Riot Games has heard the Ares-related woes of Valorant players. The new patch balances the weapon by increasing price and nerfing recoil.
The new Episode’s first patch was a crazy one. With Neon dashing crazy fast and players abusing the cheap but mighty Ares, the
game meta had become erratic. The new patch proves that Riot Games has been listening. Ares will no longer have absurd accuracy and will cost 50 creds more.
“The adjustments below should make the weapon more difficult to control and bring back some of the weapon’s character by including a more prominent inverse accuracy,”
comms Associate Jeff Landa said.
Previous Valorant patch had buffed Ares by removing the spin-up and improved the fire rate. For a low price of 1,550 creds, Valorant players jumped to abuse the weapon in the game. Instead of primary rifles, five stacks were seen running around with the Machine gun. The damage rate was much higher due to the large magazine and boosted fire rate. The unbearable meta has finally come to the developer’s notice.
Riot Games nerfs Ares in patch 4.01
Here are all the Ares changes in patch 4.01:
Price increased from 1550 >>> 1600
Pitch recoil increased
Spread changed from .8 >>> .7 after 10 bullets to 1.0 >>> .7 after 13 bullets
Crouch benefits spread and recoil reduced from 40% >>> 25%
After these tweaks, players won’t be able to spam Ares and land accurate headshots like before. The recoil will be much harder to control when you spray bullets. Just like Odin, players must crouch to achieve maximum accuracy on Ares’ spam. This will limit Ares users running rampant in competitive Valorant, removing the “run and gun” issues.
These changes come as a result of player backlash instantly after patch 4.01. However, Riot Games has quickly fixed the issue, so the meta should return to normal. Many players might still prefer Ares over Spectre for its magazine, but accuracy remains an issue.
Is Ares better than Spectre?
In the current meta, Ares might be a better weapon than Spectre. Both the eco-round guns cost 1,600 creds, but Ares has a larger magazine to render more damage. Spectre is comparatively more accurate, but Ares’ spray control can be mastered with some practice. For 1600, some players might prefer Ares over the Spectre.
Fariha Bhatti
About Fariha Bhatti
Fariha Bhatti is a long-time gaming writer who loves competitive FPS games and slots with particularly fun themes. She got her start playing classic games developed by SNK, from legendary fighting game series The King of Fighters to challenging platform franchise Metal Slug. She now spends most of her time playing Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 while working her way through new slot releases to find her next favorite. Fariha has been published at PCGamesN, TalkEsport and ONE Esports.
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