Finding the right balance to make every Valorant Agent have a place in the meta is hard, and it seems Riot has found a way to make meaningful Deadlock buffs as confirmed in a recent State of the Agents update.
Deadlock, the second of three Agents confirmed to be released in 2023, with the final one set to be a Duelist (the first Duelist to be added since Neon in January 2022) has been perceived as a very niche pick. Some have gone as far as to call her useless in attacking halves as a solo Sentinel, with other picks still way more prevalent over her, like Killjoy or Cypher.
Despite being relatively new, released just this past 27 June, it seems Riot agrees with community sentiment that Deadlock is already in desperate need of some tuning to make her more viable at all levels of play.
Deadlock is getting buffs soon
Valorant character producer, John Goscicki, explained that the team at Riot Games usually lets the community develop a playstyle for all their Agents before stepping in and making necessary adjustments. However, despite the relatively short time since Deadlock's release, they feel it's time for some buffs to make her more relevant.
Although it can take months for a new Agent’s potential and contributions to be felt, we’ve heard that many of you are feeling that her addition to the Sentinel roster is a bit weak at the moment. We are keeping an eye on areas of her kit that we can improve that would help Deadlock become a Sentinel that can better react on the fly
It'll remain to be seen what kind of buffs will Deadlock receive. One thing's for sure, don't expect it to be a massive rework, but more about tuning her ability cooldowns and how they interact with the environment, other abilities, and of course, other Agents.
And that's it! Are you excited for Deadlock? For more content, check out everything you need to know about Agent 24 in Valorant.