Valorant no longer allows in-world pings, which is quite a bummer for attackers looking to protect the Spike, but there’s still a trick that can let players land bullets through smoke and guarantee a detonation.
Typically, players don’t care much about updates unless they are directly related to an agent or a weapon, but patch 9.11 had players in a tizzy. The update significantly nerfed the ping system to minimize feature abuse. After the patch, pings no longer appear in the Valorant world, and it ended up being quite a meta-shaker in lower ranks. Thanks to the nerf, Spikes now have a higher chance of blowing up, favoring attackers.
While the meta remains primarily unchanged at a higher level, new players can benefit from this trick to survive in the Elo hell of gold to platinum ranks. This trick is completely legal, but it may get nerfed or adjusted due to its high viability, so use it while it works.
Certain agents are still able to use ping the Spike after Valorant’s 9.11 patch.
This stands apart from past methods of ping spamming the Spike. Controllers with global smokes have a bit of an advantage. Agents like Omen and Astra can use their abilities to pinpoint the Spike, with Astra even having the option to ping it.
Valorant coach Tenebra shared a powerful trick on X that works with Omen and Astra. Both agents have global vision abilities that let them view site structures at the cost of a few seconds of vulnerability. Using this vision, Omen can pinpoint the Spike’s location and land precise shots through smoke.
Previously, players could rely on the ping system to find the Spike through smoke. When defenders blocked the site with smoke to set up a defusal, attackers could ping through the smoke to find the exact location of the Spike. Omen can achieve the same results with his global vision, but Astra will find it easier to spam the smoke, thanks to her stars.
The Ghanaian controller uses stars that transform can be activated and transformed into one of her abilities. Until activated, these stars remain as small globules visible both through smoke and on the radar.
Astra players can plant the Spike, retreat to safety, enter Astral Form, and place an extra star on the Spike to use it as a marker. The best part about Astra’s trick is that the star remains intact, as enemies can’t destroy it. To make it even more effective, Astra can convert the star into a Gravity Well, pulling enemies in and killing two birds with one.
While this trick is undeniably powerful, it’s limited to controllers with global smokes. The ping system was especially popular in lower ranks, so its removal could lead to an increased pick rate for controllers who can now fill the gap.
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