Several major Operator nerfs announced for next Valorant update

A Valorant developer has detailed all of the nerfs the Operator sniper rifle will be receiving in a future update, and there are some major changes in store headed players’ way.

The Operator, or OP as its affectionately known, is the quintessential high-risk, high-reward sniper rifle in Valorant (much like it’s cousin, the AWP from CSGO).

While the gun is by definition, a ‘hit-or-miss’ type of gun, it’s become one of the most complained about weapons in the game by players who find themselves on the wrong end of it one too many times a match.

In an interview with Team Liquid’s Lucas ‘Mendo‘ Håkansson, Valorant dev Nick Wu Smith revealed all of the nerfs coming to the weapon, and explained why devs chose the aspects they did to change.

(Timestamp at 1:20 for mobile viewers)

Before we get into the reasons behind the changes, let’s take a look at the changes themselves. One of the more notable changes is that the OP will now cost 5000 instead of 4500, making it harder for teams to pick up early on.

Not every change is a nerf though – its fire rate has been increased from 0.75 to 0.6 seconds, but this does go along with a slight reduction to leg damage and equip speed.

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The full list of Operator changes shared by Nick Wu are all below:

• Price 4500 to 5000
• Scope Movement Speed 76% to 72%
• Scope Deadzone 30% to 50% movement speed – inaccurate aiming sooner after moving, slowly become accurate after 2.2 seconds.
• Fire Rate 0.75 to 0.6
• Equip Time 0.3s to 0.5s
• Leg Shot 127 dmg to 120 dmg
• Jump Land Accuracy -> slightly longer inaccuracy time after landing from a jump

Leg shots will now only do 120 dmg, which means you can survive a shot with just light armor.

“It feels more like OP is overperforming in aggressive, offensive use cases,” Wu said when explaining what devs focused on for the changes. “Players have gotten really good at peeking with this weapon, and I think it’s overperforming in a way that’s getting really frustrating and it feels like there’s not a lot you can do about it.”

During the video Wu said the updates would arrive in “next week’s” udpate. This means we should expect to see the changes for the Operator arrive with the patch notes on Sept. 29.