Viper will find a great benefit in patch 1.04
Riot Games has released the patch notes for Valorant Update 1.04 and the great topic of conversation is a great benefit for Viper.
Viper has seen improvements in several areas, and the most shocking apparently was for his last Viper’s Pit. It can now be out of the pit for 12 seconds before it collapses, instead of five, and enemies inside the pit have their mini-map hidden. This should make entering the well much more threatening, and give Viper much more time to reposition if necessary.
Its decline in all abilities has also become more powerful, increasing from 10 to 15 per second, and will now hold for 2.5 seconds after quitting.
Finally, having both the toxic screen and the orb active at the same time no longer drains more toxin fuel, which means you can have both for longer.
Overall, these changes should make Viper a much more viable agent at all levels of play. Despite the vision and control of the area it can offer, it has rarely been played at higher levels, and at lower levels players struggle to use it efficiently. These changes seek to change that and make it more viable for everyone.
Elsewhere in the patch notes, Brimstone has also seen changes. On the downside, his maximum ability now costs seven points, not six, but on the upside, his Stim Beacons no longer benefit enemies and shows his radius of effect to enemies. Oh, and his arms, like his literal arms, look better now.
Other agents to see minor changes are Raze and Cypher, with the latter now costing seven points, not six, and the later Cyber Cage gains the ability to be picked up during the purchase phase.
The other big change in the patch comes to the Classic pistol, which has been tweaked a bit. The functionality of right-clicking has been slightly modified, making them behave more consistently when running, but reducing accuracy when jumping.
As with each patch, there are also a host of quality of life improvements and bug fixes. Most notably, Reyna no longer has to look at a Soul Orb to get the heal healed, and crucially a typo in Brimstone’s biography has been fixed. I know everyone was really concerned about that, so you can be sure that it has been corrected.
The patch is certainly not as big as others we’ve seen for Valorant, but Viper’s benefits will really make it interesting and could have a big impact on the meta.
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