Valorant patch 5.03 hits its best agent with another nerf

Valorant's agent Chamber walks through a pink dimension as a clone walks by

(Image credit: Riot Games)

Riot Games has had another go at balancing Chamber in Valorant’s patch 5.03, tweaking each ability in his arsenal to make him less dominant.

The sentinel character has become a popular sight in both ranked queue and the pro Valorant scene, making him a touch unavoidable at the moment. It also means that Chamber mains have figured him out to the point that his weaknesses are harder to exploit than Riot would like.

“As players in both ranked and pro play have mastered Chamber, his strengths have started to overshadow his weaknesses, making the counterplay to Rendezvous and his arsenal not as effective as we’d hoped,” Riot says. “Chamber’s overall strength has also felt outsized, and we believe that we can reduce the complete power of his kit while still keeping him competitive with the rest of the roster.”

As you can imagine, it is indeed Chamber’s Rendezvous ability that has seen the most work. Base and recall cooldowns have been increased to 30 seconds, though that can extend further to 45 seconds if someone destroys an anchor. You’ll also need to stand closer to the Rendezvous to use it.

“Chamber’s Rendezvous is intended to be powerful at holding space, but the generous radius allowed him to take that space with more aggression than intended,” Riot says.

“This change should require Chamber to exert more effort to access off-angles. We hope that a harsher punishment for destroyed Rendezvous anchors, and the reduced radius will demand Chamber mains to be more careful in their use. This change also brings the counterplay of Chamber’s destructible objects more in line with the behaviour of other destructible objects in the game.”

Riot has also decreased the slow duration of Chamber’s Trademark and Tour De Force abilities while increasing the bullet cost for the Headhunter move. “It’s important that Headhunter is a powerful sidearm for Chamber but at its current price point Chamber doesn’t have to engage in making difficult economic decisions as meaningfully as other Agents,” Riot adds.

“This should most noticeably impact Chamber’s decision making on pistol rounds and save rounds. The ultimate point change to Tour De Force is also working towards this goal.”

Elsewhere, Riot has significantly changed agent Neon’s ultimate, Overdrive. The speedster now does more damage to enemies if she hits them in the head, though general power is down, especially if you only hit someone in the leg. Though not everyone is happy about it, the idea is to reward accuracy.