The dreaded day for Neon mains has come, and Riot Games has finally revealed the nerfs to the Duelist in a recent announcement.
As expected, Valorant patch 9.11 is hitting Neon with some drastic nerfs, reducing her overall viability in pubs and pro play alike.
The changes to Neon are aimed at curbing her dominance in the current meta of the shooter. For the uninitiated, Neon has been a top pick across all ranks of the game since her initial buffs in patch 8.11.
But what exactly about Neon is getting changed in the upcoming update? Let’s find out.
Valorant 9.11 Brings Massive Neon Nerfs
The nerfs to Neon in Valorant 9.11 are focused on her slide and ultimate ability.
As confirmed by the devs, Neon will no longer be fully accurate while sliding. Additionally, the number of slides available to her has been reduced from 2 to 1.
“We want ability usage to feel intentional, but we found that Neon having two slides allows her to engage in combat, and have a get out of jail free card,” Riot dev Dan ‘Penguin’ Hardison said in a statement. “We’ll be removing the full accuracy buff during the slide, now it will be more similar to the accuracy you have when crouching and moving.”
But that isn’t all, as Riot is also significantly tuning down her ultimate ability by reducing its timer and increasing the number of ult points required to pop it.
“We’ll also be making the timing tighter on the Ultimate so that it’s more important that you have a plan for how you would use it,” Hardison continued. “And also, so that opponents have more counter-play opportunities to bait it out or wait it out.”
With that being said, here are all the Neon nerfs that you can expect in the Valorant 9.11 update:
- Slide count reduced from 2 > 1
- Slides will no longer be fully accurate.
- Tighter Ultimate timing.
- Ultimate Cost increased to 8 Ult Points
