Valorant Nerfs The Operator Sniper Rifle And Tweaks Five Agents

Valorant fans, we hope you like nerfs. You probably don't, but you're getting them anyway, as five agents are getting various tweaks in patch 1.09 -- some buffs, some nerfs -- while a gun that's been highly overperforming is getting some major changes to make it less dominant.

First, the agents. Reyna's Empress has its fire rate bonus reduced from 25% to 15%, while Jett's Blade Storm really gets the whammy, with three changes designed to make it less effective at long range. On the flip side, Omen gets better projectile VFX for Paranoia, Brimstone's Stim Beacon offers a better fire rate bonus, and Viper receives three positive changes, so it's not all bad.

The biggest changes come to the Operator sniper rifle, which is described as having "outsized strengths" that make it too difficult to overcome, especially since it can be purchased, with Armor, as early as round three. As such, the Operator sees a price increase and several other changes to make it slightly less effective overall. The goal is to make it still viable as "the most powerful angle-holding weapon in the arsenal" while making mistakes with it "easier to punish."

Adjacent to the issues with the Operator are the ability to land from a jump and make a snap shot, so Riot is increasing overall jump landing inaccuracy for all weapons. Additionally, high-ranked players will no longer have to wait an hour(!) in the queue while looking for a match and multi-line breaks in chat are no longer enabled because "sneaky people were impersonating system messages to troll others into quitting a match." That's a lousy trick, but you have to admire the ingenuity.