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A close up of Omen in VALORANT.
Image via Riot Games

Riot finally nerfs Judge in VALORANT Patch 7.09—but not how anyone expected or wanted

That's all?

The Judge has long been one of the most valuable and overpowered weapons at its price in VALORANT and Riot Games is finally doing something about it—except not in the way anyone had in mind.

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A number of VALORANT players have gotten their hands on the next version of the game, which will go live with the release of Patch 7.09. These players are trying out the new agent Iso, but they’ve noticed a significant change to the Judge: a reduced clip size of five compared to seven.

While the reduced clip size does qualify as a nerf, it’s very minor in the grand scheme of weapon changes and does next to nothing when it comes to addressing some of the major issues with the Judge. The Judge still boasts an absurd combination of fire rate, pellet spread, and effective range for a shotgun, and this change does virtually nothing to address that except slightly limit the amount of damage a single clip can do.

The effectiveness of the weapon on agents like Raze, Jett, and Neon is what’s created the most community hatred for the Judge as there appears to be no penalty to spread or aim while those agents are using their movement abilities.

NRG coach Chet Singh summed it up best in a reply to a tweet addressing the Judge changes: “This doesn’t resolve anything, how often is someone going to bullet [six or seven].” From zero to 50 meters of distance, it still only takes up to two shells to kill a target any health, unless you nail them with two leg shots. Within 10 meters, one shell at any health hitting any body part will kill an enemy.

As if the effectiveness of the weapon on its own isn’t enough, it’s still a bargain at a price point of 1,850 credits, which was slightly increased from 1,600 in Patch 3.0. It’s still the go-to weapon for defenders hiding in corners on a save, as well as Raze mains who Blast Pack boost straight into opposing players caught off guard.


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Author
Image of Scott Robertson
Scott Robertson
VALORANT lead staff writer, also covering CS:GO, FPS games, other titles, and the wider esports industry. Watching and writing esports since 2014. Previously wrote for Dexerto, Upcomer, Splyce, and somehow MySpace. Jack of all games, master of none.