Last week, multiple reports stated a silent nerf had been made to Viper, one of VALORANT’s most picked agents, in the recent Patch 8.05. Due to this nerf on such a famous agent, many wondered if VALORANT has been silent in updating various agents. A few hours ago, VALORANT gave a public statement concerning the nerf to Viper. The exciting aspect of this statement is that VALORANT has hinted that another nerf is coming to Viper soon.
In this article, let’s take a deep dive into the statement by VALORANT, the ramifications, and when we can see the next nerf to Viper.
Image Credits: Riot Games
Viper Was Nerfed Over 150 Days Ago
Viper has been one of the most impactful agents since her launch. She has one of the highest pick rates during many VALORANT tournaments worldwide. In a recent statement on their social media channels, Riot said the following concerning the ‘Silent Viper Nerf’:
“During our most recent balance pass, we discovered that Viper’s smoke uptime is shortened in-game. This is due to an update that had unintentionally shipped in 7.09, resulting in reduced smoke duration and cooldown after deactivating Viper’s smoke.”
VALORANT Update 7.09 was made public on October 31st, 2023. This means that the ‘Silent Viper Nerf’ has been in the game for over 154 days. VALORANT Update 7.09 is also the update that launched Iso into the game. This in itself is quite a revelation because it means that for nearly half a year, no one detected such a nerf in the game.
A Major Viper Nerf Coming Soon In VALORANT?
The second part of the statement by VALORANT is rather interesting. It states the following:
“While we hadn’t meant for these to go out, they are a rough preview of some upcoming updates we now have set for Patch 8.08.” they close out the statement with: “since Viper has proven such a dominant force in the meta even with her smoke duration reduction, we will not be reverting the change before the next update.”
This is something to look into, as VALORANT might have hinted that Viper will receive a significant nerf in the upcoming weeks. During the recent VALORANT Masters Madrid tournament, Viper had a dominating pick rate of 78%. VALORANT Update 8.08 is speculated to be going live worldwide in May. We could see a significant nerf being applied to Viper in that patch.
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This article was originally published here
