Riot Games has revealed a major surprise announcement for every fan of VALORANT all over the world. Harbor, the water-controlling agent who has been kicked out of competitions, is now set to be completely changed and reinvented, as per official communication, next week.
The announcement is made considering months of dissatisfaction from players who think that Harbor has to be in the agent selection due to his ineffectiveness and the urgency of getting him improved that will make him viable.
The announcement was made on Twitter, and the official VALORANT account tweeted: “Harbor rework is coming next week! 🔥” along with the hashtag #VALORANT. This was the only piece of information given. No specifics were disclosed, nor were patch notes previewed, just the hype and the expectation for the changes coming to one of the most affected controllers in the game.
Twitter reactions have begun to pour in, and among those who have long been hoping for a change the majority of the opinions are positive. One user captured the widespread feeling in their reply by saying: “After 500 rounds of being ignored in agent select, my boy’s getting justice 😭” This may indeed be the case for many Harbor players—always being picked as a weakness like Omen or Viper.
The same can be said for the Spanish-speaking user MartinEnjoyer who did not hold back and said “Ya era hora leñe” which literally translates to “It was about time, damn it”. Frustration concerning Harbor’s condition has been accumulating among the VALORANT community, with many players believing that his kit is just not up to par with the performance of the other controllers.
But, what does “rework” signify in this scenario? That is the main question on everyone’s lips. EarnLab.com remarked: “i wonder what they mean by rework 🤔” and they are not alone. The term “rework” could literally range from minor ability adjustments to a complete revamping of the agent’s kit. Riot has certainly not clarified what exactly it entails, hence it is left to the players to engage in wild guessing about what the changes might be.
Some players are already drawing parallels between the rework and the past ones, namely, Yoru’s major one that did quite the opposite and turned the stealth agent into a different one altogether. One user in the replies remarked, “same as Yoru, I think Yoru got like one full year to come out” alluding to how much time it took for Yoru’s rework to be completed after he was already identified with his initial design.
This announcement also casts doubt on its timing. A lot of players talked about taking a break from VALORANT only to return and find a total makeover. A player named May commented, “since marvel rivals they have footed the changes to the next level” suggesting that the competition from other games may be the reason of Riot’s being more aggressive with updates and improvements.
Moreover, there is also some international viewpoint in the reactions. A player from Germany made a joke regarding possible changes, saying “Der soll Wassermolly gekommen dann werden die lineups gezündet” which translates as “He should get water mollies then the lineups will be ignited” – implying that players want more versatile utility options in Harvest’s kit.
The most telling comment might have come from MoonUserr who declared, “Los han jugado una cantidad de 2 personas en el mundo” meaning “just about 2 persons in the world have played him.” Although this is obviously an exaggeration it does indicate how rare it has become to use Harbor in competitive games at the higher levels.
What is still certain is that Riot has not yet unveiled its plan. Bromoment directly asked the official account: “Did they announce what they’re changing about him?” The answer seems to be no. Riot is keeping the details about the upcoming changes confidential until the entire update is released next week.
This way of announcing changes without uncovering details is not something new for Riot Games. They have used the same strategy for the agents’ updates, creating anticipation among the community, allowing them to speculate and guess before releasing the full patch notes. This generates excitement and gets people talking, which is precisely what is happening right now on VALORANT forums and in social networks.
The whole situation with Harbor does not seem to be very different from the way other games treat characters who need to be reworked. Once a player falls out of the meta and gets less picked, the developers often have no choice but to adjust and fix the situation. But, the phrase “rework” implies that this case might not be so minor – we could see a radical change in Harbor’s abilities or even how they are interconnected.
