One of VALORANT‘s worst agents is seemingly getting a buff that could make her viable in certain scenarios. Allegedly, Deadlock’s Sonic Sensor can be moved, or redeployed.
A leak showed the new features of the ability today. It’s been a long time coming for Deadlock. Every single other Sentinel class agent in the game can redeploy their utility, or their utility is far too strong to be able to be redeployed. Deadlock’s utility takes a long time to activate, and once it does, it’s more often than not just over for the defenders. She needed a buff.
While the incoming redeployment buff is nice, several players don’t think it’s going to be enough to make Deadlock viable. “A step in the right direction, but at this rate we’re gonna need a thousand steps for her to just become viable,” DiscardingSabot said on X. Other replies were aghast that this was the only change coming to Deadlock, who has historically been one of the game’s worst agents.
While professional play isn’t the end-all-be-all for most players, Deadlock was the only agent that wasn’t played at VCT Champions 2023. Even the people that are overpaid to play VALORANT day in and day out couldn’t find a creative, or viable, use for her. This wasn’t a one-off, either; her presence in professional matches has been virtually nonexistent since her June 2023 release. She simply does everything that the other Sentinels do, but worse. There’s no place for her in the current meta without some serious buffs, which look to be incoming.
There’s some hype and hope mixed in with the reaction to the incoming Deadlock buffs. The ability to redeploy the Sonic Sensor is a step in the right direction, and hopefully one of a few that Riot keeps taking. Deadlock isn’t viable yet, but with a couple more tweaks she’ll be a solid Sentinel.
