Iso’s “deserved” buffs make him the best Duelist in Valorant

Iso, along with Reyna and Neon, received massive buffs in Valorant patch 8.11 and the player base has concluded after only a few days that the Chinese fixer is the best Duelist in the game.

In the 8.11 update, Iso received a massive upgrade to his Double Tap ability. Now, the agent can activate Double Tap’s shield after a one-second animation and is impervious to one instance of damage. The ability also has two charges instead of one.

Getting a kill still spawns a marker that resets the shield when shot. Additionally, Iso has two charges on the ability.

The buffs seemed strong on paper, leaving some to contemplate if he’d become a niche counter to sniper rifles. Now, after just a few days of testing, the community has learned just how powerful Iso is following the update.

Pros have posted highlights from their high-level ranked matches, showing how powerful the Duelist is in their – and their opponents’ – hands.

While some have bemoaned the changes to Iso, Neon, and Reyna as “broken,” the community has deemed these buffs well-deserved.

“These buffs are more than warranted, both of them have been near (for Iso, literally at) the bottom of the agent food chain for a very long time now. I’m so glad that the duelist class is not just ‘Jett/Reyna/Raze’ anymore. This is the most diverse the duelist role has ever been, at least in ranked, and it’s been so refreshing to see,” one Valorant player said in a Reddit post.

Other users agreed with the post, saying Iso and Neon needed buffs to hang with the rest of the cast.

“Iso changes are great, he can be the 1v1 menace he is supposed to be without having to chain Kills with no pause,” one Reddit user wrote.

The buffs to Iso have also increased his pick rate exponentially since the patch dropped on June 11. Before the update, the Duelist sat around a 1.1% pick rate across all levels of the game and is now 3.7%, according to Tracker.gg.

Thanks to these changes, Iso is now considered a top Duelist in ranked play and arguably the best in the class.

Whether Riot Games will keep the agent in its current state remains to be seen but, for now, players are having more fun with Iso than ever before.