Riot nerfs VALORANT’s run-and-gun meta, reduces Phantom and Vandal’s ammo reserve in Patch 6.11

Besides a couple of influential and controversial agent updates, VALORANT Patch 6.11 dramatically alters the ways popular weapons function and some of their features on June 6, flavoring up the game’s stale shooting meta for a change. 

It looks like Riot Games has finally realized how broken running and shooting a weapon and aimlessly spamming through smokes have become. Patch 6.11 particularly targets these tactics, preventing their misuse in the tactical shooter.

For starters, Riot has tweaked its Error Power system, a tool instated to “reward accuracy by biasing shots toward the center of the crosshair,” to significantly reduce the system’s effect when the player moves while shooting. 

Riot mentions that while Error Power was performing as intended for firing in stationary states, it was unintentionally enhancing firing on the move as well. That being said, the anomaly has been addressed. 

“Shots fired while moving are now almost uniformly random within their spread cone, meaning that fewer of these shots will precisely land on target,” Riot said. 

It’s noteworthy that run-and-gun hasn’t been completely removed from the game. It, and other forms of moving and shooting, will still be possible in certain cases. Riot thinks it’s “healthy” for the divisive tactic to flourish in close-ranged fights with selective weapons. 

While the tweak to the Error Power system will help reduce such possibilities in long and mid-range fights, Riot wasn’t quite done nerfing the highly abused tactic. 

In what’s possibly the most surprising feature of Patch 6.11, the developers have increased the vertical recoil for four popular weapons while “firing on the run” to reduce “incidental run-and-gun kills.” Here are the new recoil values you need to know: 

Vertical recoil multiplier while running:

• Phantom: 1.5 >>> 1.8 
• Spectre: 1.5 >>> 1.8 
• Vandal: 1.5 >>> 1.8 
• Frenzy: 1.25 >>> 1.5

In addition to inhibiting the meteoric rise in the “run-and-gun meta,” Riot has also targeted the other chaotic trend—the spray-and-pray technique, commonly known as spamming in VALORANT. 

From now on, the Vandal and Phantom will hold smaller ammo reserves, forcing players to be more judicious while “wall penning common spots or blind firing through smokes.” The Vandal will now sport a reserve of 50 bullets (down from 75), while the Phantom will offer 60 bullets (down from 90) in reserve.  

Related: Here are the VALORANT Patch 6.11 patch notes

That being said, this change will be closely monitored to see if players can appropriately counter certain abilities like Sage’s Barrier Orb and Harbor’s Cove.

Two other weapons, pistols to be precise, have also landed in the crosshairs of Riot. With players across the ranked ladder and the professional community abusing the new-found Shorty and Frenzy meta, something had to be done about these low-cost, high-outcome pistols.

And so, here’re the Shorty and Frenzy changes Patch 6.11 brings to VALORANT: 

Shorty

• Reserve ammo adjusted from 10 >>> six
• Price adjusted from $150 >>> $300
• Damage at no fall-off adjusted from 12 >>> 11
• Damage at first step fall-off (seven meters) adjusted from eight >>> six

Frenzy

• Min spread increased from 0.45 >>> 0.65
• Spread curve adjusted
• Maximum spread reached in five bullets instead of six
• Recoil pitch curve adjusted
• Maximum recoil will be reached in five bullets instead of six. Total recoil is lowered to compensate.

Lastly, as if all the other weapon changes weren’t enough, you’ll now have a harder time connecting bullets in long and mid-range while swinging across Ziplines and Ascenders due to increased bullet spread. 

• Ascender min spread on ropes increased to 65 percent of the walking spread
  • Rifles from 0.8 >>> 1.3
  • Classic from 0.35 >>> 0.55
  • Frenzy from 0.35 >>> 0.52
  • Ghost from 0.35 >>> 0.6
  • Sheriff from 0.35 >>> 0.78
  • SMGs from 0.3 >>> 0.65
  • Snipers & Shotguns unchanged
• Walking and running spread on ropes increased to match the walking and running spread on ground.

“This should allow combat on ropes to be viable in close range scenarios, which we feel is important to make them a viable map traversal tool, but much less often will it be a good choice in medium to long range engagements,” Riot said.