Over the past few months, there has been one agent that the VALORANT community is hoping will receive a nerf because of how overpowered they are in the current meta: Neon. Fans need not wait longer, as Riot Games has announced that Neon will be nerfed in VALORANT Patch 9.11. In this article, we look at how these changes will affect the game in the future.
VALORANT Patch 9.11 Neon Nerf: What can players expect?
Image Credits: Riot Games
Since September, there has been a notion within the VALORANT community that Neon has become overpowered. Many fans and professional players wondered if Neon would be nerfed before VCT 2025. Luckily, many fans don’t need to wait for confirmation. On the social platform X, a user named penguinVALORANT, a game designer for VALORANT, responded to a post concerning Patch 9.09.
Patch 9.09 was released within the game on Nov. 6, and it only consisted of minor bug fixes. @penguinVALORANT slated the following in his quote post to the patch notes:
“We agree that Neon is too strong as well. We’re working on some adjustments to balance out the parts that feel overpowered while maintaining her grounded movement combat fantasy. These changes are coming in patch 9.11.”
The last time Neon was buffed or nerfed was in Patch 8.11 in June 2024. This all-important update buffed multiple Duelists in the game, like Neon, Raze, and Iso. The significant change to Neon was that she had no movement error when sliding on all weapons in the game. Due to this, her first bullet shot was always accurate.
In Patch 9.11, Neon could be nerfed concerning her bullet accuracy while sliding. This could result in no change to her High Gear ability. Players can also expect some form of damage reduction to her ultimate as well.
Of course, the full list of nerfs to Neon will only be revealed once the notes for VALORANT Patch 9.11 are out. While you wait for it to happen, do check out our guide on how to get free Arcane player cards in VALORANT.