Valorant Patch 5.12 Takes Chamber Down a Peg or Four

Big changes are coming to Valorant with patch 5.12, and us Chamber mains aren’t going to be too happy with them. In a recent blog post, Riot Games’ Agent designers Kevin Meier and Jay Watford discussed some changes coming to the Parisian Sentinel that aim to knock his overall dominance down a couple notches while sharpening his precision-focused playstyle. Even after nerfing Chamber in a previously released patch earlier this year, it seems that his influence is still too strong for the balance that Valorant aims to maintain. Could we finally see the French sharpshooter sitting on the bench for a while? Here’s all the changes coming to Chamber in Valorant’s upcoming Patch 5.12.

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Chamber Nerfs in Valorant Patch 5.12

Careful considerations were taken when approaching Chamber, as Kevin Meier states, “The team discussed and tested a number of ways to balance Chamber. The more we iterated the more it was apparent that his current mechanics were shaping play space in an unhealthy way…”

Here’s how Chamber’s abilities will be affected in the upcoming patch:

Headhunter (Q)

• Updated Stability Curve
  • Spread increased after 2nd bullet, when spamming. This is explicitly meant to reduce low-precision body-shot spam as an effective combat measure.

It’s called “Headhunter” for a reason, after all. This change punishes players who miss that first shot on their opponent’s head, making it less likely for them to secure a kill by spamming afterwards. Better load up Aim Lab.

Rendezvous (E)

• Chamber now places a single anchor that can be teleported to while inside its range
  • Radius increased 15m >>> 26m
• Removed teleport activation height restriction
  • You can teleport to the Anchor while on different verticality so long as you are within its radius.
• Increased weapon equip time after teleporting 0.4s >>> 0.7s
  • Headhunter is unaffected by this change
• Destroying Rendezvous teleport anchor now disables it for the remainder of the round, instead of being placed on a cooldown.
• Chamber no longer incurs an additional cooldown when recalling his Anchor after teleporting.

This is probably the biggest change to Chamber’s kit, and will undoubtedly affect the way he’s played in the future. Previously, Chamber could place two teleport anchors and bounce between them both, allowing him to effectively cover two sites on some maps. Now, he’ll be restricted to focusing on a smaller area, but should be capable of executing some interesting plays nonetheless.

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Trademark (C)

• The trap is now range restricted
  • Trademark will disable when Chamber moves out of range, and reactivate once he is inside.
• Can now be recalled mid-round
  • Does not require line of sight
• 30s cooldown on recall
  • Destruction remains permanent
• Initial Arm Time increased 2s >> 4s
• Health Increased 1 >> 20

Chamber’s anti-flanking coverage takes a big hit with this change, requiring him to remain close to his trap to remain active, much like Killjoy’s technology. Though he’ll be able to recall and place again, Chamber loses the ability to cover specific areas from across the map.

Tour De Force (X)

• Fire rate decreased by 57.5%

Chamber’s ultimate ability loses more than half of its fire-rate, causing it to shoot about as slow as the standard Operator. Though, it still out-classes the Operator, as its lightning-fast ADS speed remains intact.

Slow Effect

• This applies to both Trademark and Tour De Force
  • Reduced duration 6s >> 4s

These changes, while unfortunate for Chamber lovers, should bring a healthier balance between Sentinels and their roles, while pushing Chamber towards a more deliberate playstyle. We’ll have to wait and see how the greater player base adapts to these changes to find out if Chamber remains in the spotlight.

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You can check out the entire blog post from Meier and Watford here. For more information on Valorant, take a look at our other guides here at Prima Games.

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