It’s a great day to be a Chamber and Astra main. Riot Games has revealed big buffs for both agents in Valorant patch 9.05.
New Valorant agents typically take some time before they find their place in team compositions. That wasn’t the case for Chamber, who became an instant hit among players. In contrast, Astra has experienced moderate success in professional play but struggles to gain traction in ranked matches. In a surprising turn of events, Chamber’s popularity has waned with the introduction of newer agents, relegating him to the lower echelons of pick rate charts alongside Astra.
With the new patch 9.05, Riot has revealed that both characters are getting major upgrades to their abilities.
Astra’s entire toolkit will get buffs with an additional star whereas Chamber will now be able to teleport to longer distances after Valorant patch 9.05.
Astra has four stars that can be transformed into Nebula, Gravity Well, and Nova Pulse. That means she has the freedom to plant four smokes at the cost of not having any other ability. Compared with agents like Omen, Clove, and Brimstone, Astra seems underwhelming and limiting as a controller. With patch 9.05, she’ll get an extra star to do as she pleases.
“Given Astra has to choose between fulfilling her core duties as a Controller and using her other abilities, this change gives Astra more freedom to use her other pieces of utility without sacrificing her ability to smoke throughout the round,” said Riot.
This is a pretty significant upgrade, allowing Astra to be more useful throughout the round. On the other hand, Chamber will now regain some of his former glory by having more area control when his Rendezvous is activated.
Chamber’s Rendezvous radius will now be upgraded to 18 meter from the previous 13 meters. This newly granted space around his Rendezvous will allow him to push out more aggressively and take unexpected angles.
Both of these changes, combined with the newly added Vyse, should impact the game meta moving forward. Players shouldn’t be surprised if they start seeing Astra and Chamber in ranked queues once again.
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