Valorant Update

Patch 5.12 comes with meta defining changes to the game. Chamber has received big nerfs, making many question his viability in competitive play. Here are the changes-

1. Headhunter- The spread after the second bullet has been increased to avoid body spamming which has been a very effective method to get out of desperate situations.
2. Rendezvous- Instead of 2 teleports to go between, he now places a single anchor with a larger radius to which he can teleport while in range. Additionally, its height restriction has been lifted (you don’t need to be at the same height as the anchor) and the weapon equip time has been increased from 0.4 to 0.7 seconds. Destroying the anchor disables it for the entire round but recalling it incurs no additional cooldown after teleporting.
3. Trademark- The ability has become more like killjoy’s alarm bot. It has become range restricted meaning the player will have to be in certain range of the trap. It can now be recalled mid game just like the alarm bot as well. In addition, its health was increased from 1 to 20 meaning low damage guns like the classic will not destroy it in one shot and its arm time was increased from 2 to 4 seconds as a counter balance.
4. Tour de Force- To the dismay of many Chamber mains, its fire rate was decreased by 57.5%. This makes it easier to punish him missing the first shot much like an operator. The CSGO-like operator is no more.

Finally, both the trademark and tour de force have reduced slow times from 6 to 4 seconds.

The changes were aimed at counter-balancing his easy escapes by making it easier to punish him for over extending or missing shots. His ability to control the map without even being present with his trap and still apply pressure somewhere else also needed to be restricted. 

The day after this announcement, the map rotation for patch 6.0 (January 2023) were also announced. Split will be reinstated with some changes in competitive and unrated queue while breeze and bind will be removed.

This article has been written by Gaurav Advit.