Valorant Patch 5.12 Notes Confirm Agent Changes & Spectre Nerf

As reported last week, Valorant looked set to undergo a big rebalance of its Agent utility for Patch 5.12 after a Public Beta Environment (PBE) server patch revealed a host of meta-shifting changes. That rebalance has now been confirmed after Riot Games revealed the full list of patch notes coming to Valorant this week.

Here’s the overview:

Valorant 5.12 Patch Notes

AGENT UPDATES

“With pro play heading into the offseason after the completion of an amazing Game Changers Championship, we’re taking the opportunity to hit some broad updates we’ve been looking to make along with individual Agent changes. 

We’ve increased the point costs of the Agent Ultimates that have large, site-wide footprints. These changes should reduce their overall frequency and increase counterplay against them at the strategic level.

In addition to the Ult adjustments, we’ve also made a tuning pass on Agent ability economy. The areas targeted in this pass include: Total loadout cost outliers (for their respective role), Agents with lack of pistol round buy options, and unintended power relative to the cost of the ability.

To wrap up the broad updates, we’ve taken a pass at the HP of destructible objects in the game.  Damage-over-time area abilities (like Brimstone’s Incindiary and Viper’s Snakebite) now damage enemy utility (read more in the Gameplay Systems Updates), so we’ve increased the health of 1hp destructibles so that they aren’t instantly vaporized—but can still be destroyed by one-shot in most situations. Also, Killjoy’s Lockdown gets a bigger health bump to reduce the number of abilities that can destroy it solo.  Boombot and Prowlers on the other hand have felt like they require unloading too many bullets given their other strengths, so the health of those abilities have been reduced.“

Breach

• Rolling Thunder (X)
  • Ultimate Points increased 7 >>> 8

Chamber

• Headhunter (Q)
  • Updated Stability Curve
    • Spread increased after 2nd bullet, when spamming. This is explicitly meant to reduce low-precision body-shot spam as an effective combat measure at range.
• Rendezvous (E)
  • Chamber now places a single anchor that can be teleported to while inside its range
    • Radius increased 7.5m >>> 13m
  • Removed teleport activation height restriction
    • You can teleport to the Anchor while on different verticality so long as you are within its radius.
  • Increased weapon equip time after teleporting 0.4s >>> 0.7s
    • Headhunter is unaffected by this change
  • Destroying Rendezvous teleport anchor now disables it for the remainder of the round, instead of being placed on a cooldown.
  • Chamber no longer incurs an additional cooldown when recalling his Anchor after teleporting.
  • Health decreased 80 >>> 50
• Trademark (C)
  • The trap is now range restricted
    • Trademark will disable when Chamber moves out of range, and reactivate once he is inside.
  • Can now be recalled mid-round without line of sight
  • 30s cooldown on recall
  • Destruction remains permanent
  • Initial Arm Time increased 2s >>> 4s
  • Health Increased 1 >>> 20
• Tour De Force (X)
  • Fire rate decreased by 57.5%
• Slow
  • This applies to both Trademark and Tour De Force
    • Reduced duration 6s >>> 4s

Cypher

• Trapwire (C)
  • Health increased 1 >>> 20

Fade

• Prowler (C)
  • Health decreased 100 >>> 60

Harbor

We’re back again with small Harbor buffs. It is hard to learn a new Controller smoke style and we hope these changes make it easier for Harbor’s vision block to last long enough to finish executing with their team, while also providing wall smoke duration that’s on par with Viper. We’ll continue to monitor Harbor’s strength and see if we need to make any more waves. Chalo!

• High Tide (E)
  • Duration increased 12s >>> 15s
• Cascade (C)
  • Duration increased 5s >>> 7s

KAY/O

• ZERO/POINT (E)
  • Health increased 1 >>> 20
• NULL/cmd (C)
  • Ultimate points increased 7 >>> 8

Killjoy

• Lockdown (X)
  • Health increased 150 >>> 200
• Nanoswarm (C)
  • Health increased 1 >>> 20

Omen

• Paranoia (Q)
  • Cost decreased 300 >>> 250

Phoenix

• Blaze (C)
  • Cost decreased 200 >>> 150

Raze

• Boom Bot (C)
  • Health decreased 100 >>> 60
• Blast Pack (Q)
  • Health increased 1 >>> 20

Sage

We’re looking to slightly refine Sage’s strengths to be more about fortifying areas she controls and helping allies, rather than offense-focused with her utility.  We’re hoping the heal update will push her power and satisfaction when fully healing others while creating tradeoffs for playing Sage overly aggressive and relying on self-healing.

• Barrier Orb (C)
  • Fortify delay  increased 3.0s >>> 3.3s
• Healing Orb (E)
  • Self heal total amount decreased  60HP >>> 30HP
  • Ally heal total amount increased 60HP>>> 100HP

Sova

• Recon Bolt (E)
  • Health increased 1 >>> 20

Skye

• Trailblazer (Q)
  • Cost increased 250 >>> 300
• Regrowth (C)
  • Cost decreased 200 >>> 150

Viper

We’re reeling in Viper’s ability to play outside of her ultimate’s smoke area. These changes will anchor Viper more to her ultimate and allow coordinated retakes against Viper’s Pit to be more successful.

• Viper’s Pit (X)
  • Smoke integrity regen time 5.0 >>> 25.0
  • Max time out of smoke decreased 15.0 >>> 8.0
  • Ultimate points required 7 >>> 8

Yoru

• Gatecrash (E)
  • Health decreased 100 >>> 60
  • Cost decreased 200 >>> 150
• What’s that? Looks like several Agents are reviewing some important mission updates in The Range.

Gameplay System Updates

Assist Tail Tuning

Assist tails are the “grace period” duration after a debuff has expired where a player will still be awarded an assist for debuffing the killed target.

• Concuss, Nearsight, Detained
  • Assist tail increased 2s >>> 3s
• Exiting Smokes
  • Assist tail increased 1s >>> 2s
• Slow
  • Assist tail increased 1s >>> 2s
• Suppression
  • Added new 3s assist tail

Damage Interaction Updates

• Abilities that output damage will now universally damage enemy objects that can be damaged. Exceptions are made for Skye Trailblazer & Cypher Trapwire that only deal damage to players.
  • We want to ensure that abilities are interacting in a consistent manner across the board. We want you to spend time thinking  about how to approach utility in-game, rather than wondering if you can in the first place.

Brimstone

• Incendiary now damages:
  • Killjoy Nanoswarm
  • Killjoy Alarmbot
  • Killjoy Lockdown
  • Cypher Trapwire
  • Raze Blast Pack
  • Sova Recon Bolt
  • Reyna Leer
  • Sage Barrier Orb
  • KAY/O Knife
  • Chamber Trademark
  • Chamber Rendezvous
  • Fade Prowler
• Orbital Strike now damages:
  • Chamber Rendezvous

Phoenix

• Hothands bow damages:
  • Cypher Trapwire
  • Killjoy Nanoswarm
  • Killjoy Alarmbot
  • Killjoy Lockdown
  • Raze Blast Pack
  • Reyna Leer
  • Sage Barrier Orb
  • Sova Recon Bolt
  • Fade Prowler
  • KAY/O Knife
  • Chamber Trademark
  • Chamber Rendezvous
• Blaze now damages:
  • Cypher Trapwire
  • Killjoy Nanoswarm
  • Killjoy Alarmbot
  • Killjoy Lockdown
  • Raze Blast Pack
  • Reyna Leer
  • Sage Barrier Orb
  • Sova Recon Bolt
  • Fade Prowler
  • KAY/O Knife
  • Yoru Fakeout
  • Chamber Trademark
  • Chamber Rendezvouszero

KAY/O

• FRAG/MENT: KAY/O now has a voiceover that tells his allies the number of enemies suppressed when the knife hits.
• ZERO/POINT now damages:
  • Fade Prowler

Killjoy

• Nanoswarm now damages:
  • Cypher Trapwire
  • Killjoy Nanoswarm
  • Killjoy Alarmbot
  • Killjoy lockdown
  • Raze Blast Pack
  • Reyna Leer
  • Sage Barrier Orb
  • Sova Recon Bolt
  • Chamber Trademark
  • Chamber Rendezvous
  • Fade Prowler
  • KAY/O Knife

Raze

• Blast Pack
  • Now damages:
    • Fade Prowler
• Paint Shells
  • Now damages:
    • Fade Prowler

Sova

• Shock Bolt
  • Now damages:
    • Fade Prowler
• Hunters Fury
  • Now damages:
    • Raze Satchel
    • Reyna Leer
    • Fade Prowler
    • Chamber Rendezvous

Viper

• Snakebite
  • Now damages:
    • Cypher Trapwire
    • Killjoy Nanoswarm
    • Killjoy Alarmbot
    • Killjoy lockdown
    • Raze Blast Pack
    • Reyna Leer
    • Sage Barrier Orb
    • Skye Seekers
    • Sova Recon Bolt
    • Chamber Trademark
    • Chamber Rendezvous
    • Fade Prowler
    • KAY/O Knife

Damage Multiplier Updates

With damage-over-time area abilities now universally damaging utility, we took a pass on damage multipliers. These area damage abilities cover a wide space and deal large amounts of damage over their duration. We’ve reduced their non-player output to 50% of base damage to prevent instant destruction of enemy utility and to ensure abilities with higher health, such as Sage Barrier Orb, retain their relevant impact.

Breach

• Aftershock now deals 250% >>> 100% damage to non-players

Brimstone

• Incendiary now deals 100% >>> 50% damage to non-players

KAY/O

• Fragment now deals 250% >>> 100% damage to non-players

Killjoy

• Nanoswarm now deals 100% >>> 50% damage to non-players

Phoenix

• Hot Hands now deals 100% >>> 50% damage to non-players

Raze

• Blast Pack now deals 1200% >>> 250% damage to non-players
• Paint Shells now deals 100% >>> 250% damage to non-players
• Boom Bot now deals 100% >>> 250% damage to non-players

Viper

• Snake Bite now deals 100% >>> 50% damage to non-players

Allied Ability Damage Immunity

The following abilities are now immune to allied damage.

Chamber

• Rendezvous
• Trademark

Cypher

• Spycam

Fade

• Prowler
• Haunt

KAY/O

• ZERO/POINT

Killjoy

• Alarmbot
• Lockdown

Raze

• Blastpack
• Boom Bot

Skye

• Seekers
• Trailblazer

Sova

• Owl Drone
• Recon Bolt

Yoru

• Gatecrash
• Fakeout

Weapon Updates

Spectre

We felt the Spectre was overperforming at mid to long ranges and, as a result, was crowding out other options on partial buys.

• Added a third damage range to the Spectre and updated distances.  New distances and body shot damage are:
  • 0-15m, 26 damage.
  • 15m-30m, 22 damage.
  • 30m+, 20 damage.
• For reference, the old ranges and damages were:
  • 0-20m, 26 damage.
  • 20m+, 22 damage.

Mode Updates

Swiftplay Beta

Swiftplay Beta is playable Dec. 6 through Jan. 10, 2023. Please jump in, help us test this new game mode, and give us your feedback!

• Similar to the standard 5v5 Unrated mode, but condensed:
  • First to 5 rounds, 4-round half
  • Spike mode victory conditions
    • Single Spike carrier
  • Set Credit amounts granted at the start of the round
    • 800
    • 2400*
      • Not including 600c bonus for winning pistol
    • 4250
    • 4250
  • Weapon and Credit carryover supported
  • +600 credit bonus for winning pistol round
  • Standard Kill bonuses (+200c) and Spike Plant bonuses (+300c)
  • 2 Ult points granted at the start of each half
  • Sudden death overtime
  • Match time is approx. 15 minutes

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Phoenix would not be decayed by Viper for a short period after dying during Run It Back while decayed. (Thanks for the report Iyerfire)
• Fixed an issue where Cypher wasn’t able to place Trapwires on the glass panels by the yellow crate on Icebox.
• Fixed a bug where enemy Spycams or Turrets could trigger Cypher’s Trapwires.
• Fixed a bug where enemy knives could not damage Chamber’s Rendezvous teleport anchor.
• Fixed a bug where Boombot would explode on contact with Yoru’s Gatecrash beacons.

So there you have a full overview of the Valorant Patch 5.12 notes. But there’s more coming this week, too, including the return of the Night Market, and a brand new game mode called Swift Play.

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