The new tactical shooter Valorant has received a new update. This adjusts several agents – including Viper, who has been considered one of the weaker ones. Read the patch notes here.
What is changing for Viper? The agent Viper with a preference for poison has received adjustments to almost all of her abilities. Her change is the largest in the entire update:
- Snake Pit: Viper can now be outside of the ultimate for 12 instead of 5 seconds before it collapses. Additionally, it obscures the enemy minimap in the area and prevents information. Viper can cancel the ability early by holding it down, and enemies on the edge of the restricted field of vision now glow brighter.
- Decay (Gas damage): Damage per second from all sources to enemies increased from 10 to 15. Decay lasts another 2.5 seconds when Viper leaves the smoke.
- Fuel: If the poison cloud and toxic screen are both active at the same time, only as much fuel is consumed as if one of the abilities were active.
What was the problem with her? Viper requires a lot of planning and is a relatively complex agent that you need to learn quite well. Furthermore, good communication with your own team is necessary for success, so you don’t hinder your own allies.
In addition, Viper previously had the problem that her abilities performed poorly even in the situations they were intended for. Because of this, she landed in the third-last place of the most popular agents. In the tier list of all agents, she is rated in the lowest C-tier.
With the new changes, she has become a bit more agile, can cause more problems for enemies, hinder them, and doesn’t lose her usefulness as quickly. Especially her new ability to be outside of the ultimate longer before it dissolves, and the new fuel mechanic make her a bit easier to handle and simultaneously more dangerous for enemies.
Update 1.04 on July 21 – Patch Notes
These agents are getting a nerf: Along with the buff for Viper, two other agents have received a hit: Raze and Brimstone. For Raze, this is another nerf after she was already weakened some time ago.
For both agents, the required number of charges for using the ultimate has been increased from 6 to 7. Brimstone, however, also receives a small adjustment. His Stim Pack no longer gives buffs to enemies and does not show the area of effect, so they can no longer see easily where he uses the ability.
What else is changing? Valorant is tweaking the Classic pistol, which apparently had some issues. These mainly relate to bugs that made it less accurate, which have now been fixed. Its spread has been reduced, making it more precise.
Additionally, several bugs will be fixed and improvements will be made. Read here the complete patch notes from Valorant on the official site.
Recently, data miners found information about completely new agents in Valorant. They seem to have abilities from the battle royale Apex Legends. However, Riot has dismissed the rumors about these two agents directly and made it clear that you will never see them.
