Valorant players annoyed as Omen nerf is bigger than Riot said

Valorant’s 9.10 patch update brought nerfs to Omen that many players argue were far more impactful than Riot Games led players to believe.

The patch notes, released on November 19, mentioned specific adjustments to Omen’s Dark Cover ability, designed to limit his ability to place one-way smokes in certain areas.

Riot’s reasoning was that Omen’s ability to create uncounterable one-way smokes with low cooldowns had given him too much defensive power, especially in high-level Ranked matches. However, many players have expressed that they felt this nerf was more significant than expected.

One player said: “Omen sounds more like they removed most of the one-way smokes you couldn’t do with other smoke agents (mainly the ‘Brim interface’).”

Another echoed this, stating: “Definitely an understatement. Legit 20+ one ways on Ascent alone Omen just lost.”

Despite some players defending the update, arguing that Omen is “just knocked a few pegs down closer to the rest of the Controllers,” the overall sentiment was one of dissapointment.

“Sad day for us Omen mains,” one player wrote, while another added, “It’s just another instance of Riot removing the skill ceiling from Controllers.”

Many have stated that this has limited the unique playstyles that Omen offered, with one player commenting, “They really want to make it clear that Duelists are the only way to go if you want to be complex and creative.”

One frustrated player summed it up, saying, “I get that balance is needed but guess what it also does – it makes the game boring as f**k. Let agents be fun to play and stop balancing it around some nerds who play for money.”

For many, this nerf has felt like a blow to the excitement of playing Omen and a loss for strategic depth in the game. However, further changes for the Agent may still be made, with the developers stating in the 9.10 update patch notes: “We’ll be keeping an eye out here for how these changes affect the overall controller ecosystem.”

Omen’s smokes and Dark Cover ability were first nerfed in January 2023 with the 6.0 patch, which restricted his ability to create one-way smokes inside walls. This change also sparked similiar backlash from the Valorant community.

Omen’s smokes and Dark Cover ability were previously nerfed back in January 2023, as part of the 6.0 patch. This saw him no longer able to create one-way smokes inside of walls and was hit with similar backlash from Valorant players.