Riot promises more Valorant balance changes in 2022 after update lull
В Riot has promised more Valorant balance changes in 2022 after slowing updates ahead of Episode 4. The developers acknowledged that the restructuring of the team resulted in a lack of updates, but next year there will be more focus on the meta game.
The Valorant meta has remained largely unchanged for most of 2021, especially in the second half of it. Riot wasn't too interested in implementing major balancing changes - with the exception of the Jett nerf, which was brought back after being accidentally submitted.
The recent Valorant 3.12 patch had several quality of life changes. Riot has finally introduced Agent-Specific Keys, a long-requested community feature, as well as changes to player maps.
However, there have been no changes to gameplay balancing since the Valorant 3.09 patch (with the exception of Chamber's release in patch 3.10).
Now, the company wants to pick up the pace in 2022, promising more Valorant balance changes that should shake up the meta.
“You can expect patch notes with more gameplay changes pretty soon. We're trying not to shake things up too much during Champions, but we've got some changes we're happy to ship out after it's all over (scattered across multiple patches)" said developer Coleman "Altombre" Palm on Reddit.
The developer appreciated the patience of the players during the lull in the changes, stating that Riot is building in new structures to help with balancing.
“We're restructuring the team to prioritize rebalancing and better support it going forward, and I think we're in a much better place right now. We're glad you can see what we're working on," he said.
Riot made a similar promise after the launch of Episode 3 of Valorant. With players having to wait months for new agents and maps, and Riot dropping skin packs to get players excited, the excitement quickly subsided.
The developers acknowledged that the content was "easier than [they] would like right now", but the focus has now shifted to rebalancing the game's meta.
Yoru's rework is still on the maps for Valorant, although it has been delayed indefinitely. A new progression system is also reportedly in the works for Valorant Episode 4. As the behind-the-scenes work on the game continues, players are hungry for more and Riot is gearing up to ship new content.