Riot cancels Sova animation changes in Valorant patch 4.08 after community concerns
Riot GamesRiot has backtracked on a planned change to Sova’s bow animation that would have completely changed how the agent is played after pushback from players.
Sova has received some major nerfs ahead of the release of Valorant’s newest agent Fade, including a change to the animation of how he draws his bow.
This update in particular caused outcry from players, especially Sova mains, who called it “unnecessary,” especially compared to the other nerfs.
Valorant player blast “random” Sova animation change
According to a Reddit post documenting the changes, Riot added a new animation when Sova equipped his bow that made his left hand cover up the left side of the HUD at the bottom of the screen.
This is a massive problem for Sova mains, since that HUD is used for reference in a ton of lineups for Shock Dart and Recon Bolt.
“Number 3 seems really damn unnecessary,” one user replied in the comments. “I’m guessing it’s a glitch because if not, that is just overkill.”
Riot removes Sova animation changes
We've heard your concerns about Sova's new animations disrupting lineups. Based on that feedback, his animation changes will be removed from Patch 4.08.
— VALORANT (@VALORANT) April 25, 2022
Riot must have sensed the community was upset as well, because on April 25 they announced the animation changes would be removed from Patch 4.08.
“We’ve heard your concerns about Sova’s new animations disrupting lineups,” the official Valorant account tweeted. “Based on that feedback, his animation changes will be removed from Patch 4.08.”
So, while those of us who have put time into learning Sova since release will have to get used to lower Shock Dart damage and reduced Drone uptime, at least we know our lineups we’ve worked so hard on will still be viable at least.