Valorant has had a balance issue for some time. Going back as far as 2020, Jett has been the most-picked agent at Valorant's highest levels of play. Immortal and Radiant (when it was added) players picked up on the strength of Jett first, but Platinum and Diamond players are now on the Jett train, too. Even Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Valorant players are picking Jett in their top three. Riot's seen enough, though, and changes are coming. And Twitch streamer Shroud thinks it's going to cause a major shift to Valorant's meta.
Shroud shared two thoughts during a recent Twitch stream while he was playing Valorant. The first has to do with which character will benefit the most from Jett being nerfed. In Shroud's opinion, he sees Jett being played less and another Agent being played more. That Agent is Yoru. Shroud doesn't explain why he thinks Yoru will be played more, but it's probably related to Yoru's teleportation ability, Gatecrash, offering some mobility that Jett will no longer offer.
The second thought from Shroud is a bigger comment on what he believes Riot Games is trying to do with Valorant. He even goes so far as saying that Valorant is entering a new "phase," meaning Riot is shifting direction. He says that Riot was working to make Valorant faster with Jett dashes, Chamber teleports, and Yoru teleports. He says the mobility was "crazy," but that Riot will be dialing it back.
What Shroud sees Riot doing to Valorant going forward starts with the Jett changes. He then sees nerfs coming to Chamber, too, who is currently the second-most popular character to play at the highest levels of Valorant competition. He doesn't see changes coming to Yoru yet, given the comparatively weaker teleport the character has, though. But the meta will clearly be shifting.
For those unaware, Riot announced changes coming to Jett this past week. Riot says it's been working on a Jett update for some time, and it now believes those changes are ready. When it's off cooldown, Jett's Tailwind dash can no longer be instantly used. It first has to be activated, which follows a short delay, and then the next button press will result in a dash. If the dash isn't used within the next 12 seconds, it expires. The 2-kill recharge remains the same.
Suffice to say, Jett's utility is going to be severely nerfed soon. Shroud's comments on the meta shifting in Valorant are likely to be just the start of the meta shift. Add in the new Valorant character coming soon, Fade, and this could be the biggest shakeup to Valorant's meta since Omen's nerfs to start 2021.
Valorant is available now on PC.