The times are a’ changing for the ultra-aggressive run-and-gun Judge players with the fully-automatic shotgun set to receive nerfs that will affect its running and jumping spread in the next VALORANT patch.
Earlier in the day, prior to the release of the early VALORANT 7.09 patch notes, players took notice of a very small change to Judge coming in the next act—the reduction of the weapon’s mag size from seven to five. Many were disappointed to see that was the only change, but it turns out Riot had a couple more adjustments up its sleeve.
With the next patch, the Judge is getting an increase to its jumping spread from 1.25 to 2.25, and an increase to its running spread from .10 to .75. For those not keen on terminology, spread value measures how likely a fired shot deviates from its crosshair. The higher the value, the more likely it deviates. In VALORANT, only three weapons have no spread on their first shot: the Operator, the Marshal, and the Guardian.
Running and jumping spread is the equivalent of a movement penalty on the base spread value. The current running and jumping spread of the Judge is far below something like the Vandal, which has a running and jumping spread of five and ten respectively—multiple times those of the Judge. Naturally, this makes trying to achieve any sort of accuracy with the Vandal while running or jumping nearly impossible.
These increases coming next patch should reduce the Judge’s effectiveness while mobile, which is exactly what Riot’s trying to accomplish. In the notes, Riot says they want to “[sharpen] the Judge’s identity as a hunker-down style shotgun,” while forcing Judge players to be more “efficient” with only five shots instead of seven.
Will you still get owned by Judge players hiding in the corner? Probably, but at least the Raze and Jett players flying in trying to blast you won’t be as dangerous as they once were. VALORANT Patch 7.09 should go live on Oct. 31, alongside the launch of Episode Seven, Act Three.
