Riot Games reveals the role of the next Valorant agent

John Goscicki, a Character Producer for Valorant, released a State of the Agents dev log post today on the first-person shooter’s website. In it, he discussed some of the changes recently made to agents in patch 3.06, as well as what will happen with agent balance now that the Stage 3 Masters has concluded. He also briefly mentioned Yoru, who is still due for a rework. But the most interesting tidbit Goscicki dropped revealed the next agent coming to Valorant will fulfill the Sentinel role.

I won’t go over the agent changes from patch 3.06 again. You can check them out in our article covering the patch. The short version is that Jett got major nerfs, Skye got some small nerfs, and KAY/O got some buffs.

The thinking behind the tinkering

Before patch 3.06, Jett was simply too good at everything. She could make risky plays and get away with them thanks to her ability to rapidly retreat with her dash and cover her tracks with Cloudburst. Her Ultimate Ability also allowed her to solo win a round without the need to purchase a gun. Goscicki rationalizes that the recent round of nerfs aim to make Jett more accountable for her actions. Players cannot be as free-spirited with her anymore. However, Riot Games will keep an eye on how much the changes impact Jett’s gameplay.

With regards to the Initiators, Skye and KAY/O, Goscicki says the developers took a light-handed approach to balancing them. When it comes to flashes, things can quickly get out of hand. So, KAY/O is now a little bit faster and Skye a little bit slower. But, as with Jett, the team will monitor the gameplay of the agents to see if they need to tweak their abilities some more.

A magnifique agent

Then Goscicki revealed the thought process behind the next agent. The Valorant team was considering different ways the next agent joining the roster could play the Sentinel role. The key descriptor he used was, “A Sentinel that focuses on mechanical outplays, with an additional focus of gunplay into the mix for an extra flourish.”

Combine that with the teaser image above and I get the feeling that we may have a suave spy on the way. Either way, the new agent sounds like it may have more ability to carry than the existing Sentinels.