Viper, Yoru buffs are coming to Valorant, but not for a while

Fariha Bhatti Published 03/03/2021

Valorant patch 2.04 is out, but one of the most notable things about the patch was the lack of buffs to Yoru and Viper. Many were surprised by this, but Valorant’s developers addressed the reason behind the delay.

Since the game’s official release, Riot Games has introduced 15 agents into the game, divided into four categories. Most agents are viable, but a few others are still struggling to find a place in the game. Yoru finds himself as the clear-cut worst duelist in the game due to his unremarkable skills. Meanwhile, Viper has been one of the less-impactful agents in the game for a long while. Both agents require tons of work to shine through in serious games, but Valorant players want more.

In patch 2.0, Valorant developers promised a rework of Viper and significant buffs to Yoru. Neither of those things happened and instead, there’s a new agent that’s pushing them further away from relevance.

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Valorant developer reveals reason behind Viper, Yoru buff delay

Valorant developer Coleman Palm has revealed that buffs are still on the cards but will take some time to materialize.

“It may not seem like it, but we really want to ship these changes as soon as possible too. We just only have so many sets of hands and a lot to juggle. There are more changes we’d like to make than we can realistically ship, so we’ve gotta prioritize for the sake of balance,” Palm said.

The developer explained that the VCT Masters was the leading cause behind the delay. Valorant’s first LAN event will be played on patch 2.04, and the developers want to ensure that playable agents in competitive games are not going through functional changes. It’s for that same reason that Astra won’t be available to play in VCT games.

Unfortunately, the buffs won’t arrive until after VCT Masters. Over the coming weeks, patches will focus on Astra changes, bug monitoring, and other Act 2 tweaks. However, Palm confirmed that players will get their favorite underrated agents buffed by patch 2.06, or 2.09 at the latest.

“For full transparency, 2.05 will likely be a lighter patch as well as we keep an eye on Astra’s launch and ensure it’s healthy. Past that point though, we have a gap in tournaments and some time where we may be able to ship some of those changes in that 2.06-2.09 window,” Palmsaid.

Rest assured, plans for Viper and Yoru buffs haven’t been scratched completely. While Yoru still may take some time to fit in the fast-paced, aggressive duelist meta, Viper will surely benefit from the new updates.

Omen and Brimstone have primarily overshadowed the controller agent for the past one year. Astra’s addition, will further push her to the verge of collapsing. Riot Games has previously buffed Viper to no avail. It’s likely that the upcoming changes for the original controller will be massive.

Fariha Bhatti

About Fariha Bhatti

Fariha Bhatti is a long-time gaming writer who loves competitive FPS games and slots with particularly fun themes. She got her start playing classic games developed by SNK, from legendary fighting game series The King of Fighters to challenging platform franchise Metal Slug. She now spends most of her time playing Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 while working her way through new slot releases to find her next favorite. Fariha has been published at PCGamesN, TalkEsport and ONE Esports.

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