Lets break down what we know so far about Episode 2 of Valorant, which begins on January 12th!
Quick list:
Classic burst fire update
Omen Nerfs
Brimstone Buffs
New Battle Pass
New Agent Yoru
Classic pistol burst fire gets a small nerf, it seems the recoil just increases if you spam the right click a lot, but it doesn’t look like it should affect gameplay that much.
Here are changes to Omen and Brim. Omen has been a long time high pick hero, while Brim has become one of the least picked heroes since most teams only end up with 1 smoke hero and Omen being preferable almost every time. These new changes could shakeup the pick with 2 big nerfs to omen and brim getting a buff on almost all his skills.
This video shows you a rundown of the entire battle pass:
Valorant Act II is just around the corner and it’s bringing a new Agent with it.
Along with an overhauled ranking system, that I’m hyped for – Killjoy will be introduced. Her skill set details have been released:
Alarm Bot
Essentially a landmine version of Raze’s boombot. You can throw it down and it will go dormant, if someone enters its range, it will walk up to them and explode in the fasion of Raze’s boombot.
Turret
Self-explanatory turret, you throw it down and it covers a 180 degree cone and will shoot any enemy that enters that field of vision.
Nanoswarm
Looks like an AOE damage grenade. You can throw it like a grenade and then activate it to create a circle area of damage that lasts for a few seconds.
Lockdown
Looks like you place it down (can’t throw it) and it needs to wind up for about 10 seconds. Once it winds up it will cause a slow effect on anyone within a *very large radius*. The slow lasts for 8 seconds and also disarms them.
Thoughts
Killjoy is looking to be a very viable hero. Her defensive capabilities and even offensive both look strong af. I can sense a cross between Cypher and Raze.
On defense, her turret can quite literally cover an entire extra angle for you. The Alarm bot can work just as well as a Cypher trip wire to alert you when an enemy is entering and Nano swarm can slow a push from the enemy team. Not to mention lockdown can help push enemies off an entire site or force them to try to look for the device to shoot down, pushing them out of position. If you crossfire with your turret, enemies will have to choose between shooting you or the turret, either way you can deal some damage to them before they push the site.
Offensively, once again, lockdown can defend a site for an entire 10 seconds once you have the bomb down, or you can use it to push even. Grenades are always useful, so nanoswarm and even the alarm bot can clear deep corners if you don’t want to wide peek them. The turret remains useful for covering the bomb as well, so if you are the only player left, you get an extra set of eyes.
I get the feeling everyone will call Killjoy broken. Reyna definitely was overpowered on release, and she has since received some ninja nerfs making her more in line with the rest of the roster.
