Footage of the new Episode 8 update in Valorant has dropped on social media and shows some massive changes coming to Deadlock. But the buffs have failed to impress the community.
Riot Games is dropping the first big update of 2024 for Valorant, Episode 8 Act 1, on January 9, 2024. With the update comes new skins, cosmetics, map pool updates, and some buffs for Deadlock.
The Sentinel Agent has not been played much casually or professionally and is considered one of the weakest characters in the game.
Influencers and pro players were able to play on the new patch early and have started posting some of the changes to Deadlock on social media. The update has failed to impress the community so far.
Valorant community unmoved by Deadlock changes
The Agent gets a major power boost in the new Episode, with her Barrier Mesh expanding significantly and her Sonic Sensor now both retractable and quicker to stun.
When shown the Sonic Sensor changes, some Valorant pros and coaches posted sarcastically on social media that the update was groundbreaking.
https://t.co/E1DmRZdL0a pic.twitter.com/DXkrOKwmVQ
— Mehmet Yağız İpek (@cNedf0r) January 5, 2024
Even casual players pointed out how useless the change seems to be for her overall gameplay.
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being able to pick up and redeploy a useless ability isn’t gunna save her…. https://t.co/PwKaIq6BWm
— Decay (@DecayCantAim) January 5, 2024
“Being able to pick up and redeploy a useless ability isn’t going to save her…,” one social media user said.
Deadlocks’ Barrier Mesh change, on the other hand, might be more useful as it can span across an entire bombsite and cause problems for attacking and defending teams. But fans seem more surprised at the change than excited to try it out.
Analysts also don’t seem to be impressed with the changes to the Agent with a former Fnatic and Version1 coach describing why she isn’t picked in the current meta.
Catch Barrier Mesh slicing your whole site now 😳 Still going to die on the hill though that without a more reliable trigger condition and/or ability to manual trigger Sonic Sensors there's too large a functional void in Deadlock's kit vs. passive info sentis https://t.co/e7Sm5b0SGh
— Martin ''Anderzz'' Schelasin (@AnderzzTV) January 5, 2024
“Still going to die on the hill though that without a more reliable trigger condition and/or ability to manually trigger Sonic Sensors there’s too large a functional void in Deadlock’s kit vs. passive info Sentinels,” Martin ‘Anderzz’ Schelasin said on social media.
Without some ability to gather information for her team, Deadlock will remain a secondary Sentinel and likely won’t replace Agents like Cypher or Killjoy in the current meta.