Riot reveals huge Jett dash nerfs in Valorant patch 4.08

Riot Games has revealed quite a few changes for Jett that could massively alter the Duelist’s performance in Valorant post-patch 4.08.

Riot Games has confirmed that Jett will be receiving notable changes to her Tailwind ability. As revealed by the developers, these changes will allow them to increase game health by balancing Jett in line with other Agents.

Given that Riot Games had promised that Episode 4 will witness a slew of Agent updates, these changes for Jett don’t really come as a surprise to the community. Having said that, let’s dive in and check out all the upcoming changes for Jett.

Contents

• Massive changes for Jett’s Tailwind in Valorant patch 4.08
• Riot explains Jett’s upcoming changes
• Devs talk about upcoming Agent changes in Valorant

Massive changes for Jett’s Tailwind in Valorant patch 4.08

Riot Games

Jett’s Tailwind will now have to be “activated” before use, in patch 4.08.

Tailwind

• On pressing the ability key, after a short delay Jett activates a 12 second window where she is empowered to immediately dash on next button press.
• Her Tailwind charge is lost whether she Dash’s or the window expire, but can still be regained with two kills.

Riot dev explains Jett’s upcoming changes

The developers have further described the key issues that they found with Jett’s dash. These are:

• The dash had no prerequisite, so she always had access to her escape power with no intentional decision making. This freedom gave Jett the unintended capacity to continually take space or hold unusual ground without having to commit her ability. This play pattern is something that no other Agent could match, and allows Jett to exert an extreme amount of pressure on a match in a way that can be oppressive, especially at high MMRs or in professional play.
• This lack of intentional decision-making made it feel like she played outside of the tactical cycle all our other Agents adhere to. Too often, she didn’t have to leverage game sense that other Agents needed to succeed, because her reactive dash could often negate her own strategic mistakes or the great tactical calls by her opponents.
• As we talked about in the Controller Deep Dive, one of our core design philosophies is that Agents are sharp and provide both clear upsides and opportunity costs when compared to their peers. Jett’s strength as both a dash-in executor on attack and holding angles with an Op—with unrestricted access to escape—provided her broad power with little downside. We want her to retain as much aggressive power on offense as possible but reduce her defensive Op power.
• Even in highly coordinated play, she’s proven very difficult to strategize against, and her access to an instant escape (not to mention two on-demand smoke screens) marginalized most of the tools the rest of the Agents have to deal with her.

Having said all of that, Alexander Mistakidis, Agent Designer on Valorant along with Jay Watford, Agent Designer, and Sal Garozzo, Game Designer, went on to explain why they took this approach for Jett’s changes. They said,

“We want Jett to have her power moments and to be able to dash, but we also want viable counterplay and for Jett players to be more thoughtful when using their abilities.”

They further went on to add:

“Jett’s reactive power crowded out the competition for other Agents and pressured the core tactical promise of the game to a degree that we think it would be dangerous for the roster to try and match.”

Although all the upcoming changes are completely justified, it will be exciting to see how it affects the in-game meta. It also remains to be seen if any other Duelist can finally dismantle Jett from her position as arguably the most explosive entry-fragger in the tactical FPS.

Devs talk about upcoming Agent changes in Valorant

During a Q&A session for the recent nerfs to Jett and Sova, developers revealed that their prime focus is to ensure that all the Agents can share a level playing field in Valorant. They further went on to elaborate that similar to various balancing changes in Episode 4, the community can expect further updates to various Agents.

• Read More: How to play Fade in Valorant

Additionally, the devs also explained that the current nerfs for Jett and Sova are meant to encourage players to pick similar Agents like Neon and Fade respectively instead of fixating on the former two. With Episode 4 Act 3 set to go live on April 27, it remains to be seen what other changes the devs might have in store for the Agents in Valorant.

So there you have it, that’s all you need to know about the upcoming changes for Jett in Valorant patch 4.08. Make sure to check out our other guides for Valorant:

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