Valorant will continue to add new agents, but will always make sure the ones that were there from the beginning remain relevant. Unless that original agent is Viper. While she makes an appearance every now and then, seeing Viper used consistently may never come to fruition.

The Controller agent entered Valorant miles behind the rest of the ensemble. Tweak after tweak has been made by Riot Games, but nothing has worked. It’s a shame. Her skill set could be remarkable if given the chance.

Will we ever see Viper used consistently? Probably not. Here’s why.

Why we will never see Viper used consistently

Viper in Patches

The amount of Valorant patches that have made adjustments to Viper is a grocery list compared to the other agents. The closest one in terms of appearing in the patch notes is Sage and that is still nowhere near Viper’s.

These are all of the patches that made some sort of change to Viper.

Patch v0.50: Snake Bite had a radius increase of 350 to 450. Poison Cloud no longer entered the cooldown state after being picked up during the buy phase.

Patch v1.02: Toxic was given the ability to burn through walls. Snake Bite was buffed to make players receiving damage fragile. Poison Cloud saw an increased cooldown to 6 seconds.

Patch v1.04: Viper’s Pit received huge changes. The time outside before collapsing was bumped from 5 seconds to 15 seconds. This patch made the enemies’ minimap obscured while inside of Viper’s Pit.

The highlight while inside was brightened. Decay was increased from 10 to 15 seconds and did not disappear for 2.5 seconds. Lastly, this patch added the use of fuel only costing the same as one use if both Toxic Screen and Poison Cloud are active.

Patch v1.07: This patch allowed Viper to place the Toxic Screen emitters during the buy phase and through spawn barriers. It also went up quicker past this point.

Decay on all of Viper’s abilities no longer affected allies when this patch went live. It also added Viper’s Pit to the minimap of her teammates.

Patch v1.09: This is the most recent patch that has included notable Viper changes. Her fuel was upped to 100 at the start of the round, rather than having to wait for it to increase once the round began.

Vulnerable, caused by Snake Bite, was made to linger for 2 seconds after exiting the poison. While casting Viper’s Pit, Viper was given double the movement speed. It even gave her a faster weapon equip after setting off the Ultimate.

After all of that, she remains barely used compared to other agents. Riot Games is still talking about more changes, too.

Other agents are just plain better

This point has been proven and mentioned time and time again. Take a look at Viper’s abilities and decide what is better than the abilities of other agents. She has no healing. She has no flashes. Her abilities don’t even really do damage.

Snake Bite: This is a molly type ability. Other mollies can be found in the arsenals of Phoenix, Brimstone, Killjoy, Raze, and Sova to an extent with his Shock Dart. That’s a lot of Valorant agents with other useful tools outside of their mollies.

Poison Cloud: Poison Cloud is a smoke. While great for one ways, setting them up can be a nightmare compared to other smoke users. Brimstone and Omen can both drop their smokes from a distance.

Jett needs to be accurate like Viper, but can curve the Cloudburst. Cypher’s Cyber Cage is the only equivalent to Poison Cloud when it comes to placement. Even after that comparison, it still outshines it.

Toxic Screen: Toxic Screen can be a useful ability. It can separate opposing players from their teammates and deliver long cover when taking a site. Phoenix has a similar wall like ability, where his does damage and can even heal him.

Sage can be considered to have an ability like this with her Barrier Orb. It can act as a vision obscuring ability.

Viper’s Pit: Viper’s Ultimate ability is the best thing about her. Being able to completely shut down a site or a lane is invaluable. Seeing enemies inside before they know what hit them makes this one of the best Ultimate abilities available.

It isn’t enough to see Viper used consistently, however. No one is going to pick her just based on her Ultimate. Subroza will tell you from his classic tweet on the matter.

Make viper's ult the whole map. Ppl still won't play her. https://t.co/xJwPkRxNlz

— TSM Subroza (@Subroza) September 6, 2020

What will it take to see Viper used consistently?

At this point, it seems like Viper is a lost cause. She is a fun agent and can absolutely dominate on Split. She might never belong in the competitive conversation, though. It is just too late to make the majority care about her.

The meta has been established. While game meta evolves, much like Valorant already has, Viper will not be a part of that evolution.

It is time to change the tune from Viper being underused in Valorant. She’s not underused. She’s used exactly how much she should be.

Poor Sabine will be relegated to the sidelines for the most part. She will remain a novelty selection among teams. It will be an exciting and talked about move whenever she is picked. It will also be highly questionable.

Arguably the coolest looking agent with the coolest concept, Viper was a letdown before anyone could even give her a shot in Valorant.

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