tw: allat
tl;dr: not enough gamemodes, nerfing agents/pongs makes game more unfun and harder for new players
right now, i think valorant is a game too focused on the competitive balance and not concerned enough with the casual playerbase. since i do both (watch pro valo and play a good amount), i think i am somewhat qualified to comment on how i ENJOY both the playing and viewing experience.
to be honest, i really enjoy watching professional valorant, especially with co-streamers like sliggy who can explain both macro and micro well. however, as a player, i find that i am losing interest and autopiloting when i play. i started in iron and grinded up to plat, and somewhere along the way i lost the drive to improve, especially when its just the same comp game over and over again while trying to deal with throwers, manchild ragers, e-daters, and smurfs. since there is no variety in game type (literally spike rush is the least competitive gamemode we have bring back replication rito).
how is this related to the ping change and agent nerfs?
the problem i have is that ping changes and agent nerfs all punish players who have been playing the game for some time. while obviously there needs to be changes made for agents that are obviously broken, like beta raze or old jett, i think they have nerfed some agents too hard. i think they could make minor changes to agents that would not impact pro play significantly but also keep agents being fun. for example, why are jett knives 8 ult points now? why does jett only have one updraft? i feel like if you kept one of these two changes it would change how jett is played but also keep the agent more fun. now you lose the ability to do stuff that you could do in the past (double updraft kills), which makes the experience of playing jett worse.
its the same thing for pings. pings are also very useful for stuff like pinging the kj lockdown location so that you have the exact elevation to sova ult. people are already talking about non-us servers having trouble with comms without pings. but more than that, changing how pings work is a quality of life DECREASE that makes the game more unfun to play AND hurts new players who are learning the ropes.
same thing with some agent nerfs. for example, skye nerf was probably necessary because of the double controller meta. but now i find skye is just unfun to play. you have to be careful with the flashes, the dog can't pivot while jumping, ult is now 8 points, etc. now, you've just made skye more unfun to play when really only the flashes needed to be changed.
finally, people, including riot, think ults are way stronger than they actually are. a lot of players, especially newer ones, more carefully use their ults especially since they get that dopamine rush from brim ult kills or chamber op. imo, making some ults 9 points (like viper ult or kj lockdown) also inherently makes the game more unfun to play because you are decreasing the tools players have rather than tackling the actual problem that makes an agent "broken".
Discord