Riot seems to be taking Ares fans on an emotional rollercoaster lately. After the under-used Valorant weapon received a handy buff in the game’s January 11 start-of-season update, it quickly skyrocketed in both presence and perceived power. The game’s community didn’t like that the high-penetration weapon was suddenly so powerful, as the buff had changed it from a niche option to a must-buy gun, restricting the game’s already meager selection of usable weapons. Following a week of complaints from Valorant players, Riot is nerfing the Ares LMG substantially to remedy its power problem.
In a January 19 update notes post, Riot stated that although they are happy with the Ares’ newfound popularity, they believe a tweak to “bring back some of the weapon’s character;” in other words, the gun is getting nerfed heavily. The patch raises the Ares’ price slightly and reduces its accuracy across the board. However, the Ares still has no spin-up time, thus keeping some of the power the gun got through the last batch of changes. Hopefully, these slight tweaks will appease the Valorant community, though in fairness the Ares hype had started to die down on its own by the time the nerf was deployed.
