VALORANT Patch 4.8 will come with nerf to Jett’s Tailwind ability, Riot Games announced Wednesday.
The duelist has consistently been one of the more difficult VALORANT agents for Riot to figure out fixes for, VALORANT agent designer Alexander Mistakidis said in a statement. Jett is one of the most-used agents in the game, especially in pro play, and her mobility has made her “a mainstay in most competition.”
“The team’s always loved what Jett brings to the roster: breaking through defenses on executions and making highlight plays with impressive mechanical skills,” Mistakidis said. “But some of her other impacts on the game have pushed beyond VALORANT’s core tactical cycle in worrisome ways.”
The Jerf nerf specifically targets her Tailwind ability, which has allowed Jett to have a level of mobility and reactivity unmatched by any other agent.
- Tailwind
- On pressing the ability key, after a short delay Jett activates a 12 second window where she is empowered to immediately dash on next button press.
- Her Tailwind charge is lost whether she dashes or the window expire, but can still be regained with two kills.
This nerf is intended to keep what is core to Jett while limiting some of the ways she is used that are contrary to VALORANT’s design philosophy. Riot’s stated goal is to keep her ability to dash through defenses on executions and make highlight plays with impressive mechanical skills. With this change, Jett will now have to “call her shot,” limiting the reactive use of the dash in defensive situations or to retreat from sightlines.
And, of course, the button now has to be pressed twice.
Jett nerf and agent design philosophy
Mistakidis, along with Jay Watford, agent designer, and Sal Garozzo, game designer, provided additional context about one of VALORANT’s most anticipated and dreaded nerfs.
“When we promised more agent updates than ever and patches have rolled in, many of you have wondered about Jett,” Mistakidis said. “Truth is that we have been working on Jett’s update for a while and took extra steps to make sure we were approaching the update in the best way possible. We wanted to do right for the game’s health and for Jett players.”
The team played around with a few different nerfs but found most were either unintuitive or too minor a change to actually address the problem.
“As players have mastered Jett, her dash has proved unhealthy to the tac cycle in a number of ways that we think are critical enough to address,” Mistakidis said.
The core problems with Jett dash that the team wanted to address were fairly nuanced. The dash, unlike every other ability, didn’t need to be committed. It gave her the freedom to hold space without actually using the ability if it wasn’t necessary. The nerf aimed to limit her power with the Op while keeping most of the offensive “dash-in” power.
“Overall, we want Jett to have her power moments and to be able to dash, but we also want viable counter play and for Jett players to be more thoughtful when using their abilities,” Mistakidis said.
Riot also said that they had considered a Sova nerf, but wanted to wait until after 4.08 since “his utility is a key piece of how many of you deal with Jett in coordinated play.” It seems that other agent balance changes may follow in the wake of the Jett nerf in 4.08.
Patch 4.08 also appears to follow Riot’s current strategy of minor balance changes to achieve the best possible competitive game health.
