Riot to nerf Raze to increase “counterplay” in Valorant Patch 1.04

Raze’s kit in Valorant hasn’t been the most well received in the community. Riot are aware of the explosive power of her abilities though, and are looking at introducing more “counterplay” in Valorant Patch 1.04 to nerf her.

In Valorant, shooting matters. Those were the infamous words of Riot’s CEO when Valorant, then Project A, was announced back in October 2019. Raze was the anti-Christ of that mantra.

Her kit revolves entirely around zone control through explosives. From grenades, to satchels, a little robot that explodes, and then finally her Showstopper ultimate, every part of Raze’s kit is meant to do damage.

While Riot have been keeping an eye on her to tone her down eventually, they’re finally pulling the trigger on Valorant Patch 1.04.

They have admitted that Raze is in “a little bit” of an unhealthy spot, but isn’t too far away from how Riot intended on making her work. She just needs to have her numbers slightly adjusted to fix the “legitimate” problems with her ultimate and satchel.

• Read more: Riot admits Sage “out of control” and will be nerfed next Valorant patch

“Raze needs a little bit [of a nerf]. [We also need to] address some of the problems that have been legitimately brought up with the rocket, and some weird play patterns with the satchel,” Valorant character design lead Ryan ‘Morello’ Scott stated.

They don’t want to completely kill the fun parts of Raze’s kit. Riot have emphasized that they wouldn’t touch the unique movement abilities with stacking satchels. They also want her ultimate to feel impactful. But, they are working on just bringing things back a tad.

“Movement is fine, you can keep your cool zoomer movement, I’m not going to fun police that. I think doing some more work on the rocket to have more counterplay while still being a high-impact kill moment is something I want to do and bring her win rate down a little bit.”

Morello didn’t go into details about exactly how both abilities will be nerfed, and if her Paint Shell grenade and Boom Bot would be touched on top of that. However, what really matters is that Raze is getting nerfed ⁠— finally.

• Read more: Riot confirms more Viper buffs planned for Valorant Patch 1.04

The changes should be rolled into Valorant Patch 1.04, which is due to release around July 21. Raze isn’t the only Agent on the change list, with Riot looking at toning down the “out of control” Sage, while also bringing more power to Viper.