Iso, along with a few other Duelists, is getting some massive buffs in Valoran patch 8.11 and it seems like he can directly counter the most powerful weapon in the game.
In a tease of the upcoming patch, Riot Games outlined changes to the agent’s Double Tap ability.
Iso no longer needs a kill to activate the shield from ability after the update, and now has two charges instead of one. The ability will also reset if he gets two kills, making it an even more potent part of his kit.
The Double Tap shield “absorbs one instance of damage from any source,” so players can stop anything from an Operator shot to a Raze rocket.
The Valorant community has started to realize just how crazy this buff is as after the new patch rounding corners to check for enemies or a sneaky Sniper will no longer be an issue.
Iso players will no longer have to net a kill before trying to challenge a Jett holding an angle with the Sniper Rifle. Instead, players piloting the agent can activate Double Tap, wide swing the angle, tank the Operator shot, and kill the enemy.
“With this change, you can peek the OP user and not get punished at the start of the round But what I like about this change is, that now you can cast your E, get a shield, and use ultimate(X) to start the duel with shield,” one Reddit user said about the massive change to Iso.
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Riot has yet to confirm if Double Tap can be activated while in Iso’s ultimate with the changes. However, on the current patch, if players have their shield active after netting a kill they will have the shield in the one-on-one arena.
Reddit users in the competitive Valorant subreddit are more pessimistic about the changes, saying other agents counter the Operator with smokes or flashes.
“It’s good for taking gunfights but the rest of his kit is still as a** as ever. Also, there’s no reason to pick an agent just to counter the OP when many other agents have the utility to counter the OP as well even if its not as strong as iso’s shield,” one user said.
Others also pointed out that by picking Iso as a counter to a potential Operator buy, which doesn’t happen every round, teams would also lose a spot for another Duelist with more than one useful ability.
How the changes will shake out with Iso and the other agents won’t be known until the patch rolls around. But, Iso players should be prepared to play entry the second they know the enemy team is running the Operator.