Steadiness is at all times the primary subject in the case of on-line multiplayer video games. There may be by no means a silver bullet answer. There’s somebody on the market who would not like that 0.1% nerf or 10% buff. cherish is a sport by which numerous OP characters seem and disappear. Bear in mind Chamber and even Jett’s authentic model when it was launched? However some of the irritating brokers to cope with has at all times been neon. Give her Bucky or Decide and she or he’ll stroll away, tearing aside anybody in her path and planting spikes earlier than they even notice she’s on the scene. She’s at all times been a menace, however in 2026, she’s downright disgusting.
Neon’s downside, maybe unsurprisingly, is her uncooked pace. Excessive Gear permits her to slip throughout the map, avoiding hazard whereas the quick lane partitions conceal her. Then there’s bunny hopping. Neon’s excessive gear allowed her to fly across the map along with her head coming out with ease. In 2026 tough It is for individuals who aren’t neon followers like me.
After sitting on the bench for a brief time period, the Filipino duelist was (fortunately) hit with a Nerf hammer. Leap pace in excessive gear is now on par with different brokers, and the gas gauge solely refills once you get kills in your final. Because of this, she fell a bit in Valorant’s tier listing, being changed by the ever-dominant Clove, however typically these adjustments had been for the higher.
On-site at Valorant Masters London – the place neon had a choose fee of simply 32% in comparison with 45% in Santiago – I requested Lead Agent Designer Dan ‘penguin’ Hardison and Agent & Dwell Product Supervisor Tiffy ‘TiffyMunchsnax’ Tsay: neon storyAnd in the event that they’re proud of the place she landed.
“Neon is certainly tough to steadiness,” Hardison says. “I feel duelists are a tough a part of the character to steadiness, as a result of our inner expectation for duelists is for them to step ahead, take up area, and take dangers for the staff, which clearly can include challenges. , as we labored to steadiness the sport, we discovered over time that it was very tough to maneuver gamers away from Jet and Rays, who’re cell duelists who can fly over setups and take over area in a short time.
Patch 8.11 marked the staff’s “first experimental design change to provide grounded characters area in the identical efficient means.” The replace additionally got here with controversial Neon and Iso buffs, and Hardison acknowledged that there have been “tuning challenges on account of these adjustments,” however mentioned he believed “[the game]ended up in an honest place.”
“Neon’s latest adjustments had been primarily what we might name sport well being adjustments. We weren’t strictly seeking to simply decrease Neon’s energy bar,” he continues. “We needed to enhance the ‘fight’ expertise for Neon opponents. The speculation was that as a result of she bunny hops whereas sprinting, she might take up a number of area with out expending talents or utilizing related instruments in comparison with different characters.
“That is the change we ended up making, and I feel we did a superb job of suppressing a few of her powers. She’s nonetheless actually, actually highly effective, however we have seen far more spread-out duelists on this event up to now, so from my eyes, the adjustments had been profitable within the brief time period.” We’ll should see if she comes again, however basically it looks like each time we make a listing that focuses on the well being of the sport, it curbs participant frustration and makes the ecosystem higher.” We predict it is a win on the developer’s facet. ”
Tsai agreed, stating that “It is all about what’s the appropriate solution to get gamers to play as duelists, and the way can we set the appropriate expectations for the gamers competing in opposition to them. This is the reason we thought a brand new gas system with neon was one of the best ways to go at this level.” She stresses that the staff did not wish to intrude with Neon’s “expressive motion,” however admits that the bunny hop wanted a “hit.”
Neon’s reign of terror is considerably over, however she’s nonetheless an agent who at all times feels fully damaged or fully ineffective. I do not envy her for her well-balanced dancing, however I am glad she did not wipe me out a minute into the spherical, at the least for now.
