French weapons expert Chamber might receive a huge nerf that throws his ability to perform as a sentinel into question.
The Valorant patch 4.09 Public Beta Environment (PBE) is experimenting with a Chamber nerf that would see the number of Trademark traps reduced from two to just one. This would severely limit his ability to hold down sites and watch flanks.
This Chamber nerf could potentially force him out of the meta
The cost of Trademark has also been increased from 150 to 200 credits in the PBE. Trademark’s audio volume has been boosted as well, so you should be able to hear when it is nearby, similar to Cypher’s Trapwire and Killjoy’s Nanoswarm.
“Chamber’s Trademark outperforms other Sentinel tools in both reliability and power, which feels inappropriate given the amount of defensive combat tools he has spread across the rest of his kit,” said Riot.
“We believe Chamber’s identity is defined by his unique weapons and defensive combat mobility, so we want to test decreasing his level of global flank protection/information and increasing counterplay on a single premium trap.”
While some players welcomed the news, others pointed out that reducing the number of Trademark charges would effectively make Chamber feel more like a duelist than a sentinel.
For instance, his Headhunter pistol does nothing to help him lock down a site and is reliant entirely on a player’s aim.
As a sentinel, Chamber’s ability to watch flanks and sites is crucial, and having just one trap will not allow him to do that effectively.
More viable changes include keeping the two Trademark charges, but reducing the slow duration instead, according to former Alliance in-game leader Enzo “Fea” Mestari.
Chamber’s Trademark slow field currently lasts for nearly 10 seconds, which provides massive delay potential. Riot could also make the slow field less punishing by decreasing its radius or its movement speed penalty.
Another alternative would be to decrease the fire rate of Tour De Force, or adjust how quickly players switch to Headhunter, said Fea.
The changes are still being tested in the PBE, so Riot may still end up making further tweaks. It’s not yet clear what version of Chamber we’ll see in Valorant’s next patch, but you can be sure that some form of nerf is coming.
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