Cypher's kit takes a blow after the 1.11 Valorant patch update

Valorant's latest patch saw nerfs being handed out to multiple agents, including Cypher.

Riot Games' tactical first-person shooter, Valorant, offers players the option to choose from a variety of agents, each of whom come with a unique set of abilities and utilities. These agents are also categorized into tiers, such as Sentinels, Initiators, and Duelists, among others, where every tier serves a specific purpose.

The 1.11 patch update in Valorant saw a major nerf to multiple characters from the Sentinel tier, and this what the official statement from Riot Games stated:

"We want to increase the depth of decision making when playing Sentinels while also providing enemies with more counterplay to “trap” abilities. To reduce the total potential impact of these abilities, autonomous traps are now disabled when the deployer dies. We want to encourage Sentinel players to play more thoughtfully and carefully around their traps while increasing the reward for taking out the Sentinel player."

With this being said, let's take a look at how these nerfs affect Cypher's armory, and how it could further impact his overall gameplay.

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How will Cypher's nerf affect Valorant's gameplay?

Considered to be one of the best agents in Valorant by professionals, Cypher's nerf comes as quite a surprise to players, as these new game mechanics will force Cypher mains to be much more cautious.

I made a booboo and added this to the patch notes too late, missing the cut off for localization. I figured I'd want to share this so that there is no confusion when the 1.11 patch drops. Sorry everyone but if you have any questions feel free to reach out to us!

— rycou (@rycoux) November 1, 2020

According to @rycoux, Game Designer at Valorant, the nerfs applied to Killjoy and Cypher in 1.11 patch are called "Temporary Charges". According to the designer:

"Temporary charges will be applied for any abilities that are re-usable within the round whether it's to be recast or be repositioned. These charges aren't carried over into the next round."

This statement clarifies that both Cypher's Trapwire, as well as his Spy Camera, will be disabled and revealed when Cypher dies. This change quite clearly means that if a team manages to take out the enemy Cypher at the beginning of a round, they'll find themselves in a much safer situation than usual.

The abilities with these implemented are: Killjoy's Alarmbot, Cypher's Trapwires, and Skye's heal. Camera and Turret are still able to be repositioned and recalled but the charges come for free anyways as part of the signature system :]

— rycou (@rycoux) November 1, 2020

In a game like Valorant, where maintaining in-game economy is a major factor, the nerf to Cypher means that in spite of not triggering any already set traps, the agent would have to reinvest on those at the beginning of the next round.

With these changes coming to Valorant, it remains to be seen how Cypher performs in the hands of a professional player. However, one thing that does seem certain is that the nerf will heavily affect the dominance that Cypher mains had when defending spike-sites.