It’s been a long time coming, but Yoru and Viper mains have something to get excited about in Valorant. The long-talked-about buffs to the two underpowered Agents are finally coming after multiple delays, but there’s still be a wait yet.
Riot has been talking about Viper buffs in Valorant since the dawn of time, basically. The American Controller has been on the fringe of the meta since the game’s release, and while some buffs in Episode 1 helped her, she’s been left wanting more.
Since then, Yoru mains have joined the chorus of complaints. The Japanese Duelist failed to hit the mark on his release. Riot has shipped some quality-of-life changes since, but numbers need to be changed.
Thankfully, both communities will have their prayers answered shortly. Riot has confirmed, after a long line of promises, buffs will be coming in Valorant patch 2.06 and beyond.
The changes would have come earlier, had it not been for the Valorant Stage 1 Masters. With the big international tournament set to take place on Valorant patch 2.04, they have to wait until 2.06 to start shipping the changes they want.
“For full transparency, 2.05 will likely be a lighter patch as well as we keep an eye on Astra’s launch and ensure it’s healthy,” developer Coleman ‘Altombre’ Palm said on Reddit.
“Past that point though, we have a gap in tournaments and some time where we may be able to ship some of those changes in that 2.06-2.09 window.”
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“We really want to ship these changes as soon as possible too. We just only have so many sets of hands and a lot to juggle — there are more changes we’d like to make than we can realistically ship, so we’ve got to prioritize for the sake of balance.”
If Astra lands in a good spot, Yoru and Viper mains can expect some good news in the earlier half of that window. If Astra needs help herself — which could be the case — it’ll be in the latter half.
Riot hasn’t shed too much light on specific details of the changes, although they are looking to keep the identities of the two Agents the same.
- Read More: How to play Astra in Valorant
“Viper commits to her smoke placement more than other controllers, but is able to smoke much larger areas for more of a round as a result, and her smokes are more threatening to push through or play around,” Altombre added, speaking on Viper specifically.
“We’re experimenting leaning into some of these aspects to see if we can get her into a better spot for solo queue without homogenizing her or detracting from her identity.”
