In Valorant, the developers addressed balancing in a video post. Unlike League of Legends, they do not want to regularly intervene in the game with balance patches. Rather, players should first master the game with the weapons and agents before complaining about things being too strong or too weak.
What did the developers say? In a video post to the community, developers Salvatore “Volcano” Garozzo (Map Designer) and Trevor “Classick” Romleski (Game Design Lead) discussed balancing in the beta of Valorant. Here, the developers seem to be taking a different approach than in League of Legends, where there are regular balance patches.
For Valorant, we want to take an approach where we do not reflexively react to everything we see in a forum or on social media. We want to ensure that players have the time to solve problems themselves. So, using all systems and content in the game to see if something is really OP or really too weak.
Trevor “Classick” Romleski
The developers want you to first familiarize yourself with the game better, understand the systems, and find out for yourself if you can easily counter a possibly overpowered hero. However, they do plan to intervene with patches and fixes if necessary, but only when there is no other option.
Aside from that, we will be finding a difficult balance here. We need to determine the right time to intervene and introduce a patch and when it would be better to let things take their course and let players solve the problem themselves.
Salvatore “Volcano” Garozzo
Controversy over Raze – Will there be a nerf or not?
What is the big balancing issue right now? The developers’ video is from February, but it fits well with the current controversy in Valorant. The newly introduced heroine Raze at the beta launch is currently stirring up emotions. Many players, including Twitch star Summit1g, find the heroine with her grenades and rockets too strong and overall terribly annoying. Therefore, Summit has been calling since day one of the beta, “Just delete her already!”
On the other hand, there are players like former CS:GO pro shroud, who has banned Raze to the 10th and last place in his personal tier list because, in his opinion, she brings no benefit to the team.
To him, Raze is merely a heroine who is only good at killing newbies who do not yet know how to counter her.
How do the developers plan to respond? However, regarding Raze, the developers seem to be deviating from their creed. In an interview with Polygon, Trevor Romleski mentioned that a nerf for Raze is likely to come. However, he did not specify concrete measures, mentioning that they might adjust the damage or implement better detection options and warnings for her strongest skills.
The patch with the Raze nerf has also not been specifically announced, but according to the developer, it is supposed to arrive “soon”. Until then, you can use the time to improve in the game and possibly make some problems less problematic. For example, by familiarizing yourself with the mechanics of sound in Valorant.
