Ever since the agent Raze first drew the ire of the fans, players have been quoting Riot CEO Nicolo Laurent’s Tweet that “you don’t kill with abilities.” In their latest Developer Blog Riot has finally addressed the past statement.
Be it on Reddit on in Twitch chat, whenever complaints about game balance are aired in VALORANT, the community loves to quote Riot’s CEO:
To be clear, in Project A, shooting matters. You don’t kill with abilities. Abilities create tactical opportunities to take the right shot. Characters have abilities that augment their gunplay, instead of fighting directly with their abilities.
— nicolo (@niiicolo) October 16, 2019
The Tweet was made back during the initial announcement of the game, long before the general public had a chance to try the game. It only took until the beta for critics to point at that statement and accuse Riot of hypocrisy. Especially Raze drew the ire of players as her kit consists entirely of damage dealing abilities. Newest Agent Killjoy is now the focus of critique as even Riot disabled her from professional play.
Read more:
- Is Killjoy OP? – New Agent disabled at FaZe Clan Invitational
- New agent Killjoy polarizes the community
- Raze nerfed to allow more counterplay
Riot addresses “You don’t kill with abilities”
In their latest developer blog VALORANT’s Character Design Lead, Ryan “Morello” Scott now responded to accusations of hypocrisy. He begins by saying that the statement was not entirely accurate and a mistake from their side. Especially because Raze and Killjoy’s abilities were already decided by then.
Morello continues by saying that “our damage abilities are designed with the goal of creating threat.” Guns are supposed to be the primary method of finishing opponents off that are preoccupied by dealing with the abilities. He also promises that cases currently not adhering to that design will eventually be fixed. Scott closes his statement by apologizing to players for having potentially unintentionally misled players, but remained firm on damage-dealing abilities as part of VALORANT.
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Health or gun replacement abilities will not be implemented
“Abilities don’t kill” was not the only thing addressed in the Developer Post. Riot also defined a clear red line that it will not cross in terms of abilities.
Morello said, that “increased maximum health tends to be a no-fly zone, as do abilities that replace guns (that aren’t an ulitmate like Jett or Raze).” The aim of this restriction is to keep the highly consequential gunplay that is currently within VALORANT.
It is still unclear if Riot’s statement in regards to “Abilities don’t kill” will prove sufficient for the critics. Nevertheless the developer has now clarified their stance and design principle for future updates.
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Image Credit: Riot Games