Valorant: Riot Games enforces new Sentinel dynamics in Patch 1.11

Valorant Patch notes 1.11 is officially out now, with the long-awaited new Agent Skye. Simultaneously, Riot Games added a few nerfs and buffs to certain Agents, as has been discussed before. Specifically, these changes have been aimed at Initiators and Sentinels in Valorant.

Riot-sponsored Valorant tournament - First Strike, is already on its first round, with the qualifiers ongoing. Thus, it is important to note that Riot mentioned,

"All of our Sentitenals and Initiators are getting role and abilities-specific tuning, with the start of First Strike in mind."

Riot Games nerfs Sentinel Agents in Valorant

With these changes in the game, players need to adapt quickly, especially if they are maining Agents like Cypher or Killjoy. The Valorant community recently witnessed how these two Agents have exploits all over the maps in the game.

At the same time, Agents like Breach and Sage also received some minor changes. Hence, Riot Games decided to give them a class-specific fine-tuning to up the ante. This essentially means that Sentinels will have to adapt to a survivor style. Dying early in a round as a Sentinel or staying too far away from one's kit, might not be the smartest thing to do in Valorant anymore.

"Similar to some of the changes we made with Sage, 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 (e.g., Cypher's Trapwire disables when Cypher 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."

Cypher's Trapwire and Spy Camera nerfed in Valorant

The latest change added to Cypher's kit stops him from being omnipresent in Valorant. Cypher is one of the Sentinel Agents that has maintained a high pick rate in tournaments. Concurrently, Cypher is also one of the most versatile Agents, as he can collect map intel just as well as Sova can.

Cypher's Trapwire is perhaps one of the sneakiest ways to catch the opponent off guard in Valorant. Developers have noticed how players raised an issue about its potency even after Cypher's death. This allowed Cypher's team players to hold the same angle after and get a free kill. However, Riot has decided to nerf Cypher's Trapwire. It will now be visible and disabled upon the character dying.

Furthermore, Riot has decided to tweak Cypher's Spy Camera. Just like Trapwire, the Spy Cam will be disabled after Cypher's death. This will affect the gameplay in a significant way, as the Spy Cam was a shrewd way to monitor the opponents. Several videos show secret spots to place Cypher's Spy Camera in Valorant.

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Killjoy's kit tweaked and buffed by Valorant developers

Killjoy's abilities also got nerfed in Valorant. Recently, the Valorant community saw a spike in the use of Turret on Haven, significantly to cut off C Lobby and Mid Doors.

Riot mentioned the following in their patch notes:

"Killjoy is most effective when locking down a single site. Killjoy has to stay near her Turret and Alarmbot for them to remain active."

Killjoy's three abilities were nerfed in a specific way, which will now necessitate Killjoy mains to stay close to her spots. For instance,

"Alarmbot and Turret now deactivate if she is more than 40m away from them—reentering the 40m range reactivates her little friends,"

This alone shows how much players have to adapt. Earlier, players could place the Turret on one site while defending the other one.

Similarly, there are a few buffs that Killjoy has received to both her Alarmbot, and Nanoswarm. As Hitscan mentions in the video, players will consider this move by Riot a nerf to Killjoy's kit. Regardless, contrary to popular opinion, Killjoy has become much more potent.

There is also an upside to the Turret, as players will now have to wait only 10 seconds after picking up to place it in a different spot. Naturally, this will induce a dynamic where Killjoy mains are prone to changing Turret locations to confuse their enemy.

The damage increase added to Killjoy's Nanoswarm will overshadow the distance differential nerf that comes with Patch 1.11. However, Riot did not mention whether Killjoy's Turret will get deactivated after death, like Cypher's tools.

That is perhaps a mechanic they are looking to shift towards with Sentinels in Valorant. Regardless, Patch 1.11 brings a lot of new changes to the game, and players have to adapt to a particular style to main Sentinel Agents in Valorant.