Valorant: Why is the Jett-Operator combo so overpowered

Jett from Valorant has been making the rounds on Reddit, and not just because of the ‘rebibe’ parody. After the pros introduced it, almost every high-rank lobby in Valorant has been plagued by the Jett-Operator combo.

Recently, veteran FPS player and Valorant coach - Twix, posted a long article on Reddit discussing the problems with the meta. In reference to the Jett-Operator combo in Valorant, he said:

“This isn't going to be a lengthy topic, but I just wanted to address the blatant issue that is the Jett + Operator combo in MM. There is a very good reason why every lobby in higher ELO is dominated by Jett in terms of winrate & pickrate, it's not due to Jett's kit individually, it's due to Jett's potential when paired with an Operator, especially in maps like Ascent which allow you to hold long, open angles."

"We briefly discussed earlier, how it's good in terms of OP counter-play, that the maps in this game force you to commit to full body peeks, and that getting hit while out in the open heavily punishes the player, well, you can ignore all of that just by picking Jett. People constantly talk about Jett saying "oh nerf her updraft, nerf her ult, nerf her smokes 7 seconds is too long!" but the glaringly blatant issue to me is her dash."

" Jett's dash allows for her to hold any position with the Operator, without having to worry about getting traded post-kill, or even getting caught out if she misses her shot because all she has to do is press "E" after shooting ( plus she gets her E back after 2 kills ). Jett's ability to reposition so freely, paired with her ability to set up in off-angles using her updraft, is what makes her so powerful in combination with the operator"

"Sure, Reyna can use her E to reposition as well, but 1) It's an extended animation 2) You actually need to kill someone to use it 3) You need to have LOS with the orb 4) You need to have your orb up to begin with ( needs to be bought / gained post-round ).”

What is the possible fix to this Valorant meta?

Well, Twix didn’t leave us hanging on the topic. He did, in fact, provide his insights on the matter, and even offered a possible solution that the Valorant devs could turn to.

The Reddit Valorant Coach says,

“The solution to this issue is pretty clear to me, Jett's "E" / Dash ability has to be nerfed, I don't exactly know how this would be best balanced, but I'm sure a team of full-time game developers that have loads of experience working on game balancing can come up with a reasonable adjustment; Regardless, I have a couple of ideas of my own."

"My first "fix" would be to simply add a short delay, something like 0.25 / 0.5 seconds post-shooting where Jett can't use her dash before that. Even though a 1/4 of a second time-frame is extremely short, it's still enough for a decent player to punish Jett before she can freely deny the trade."

"My second idea for a "fix" would be to limit Jett's dash usage to the direction she's facing. This would make it much more mechanically challenging to reposition after shooting, and is very similar to my first suggestion as this change also effectively adds a short delay pre-dash, as players will require a short amount of time to adjust their aim to the direction they want to dash towards.”

This being said, Valorant's Jett-Operator combo still remains one of the most lethal agent-weapon combinations in Valorant, as is evident from the active pro scene. However, what balancing changes might be introduced by the Valorant devs in the future, remains a suspense, as we head into Act 3.