Valorant patch 4.04 has gone live with some much-needed Brimstone buffs, featuring faster Sky Smokes, a wider deploy radius, and an all-new 15% speed boost to Stim Beacon. What does that mean for him as an agent? Sentinels’ Tyson “TenZ” Ngo believes that the changes might just have turned him into the best duelist in Valorant.
The Jett superstar said that the new changes to Brimstone are what Riot Games should have done with Neon at the start. TenZ wasted no time picking the newly-buffed controller, proceeding to wreak havoc in the competitive queue after the new patch.
TenZ shows why the Brimstone buffs to Stim Beacon make him an agent that could rival duelists
The 20-year-old Valorant pro showcased how impactful Brimstone’s Stim Beacon can be in his first competitive game in Episode 4 Act II. TenZ used Brimstone’s Stim Beacon to pressure his opponents aggressively at the start of the round, with the help of Rise’s Ryan “Shanks” Ngo and Derrek “Derrek” Ha.
“The movement speed makes a world of difference,” said TenZ. “I’ve actually been having a lot of fun with this new meta.”
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The Stim Beacon’s 15% speed boost allowed TenZ and his team to take control of key areas on Breeze within seconds, far quicker than their opponents anticipated. The movement speed increase also let them push out on defense early in the round and flank the enemy with some unexpected timings.
The Brimstone buff works even better on attack. Attackers can overwhelm defenders holding the site using the first Stim Beacon. The second can then be used to push deeper for better site control, or even to catch defenders off-guard in the middle of their rotation.
TenZ also said the new patch is the most fun he’s had since the Astra meta took over Valorant. Players are now leaning toward picking either Brimstone or Omen, two controller agents that are now viable choices after Astra and Viper received heavy nerfs in the recent patch.
Valorant patch 4.04 has shifted the controller meta significantly, and we’ll likely see more diverse controller picks or even more frequent double controller compositions.
Riot Games has said that the Stim Beacon change was designed to help Brimstone “give his team a clear signal that it’s time to get going”, but it may soon find that players are taking things a little too far.
The developer may eventually decide to tweak or roll back the changes to Brimstone’s Stim Beacon, if it finds that it isn’t serving its intended purpose. In the meantime though, players are having a great time turning their entire team into mini-Neons.
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