Has the Vandal Been Accidentally Nerfed?

In this video I discuss the possibility of the Vandal being accidentally NERFED in the most recent VALORANT patch!
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[PaulHoleybatch]

"In unrated you won't spend all your time setting yourself up for an ideal fight"
Allow me to introduce Frankfurt's unrated at 3 am on a Thursday.

[Hye.]

either hit 2 body shots and 2 leg shots and deal 148 and hate yourself for the whole game or do 140 and your team cant hit them once

[davidlian]

Just use the gun that has the better skin

[laiqkie]

in my lobbies it doesn’t matter because odin is a weapon

[mauronoacontaldomurgia]

TLDR:
Pick Phantom against: Iso, Neon, Raze.
Pick Phantom if: you want to engage in mid-to-close angle deliberately (example: Split, on mid, smoked ropes, go B)
Pick Phantom if: you want to spam smokes.

DON'T pick phantom against healing agents (reyna, clove, sage, skye, phoenix) or Chamber/Jett

Pick Vandal if: you want to engage longer angles deliberately (example: Haven, first contact on C, A long or B window)

[Angel_Underscore]

I know they're basically just as precise, but it always feels to me like the vandal's bullets just go wherever they want, the crosshair is but a suggestion.

[hugoc]

WE'RE BUYING THE NEW PHANTOM CHAMPION SKIN WITH THIS ONE 🔥🔥🔥💯💯💯

[Chronoseer]

I choose between the vandal and phantom depending on what play I'm going for during that round

[spencer]

been using mainly phantom since i started playing and i think the biggest advantage it has is its absurdly easy to hold a close angle with it because you will always headshot them by the 3rd or 4th bullet

[yourlocalstalker]

1:17 can we just appreciate the transition

[imbadatpickinganame]

i have the definitive facts of this argument, as an autistic game developer with a hyperfixation on cs and val, a radiant, and a coach

the phantom and the vandal up until recently were balanced in the sense that speaking on the statistics of the weapons themselves, each one had a drawback to bring it in line with the other rifle.
first bullet accuacy is a term i will likely use a lot here, all you need to know is that there is a multiplier applied to almost every gun in the game, that multiplier dictates how far a bullet can stray from the centre of your crosshair under perfect conditions (no shooting error, movement error, aim punch etc). this multiplier is the reason why the ghost can feel so inconsistent, and people like dr freeze can perform astoundingly well with just a frenzy. speaking on those two weapons just for example sake, the frenzy's first bullet accuracy multiplier is far smaller than the ghosts, ironically making it a better weapon at range than the ghost

applying this to the vandal, the vandal has no damage drop off, meaning it can one tap at any range provided it isnt through a wall, the phantom however has damage drop off. to combat this, it is far more accurate at range than the vandal. these two things balance each other out, so baring a few things i will cover next, the vandal and phantom are equal

the inequality arises in random recoil, because the phantoms multiplier is lower than the vandals, the spray is noticably more consistent than the vandals. factoring in the suppressor which means it can be difficult to identify where youre being shot from at times, and the lack of tracers when spamming a smoke, the phantom begins to have an edge despite the vandals popularity.

as a coach who does not ask for payment (i coach friends, friends of friends and have successfully coached people from as low as bronze to immo, and as high as diamond to immortal) i take a more unorthadox approach. paid coaches dont like to tell someone who wants to play jett that they suck and if they want to hit immortal they simply wont be able to compete on a duelist. i however, will. the same paid coaches would not usually infringe on your preferred rifle choice, whereas i would if nothing else, bring it up, because how you play and what agent you play greatly dictates what weapon you should be using

i almost always take a vandal, but on an agent like omen where i play my site smokes on defense and spam them, on agents that have very mobile playstyles like neon and raze, on agents where you can abuse stim like brim, kayo or reyna, i will bring up the phantom, because despite being a vandal main, depending on what agent i play i will swap rifles, heavy on raze
when jett smokes lasted longer i used to use a phantom especially on ascent, on either site id dash into my smoke and just spray at the common angles, it was broken. though it still works its not nearly as effective so i tend to take a vandal on jett these days, but thats besides the point, if a jett came to me and he was doing that with a vandal id have the talk with him about the phantom

now, why is the vandal more popular than the phantom?

its a very easy question to answer, in a word. ego.

when the vandal fails you (first bullet accuracy multiplier) you dont actually know if the vandal failed you or if it was your own error. when the phantom fails you, that 140 stings, you see it right in front of your face, and everyone always wants to blame something else or someone. its too easy to point the finger at the phantom, which is why people inevitably gravitate towards the vandal.

[-TwoxN]

add kuronami phantom, sure ill play with it.

[niraa]

You forgot the fact that way more people buy light shields lately since it's (almost) the same if the opponent has a vandal, which makes the phantom even more op.

[KrispyRL]

Jokes on you for thinking we use util in ranked 🧠

[IVISMiLESIVI]

When my tmates ask "why aren't u using a vandal" I'ma say konpeki said not to.

[mynthics]

The simplest way to decide this is on long sites/maps pick vandal, and on shorter maps/sites pick phantom. eg. vandal on pearl B, phantom on sunset B

[creepx_hd]

I personally always switch between the two guns depending on two factors:
- if my aim is good today we use vandal
- if enemy team has a lot of smokes we use phantom

It makes it feel like I get a little bit of both upsides and that I’m never hindering myself with my weapons. Tho I’m still low elo enough that it doesn’t really matter.

[syedhyderali]

bro i just bought a new phantom skin and was already having seconds thoughts about it. But thanks to u, I don't regret it.

[lghtnng]

i think teams sould have 2 phantoms and 3 vandals that means u still get those inportant head shots but u your team can still spay for the new meta or u could have it the other way round 3 phantoms and 2 vandls

[Dougson]

8:46 glad I could contribute my beautiful singing voice to this gem of a video