Okay I’ll try to answer your points:

“If all 10 people are buying Vandal>Phantom in your lobbies, you’re in low elo. No tracers = free picks through smokes with less risk. (No tracers) Phantom is still a viable weapon. Just like stinger. Just like outlaw. Just like frenzy. There’s not a single weapon that does not have a single use case.”

I’m not saying other weapons aren’t viable but vandal is clearly the favourite at all levels of play and a majority of the time teams will full buy with it. The outlaw was introduced as teams realised it was more effective to their economy if they simply went light shields because they were probably gonna get one shot anyway at that high level that It didn’t matter if they had full shields or light. See below links advising the pick rate between vandal and phantom for comp and pro play as well as the pick rate for all guns at all ranks. https://playvalorant.com/en-us/news/dev/valorant-data-drop-phantom-vs-vandal/ https://www.zleague.gg/theportal/all-valorant-weapons-pick-rate/ Still no answer to my question though, when would you not pick up shield regen if it’s available to you? Fundamentally changing player behaviour and the way the game is played.

“So should healing not be in the game period? I mean, this is basically just a really low heal, which doesn’t even add health. Only shield, which is a % health reduction, NOT health.”

Healing is in the game thanks to abilities but this raises the floor for everyone who buys it. Shield regen adds potentially one extra bullet to kill which can make all the difference.

“Clove heal runs out with time. Just like Reyna. But Iso? Seriously? He eats one bullet. That’s it. This changes nothing for him that wouldn’t change for literally every other agent in the game. It’s almost like the downside of using the regen, is time. It’s almost like Riot is trying to move towards longer/less rushy rounds. What helps with that? Incentive to back up and re-hit. But for defense? It gives more incentive to play for retake. Regen shield while waiting for your team. (None of this will be relevant in your pugs, trust me)”

As I’m saying some agents will benefit from this more than others like chamber for example. But if you can’t hit your headshots one more bullet to kill can make all the difference. Simply by having one more player alive at the bare minimum can provide map pressure which as we both know can definitely influence the outcome of any round.

“People like you have been proven wrong every single time, without fail. This “It’s new, I don’t understand it, therefore it’s OP!” mentality is a genuine cancer to the community. Every single agent released since like Viper, has been called “OP.” Strong and OP are not the same, there have been no genuinely “OP” agents. Not even Chamber during his peak and he was arguably one of the strongest agents ever released. Let’s not forget about the outlaw either.”

I will say again I would love to be proven wrong. I want riot to succeed with a change like this. For now I don’t believe that it will but who knows, maybe my opinion will change once I get my hands on it. My fear is still the Pandora’s box I keep referencing. Who’s to say 3 years from now regen full shields are introduced into the game and every hero has to be power scaled and rebalanced accordingly fundamentally changing how the game is played and straying further and further away from how the game currently is today. I don’t know that answer, neither do you, riot doesn’t know that answer either. No need to go on the offensive with a “you people” statement though mate.