Riot Finally Nerfs Valorant's Most OP Agent

For the entirety of 2022, Chamber has unanimously been the most dominant Agent in Valorant. The community has been calling for his nerfs for months since Chamber dominated both pro and casual play.

Riot tried to tone Chamber down with a couple of nerfs throughout the year, but the Frenchman didn't even flinch. However, Patch 5.03 finally brought sizeable nerfs to all of his abilities. Is it enough?

Chamber changes on Patch 5.03

"As players in both ranked and pro play have mastered Chamber, his strengths have started to overshadow his weaknesses, making the counterplay to Rendezvous and his arsenal not as effective as we’d hoped. Chamber’s overall strength has also felt outsized, and we believe that we can reduce the complete power of his kit while still keeping him competitive with the rest of the roster."

Rendezvous(E):

• Base Cooldown increased 20s >>> 30s
• Recall Cooldown increased 20s >>> 30s
• Cooldown set to 45s whenever a Rendezvous anchor is destroyed
• Diameter size of the “ring” Chamber can stand that allows him to activate Rendezvous decreased 21m >>> 15m

Trademark (C):

• Slow Duration decreased 9.5 >>> 6s

Headhunter (Q):

• Bullet Cost increased 100 >>> 150

Tour De Force (X):

• Ultimate Points Required increased 7 >>> 8
• Slow Duration decreased 9.5 >>> 6s

Is Chamber dead?

Although the community instantly celebrated the "death of Chamber," they might have jumped the gun a bit. In the first ten days of the nerfs hitting live servers, Chamber's pick and win rates didn't change much. Yes, Chamber got hit hard, but was it hard enough?

Chamber might not be the must-pick on every map and every situation kind of Agent anymore, but he is still top tier. His position was very unhealthy for the game before the nerfs, as picking any other Sentinel just didn't make sense.

Now, Agents like Killjoy and Cypher might see the light of day in some cases. While we still expect Chamber to be played a lot, especially in pro play, there is more room for other options.

What really changed?

You might need some time to adjust to the new Rendezvous radius, but the distance between anchors stayed the same, so you can still place them at the same spots. Maybe you won't be able to buy as many bullets now, but is that really as big of a deal?

Slow durations on his Trademark and Tour De Force were nerfed quite a bit, but six seconds is still a lot of slow time. Also, if you play Chamber as you should(getting a lot of kills), you won't feel the extra Ultimate point too much.

Chamber is still a prime Operator user with a "get out of jail free card." His Sentinel/Duelist hybrid kit is super valuable in almost any team composition, so kicking him out of meta won't be an easy task. We expect to see some more variety in the future, but don't think Chamber is gone.