Cloud9’s Skyler ‘Relyks’ Weaver found a much bigger problem in Valorant than the running sprays teammate Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo tested with the Phantom, once again putting Riot’s shooting-while-moving mechanics under scrutiny.
The Counter-Strike-turned-Valorant pro was looking to explore the running accuracy in the game, but in his testing, found that the 0.50 patch to deadzone change back in May has a much more consequential effect on aim.
Riot describes the deadzone as a “full accuracy state” when moving at or below 30% movement since the May patch before Valorant’s official launch.
Coupling that with counter-strafing, Relyks found that his aim was relatively on target throughout an entire Vandal clip while constantly staying in motion in what he calls a “much bigger issue” than the Phantom’s running sprays.
Counter-strafing in the opposite direction yields better shots in Valorant than coming to a complete stop, according to Relyks.
“One thing (the deadzone change) allows you to do is to strafe back-and-forth while spraying and, as long as you’re strafing in a confined area while keeping yourself at 30% or less of the max movement speed, you can retain relative accuracy,” he said.
He showed how weapons can be “extremely accurate” while staying in motion as long as the player maintains a consistent counter-strafe to stay in the deadzone.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the worst part of Valorant’s mechanics, according to Relyks. He also found that shooting “after you begin moving to the opposite direction (is better) than firing when you come to a complete stop.”
This would give people the opportunity to get off a much better shot while counter-strafing back into cover instead of coming to a halt to line up the perfect shot.
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He’s found success with this method on the Vandal, though indicated the Phantom can be much more effective due to its tighter bullet spread.
If this is an intended mechanic in Valorant, it could be that Riot is trying to make the game much more accessible to newer FPS players, though it would lower the game’s overall skill ceiling, according to Relyks.
Since Riot hasn’t touched the deadzone accuracy in months, this could be something the devs looks to rework if it starts getting out of hand in Valorant.
