Riot respond to complaints about the Operator being “OP” in Valorant

Riot Games have responded to Valorant fans after backlash over the Operator sniper rifle being “too overpowered” in Patch 1.06.

Is the Operator OP? The jury is still out…

While the narrowest of margins (a 0.6% swing) suggest that the community is in favor of the current Operator meta, it’s fair to say that the jury is still out. While some believe that effective use of utility is enough to counter the scoped rifle, plenty think that making the rifle slightly more expensive might bridge the gap.

So while there are no specific changes in the pipeline, there’s no doubt that Riot will have their ears firmly placed to the ground when navigating an potential nerfs in the future.

Original report below. 

Snipers are often one of the most popular weapon classes in first-person shooters and Valorant is no different, with the Operator rifle rewarding those who hold correct angles with one-shot kills.

However, some players have felt as if the popular bolt-action might be a bit too strong, often leaving little ways to counter Agents with an Operator equipped.

Riot Games

The Operator Sniper has been a controversial weapon amongst Valorant players.

While pro players like TenZ previously suggested that adding small changes, such as scope sounds, would make it much better, the overall opinion is that the Operator, at least, needs some tweaks to be balanced.

Riot has responded to some of the criticism in their latest ‘Ask VALORANT’ blog post, on August 27, addressing issues such as footsteps and update times as well.

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Valorant dev Nicholas ‘Nickwu” Smith explained that Riot’s Game Design team does not think that the Operator is “too OP” but they understand the complaints.

“We think the Operator isn’t “too OP” but do believe that the feeling sometimes comes from a lack of personal agency against the weapon,” Nickwu admitted, “coupled with an overwhelming amount of team coordination to effectively counter an Operator.”

The Valorant dev followed up by adding that minor adjustments may be made but the overall power of the Operator won’t change much, “We’re looking into a lot of avenues to help smooth out the experience, but we do believe the Operator should be powerful and should encourage a team to thoughtfully enter a space where it might be in play.”

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He also revealed that they had “tried iterations” of Valorant where the Operator wasn’t as strong as now, claiming that there were no moments where a team “was forced to sit down and plan how to play against a good Operator,” which led to gameplay becoming “who could rush faster.”

However, as with all aspects of Valorant, the devs admitted that, while there are no changes planned as of yet, they are constantly monitoring the game and will make adjustments where needed.