still working well, sentinels are still mid and only serve a niche, and dont get me started on breach or mikz

Feels like the riot dev team that used to shake things up and kept the game fresh back in 2021/2/3 is just gone now. What happened to the constant changes to finetune certain abilities, or when characters fell out of meta they'd get a buff in a patch or two until their usability went upwards to a healthy level? Idk why, maybe im just forgetting or being blind to it, but it feels like the dev team is so fucking scared to make any level of change in their game. Like bro, you had tejo reign for a masters and an entire split before you did anything, and neon's been and still is meta asf, please buff other duelists like raze or buff sentinels that are unused. It is crazy to me that they just refuse to make light changes to agents that are obviously not in a healthy position and then just throw shit at the wall every so often before a masters or before vct season starts to make everyone hate the new state of the game.

Idk, just feels so weak comparing them to league's dev team, where every champ is actively getting tuned and looked at based on their pick rate win rate usage rate, in pro and casual, etc. i'm just annoyed we get no real changes to agents that have done anything to shift the style of valorant being played since before the start of the year

#2

kKai0

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bump

#3

MrBlooBloom

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the famous dev team that famously shook things up in 2022

#6

milflover92

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I know we look back on it now like "what about chamber?" But

-Omen vs. Astra was balanced
-brim was better in 4.03 than he is today
-Viper was broken but at least she was a playable character in ranked
-Sentinels provided more Information and were better at stopping the duelists (compared to modern day)
-duelists were at their prime, Raze was fun but still balanced, Jett was broken but got her initial nerfs this year
-Sova, Fade, Skye, Breach and KAY/O were all strong for their own reasons
Outside of Chamber/Viper being super good the agents were in a really healthy state for the time, nowadays it takes more than one hand to count the agents being neglected, or needing heavy reworks

#9

W1ngFly

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The TenZ patch ruined everything, the game is fun when it's chaotic

#10

MrBlooBloom

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Omen vs. Astra was balanced

it is more balanced now lol, omen was still broken and Astra had just been nerfed

brim was better in 4.03 than he is today
Viper was broken but at least she was a playable character in ranked

who cares

-Sentinels provided more Information and were better at stopping the duelists (compared to modern day)

to some extent sure but also now vyse exists and chamber isn't fucking omega giga busted to the point of overshadowing most agents in the class

-duelists were at their prime

so they weren't balanced it's just that no one cared cuz it wasn't a problem, I think they're pretty well balanced right now

Sova, Fade, Skye, Breach and KAY/O were all strong for their own reasons

fair enough

#18

milflover92

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In no way is Omen vs. Astra more balanced right now, Omen is still 80% pickrate and astra is dead

I personally care about the viper changes because I have 500 hours on her, brim probably needs the second stim back

Sentinels were maybe not in a healthier spot overall back then but the duelists were not good enough to outright ignore sentinel util, so the gameplay loop was fine, although a little weak. Nowadays waylay can ignore everything, neon can run through everything, phoenix can break util and/or ult through it and senti util is pretty much useless outside of information around the map.

#19

MrBlooBloom

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Thinking about balancing by using pickrate arguments just shows why I shouldn't engage in this debate with you

#20

Vyse-Fan_In-more-than-one

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Honestly what the should do is just buff astra like they did Neon in patch 9.11 make people seriously learn her, then remove it.
Boom, fixed

#22

milflover92

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everyone knows how to play Astra because of how strong her kit was pre-patch 4.04. They just don't play her anymore cause a paranoia is worth like 3 astra stuns, even with the nerfs.

#21

milflover92

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? Astra is just not any good compared to Omen on a vast majority of maps. I can give you reasons why there's a massive imbalance but it just comes down to paranoia and mobility of omen is stronger than every other option.

in 2022 Astra was stronger so Omen vs. Astra was a harder debate, nowadays it's a fucking wash and every single league in valorant's pickrate will support that argument. Realistically, Omen should have had 100% pickrate looking back. Remember when one ways could be placed anywhere? or how drop smokes weren't fully utilized yet? or how paranoia was like a football field long? with a 30 second cooldown? Astra suck every 45 seconds would never ever in a million years compare to what Omen was, and the fact the gap is LARGER now is a testament to how dirty they've been doing the controller class.

#24

MrBlooBloom

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2022 is the year where astra got fucked by the nerfs bro what are we talking about, Omen still had his insane paranoia and oneways.As you said, Omen shoudl have had a 100% pickrate back then so you're admitting yourself that it wasn't balanced. Now Omen got progressively nerfed and Astra has received buffs to a point where both are in a healthy place, Omen will simply always have a higher pickrate unless they make astra giga busted for reasons outside of balancing. You are literally arguing against yourself, the gap is not bigger now than before, definitely not like there is no way you can think that it makes no sense

#29

milflover92

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I think that Omen vs. Astra was only held up by the fact that Astra actually had good pieces of util on her cooldown, whereas nowadays even with the 5th star back her supportive util is so weak that the gap has enlarged even comparing 2022 omen to 2026's omen. Omen was and still is busted, Astra just got worse over time, which feels like a huge miss on the game balance end of the game that astra with a fifth star still feels worse than 2022 Astra with 4.

Stun unification, suck nerfs, and cooldown nerfs made Astra's value drop further down than omen's did. She is horrible currently, Only viable as a 2nd controller on Breeze, whereas Omen should be played on all 7 in the pool. The thing is, Astra's combo utility was a lot more flexible and easier to come by in a given round in 2022, making her an actually good pick if you are fine with giving up Paranoia. But in 2026, 60 second cooldowns are punishing and her combo util doesn't last at all, and paranoia is still paranoia. This is why Omen vs. Astra was was more balanced back then, Omen provided one extremely strong flash and flexible one ways whereas Astra provided strong combo util, so specific team comps would actually see value with an Astra.

In 2026, there is no comp that benefits from Astra more than Omen in the map pool (with Summit). Whether it be because double dive is great and Omen supports that better than Astra or because Astra genuinely sucks dick and balls in 2026. She is rewarded with a 2.5 second stun for an astra stun, and the suck is only useful for post plant and the 1 second of stall. Her identity as an agent is objectively weaker, Omen has always been strong.

#30

MrBlooBloom

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her supportive util was always weak, you don't play her for her supportive util and never will no matter how good it is (unless it becomes busted but whatever, it'd be a fundamentally different agent). Astra has, at several points in history been objectively better than omen on some maps, it's just that most teams don't play it because it's easier to play omen, that is the sole and only relevant thing to consider when debating astra VS omen. Omen is easy, Astra is hard. Teams prefer when it's easy rather than hard. It doesn't mean there's a balancing issue, it means one agent is more convenient than the other. Regardless it doesn't change anything to the fact that it is in 2022 that Astra was effectively destroyed for 2 seasons if not more, and in 2025 (late 24) that she was made relevant again whereas omen got progressively nerfed. That is what we were supposed to discuss

#25

c4rrotstix

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Ok, this might be a disgusting take, but I genuinely think the agent diversity in 2022 is better than it is now. YES, chamber was a must have on most maps. But if you lolk outside of that, we had shit like triple ini ascents, astra omen being used constantly, brim viper having a space, fade kayo sova skye breach all being swapped out map to map, duelist diversity in jett/raze/neon all being good options for dive duelists depending on the map, and some sentis even had spaces with sage as a 2nd senti on certain maps. Yes, cypher kj needed help, but that meta/year overall had a lot of variety in the entire game outside of chamber.

Also, it's not like chamber was as frustrating of a character as some of the recent gigabroken agents, ie tejo and neon, where you pick them and util jump the enemies or just jump on their heads until they die because they cant hit you in a tac shooter. Chamber was an perfect kit for a tac shooter awp player, whereas now broken agents feel like they belong in overwatch, and were just thrown into a tac shooter. I definitely could be nostalgia blinded, but I feel like the game felt much more fresh back then

#4

Big-Bot-Brim

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theyre working on a new game. Valorant 2, coming soon

#5

Dumbfoon

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omen isn't the only used controller, astra is played a lot too and i would say they are very close in viability, it's just that right now with the double duelist meta it's better to have a paranoia than astra's slower util. the dev team has also always been like this and most things stay meta for ages. i also dont think raze needs a buff and if you check london's pick rate numbers most agents are in a pretty healthy spot. other than the obvious agents (clove, reyna and maybe iso), it's just gekko miks and veto that really need significant changes. breach could probably do with a buff or two or a rework of his flash, and lower pick rate agents could just do with some buffs but the agent balance is pretty good right now. almost every duelist is viable at a pro level (except reyna and iso) and most pick rates are at a good place in my opinion.

#7

W1ngFly

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Bump

#8

differential_t0p0l0gy

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Bump

#14

Big-Bot-Brim

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goodbye. youll never reply

#11

iknowright

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I forgot his name but there was a dev who was liked very much amongst the community, when he left in 2022 or 2023 everything started going down hill

LMK if you know any context, I would love to search about this dev

#12

KClaw

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I think when they began they obviously had all those brilliant ideas pre planned before hand but now they they have to think Abt new ideas on a regular basis which makes it so much harder but I am ngl the miks is interesting with its stun and heal thing but the boostup is kinda ass and don't get me started on how shit that ult is like even in lower ranks it's so bad it literally does jackshit for being an 8 orb ult i think? Like genuinely the beach ult is better in comparison to it like a 100times which says a lot abt it. Also can we pls have some creative ideas on smokes and not just fuckass iPads

#13

riensluvr

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real bro i feel like a group of 11 people (one from each rank and two vct pros) could balance the game better than the current devs

#15

Effluxi

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I still don't know how they managed to take the most balanced class in the game to the least in like, 2 patches. And then thought reverting Skye nerf was the fix???

#16

catNmouse

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t0nz effect

#17

Vyse-Fan_In-more-than-one

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Bump cuz Im a Rito 11.08 hater and find their management after champs as shitty

#23

TentacleThing

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I mean I agree with most of what you said, but to be fair what are they supposed to do about omen, he's just the most perfect agent they've ever designed, like sure they can buff the other controllers but then people will just play double controller with omen or just play a map or two without him.

#31

Effluxi

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Make paranoia bad by slowly adding attributes of breach stun to it.

Also do the opposite with breach stun.

#26

timonvlr

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i get what you mean, but its always the different departments.
it can be that the balancing department feels like the agents are balanced as in to not create a meta every few months by overpowering/nerfing an agent which may result in the game being lame

#28

c4rrotstix

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This is true, but my frame of reference for comparison is League, and in LoL they are constantly tuning numbers and changing stuff up (at least minorly) every 2 weeks. It feels like the balance team is either on a completely different cycle that makes the game feel stale, or just not wanting to make certain agents playable (breach, astra) are the ones in mind. If that's the case, I think they should be transparent about keeping certain agents "pro-jailed" (a term for some champs in LoL, where they can never be strong otherwise everyone in pro will spam play them), like if they think astra being strong or breach being strong in ranked will mean they are must plays. This is most clearly seen with tejo, where for the general majority of players he wasn't that insane in ranked (although he had his issues) but when played in pro it made the game disgusting to watch.

I'm just craving a lot more transparency about the process, because comparing LoL's devs to Val's, it feels like a glass onion vs a completely black box.

#27

spongebob_

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They need t0nz's permission to make changes. atp let phr0k balence this game