Chamber has recently gone through some big changes, which ultimately switched up the stale Valorant meta. Together we will explore how we can adapt our playstyle to this new Chamber or see if we have to ditch him as an insta-lock altogether.
Vincent Fabron, known to us as Chamber, has seen high use in all levels across competitive Valorant. From Iron to Pro play, Chamber has been an established pick in team compositions. This introduced a problem for Riot developers as homogeneous team compositions began to make the game feel repetitive and stale. Subsequently, a comprehensive nerf to Chamber needed to be made, so that he would not be an instant pick for every match. Each of his abilities, including his ultimate, were altered to some extent. Let’s look at the changes and see how that affects Chamber mains’ gameplay.
Chamber’s Trademark ability sees its second nerf. After removing his second Trademark, leaving him with just one, we now see his lone Trademark receive a range restriction. This is one of, if not, his biggest nerfs. Chamber’s Trademark now acts similarly to Killjoy’s utility in that the agent must be in range.
The reason that this is so detrimental to Chamber players is that it makes Chamber’s positioning more predictable. The range on the trip is so small that it narrows down which angle he is playing, which in turn gives more information about other agents playing that site. Information on positioning is one of the most valuable pieces of information that the opposition can gather on your team.
On the Attack Side, the Trademark is rather useless since you have to stay near it. This means you can only catch rotating players behind you if you stay behind and hold a rather useless angle. This denies any lurking ability from Chamber (one of his strong suites) since he cannot move too far ahead without deactivating his trip.
Like Chamber’s Trademark, his Rendezvous ability went from 2, to 1. This teleport ability is now only active in the single anchor placed. The radius of the active area to teleport is now 13 meters. Although bigger than the 7.5 meters for each anchor,it now limits you to the one totem instead of the two that could be placed, what felt like, worlds apart.
This makes him more vulnerable when trying to escape danger. In certain situations, and depending on placement, it still is an “escape for free” card, but he cannot teleport very far away like he used to, which allows for the opposition to pounce on him post-teleport.
His teleport anchor also needs to be placed more thoughtfully since he only has one (that won’t have a cooldown once destroyed). This limits where he can place his anchor, which in turn, limits where he can use it.
Chamber’s Headhunter ability got a slight nerf; however, it should not affect Chamber players that much. The bullet spread increases after the second shot to prevent spamming 150 Credit bullets. This could cause a problem in lower elos, but at that point, players are just wasting credits spamming all those bullets.
The equip time for Headhunter which is the most important aspect to the ability has remained unaffected (including being unaffected by the increased equip time after teleporting). This allows Chamber to whiff a shot, pull out Headhunter, get a pick and teleport away to relative safety.
Chamber’s Tour de Force got a fire rate decrease of 57.5%. This ultimately makes him more vulnerable after his first shot. His second shot now feels slow compared to his ability to fire off shots in rapid succession. The slow that is applied to the area after getting killed by his ultimate (as well as his Trademark being set off) is reduced from 6 seconds to 4.
These changes seem to make him more vulnerable after initial picks. To a keen opposition, his trips make him significantly more vulnerable prior to his initial picks since the trip’s activation makes it obvious as to which angle Chamber is holding. Chamber is less traversal than his previous iteration, which means he has to stay put in the area he is holding.
The new restrictions force players to play on one site. Chamber no longer has sprawling control over every map, which removes him as an insta-pick in every map. It is hard to justify a pick on a large map like Breeze (which will be out of the map pool January 2023) or Haven, where his teleport granted him with a supreme traversal ability.
Placing the teleport anchor is changed as well. Players now have to be mindful of its small radius as well as their own safety when teleporting back to the anchor, so that they are not immediately gunned down. On attack, his single teleport is a lot more intuitive to use. Players can now place their lone anchor in a safe space, swing, get the kill, and teleport back to safety. There is no need to set down dual teleports where one might be in a precarious position.
Players now cannot default into long lurks as Chamber since the Trademark has an activation radius. Lurking was a strong suit for Chamber, so hampering that ability lessens Chamber’s usefulness on large maps such as Fracture and Breeze.
Chamber is still viable for controlling sites and spaces, he is just not as effective as he was. His strongest attribute is getting the opening pick and teleporting out, but after that it is significantly tougher to get out of danger. Chamber can be chased and eliminated a lot easier than before. He was a Sentinel/Duelist hybrid, but these changes now push him more towards Duelist. Previously removing his second trip and now removing his second teleport anchor forces Chamber to give up a lot more map control than what was previously possible, which is great for the meta. Headhunter continuing to be deadly fast allows him to still miss an Operator shot, whip out Headhunter, get a pick, and teleport to safety (which is still frustrating to play against since there is no counter). His ability to escape itself wasn’t, but the peril he is in post-teleport is what was nerfed by these changes.
These changes to Chamber’s kit put him in an odd spot. His attack is now rough, similarly to how Jett’s defense lacks in comparison to her attack. He can still contribute on Defense and can be an absolute nightmare to deal with in the right hands, but if the team needs a Sentinel, it is hard to vouch for his pick over others such as Cypher (can’t believe I am saying this, who would’ve thought). In no way is Chamber a throw pick, he is just more limited in what he can get away with, which ultimately was a much-needed change.
