VALORANT’s newest agent Deadlock currently holds the crown of being the worst character in the game just over two months after her release—and the community might have highlighted just why she can’t compete with the rest of the roster.
The Norwegian sentinel was the only agent who didn’t see any playtime at the 2023 VCT Champions tournament last month, and her pick rate in ranked continues to fall off as well according to stats site Blitz. Players have been quick to point out a variety of problems with Deadlock, but one inconsistency seems to stand out.
Unlike the other sentinel agents in VALORANT with flank-watching utility, Deadlock has a major disadvantage since she can’t pick up her traps once they’ve been placed in a round. Once they’re set, there’s nothing you can do about it.
A Sept. 5 Reddit thread highlighted one player’s frustration with this inconsistency. Most other notable flank-watching utility—think Cypher’s Trapwires, Chamber’s Trap, and Killjoy’s Alarm Bot—can all be recalled and easily repositioned within a round, albeit with a small cooldown.
But when you’re using Deadlock’s Sonic Sensors to keep track of your enemies’ position, you can’t recall them and put them in a better spot. This is an issue for a few reasons.
First of all, the sensors themselves are easy to dodge if placed too low or too high. If you get the positioning wrong, there’s nothing you can do. In addition, if you place the sensors to watch one site entry point but then the opposing team hits the opposite site, you’ve just wasted utility and thrown credits down the drain.
“It’s too easy to see and break, you can’t pick it up mid-round, the fact that it can just be slow-walked past offers no real site control, and even if it does go off and stun you can dodge it fairly easily,” one player said on Deadlock’s Sonic Sensor ability.
More than anything, not being able to reposition or recall Deadlock’s utility in the middle of a round shows a huge inconsistency between agents of the same class, in this case, Sentinels. It also goes against Riot’s recent philosophy of trying to improve “game state clarity,” or making it easier to understand what is happening around you on the map. By making some Sentinels able to recall utility and others not, it not only affects the balance of the agents but also adds another accessibility barrier for new players getting used to how the different roles in VALORANT function.
Many other players agreed that being able to pick up the sensors mid-round would give Deadlock a nice buff, but also pointed out that she likely needs larger overarching changes to her kit as well. “Nothing is worse than the net grenade,” one player said, adding it would be more beneficial to take the net’s 200 credit cost and light it on fire instead.
Yet, despite the majority consensus among players that Deadlock is in a terrible spot, Riot didn’t touch the agent in the latest massive game patch that otherwise saw over half of the roster adjusted. Time will tell whether Riot revisit the agent in a future update, should her pick and win rates continue to fall.
