Ever since Patch 8.11, many players within the Valorant community have either been ecstatic or furious with the buff for Neon, an agent that was once considered mediocre. After a long time, the developers seem to have heard enough complaints regarding how overpowered she was. On November 11, they announced on X (formerly Twitter) that an adjustment is on its way with the coming Patch 9.11 that is expected to be released on the 10th of December.
This announcement made a huge racket around the community, with some players—mostly Neon mains—being worried sick since Riot developers have been notorious for butchering agents in Valorant with devastating nerfs that either make them super weak or even completely mediocre.
The Buff That Turned Valorant’s World Around
Back then, Neon had been considered unusable by most of the player community because of how much of a situational pick she is. Neon could only work at least half decently in limited maps and is very easy to counter with just an above-average sentinel.
When Patch 8.11 was released, it came with a lot of adjustments for Neon’s kit; a blessing for those that love picking her and a nightmare for those that don’t. The most notable of these improvements and what made her the notorious overpowered agent that has been the subject of complaints for so long are her famous swift sliding attacks with high accuracy—ever so deadly with a shotgun.
Most Notable Buffs:
- Two chargeable slides from one, allowing her to kite around the map more and is what became her signature aspect.
- A faster charging fuel bar that allows her to spam.
- The weapon errors during slides were removed, making her insanely accurate in those swift maneuvers.
- A boost with her speed in general.
Neon is such a broken Agent in Valorant especially with a shotgun or rifle in her hands thanks to her speedy slides that are as what complaining players say—too unnecessarily accurate for the fairness aspect of the game. She can both attack and dodge easily with all these mobility upgrades, not to mention her annoying Overdrive ultimate that shoots fast high damage energy blasts. From being mediocre, she became almost unstoppable; a seemingly peerless Agent that’s been ruling the game for quite some time now.
Patch 9.11: The Nerf That Will Slow Neon Down
One of the Valorant devs, Penguin, made a tweet in their X account that Neon will receive a nerf in the upcoming Patch 9.11. Penguin stated in their post they too, agree with the playerbase that Neon is just too strong. He assured the community that they are working on some adjustments to balance out Neon’s abilities that feel overpowered, and that these changes, coming in Patch 9.22, will maintain the agent’s grounded movement combat fantasy.
This announcement surely made the day of those who are tired of Neon being too overpowered in the game while at the same time leaving the Neon mains very anxious of what’s to come. As of now, we still have no certain updates regarding what the nerfs on Neon would be in this Patch 9.11 of Valorant, but we do have some speculations thanks to some articles and insights of the player community.
Possible Changes For Neon:
- Decreased accuracy with weapons when sliding.
- Reduced damage with her Overdrive Ultimate.
- Reduced regeneration speed for fuel bar.
- Changes with her High Gear and Overdrive ability.
Conclusion
Since the Patch that made Neon great, many have complained but it seems like the developers only decided to take action when the pro players began to point it out. Nevertheless, we are now promised that they are starting to take action and we can expect results this coming December 10.
We don’t know for sure what’s to come but we have some ideas and even though the developers have been too merciless at bringing nerfs to some agents in the past, they assured us that this time around they will be fair and balanced with Neon.
