On April 13, VALORANT’s Patch 2.07 released. After Viper’s rework from the last update, players were expecting some major rework. Read more for the overview of Patch 2.07.
Last patch detailed the updates for Viper in order to make her a more viable agent. Before the update, she had a 0% pick-rate for competitive matches and was one of the least picked controllers. Since her rework, some players said that she is overpowered or “broken”. VALORANT players expected her Toxin damage to be nerfed, but instead developers responded with, “Viper is technically a bug fix not a balance, but this fix alters slightly the potential power of her recent Decay buff”.
After the last patch there was a bug that let Marshal shots leave enemies with 1 health instead of killing them if they had taken 50 decay damage. Developers have fixed this bug and are now on the lookout for any bugs of its kind. They believe that the bugged interaction with the Marshal was the most common, but will be looking out for more interactions with Viper’s recent buffs. They also fixed a bug that calculated if damage taken while decayed should be lethal for players with armor.
Other than those minor adjustments. VALORANT developers have stood strong with their decision to justify Viper’s recent buffs. The decay damage from her abilities is extremely effective in discouraging pushes through her Poison Cloud and Toxic Screen abilities. Some players have argued that she is now too powerful. Her buffs are surprising because she has not been reworked since her unsuccessful release. The player uncertainty shows that the Viper buffs have definitely made her more viable of an option for a controller pick. VALORANT developers believe right now that the buffs are fair. There may or may not be more balancing for Viper to come in the future.
Check out more about Viper’s recent buffs here: Agent Reworks and Bucky Nerf in Patch 2.06 Notes.
Before this patch, Astra’s Gravity Well did not affect players defusing the Spike. Since developers want to keep her ability interactions consistent, Astra’s Gravity Well will now pull Agents that are defusing the Spike. This change could allow Astra’s ability to work like Killjoy’s Nanoswarm grenade. Astra’s Gravity Well could be placed by the Spike’s plant site so it acts as another barrier for Agents defusing the Spike. In the Patch 2.07 notes, developers stated that they’ll “keep an eye on her new post-plant impact overall,” so this new change may not last depending on how Astra does within gameplay.
Raze mains have been utilizing her Blast Pack to the best of their ability. Developers realized that her Blast Pack ability is mostly quiet, with just a distant sounding explosion to signal her approach. Because of this, Raze’s Blast Pack now has audio signals similar to Jett’s Tailwind. The new audio signal will help players track Raze’s movement through the air and potentially give them a little more time to prepare for her approach. Her ability VFK has been updated. Before this patch, the VFX from her abilities obscured combat after they exploded. The new update reduces how much of combat is obscured by her abilities.
Will Viper be nerfed? Developers feel that time is needed to really show how well her new buffs are working. For now, her Toxin damage will stay a force to be reckoned with.
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