Iso’s buffs on Valorant patch 8.11 took him from one of Valorant’s worst Duelists to one of the best, with players already asking for nerfs just days after the patch dropped.
Released on June 11, patch 8.11 saw a revision to Valorant’s Duelist pool, a pool that’s been mainly dominated by Raze and Jett. While many were shocked by improvements like Reyna’s Dismiss speed, the complete dominance of Iso has turned Valorant’s community upside down.
Iso’s been a nightmare in the game due to massive improvements to his Double Tap ability, and in the right hands, the agent is nearly unkillable. Clips from pros and players alike have shown how dominant Iso has become, nearly mirroring the reign of Chamber and Astra before they were both nerfed.
Needless to say, Iso’s been a massive headache for the community, and many, like German esports org CGN, are begging Riot Games to nerf the Duelist.
The best part of Iso’s reign was during the lead-up to the update, the community assumed Neon’s buffs were going to make her head and shoulders stand above the rest of the changes.
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Yet, while there are clips of her going crazy due to bugs or straight gunplay, the narrative’s been completely flipped as Iso became the game-breaker.
The game’s subreddit isn’t fairing any better either, as numerous threads are dubbing Iso broken, especially in Ranked Play.
“If my team doesn’t play Iso, we lose, if both teams play iso they will both have over 30 kills easily,” an Immortal 1 player said in a post that ended with: “T side 2024 Iso > CT side 2022 Chamber.”
The buffs in play were in direct response to how weak Iso had been since its arrival back in October 2023, though it’s likely that Riot moved the needle too far in the other direction.