Valorant: Riot Nerfs Ares After Repeated Player Complaints

Riot Games recently showcased its first major rework for Valorant following the release of Episode 4 Act 1: Disruption.

In Patch 4.01, the community received tweaks for many of the game’s weapons and Agents along with the addition of new community features.

However, the big talking point of Patch 4.1 revolved around the nerf to Ares following the controversial buff during the Episode 4 Act 1 update.

In the patch notes, the developers at Riot Games stated their reasons to nerf the weapon after they had made it powerful in the previous update.

The community wasn’t happy about the changes made to the weapon in Patch 4.0 as the developers had massively decreased the weapon’s recoil. According to the previous patch notes, the weapon lost its spin up, and other than that, the developers also improved the firing rate from 10 to 13.

Patch Notes 4.01:
🛠️ Round 2 with Ares adjustments.
🗡️ Melee tweaks are in.
📒 Muted Words List— input words you don't want to see in-game! We'll compare globally to help improve detection and make chat less toxic.

Read 'em here: https://t.co/ZFOAhfFt49 pic.twitter.com/97XWGia0l2 — VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) January 19, 2022

In Patch 4.1, the developers noted that they prefer the new improved fire rate for the Ares. However, they also mentioned that the weapon lost its uniqueness following the removal of the spin up.

After the Ares became a recent meta in Episode 4 Act 1 of Valorant, the developers have revealed a nerf which would make the weapon more difficult to control for players.

According to the patch notes, the developers have increased the pitch recoil. Originally, the spread rate of the weapon goes from 0.8 to 0.7 degrees after firing 10 bullets. However, following the nerf, the spread rate goes from 1 to 0.7 degrees after firing 13 bullets.

Other than that, the developers have also decreased the recoil benefits of shooting with the Ares while crouching from 40 to 25 percent. Finally, Riot Games has also changed the price of the weapon as it will now cost 1600, instead of 1550, which makes it as expensive as the Spectre.

The patch notes also included details about other new features to the game, including the new “Muted Words List” which will allow players to censor certain words in the in-game chat to prevent toxicity.

It will be interesting to see the changes in the weapon’s usage following the nerf as the Ares will be much harder to control. However, at the same time, the increased fire rate will still cause players to get attracted to it, and it remains to be seen if the weapon will remain a meta in Valorant