Riot Games has brought Patch 11.08 to VALORANT, released with a new Act 6 trailer, and the community is still loud and clear in its discord. The changes coming with the update are major, and their goal is to tone down the ability spam while making the game more gunplay-oriented, so a big chunk of the players is absolutely enraged, and many, like the others, are even saying that they will quit and go over to Counter-Strike 2 for good.
What exactly has Riot altered? The patch focuses primarily on the abilities of agents being toned down. Where previously it would be possible to use the same abilities throughout the round, a lot of the skill cooldowns have been increased and hence it would become much more difficult. Omen and Breach are among the agents who have been nerfed once more and their players are not at all pleased. Sage is in the same situation, as her Barrier Orb wall health has been reduced making it easier to kill. The overall aim is to ensure that matches have more shooting and fewer situations where utilities are dumped, which, unfortunately, is sometimes the case.
However, not even the players are buying the idea at all. The comments section of the official announcement has lots of very controversial opinions. One player, eixw0w, was quick to point out what they consider the main reason, “Your biggest issue is smurfing not gameplay.” This same feeling was also expressed by proftugau who commented, “the gameplay was fine bro, just need to combat smurf and cheater very consistently. that was ruined people’s fun.” It appears that a large part of the gaming population is convinced that Riot is focusing on the wrong thing.
The most common complaint is that these changes are making VALORANT a clone of Counter-Strike. “I guess we playing Counter Strike disguised as Valorant now xd,” was what ShuYukihara wrote. Another user, semiihgedikk, was even more straightforward: “Switching to CS2 then. You want us to enter more gun fights so.” The sentiment is so prevalent — BICLunchBox encapsulated it with “soo technically CSGO with a bit of attitude.” It’s quite a public identity crisis that is going on. Players were attracted to VALORANT because of the exceptional mixture of tactical shooting and strategic abilities and now they feel that the essence of that identity is being taken away.
And the quitting threats are actually serious. kiran__p said, “Uninstalling this shit lol.. I’ve been playing this game for past 3 years.. never uninstalled the game even after numerous frustrations.. I’ll go and play battlefield 6 lol or cs2.” That is the case of a long-time user just quitting. enkels_vlr wrote even more briefly and simply, “not gonna lie, im going back to league.” That is a blow for sure.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that not everybody holds the changes in a negative light. EvanNakagawa presented a different view: “People cry about too much util, then cry when it’s reduced. Personally, I think these are great changes.” And aavaiscute tried to rationalize the situation, saying the nerfs make it more difficult for intelligence to use their entire utility before even getting on-site, thus taking away some power and turning it into a useful tool rather than a spam fest.” So there is some reasoning behind that, albeit it is not popular reasoning.
The complaints about specific agents have already started coming in. KGeN_Community was making moans, “I swear every patch Omen and breach get nerfed like crazy!” ChenzoVich slammed the Yoru changes in particular: “Yep, nerf Yoru after buffing him just to make him a joke pick again.” And get2u voiced his concern regarding the balancing method, saying, “You could have just nerfed the duelists and targeted specifically strong util. The blanket nerf for every cooldown seems like a lazy fix.”
Huh? What am I talking about? Oh, the meta. Players are wary of the future direction this might take. KoDT_Solaris foretold, “Doing all this just to see pros complain about it later on, watch.” The worry is that these massive changes will create a dull, only-gun-meta that will lack the strategic depth that has been loved by all. pakoEvegeance considered the nerfs of both Breach and Sage as an ‘L move,’ asserting that they are picking on the wrong agents when there are others who are better at aggressive pushes.
This is the classic dilemma facing the developers – finding a sweet spot where the game is still competitive while being entertaining for casuals. Riot is clearly trying to control the damage of the ability spam already bursting at the community’s ability-heavy players and suffocating in their outrage. The phrase “just play CS then” appears repeatedly in the replies which is already a strong hint at how this was received.
The controversy over weapon mechanics even came into play when SpooperSK and others debated vandal’s spray patterns during all this agent drama. Still, the primary still remains on these utility nerfs and their implications for the future of VALORANT.
At the end of the day, patch 11.08 has become one of the most debated updates in VALORANT history. Despite Riot Games’ intention to make the gameplay more gunplay-centric, the response from the community has mostly been negative, with players feeling that the game is losing its unique identity. Only time will tell if these changes will become part of the game or if the player backlash will result in another alteration. Meanwhile, the VALORANT community is split, disgruntled, and seriously rethinking their gaming choices on PlayStation and Xbox.
