VIPER NERFS?! How will teams approach playing the maps going forward?

In this video I discuss the newest Valorant patch 8.08 and discuss the viper and cypher nerfs that took place. I talk about what I think will happen to the meta and how comps and playstyle might change map to map! These are just my initial thoughts, my outlook is subject to change over the next couple of weeks!
Thanks so much for taking the time to watch, let me know what you think this means for the game!!
0:00 Intro
1:05 Viper Nerfs
4:54 Ascent
5:50 Bind
10:36 Breeze
13:20 Cypher Nerfs
15:00 Icebox
17:47 Lotus
19:35 Split
22:10 Sunset
/ discord
/ vapenfps
/ vapenfps_

[@MeepGamingYoutube]

yeah they need to bring back the second molly, losing that is waayyy to big of a nerf for ranked players and the smoke nerfs should be enough for pro play

[@vapenfps]

Ya the molly hurts a lot, they should have just nerfed damage or duration on it I guess

[@Envity0405]

I don’t think these nerfs will impact Viper’s pick rate a ton. Obviously she isn’t as good anymore but you still have the global presence, info denial, lurking potential, decent stall. Breeze and Icebox will probably stay at an insanely high pick rate, but played as double controller with Omen/Harbor. Sunset and Ascent will most likely shift away from Viper as she wasn’t as dominant anyway. Lotus and Bind did get weaker of course, but the attacking info denial and defensive stall is just too good imo, even with 1 molly. Split I’m not too sure of. Viper obviously is still good, but a second initiator would also be nice. The biggest problem that I see with this nerf though is that the ranked pick rate will drop to almost 0%. She wasn’t pick a lot anyway (especially in lower ranks), but now you’ll almost never see her. It’s kind of a Reyna problem but in reverse, where if you buff Reyna so she gets picked in pro play, she gets way too overpowered in ranked.

[@prakharchaurasiya8107]

For ranked, the biggest change is the loss of a molly. Almost no lineups anymore, only being able to stall a fast exec once and always having to choose when to throw molly.

[@M3rkZula]

the thing about viper is that she does something no other agent does so i still think she will still get a decent pickrate, pluss maps like breeze are viper strongholds so i dont think she will have a very low pickrate just because of that. Great changes though and you could probably play close to anything this meta and make it work imo

[@vapenfps]

I agree she’s very unique, I just think the 2nd molly being gone changes everything. The orb hurts too and yeah I agree breeze and icebox are rough but I wouldn’t be surprised if teams changed their approach and replaced her more than people expect! Will be interesting to see what happens!

[@ln5b699]

Harbor’s wall isn’t long as viper’s wall, so using viper’s wall in harbor isn’t a good idea.

[@uliwerneck]

do you think it's still worth it to use viper on Bind? what can be used to replace her if she's not good anymore?

[@vapenfps]

I think it’s possible, she is very valuable on defense for the wall on b. As a replacement, I could see harbor, even astra maybe. Lurk pressure U-Haul is important but I think teams will get creative and change the way they approach the map! Who knows tho maybe they keep viper and make it work!

[@lunenoirex]

this brain dead company took away a stalling controller's ability to stall and move around her one (1) orb. they nerfed her to where she was never viable as a single controller besides breeze/icebox, so as a resort the double controller meta happened and then she was nerfed as a result of that? i just feel like she's the scapegoat for every issue in each meta bro. no other agent shows up on every other patch like her. i just don't understand why players won't learn to play around her instead of having riot turn her into a troll pick.

[@lunenoirex]

@@Elganleap yeah i'm one of the dummies who main her even when i soloq and riot 100% only had pro-play in mind. they see her as too much of a sentinal even though i feel like they took away more of the controller aspect of her than they did the senti. even though brim has a molly, omen as a blind, astra has the pull/stun effect, clove has the butterfly molly.... so idk where that comes from.... even jett + cypher have more smokes than her. they said they're making adjustments to her in 8.11 and i reallyyyy hope they at *least* reverse her inability to pick up her orb. i feel like the molly nerf is staying because duelists are getting patched in 8.11 so i kind of see them following the pattern of that. it just sucks. nerfs that completely change the meta aren't any fun. if every agent was equally strong in their own way it would make the game more fun. i'd prefer to have each agent be cracked vs watered down versions that make playing the game boring

[@ostrige8417]

Harbor is not a replacement for viper, viper will stay meta but not on every map now.

[@vapenfps]

Okay!

[@oatmeeru]

viper may have had an 80% pickrate, but in my opinion her kit is so unique that it made maps more interesting to watch and to think about. i may be in the minority opinion, but i feel like valorant is less interesting without viper. viper's wall is such an interesting tac fps ability and i think that it is incredibly foundational to how valorant has evolved over the past three years.

[@theogknight2292]

Yes valorant is less interesting without her, but she has been dominant in the pro meta for the last couple years. If you weren't playing viper and had no alternative, you were pretty much throwing. That's how strong she was.

[@oatmeeru]

@@theogknight2292 i think that riot should have experimented with putting one or two of viper's abilities on another agent in order to add more variety to teambuilding. i've never liked riot's aggressive hand when it comes to balancing. i think that valorant players need to stop thinking about game balance by metrics of individual character power level and start thinking about game balance as availability/viability of different utility/strategy as a whole.

[@deathgodfire]

​@@oatmeeruI don't think this would help. I'm almost certain if they did this it would just make you pick both of them. She definitely needed nerfs, she'll still be viable after them although much less which is good for the health of the game

[@ybc6613]

riot should nerf viper even more she's still almost playable

[@gobbyAU]

hey man your discord invite is invalid, would love to join if you could update the link ^-^

[@vapenfps]

sure thing! discord.gg/ZdzsGR4Bu3 sorry about that!

[@IHaveBallzheimers]

honestly I can see some teams still playing viper most maps, and still finding success. Her stall has been nerfed pretty heavily, but she still has better stall than harbour and clove, omen and astra can stall but the one viper molly is still better than them for stall. The only controller who can now match her in stall is Brim, who has very clear weaknesses in his kit. As long as viper still has the unique ability to have smokes that she can choose how long they can stay up for, and have them be constantly up, makes viper very good unless if she is completely unplayable, considering it allows her to cause so much pressure and win so many utility trades for free. The only way she's been really hit is with her support mollies for taking neutral territory and for site executes, as well as her post plant spike stall, due to the mollies changing from 2 to 1