Massive Balance Changes Revealed! Patch 5.12 Is Crazy!

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#Valorant #Tips&Tricks #Analysis #Changes #Patch

[leiuwu]

Breach nerf made little sense, the duration only lasts for 5 sec which is an extremely small time window to capitilize off of compared to fade ult which lasts way longer, and it wont effect teammates and it gives intel and it enhances the prowlers, so yeah

[suttlesyeehaw]

KJ Ult takes 3 sova ult hits now to die, and doesn't die to double shocks or breach's ability.

Pretty damn massive.

[tipped]

One think you forgot to mention is that even tho KJ ult is site-wide, they did not increase the cost to 8 points, which could make her ult significantly more common than others and be a great way if buffing her without buffing her

[Mertl.]

Another positive to the KJ Ult change is that a sova will have to commit all 3 Ult shots to break it.

[playerofallgames]

i’m curious if vulnerability from viper molly will apply to utility, like kj ult, so u can combo aftershock with molly to break it

[breezeless_]

I feel like the Sage nerf to her self heal was not necessary and just makes her kit worse for no reason. Comparing to Skye is a bit unfair, because yes Skye can't heal herself, but when initiating duels she can flash to have an advantage, Sage does not, the only advantage that she had was not knowing how much hp she had, which only forces the opponent to go for headshots most of the time and players should aim for the head anyways, this only affects at a lower level. While yes, Sage shouldn't start fights, but in a situation where there is no duelist to entry and the other players has a higher priority to stay alive like smokes and intel, Sage is the best second option and the only small advantage she had in this situation will be gone. Not the biggest nerf in the world, but she lost her self sustainability, I guess those Jett and Sage couples are pretty fine with this change

[quinnbaker]

Still think sage heal speed needs a buff, more similar to Reyna speed

[DualityofLife]

people are not talkin enough about the viper ult change imo. The pit was like that before they buffed it, and it made it extremly obvious where the viper was, and gave the ult zero flexibility. Even though I think viper is still gonna be picked only cause of her wall, the ult is gonna be absolutely dead with these changes.

[wasthataspongebobreference]

Kind of feels like riot is trying to make the roles more defined. Initiator flashes changed to make it so it’s harder to do what a duelist does and set yourself up. Skye heal being cheaper & Sage change makes it so they’re more supportive and no more Battle Sage. Chamber trip change making it so - out of the sentinels - only Cypher has controller-esque map-wide presence, forcing the role to play with their team more.

Controller to begin with has been a role that’s team-reliant so there may be less that’s needed to work with to ingrain their play style.

Either way, feels like they’re backtracking since Fade & Harbor are more “true” versions of their roles - forcing more coercive team-play - while agents before them like Yoru, KAY/0, and Chamber were hybrids when they first released.

[newtonthenewt]

I agree that Sage is supposed to be a supportive agent and all, but it's hard to tell if Sage's heal is better or worse than Skye's now. A large reason why Sage's heal was so good is that it could self-heal for a lot, and now it can only heal a Vandal bullet's worth of damage.
It is concerning to me because this is Sage's signature ability, a fundamental part of her kit that should be one of the best abilities in the game, like most other signature abilities. However, it has been slowly becoming worse when compared with Skye's heal.
Yes, it is true that Skye's heal pool is capped at 100 hp, and Sage heals up to 100 hp per orb AND it comes back after 45 seconds, but how often are you going to get that kind of value? Most of the time, you will probably only be healing 50 or so hp each time you heal someone because part of the damage will be absorbed by armor, which doesn't regenerate. Then you have to wait 45 seconds to heal somebody else, and there just isn't so much time in a round.
The 45 second heal is also the worst for Sage compared to other agents with ability cooldowns because Sage's heal is only useful if someone on your team is damaged. Unlike, for instance, Skye's flash or Breach's stun, Sage's heal can't be used right off the bat to really take advantage of the regenerative cooldown.
So really, the only advantages that Sage's heal has over Skye's heal is that it has unlimited range, can heal for more overall damage in some situations, and Sage can heal herself a pitiful amount.
Otherwise, Skye's heal can heal the entire rest of the team all at once, and does not have any cooldown to heal multiple people. Skye's heal is a purchased ability, mind you.

[DrLIRAAAAAAA]

That buff to KJ's ultimate health is MASSIVE!! Sova can no longer break it with double shock darts or with two beams of his ultimate (three beams needed)!! Breach's aftershock will no longer break it!! Kay/O's frag/ment will only break it if dead center!! Raze's blastpack won't break it also (goodbye blastpack over the wall on A Ascent). Kay/o is the only one that can break it without an ultimate now, and with an ultimate, only Sova and Brimstone. It was very unpleasant having such an expensive ulti be broken by a 200 credit hability. Her ulti is practically unbreakable now!! Why is nobody talking about this?

[abrawolf]

Hopefully they can at least lessen the time it takes for an ally to fully heal, I'm tired of healing teammates and them insta peaking right after as if they're back to full hp instantly

I dislike the viper changes, they're nerfing her ult hard when the last two agents the added hard counter her, fades whole kit and harbors ult and that's not mentioning the other agents. Her ult is amazing yes, but only against an uncoordinated team, all it takes is a few comms to anyone with scout utility or even just spamming the thing randomly and now she can't even really play outside it to try and avoid utility. What's the point of an 8 point ultimate if all it takes to counter it is a free ability and a gun.
Speaking of 8 point ultimates, when are they going to buff the damage scalling on raze ult? It does max 150 so if there's any drop off at all it won't kill which is bs since it's an 8 point ult with a timer that slows you on the ground and you get headshot when you're in the air anyway

[beyond]

on the surface it just seems like theyre trying to find some kind of consistency with agents ie. ults and cost of things. but this just wont work considering how not every agent is at the same balance level right now especially considering the map rotations, breach is on the brink of being weak and skye is just done for at this point.

[noctylusproject]

one change i would like to see is for the T side spawns on fracture be split across the north side and the south side. Think it would naturally help lower elos learn how to play fracture.

[SushiReversed]

As a Sage player, 3/4 of my abilities were already built around helping my team almost exclusively. Being able to self-heal increased my survivability so that I had a better chance to get value from the other 3 abilities. With this nerf, the entire kit becomes dependent on having a teammate that is bad enough to need assistance, but also good enough to benefit from that assistance. Effectively taking away the only ability I had that consistently allowed me to help myself instead of being entirely dependent on teammates is completely unfair.

[grifferthrydwy]

I saw something that said that Riot is still terrified of controllers after the Astra + Viper meta, and that's why Harbor is bad. I suspect they'll keep buffing him until he reaches a sweet spot, they just didn't want the meta to go back to double controller.

[maniacnerd]

Pocket sage gotta be happy with this one

[TachyonFast]

Hey, just something i noticed trying out Harbour on split, he might be a very viable option on that map and maybe even a sage replacement for more combo's instead of other controllers

[brnnabee]

I hate the cost increase for skye, but I hate that I agree with it more

[freakingannonymouspanda]

8:18, No mr tmv, people will stop playing valorant when it is no longer fun anymore. Solo queue is not meant to be pro play. Every agent, weather or no they are duelist, should have individual playmaking ability, at least to a degree. I don't have an issue with supporting my teammates (Assuming they have the 2 braincells to capitalize on my support), but it really gets annoying whenI am forced to do so.

It is already annoying to play with those toxic insta lock duelists. Now you are telling me I am not even supposed to make plays for myself ? As much team oriented game valorant might be, they should at least let skilled people take some control over the game when they need to.
( I am not saying I am really skilled or all duelists are toxic, just saying riot shoud take the fun aspect of the game into concideration maybe???, I am not sayng about this specific case, I am talking about the overall situation).

Edit : I am not even a sage main.