How the Reyna and Yoru changes will impact the Valorant meta

Nicholas James Published 18/02/2021

With patch 2.03 now officially launched, Valorant will be hit with yet another meta shake-up. While this patch had more to do in terms of gun changes, Riot Games also touched a few agents to give them some slight nerfs and buffs.

Some people have been calling this patch the death of Reyna, but the changes to the agent may end up being healthy for the game in the long run. The other agent that saw significant changes in this patch cycle was Yoru. The newly released character was not seeing the play that the developers wanted so they gave him some slight tuning to encourage more people to give him a shot.

Reyna changes in Valorant patch 2.03

Reyna’s orb abilities have been significantly changed in this patch. The vampire queen used to enjoy four charges of her orb abilities, which has now been reduced to two. On top of that, the abilities tied to the orbs have had their price increased slightly.

While Reyna mains may be upset now, this change may bring more diversity to how the agent is played. Before, a player did not really have to think about their orb usage beyond whether or not to heal or become intangible. Now, those who use the agent will have to think twice before purchasing the ability and when the best time to use it will be.

Instead of immediately using Reyna’s abilities on the orbs that enemies drop, players will have to take a second to decide whether they need a heal, become intangible and escape a fight, or save the charge for a future engagement.

Another underrated part of the Reyna changes is that enemies will now drop orbs when a player has damaged the enemy three seconds before they die. This adds another dimension to the agent’s playstyle, giving her the ability to play off of teammates instead of being the solo fighting machine she was previously.

Overall, Reyna has lost her ability to completely take over games, which may drive players away from her. But, she has gained more nuance and the ability to fight with a team instead.

Reyna orb

Will Yoru join the Valorant meta?

Yoru has not seen much play in Valorant so far and the developers have given him some quality of life changes to encourage more players to try him out. The agent gained some significant changes to his teleport and ultimate ability.

Now, Yoru’s teleport ability has a range indicator for how far enemies can see and hear it as it travels across the map. His ultimate ability has also gained new indicators, allowing allies to see what enemies the agent reveals while invisible.

These changes may give Yoru more agency in ranked matches as the agent no longer needs crisp communication to be successful. Just like Reyna and Jett, the Japanese character can be played without the use of a mic and should have some uptick in casual play.

As for the teleported change, the Yoru meta of sneaking a teleport behind the enemy was becoming stale as more and more teams became wise to those antics. With the indicator changes, players now have a range at which they can send out the teleporter to be undetectable by enemies. This should allow Yuro mains to tinker with different lineups that can sneak by enemies without being heard and spotted.

Overall, this patch gave both agents some healthy changes that should shake up the competitive and casual metas. While Reyna may not be the casual game queen she was, the agent now has more diversity in playstyle and could add another dimension of play to those who use her at the highest level. For Yoru, these changes should propel him into the meta and take him out of his previous unplayable status that is reserved for agents like Viper.

Nicholas James

About Nicholas James

Nicholas James is a gaming writer with a passion for all things geekdom, as well as live theater. Nicholas is best known for covering League of Legends and other top MOBA titles, but his expertise covers numerous games across multiple genres. When not watching the LCS or playing the latest new release, Nicholas can be found doing some tabletop gaming and painting his favorite miniatures. Nicholas has also published with Hotspawn, TheGamer, Dexerto, Esports.gg and other industry outlets.

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