Riot Games is in the midst of testing a bunch of interesting changes to Valorant on public beta environment (PBE) servers this week. For starters, as we’ve highlighted in another recent article, there’s a big change happening in fractures that looks very promising. But the more impressive changes relate to the resale of several Agents of Glow, which, if shut down after this week’s trial, seems destined to move Valorant’s meta in a big way—though, as ever- Sometimes it happens, move it differently for rank and pro play.
Update: Tested on PBE servers and the changes discussed in this article have now been officially discontinued by Riot Games. They are set to go live in the next 48 hours; You can view the full notes for patch 5.07 here.
Before we go any further, let’s quickly review the changes that affected four of Valorant’s Flash agents: Skye, Kayo, Yoru, and Reyna.
- ka/o – Underarm flash is now less powerful, left-click flash is stronger, both have been tweaked to flash for different times. The idea here is to push the agent more toward the support role, rewarding accurate left-click Flash and removing some of his ability to be self-sufficient in the Flash role.
- sky – Birds of Skye can no longer be destroyed, and they glow longer depending on how far the bird has traveled. His re-equipment time is now a bit too long. Again, similar to KAY/O, Skye is now more of a support agent as her Flash doesn’t have a strong effect after being popped at close range.
- Rayna – Reyna’s Lear now has an infinite range, rapidly blinds enemies once deployed, and has an even faster time to re-equip her weapon after the ability is used up.
- yoru – Flash is long lasting and is clearly animated to help players understand if the enemy has been flashed. Yurou also benefits from a longer window to get help from using Flash.
I’ve talked about major rebalancing of Chambers in a previous article as having a lot of positive effects in pro scene play, but more or less none rankles, and I can’t seem to find something similar when reviewing these changes. Is. In Chambers’ case, reducing the number of trips available to him and then later reducing his abilities across the board, trip-focused sentinels like Cypher and Killjoy see much higher pick rates in pro games. In the rankings, however, Chambers is still seen in almost every match.
Once again with these latest Flash changes, I think Riot is spot on with intent to push each agent closer to their intended role – Skye and KAY/O should be more supportive, and Reyna/Yoru more than their own. Must be able to take advantage. utility. The problem is that players don’t actually use agents according to their intended roles, except for Valorant’s highest Elo. In general, they prefer to play the ones that are easier to use and most effective for fragging. Supporting roles are not necessarily to be overlooked, but they are not a priority.
Image Source: Riot Games
I struggle to find the Shining Sky and KAY/O Mens to effectively teammates in Immortal, let alone the Silver and Gold ranks that are the most populous of Valorant. And the brave gods know only too well that we don’t need to install Rainas any more. As for Yurou, well, any hobby is welcome, really, but the reality is that Yurou is hard to learn and it’s very difficult to get consistent value from it, which is why he’s rarely seen in the ranks. .
In a way, I feel like I’m being a little harsh here, when there’s an uproar about what is arguably well-thought-out changes are being implemented. However, as an aside, I will say that I find it odd that KAY/O is essentially being made harder to play when only the second month her Molly was buffed because Riot has been able to use her high skills. had exposed its poor win rate in the respective rankings. ceiling. It seems that now the effect of his pop flash has been made harder for lesser Elo players, right?
Anyway, my real fear is that in the ranks we are likely to see the Sky and KAY/O pick rates drop down the ranks, while the Reyna pick rates move up beyond where they should be now. KAY/O and Skye can be used as aggressively as they are now, which is often their saving grace when a team is in dire need of the Flash but no one is willing to give up their Jet/Chamber/Rayna preference. is not ready. Is this still going to move forward or are we about to see double dichotomy become the norm again?
Again, I think this rebalancing of agents for very high elo and professional play works a treat. And in fairness to Riot, you can’t always find the lowest common denominator. I think the hope is that over time players will learn to make the most of Sky and KAY/O once again, and after the initial and inevitable discussion of Reyna’s enthusiasm over the buff, we’ll see less of her – because I’m pretty confident Am that she is about to explode in popularity again.
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