Valorant new Sova animations interfering with his skill lineups, issue acknowledged

Valorant is a multiplayer FPS action game focused on team matches developed by Riot Games, the same creators of League of Legends.

Valorant offers a wide catalog of characters with unique abilities to choose from. The clashes are 5 vs 5 teams and the particularities of each one make it a tactical shooter.

Sova is one of the most used characters in the game. However, the latest Valorant update brought a Sova nerf along with modifications to his animations that directly interfere with his skill lineups.

Riot Games decided that Sova needed a nerf in his abilities, and that was done in the most recent Valorant 4.08 update (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9).

The changes mainly affect the Sova Shock Dart and Drone abilities:

Max damage on shock darts lowered from 90 to 75.
This means double shock darts will only kill the target if the target is perfectly in the center of explosion. Rip double shock dart line-ups.

Sova’s drone has a lot shorter duration. The marked target is only tagged 2 times (instead of 3). They fixed the drone controls if it’s any consolation (it’s not really).

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So, shock darts will now deal much less damage, while the drone will have a shorter battery life and reduce the number of targets it can mark.

This especially affects those players whose main character is Sova. But, there is another change that impacts the Sova mechanics even worse, and it is related to their animations.

Riot Games also introduced new Sova animations in the most recent Valorant update that directly affects the character’s skill lineups.

A Valorant character lineup is a specific skill setup intended for the effect to land in a certain way.

A character’s animations also interfere with lineup abilities as they are used as a reference to launch the attack.

That said, the new Sova animations include one where his left hand covers left side of the bottom HUD when the character equips his bow. That area of the HUD is the visual reference for the Sova lineups.

Revert the Shock Dart and dart animation changes @PlayVALORANT what is this shit ffs??? Do you know the countless hours we sova main put to to learn those lineups and you do this to us? 80 Damage per shock sounds about right, 70 is too much of a nerf…
#RevertSovaNerfs
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New animation for bow pull out, TONS of sova lineups utilize the bottom hud line to work, this kills tons of lineups.
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Riot Games team is aware of reports on the matter. While the nerf to Sova abilities remains, they reverted the animations back to the classic ones.

We’ve heard your concerns about Sova’s new animations disrupting lineups. Based on that feedback, his animation changes will be removed from Patch 4.08.
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The company does not offer details on whether the new animations will receive a tweak to return in future updates.

Some players who don’t use skill lineups want to keep the new Sova animations. So, they request that they be optional.

Meanwhile, other players think the Sova nerf is enough to ‘kill’ the character utility, even without the new animations.

We will update this story as new events emerge on the subject.

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