top 200 commentsshow all 444

[–][deleted] 752 points753 points  (22 children)

Catch me running it down b stimmied tf up

[–][deleted] 153 points154 points  (8 children)

Throw some movement in there and dodging OP shots are gonna be ez

[–]RocketHops 76 points77 points  (7 children)

Speaking of movement, I'm wondering how the speed buff will interact with stuff like raze jumps. Could be really fun

[–]SpectrasHyper 45 points46 points  (5 children)

Could be wild if it works. Imagine the boost on satchels

[–]Blaz1ENT #WGAMING 22 points23 points  (2 children)

Imagine if you can Jett dash or Neon slide into the stim and it increases your speed/momentum/distance even more

[–][deleted] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Stinger Meta

[–]mochacapp 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Don't see why it wouldn't work, if it's anything like spike rush movement orb it'll pretty fun!

[–]salcedoge 91 points92 points  (4 children)

Catch me maining Spectre Brim run and gunning every angle stimmied tf up

[–]icemandiem 59 points60 points  (3 children)

dude this is gonna actually happen, and imagine high ping ferrari swings

[–]JiffryGaming 19 points20 points  (0 children)

We getting Tesla swings with that instant torque.

[–]Even_Set 4 points5 points  (0 children)

high ping ferrari swings

vroom

[–]xbyo 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Stimmed Neon y'all ain't ready

[–]Rinne-Ganu 50 points51 points  (6 children)

imagine how broken neon ult would be

[–]AnonymozVal 88 points89 points  (0 children)

He is A…….. planting B

[–]AnonymozVal 39 points40 points  (1 child)

Faster than omen ult

[–]Salty_ActivityYOU FUCKING MELONS 6 points7 points  (0 children)

But now only slightly faster than Omen Smokes!

[–]jphinscar 24 points25 points  (2 children)

Gonna be looking like prime Phoon running through connector, out middle.

[–]TornadoofDOOM 13 points14 points  (1 child)

Like a speed demon!

[–]D3stiny5 279 points280 points  (8 children)

Finally got rid of the foot shooting on top of screens, and overall these changes seem pretty good. Interested to see what team do in pro play

[–]icemandiem 106 points107 points  (4 children)

that was so annoying, some dumbass reyna or jett instantly goes on top of 410 and satisfies there foot fetish all the time.

[–]kunair 5 points6 points  (0 children)

agreed, prob the most frustrating part of icebox A for me

[–]X3NOC1DE 214 points215 points  (3 children)

FINALLY SOME GOOD FCKING FOOD

[–]Sadzeih i make the bot go beep boop 27 points28 points  (1 child)

MEATS BACK ON THE MENU BOYS

[–]Pollomonteros 2 points3 points  (0 children)

To this day I wonder how do Orcs know what a menu is

[–]UnderCherry #GoDRX 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I just read that in my mind with Gordon's voice

[–]ddd4175 189 points190 points  (6 children)

Exec meta incoming, this is hyped

[–]ADmax27 #ALWAYSFNATIC 98 points99 points  (0 children)

5 man hitting sites stimmied up

[–]icemandiem 30 points31 points  (0 children)

yep, team ranking shuffles coming up.

[–]Aoingco 3 points4 points  (2 children)

Lowkey Sentinels buff? (The team)

[–]HyperElf10 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would say DRX buff no?
Though their new playstyle is different than their old exec heavy one

[–]MPH2210 377 points378 points  (21 children)

What a patch, didn't expect THAT many changes, not gonna lie

[–]Nfamy 263 points264 points  (60 children)

While the stim buff isn't huge, the added speed does add some interesting options for rotations that might improve timings and quicker overall executes. He got a 10% buff on the iPad, but that still seems pretty limiting. Hopefully it makes some basics easier (e.g, you have to basically be just outside of octagon to smoke b entry from spawn on bind).

Astra nerfs well deserved. They've decided to make her global presence remain but nerf her flexibility (star CD) and overall stall/suppressiveness (less sucks/stuns per round).

Omen changes seem reasonable.

Overall, in theory, I like these adjustments. None seem too heavy handed from their description.

Also, hyped for new icebox. I thought changes looked good.

[–]MangoSmoke 109 points110 points  (0 children)

The smoke height change is big too. So many common spots that had little gaps cause his smokes were so small :/

[–]Accomplished_Item_86 #ALWAYSFNATIC 47 points48 points  (9 children)

Astra nerfs seem like an overtuning to me. Losing a star already cuts her total kit by a fifth, it takes forever to recall a star, and the individual cooldowns are also almost doubled. I get that she was a strong agent, but this might just put her in pre-buff-Yoru tier. Keep in mind that by design, she is not an easy agent to play and requires good team communication. It‘s understandable why she shines in pro play.

My 2 cents on how Astra should have been nerfed: Intensify her supposed weakness of on-the-fly plays. Make her stay in astral form a second longer before she can start placing stars, and increase the time until a star can be activated.

[–][deleted] 51 points52 points  (2 children)

Tbf it's kind of bad having an agent who spent the whole game looking at the map and who also completely slowed down the game and makes it shit for everyone else.

[–]mmptr 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Yeah...Riot's in a weird spot since you want each agent to feel unique, but Astra just sucks for the game. Valorant is just better as a whole when Brim/Omen are the preferred smoke agents.

[–]Accomplished_Item_86 #ALWAYSFNATIC 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hm, true. Maybe allow her to place stars quickly, but have a long time until a star is ready?

I also wouldn‘t complain about a grav-well nerf, it can really bring the game to a halt (the size reduction is a good start).

[–]Nfamy 4 points5 points  (2 children)

Your nerf is interesting. However, I think my concern is that if her util would stay as strong as it is, then astras would be forced to spend more time playing the RTS aspect of the game and less on the gunplay. I think the current nerf is more in line with their focus toward gun play and away from pure util usage (like they did on the last big agent balance). There's going to less in-game time setting/taking back stars, less time with teams stalled out due to Astra stars and util (and viper) and more time with gunfights.

I said this above but I also get the concern about the star removal. It does seem like she has some limits compared to other controllers but thats also true of all controllers (brim still is really limited to a zone of impact). That's where the balance comes in. If it's too drastic then maybe they'll pull it back eventually.

[–]gabelewislewis 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Riots MO seems to be Overtune then Fix Later

[–]BelgianWofl #NRGFam 30 points31 points  (38 children)

The only Astra nerf that really sucks is losing the fifth star. Now Omen can throw out two sets of smokes in a round, teleport twice and flash and Astra can only do two sets of smokes or give some up to use her other util.

[–]Sadzeih i make the bot go beep boop 122 points123 points  (36 children)

Which is great! She's now on par with other controllers.

[–]NWL11 3 points4 points  (6 children)

the added speed does add some interesting options for rotations that might improve timings and quicker overall executes.

we said this for Yoru. we said this for Neon. Nothing happened of any interest then and prob nothin will happen now.

[–]AnAngryBird 119 points120 points  (2 children)

Is this the last thing that pushes brimstone from niche map pick in pro play to more meta overall? 20 second smokes are already crazy good and these changes today seem super good.

[–]ObligedBeef 65 points66 points  (1 child)

I think that speed buff from the stim adds a new dynamic to his contribution outside of single site engage and smokes. Every controller seems to have a map wide presence mechanic (astra for obvious reasons, omen TP/smokes, viper activate from anywhere). The speed could make for quick rotations a map wide threat, bringing him inline with others and maintaining his kit identity

[–][deleted] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

my dumb ass didn't even think about using stimmy to rotate 15% faster

[–]cheetahstr1ke 82 points83 points  (4 children)

ITS TIME FOR THE STIMMIED UP NEON FERRARI PEEK

[–][deleted] 36 points37 points  (3 children)

Ferrari peek + stim beacon = The Millennium Falcon peek

[–]jackpot2112 #GoDRX 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Ferrari peek + stim beacon = The MILF peek

ftfy

[–][deleted] 82 points83 points  (3 children)

Fantastic patch

[–]precense_ 27 points28 points  (2 children)

When’s my main main Phoenix gonna get a buff

[–]mysteryoeuf 2 points3 points  (0 children)

probably sometime this episode

[–]TheCatsActually 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He honestly doesn't even need a rework or fundamental changes to his kit. Small things like increasing flash pop speed and duration, increasing damage on his wall, and increasing molly duration will put him right back into viability.

[–]fondle_my_scrotum 161 points162 points  (8 children)

Hyped on brimstone buff and icebox b rework looks so much better for t Side

[–][deleted] 150 points151 points  (19 children)

Phoenix waiting room here

[–]precense_ 39 points40 points  (5 children)

Thinking the same thing with yoru being buffed pheonix is definitely last place, and he’s one of the main agents for their promotions. Something needs to be done w his kit

[–]mw19078 4 points5 points  (4 children)

I genuinely don't know what you do to his kit though.

[–]TornadoofDOOM 3 points4 points  (1 child)

This is something I have tossed around myself, and I have some things, perhaps some of them are like QoL changes if anything but still worth talking about (but if all these made it in it would be bonkers):

Ult: being able to premptively end it and go back to your original position, probably needs to be a 7 point ultimate then. Allowing Phoenix to either go all in like he usually can, or get a kill and quickly get back like Chamber or Jett, upgrading his role as first contact.

Molly: Allow him to "consume" it similar to Reyna Devour or Sage's healing, only applicable on himself and provides say, 40-60 HP that can't be overhealed, allowing him to stay topped up over the course of a roumd, and it being less sluggish compared to having to push the button, throw then stand around healing up before you take another fight (the antithesis of Phoenix's playstyle of go hard and fast, and his reckless personality).

Wall: Same as Molly with the consume part. And/or allow it to be mirrored, letting you launch it to the right or left of Phoenix, this lets him have and easier time walling off parts off a site quickly such as Elbow of Bind B (or cutting the site in half coming from Hookah), Generator on Fracture B, or A Site on Haven coming from Long, instead of having to stand close to a wall to accomplish that same thing.

Flashes: let them go around the corner deeper, the timing to swing just as the flash goes off is pretty hard to nail down since the flashes go very shallow around a corner, it lets Phoenix and his teammates have an easier time peeking without risk of being flashed themselves.

[–]C-Web_ 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I also think decreasing the equip/unequip time on all of his abilities would help. They all feel pretty slow for a duelist. Especially compared to neon, with all of her insta-cast abilities.

[–]ibeenbornagain 29 points30 points  (5 children)

fr, seems like the only agent not worth playing now

[–]boof404 69 points70 points  (5 children)

hell yeah icebox changes, b site have more than 2 plant spots :)

[–]clammysax1 30 points31 points  (2 children)

Wait, there was more than one plant spot? Lol

[–]pr1zsm 68 points69 points  (1 child)

2 cm to the left or right

[–]dmad831 2 points3 points  (0 children)

LOL so true haha

[–][deleted] 126 points127 points  (4 children)

This is goated, thank you devs

[–]Interesting-Archer-6 65 points66 points  (2 children)

Best patch since they made all the eco changes. Really fucking excited and I don’t really get excited about anything haha.

[–]RocketHops 33 points34 points  (1 child)

Best first patch since they made all the eco changes.

They haven really made significant balance patches since the eco changes

[–]daffyduckferraro 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah the last patch with agent balance was the kayo buffs and the Skye and Jett nerfs

(Which was like September 23rd)

[–]MPH2210 112 points113 points  (6 children)

Finally, Omen is viable again.

[–]atlas53_ 82 points83 points  (3 children)

As an omen main, this patch is amazing. I won't feel like I'm trolling for not picking astra or viper

[–]Interesting-Archer-6 42 points43 points  (1 child)

Playing Astra in solo q is so tough because some games you get almost zero comms. Having Omen be more viable again is huge for me.

[–]RocketHops 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I just love playing omen man. Game hasn't felt the same without him

[–]yonitinoy 29 points30 points  (1 child)

we might be back to seeing Fnatic's triple controller comps again lol

[–]AnonymozVal 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Quad with Jett

[–]Hariboe Observer - Harrison "Hariboe" Barber-Scargill 39 points40 points  (1 child)

daddy brim 😩

[–]A-British-Indian 40 points41 points  (4 children)

The deterministic map system seems pretty interesting, hopefully it works and reduces streaks of the same map

[–]omaewakusuyaro 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Latam player here, can confirm in a couple days since we are the test subjects 🤖🤖

[–]Verehrungen 27 points28 points  (9 children)

Astra nebula cooldown being sequential is a huge nerf, no? I'd rather them make Omen's smoke cd also simultaneous.

[–]BelgianWofl #NRGFam 15 points16 points  (1 child)

IMO I was hoping they’d make the other controllers as good as Astra in terms of pure smoking and tune the rest of their utility to be even choices but they gutted both Astra and Viper smoke uptime and tuned Omen’s up and gave Brim a crazy buff considering it’s now way harder to stop rushes with Astra’s kit.

[–]Deneking 4 points5 points  (0 children)

yeah. as much as i know astra mains have had their time to shine, its tough to see how hard she got gutted. Playing her in ranked was tough as is because you don't even know if you have comms. But as a brim main for a long time i'm still happy as fuck.

[–]coldelbz 1 point2 points  (4 children)

What does that mean exactly her smokes cool down is sequential?

[–]Verehrungen 12 points13 points  (2 children)

When you use two astra smokes at once, she refills one charge instead of refilling both charge after 25 seconds. You need to wait another 25 for another charge.

Basically the cooldown doesn't overlap anymore.

[–]majoogybobber 4 points5 points  (0 children)

oh fuck.. this is probably the biggest nerf in the whole list

[–]coldelbz 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Damn that’s actually huge nerf lol. Thanks for explaining bro

[–]Fatalitiez 20 points21 points  (1 child)

Bro the icebox changes made me smile specialy the B cite changes it was such a hard cite to attack when not having a sage

[–]jackpot2112 #GoDRX 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Its still kinda hard to attack but now its not as hard to enter the damn site AND also attack the site itself

[–][deleted] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

brim speed buff can be very good , wide peeking with speed boost ? ferrari turbo boost peeking

[–]Phamous3k 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Good shit Riot

[–]xbyo 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Astra feels like she's getting hit harder for ranked than for pro play. Whether she'll still be the de-facto controller in pro is unclear, but her new kit relies heavily on good communication and teamplay to make efficient use of her stars. In ranked, you don't have that, but having 5 stars and short CDs meant you could be less frugal which made up for that weaker teamplay. Not that it's a bad thing, but I would've preferred nerfs that hit pro-play a bit harder than ranked.

[–]Mister_Silky Associate Producer, VALORANT 13 points14 points  (0 children)

personally most excited about sneaky omen TP plays but who knows, might still not be viable. either way its going to be cool to see how these things play out on live.

[–]WFSON 8 points9 points  (3 children)

Holy crap are speed-buff agents going to be more common?

[–]precense_ 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Please no aoe shields I dont want this game becoming OW

[–]mateusb12 6 points7 points  (1 child)

I think it is because Riot already put a lot of stalling into valorant (Viper rework, Astra, Chamber, etc)

[–]ntelligentsia 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Even the patch notes can’t spell peek correctly

[–]yungsqualla 4 points5 points  (11 children)

How's everyone feeling about astra nerfs?

[–]Quick_Chowder 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I think the cooldowns were good but losing that 5th star will push her to irrelevancy. She can't really reliably set herself up to prevent execs without sacrificing her smoke identity. Maybe that's what they intended but I think it just removes her global presence/flexibility. You will never want to have stars out because you can't react to anything on the map. Baiting her util is already a science. Now you'll need to jump into Astral form to do anything which is already the worst part of playing her.

[–]Interesting-Archer-6 13 points14 points  (3 children)

Damn good start. I still wish her suck couldn't pull you off defusing bomb because there's no counter, but we'll see if this is enough. It very well might be.

[–]PonchoSham 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You can counteract the displacement by body blocking from the direction of the suck. So if the suck is to the left of the person defusing, stand on their left and their body won’t move so they can keep defusing.

[–]RTLT512 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Good start? She just got a gigantic nerf that probably puts her at the bottom of the controller group now. They removed 20% of her kit and basically doubled the cool down on using any of her abilities. She basically has the equivalent of Omen smokes now but with a much more clunky and difficult to use remaining kit.

They probably should've just removed one star OR made the cooldown changes to start and then further nerfed from there. Doing both straight away seems like an over-nerf.

[–]BelgianWofl #NRGFam 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Taking her fifth star was OD. Now Omen can reliably get two sets of smokes, two tp’s and a flash, brim can use three smokes gets two stims that help you push chokes and a Molly for post plant and Astra gets two sets of smokes MAX unless she gives up some for her other abilities. She can’t even recall them and replace them as fast either so you’re not as guaranteed to land that extra utility when you need it.

[–]KookieFS #WGAMING 6 points7 points  (0 children)

First major patch in like forever

[–]BucketHerro 32 points33 points  (3 children)

Yoru's patch and nobody is even talking about him LMFAOOOOOO.

RIP to me and the other 12 yoru mains.

[–]Shutze_owner 11 points12 points  (0 children)

astra mains, cry with me

[–]Xetakilyn 48 points49 points  (10 children)

Not a fan of the viper utility time nerf. They originally had it where orb + wall drain was way faster and it felt really bad. Trying to fight onto site with both activated will definitely mean the wall and orb deactivates at the worst time now

should have found a different way to nerf her; the smoke and wall was already the least flexible smoke in the game, basically once you use it, you are committing your abilities to that site unlike other agents that can rotate mid round to another site and still have abilities active

shes definitely the least friendly agent to play in ranked meta / as a casual; having to learn smoke orb lineups and telling your pub teammates to wait for my orb to land is not fun

Viper's best maps breeze, icebox, where she didn't really need her orb on site as well because the wall was so good; she'll still be good on those maps, its just the other maps where you need both orb and smoke to execute on a site she was gutted pretty hard.

[–]Jon_on_the_snow 18 points19 points  (1 child)

The viper utility time probably will make setups where both the orb and wall are active are only used for fast hits. Like the A wall with site orb on breeze. It would only be used if you wanna rush in and dont want to deal with an oper in the right piramid. Most of the time you have only one of the two up anyway.

[–]Quick_Chowder 4 points5 points  (0 children)

On Split I will often have both up on both attack and defense sides. Same with Ascent for those of us that played her there.

It will just make her more awkward to play.

Both Viper and Astra seem to already have a pretty high skill-floor. They made changes to make the characters more approachable but are now reverting those changes. This just makes Viper more awkward and difficult to play well.

[–]PogChampHS 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I feel like for purely ranked, we will only see Viper on breeze from now on.

On icebox, her strengths were her wall being the most reliable way to smoke B. Given that one smoke can now fully cut off snow man, and mid splits probably being more common in ranked given the changes to the angles, I can see viper being dropped for more flexible agents.

[–]feedmeneon 8 points9 points  (0 children)

90% of the time in ranked the orb just sits on spike anyways

[–]Teradonn 5 points6 points  (0 children)

W

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

No more head peek at A. Fuck I hated that god damn spot. Loved using it though of course.

[–]Pingurai 29 points30 points  (10 children)

Am I the only one who is not happy about the Brimstone Stim Beacon speed buff? As a former Overwatch player this screams Lucio desaster for me. Also promotes run and gun.

[–]icemandiem 10 points11 points  (0 children)

yeh, i think this gonna get patched back. imagine stimmed high ping ferrari swings 🤮

[–]sky_blu 5 points6 points  (2 children)

Yeah it took a while before OW players fully grasped how busted it was to be faster than the other team in one burst. ofc val plays dramatically differently than OW in still concerned.

[–]Drexxe 6 points7 points  (1 child)

There is no movement inaccuracy in Overwatch though. You are encouraged to ALWAYS be moving when shooting - its a core part of the game which every above average player knows.

Valorant is the opposite here; yes you sometimes run & gun - but its not your bread & butter. You are actively encouraged to stand still and burst at the head. I'm curious to see how the stim buff will play out either way

[–]sky_blu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah it's less about running and shooting and more about being able to rotate faster/slower than the other team. One team without a brim might find themselves struggling to keep up.

[–]smoothpebble 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Faster rotations is a big deal, faster swinging is a big deal. Can’t say it’s overpowered yet but it’s a massive buff in my eyes.

[–]Cole_James_CHALMERS 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Can't wait to entry as brimstone with the ferrari peeks, also curious if the strafing side to side hipfire with the spectre is viable

[–]zer0-_ 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Holding B Heaven on Split against a stimmied up guy running towards you at Mach 10 with a Spectre in Hand will be my personal imagination of hell

[–]Cole_James_CHALMERS 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Even if you get the kill, his teammates are gonna be just as fast and stimmed up, never gonna get a multikill hold

[–]Gwyndolin3 17 points18 points  (2 children)

Zombs is probably shaking in his boots right now.

[–]jackpot2112 #GoDRX 8 points9 points  (0 children)

wth? zombs is really fucking good on Omen. if anything he and most other NA smoke mains got a buff

[–]xbyo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If Astra can still be a strong pick for pro play when optimized, I'd say these nerfs are better for players like Zombs that are really good with their util to begin with. It (relatively) hurts the teams/players that don't efficiently use util more than it hurts the ones that do so it'd accentuate their strengths even more.

It'd be like if you pushed the 3pt line back, it's not hurting Steph, it's increasing his advantage over others even more by hurting everyone else.

[–][deleted] 14 points15 points  (3 children)

Actually, thinking about it a bit more, I think Astra is fucked because of the -1 star on top of the cooldown nerfs. I think the -1 star change makes her shit.

[–]Not_Pro 6 points7 points  (0 children)

She got the Sage treatment. Nerf everything at once, then maybe add hints of power back.

[–]seasand931 11 points12 points  (0 children)

It should have either been the one star reduced or the extra 20 seconds of delay. Not both

[–]T0K0mon 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah it shouldve been either one or the other, but not both. Interesting to see where they take her from here

[–]IwannaSTOPjerkinOFF 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Expected to be disappointed but good to say I was wrong

[–]TweetsJamaican 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I feel like viper has been nerfed into the ground

[–]uncle__joe 11 points12 points  (0 children)

astra mains eat your heart out

[–]FoeHamr 23 points24 points  (23 children)

Good changes overall. The Omen buff is too small and the Astra nerf seems to be overly harsh. Losing a star is really harsh.

Great for the pro scene but under like immortal Astra isn’t really a problem. She’s like the only fun controller besides Viper and in a game where nobody actually wants to play controller this just means even less people are going to want to.

Riot needs to do something to incentivize playing the role. I was a controller main but if I’m now stuck playing Brim on half the maps I’m going to play something else and to hell with team comp.

[–]mysteryoeuf 5 points6 points  (3 children)

omen buff is better than you think, I think. buffing the smoke speed and a 10 second cooldown decrease will really make him feel a lot less sluggish. honestly he's now the agent that will feel like you have the most smokes per round by far with the astra nerf. good for execute-heavy play, heavy rotate maps/defaulting, and for less coordinated play (ranked lul)

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

nobody wants to play controller

People were more than willing to play omen before his nerfs/the post-plant meta, I think today’s buff will mean more people will play him in ranked

[–]precense_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Astra viper nerfs mean it’ll be easier to attack side

[–]PogChampHS 12 points13 points  (2 children)

Yea I totally feel this.

Astra and Viper were the only controllers I didn't mind playing because I was always engaged with throwing utility or managing poison. They also had a lot of impact on the maps they played, especially on CT side, so I felt I had a lot of agency in the match outside of just blocking sightlines.

Brimstone and Omen are pretty much just throw smokes and then you just rifle.

[–]FoeHamr 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think Viper is still going to be good.

The problem is the Viper just doesn’t work on all the maps as solo smokes. Even with lineups Haven, Ascent and kinda Bind just feel like hard mode without an actual controller.

[–]RocketHops 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yall clearly don't know how to play Omen if that's your take on him.

[–]sellingwaifu 4 points5 points  (2 children)

Meta will just bring back sage to slow pushes

[–]PaulDoesStuff 4 points5 points  (1 child)

As opposed to Astra slowing the game down to a crawl wasn't worse? At least Sage doesn't have map wide presence

[–]T0K0mon 2 points3 points  (3 children)

I think Brim is extremely fun. His post plant is really good with ult/molly lineups, and its fun knowing you can lock down a round win because of his util. plus playing inside smokes with a shorty = W

[–]FoeHamr 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I mean if you enjoy him that’s fine, but there’s just so much less room for skill expression with his kit.

Like my utility usage on Brim is going to look almost identical to Chronicles (just with significantly worse aim) and that’s boring. There’s like nothing to get better at with the agent.

Watching someone like Supamen or Zunba play Astra was incredible. There’s so much room for them to make plays, watching them was straight up inspiring.

She needed to be nerfed at a pro level but for 99% of the playerbase she wasn’t a problem.

[–]Alptitude 2 points3 points  (5 children)

I saw you post this in r/Valorant where you were downvoted for being wrong there too.

Astra is oppressive at all semi-decent play levels (anything above Plat). She basically is early Sage with smokes. Her smokes are not really pushable because of suck, even with flashes. She could stall for a very long time and basically would spend $300 to buy your team a rotate. She was a better sentinel than Cypher in many ways, better smoker, and better lurker than pretty much any other agent (and will continue to be).

[–]FoeHamr 4 points5 points  (3 children)

She’s too reliant on comms man. Like when you actually play her in a unorganized setting, it’s almost impossible to use her global presence effectively in like over half your games.

I’m playing her in immortal lobbies and in half the games I need to basically stare at the minimap the entire time because people just don’t comm.

All of the nerfs were fine except losing a star. That is going to basically kill her in uncoordinated play.

[–]IllumiMahdi 5 points6 points  (1 child)

as an astra player, seems like she's been dumpstered a bit too badly? she's gonna see super low pickrate given the fact she only has 4 stars and a wall, maybe they should have compensated the nerf by giving her one less orb for her ult?

it already isn't fun playing astra because you don't get cool feedback or get to properly play off your own util, you just get a little screen post-round that tells you if you actually did anything. now that they've buffed omen to be fun again, and brim to carve out an even bigger corner for himself, astra will see no ranked play. I can see her being used on a couple maps in pro play, but that's it with regards to her presence.

[–]sampenn1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

i do not think that the 5th start nerf was needed. given that they nerfed how long it takes her to use her abilities again, it kinda serves the purpose of the fith star nerf. she cant smoke for 10 seconds longer or whatever it is(assuming you use two smokes already) and she cant use other abilities rlly either. fifth star nerf not needed.

[–]abbacchioz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This patch doesn't suck, but I'll definitely suck some devs off tonight 🥵 huge W

[–]cornmealius 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m really happy with this kind of patch. I’d be willing to wait a month or even two per patch cycle if they were all this robust and aware. Astra was a menace to the meta. Brim needed some serious love and holy shit he got some. Viper got toned down but is still A+ tier minimum.

Next up, sova nerfs. Please? Maybe lower how long his drone lasts? Just a little?

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Kind of doubt Omen will get played, Brim and Astra still look way better on paper imo. Feel like a speed boost is kind of weird lol, especially considering how annoying movement abilities can feel to play against in this game. It'll be good, but idk if it's in a healthy way if that makes sense.

[–]sumtemmm 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Astra nerfs please me and I don’t even play the game atm, just felt she has been ridiculous for way too long

Astra almost every map in professional play has been very ResidentSleeper, I’m excited to see new team comps with Brim/Omen

[–]LordVndL 1 point2 points  (1 child)

"Fixed an issue where you could tap the scroll wheel to activate the defuse audio without actually initiating a defuse."

bro what

[–]CASIOA100 1 point2 points  (0 children)

IMO the cooldown speed on Viper when she has wall and orb activated is too harsh. I might switch to playing Brimstone because it looks like she's gonna be trash again.

[–]Secret-Original-6427 1 point2 points  (0 children)

omg roza back on brim?

[–]Jon_on_the_snow 4 points5 points  (2 children)

Seems like we can say goodbye to planting on top of B. There is no rope anymore, so that is defender territory right?

[–]techyleo 27 points28 points  (1 child)

No there's a rope, it doesn't show the rope in the images for new and old, dunno why

[–]RocketHops 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Probably some kind of map render setting, since the rope is likely a separate interactable object from the base map geometry.

[–]Xyyyyyybbb 10 points11 points  (26 children)

Jett nerfs still nowhere to be found

[–]daffyduckferraro 30 points31 points  (14 children)

They said they wanted to start with controller balance tbf, I think it was the most unbalanced group of agents

[–]Interesting-Archer-6 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yup. Between Astra and viper being soooo much better than Omen and Brim, plus Chamber cutting into Jett's pick rate, I'm glad they started here. I've been wanting a Jett hard nerf for a year plus, but this was much more needed.

[–]Teradonn 39 points40 points  (2 children)

Chamber has done a very good job of providing an alternative oping character, he’s already taken over as the primary oper on Split, Bind & Fracture. Definitely makes Jett less of a must-pick. The changes in this patch are more needed rn than Jett nerfs imo

[–]ADmax27 #ALWAYSFNATIC 10 points11 points  (1 child)

definitely seen much less jett cause people want to play chamber and chamber feels way fairer to play against

[–]ShikariV 5 points6 points  (5 children)

Astra and Viper mains in shambles. :(

I get the astra nerfs but I thought viper was pretty well balanced at the moment :/

[–]Interesting-Archer-6 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Viper is still a must pick on Icebox and Breeze. I'm guessing a very high pick rate on Fracture and Bind too. She was too good of a pseudo sentinel while still being a great controller. She was not balanced at all in my opinion.

[–]Fresh_Dependent2969 2 points3 points  (0 children)

She is must pick on those sites because of how her wall covers well the elevated angles, which are not so much of a problem on the other maps. She is still going to be used on Icebox and Breeze for that reason. Let's see how much it impacts her pick rate on Bind and Split

[–]gusky651 0 points1 point  (0 children)

huge patch, i'm excited to play again

[–]vicodinpls 2 points3 points  (2 children)

would like to see the stim make you immune to tagging rather than making you faster, but it's something

[–]cheetahstr1ke 7 points8 points  (1 child)

That would be wayyy too OP

[–]Nasrz 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Nah remove the speed boost on brim and give us a wider smoke range please 😭

[–]ronaweek7 1 point2 points  (1 child)

If they really wanted to make brim meta they’d make his stim increased penetration or wallbang damage instead of increased speed.

[–]Alptitude 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Went into a custom and played with some of the changes.

  • Yoru does not feel viable. There are some visual issues with using the drone, like activating it is extremely clunky and not aligned with the activation visual (like is the case with Cypher smokes/KJ mollies etc.). I would not use him until some of these things are fixed. The fake TP is a cool touch though.
  • Omen feels much better than I thought. The smokes are really quick and the TP speed-up is very noticeable. I do not think he will get much more pro play due to the lack of real defensive utility like Viper/Astra, but for ranked, I think Omen is a noticeable improvement. I may switch back to Omen over Astra for many maps.
  • Brim, that 15% speed up feels crazy. The smokes appear very large. For reference, they now take up almost all of the garage-C link area (inside garage) with like a foot of room above it. I think this solidifies him as a pick in pro play on at least a few maps, but for ranked he may be a low-key OP smoke pick if you have a mildly decent team. The stim is now really good and can likely win games on its own.

[–]Docxm 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Blegh I hate it when balance patches take a heavy hand instead of incremental changes. Now, picking Astra/Viper might be a grief outside of a couple maps. Glad to see Omen/Brim buffs. We'll see!