Changes to Chamber are here with Valorant patch 5.12. Every ability he has is receiving adjustments from Riot Games.
It was bound to happen sooner or later. Chamber's usage was among the highest Valorant has ever seen, especially in the competitive setting of the Valorant Champions Tour. The community deemed him overpowered from the start and Riot Games has been teasing a change to that for quite some time. Well, enter Valorant patch 5.12 with massive updates to how Chamber operates. From slower weapon capabilities to ability restrictions, there's a lot to take in.
What changes does Valorant patch 5.12 make to Chamber?
Chamber is a Sentinel Agent in Valorant. This category also consists of Sage, Killjoy, and Cypher. Their jobs should be to lock down sites with their abilities and provide valuable assistance to their teammates. Chamber goes above and beyond that with more of a Duelist role. He is able to lock down sites, but with weapons rather than traps and tricks.
The trap he does have is utilized to watch his flank more than anything. Everything in his kit made him the most dangerous and most picked Agent. Riot Games has been aware of this for a while and are finally pulling the trigger on the changes needed to balance Chamber with Valorant patch 5.12. All of his abilities have received an adjustment.
Headhunter
Headhunter is Chamber's standard ability. It provides him with a powerful handgun that has an ADS option. You do need to purchase the bullets, however. Here is its update from the patch:
- Updated Stability Curve
- Spread increased after 2nd bullet, when spamming. This is explicitly meant to reduce low-precision body-shot spam as an effective combat measure.
Rendezvous
Rendezvous is a teleport to escape sticky situations. Chamber will see several changes to this ability:
- Chamber now places a single anchor that can be teleported to while inside its range
- Radius increased 15m >>> 26m
- Removed teleport activation height restriction
- You can teleport to the Anchor while on different verticality so long as you are within its radius.
- Increased weapon equip time after teleporting 0.4s >>> 0.7s
- Headhunter is unaffected by this change
- Destroying Rendezvous teleport anchor now disables it for the remainder of the round, instead of being placed on a cooldown.
- Chamber no longer incurs an additional cooldown when recalling his Anchor after teleporting.
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Trademark
Trademark is the only trap-like ability Chamber has. Valorant patch 5.12 includes huge changes for it, as well:
- The trap is now range restricted
- Trademark will disable when Chamber moves out of range, and reactivate once he is inside.
- Can now be recalled mid-round
- Does not require line of sight
- 30s cooldown on recall
- Destruction remains permanent
- Initial Arm Time increased 2s >> 4s
- Health Increased 1 >> 20
- Slow duration reduced 6s >> 4s
Tour De Force
Tour De Force is Chamber's Ultimate ability. He pulls out a devastating sniper rifle that enacts a slowed area around anyone he kills. Riot Games has drastically slowed the fast-shooting gun:
- Fire rate decreased by 57.5%
- Slow duration reduced 6s >> 4s
Riot Games' explanation for the changes
Riot Games has indicated their goals for making these Chamber changes. Valorant patch 5.12 hopes to keep Chamber's combat strength intact, but also make him less impactful across the entirety of the game's maps. His role should now consist of holding a certain area on the map, much like the other Sentinel Agents.
Riot used the words "counterplay" and "deliberate" as principles to explain the patch. They use these principles when designing every Valorant Agent. Opposing players could not counterplay him and users did not have to be deliberate with their setup.
The point of Valorant patch 5.12 is give others the chance to outplay Chamber. He will now require a new level of mastery to be 100% effective and efficient. As always, Riot will be watching the changes closely to see if they hit the jackpot or need to adjust Chamber even more.
Stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Valorant news.
