After drastic Fracture changes, these four agents will also see a changes to their abilities. How does this affect you?
The latest Valorant update, Patch 5.07 brought significant changes to Fracture. But it has also introduced several ability updates to a few Valorant agents - namely, Skye, Yoru, Kay/O and Reyna
These changes are intended to increase the total teamplay output of Skye and KAY/O when they coordinate plays with their teammates, and decrease some of their efficacy when played alone. We also hope to increase the reward for putting more time into mastering their flash abilities. We believe that Initiators should still be able to make solo plays, but they should ideally be weaker than their Duelist counterparts in these scenarios.
Here are all the Valorant 5.07 Agent changes.
Skye
- GUIDING LIGHT (E) flashbang scaling paradigm changed
- The max flash duration of Skye's Guiding Light now scales from 1s to 2.25s over a .75s charge up after being cast
- Guiding Light can no longer be shot and destroyed
- New VFX, UI, and sounds added to communicate new gameplay intent
- Unequip Delay out of Guiding Light increased .75s >>> .85s
Pop flashing with Skye is slightly less effective now. The more time you channel your flash, the more impact it will have. This means opponents now have more time to react to the Skye flash, making it slightly less effective.
A redditor had a cool idea for fake-flashing with Skye - "what if I just throw the bird into a wall/corner for 0.75 seconds then pop flash it around the corner? That way I can still pop flash for myself and get full flash duration."
Yoru
- BLINDSIDE (Q) duration increased 1.5s >>>1.75s
- Flash Visual Updates
- 3P visuals for flashed enemies and allies now render behind the player’s head the moment that the flash starts to fade. This should give a clearer indication if players are full flashed or if the flash has started to fade.
- 1P visuals when fully flashed now shrink overtime to give a better indication of when the full flash will end and the flash fading out will begin.
- Increased the window for awarding assists on flashes, nearsights and concusses from 1 >>> 3 seconds after the debuff starts to fade.
- We felt the assist window on these debuffs didn’t reflect their actual duration of impact, and want to make sure the supportive players are more often recognized and rewarded for setting up situations their teammates capitalize on.
Yoru has a slightly longer blind duration, which in a game like Valorant can make a huge impact. Players often use Yoru flashes from within their ults, and the .25 higher flash timing will give them more time to adjust out of the ultimate and get some frags.
Kay/o
- FLASH/DRIVE (Q)
- Underhand (right-click) flashbang max duration decreased 2s>>>1.25s
- Overhand (left-click) flashbang max duration increased 2s>>>2.25s
- Unequip Delay out of both flashes increased .6s >>> .85s
Kay/o has receives some big nerfs, the maximum underhand flash timing reduces by 0.75 seconds. The overhand flash has received a slight buff, but it does feel like Kay/o can no longer just underhand flash and take on multiple enemies with as much ease.
Reyna
- LEER (C)
- Wind-up of nearsight effect decreased .6s >>> .4s
- Range Restriction on Leer removed
- Nearsight unequip delay decreased: .7 >>> .5
- Duration decreased 2.6s >>> 2.0s
Slight buffs to Reyna that make her much more stronger. Reyna's kit does not see a drastic change in performance but these changes will matter more at the highest skill level and pros will definitely see a slight increase in Reyna's pick rate.
The Valorant 5.07 Agent changes will dramatically alter the utility of the said agents. You can check out the full patch notes here.
All images credit to Riot games.
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