The highlight of the upcoming VALORANT 5.12 patch is certainly the sweeping changes affecting Chamber, but those changes won’t be the only ones made by Riot.
VALORANT‘s community manager published the 5.12 patch notes for the Public Beta Environment tonight, detailing a huge list of agent changes that players in PBE will test over this upcoming weekend. Alongside the agent ability updates are some “significant game system updates” and a small update to the Spectre.
One of the main focal points of the agent updates is increasing costs of several ultimates that have “large, site-wide footprints.” Breach, KAY/O, and Viper’s ultimate costs have increased from seven to eight points. Viper’s Pit received other nerfs as well: her smoke integrity regeneration time has increased from five seconds to 25 seconds, and she can only spend roughly half the time outside of the pit before it goes away.
Many agents with deployable abilities will see those abilities receive a health buff. Cypher’s Trapwire, KAY/O’s ZERO/POINT knife, Killjoy’s Nanoswarm, Raze’s Blast Pack, Sova’s Recon Bolt, and of course Chamber’s Trademark now have 20 points of health instead of just one.
The newest agent, Harbor, will receive a buff to make him more viable. His High Tide water wall now has a 15 second duration instead of just 12 seconds, and his Cascade water wall duration is up to seven seconds from five.
Fade’s Prowler health has decreased, Killjoy’s Lockdown device health has increased, Omen’s Paranoia cost has decreased, Raze’s Boom Bot health has decreased, and Phoenix’s Blaze cost has decreased.
Sage’s Barrier Orb fortify delay has increased, and her healing orb heals herself less, but her allies more. Skye’s Trailblazer costs more, but her Regrowth costs less. Yoru’s Gatecrash has less health, but it also costs less.
Across agents as a whole, “abilities that output damage will now universally damage enemy objects that can be damaged.” Essentially, any ability that deals damage will be able to damage an enemy piece of utility.
Finally, the Spectre’s damage range has been changed. From zero to 15 meters, body shots deal 26 damage. From 15 to 30 meters, 22 damage is dealt. And from more than 30 meters, the gun deals 20 damage. Previously, body shots from zero to 20 meters dealt 26 damage, and shots from more than 20 meters dealt 22 damage.
The current PBE testing period for 5.12 changes runs until 1pm CT on Monday, Dec. 5.
All agent ability changes coming to VALORANT in Patch 5.12
Breach
- Rolling Thunder ultimate cost increased from seven to eight.
Chamber
Headhunter (Q)
- Updated Stability Curve
- Spread increased after second bullet when spamming. This is explicitly meant to reduce low-precision body-shot spam as an effective combat measure.
Rendezvous (E)
- Chamber now places a single anchor that can be teleported to while inside its range.
- Diameter increased from 15 meters to 26 meters.
- 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 from 0.4 seconds to 0.7 seconds.
- 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.
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
- Does not require line of sight.
- 30 seconds cooldown on recall.
- Destruction remains permanent.
- Initial Arm Time increased from two seconds to four seconds.
- Health Increased from one to 20.
Tour De Force (X)
- Fire rate decreased by 57.5 percent.
Slow
- This applies to both Trademark and Tour De Force
- Reduced from 50 percent to 40 percent.
- Reduced duration from six seconds to four seconds.
- Reduced size by 30 percent.
Cypher
- Trapwire health increased from one to 20.
Fade
- Prowler health decreased from 100 to 60.
Harbor
- High Tide duration increased from 12 second to 15 seconds.
- Cascade duration increased from five second to seven seconds.
KAY/O
- ZERO/POINT knife health increased from one to 20.
- NULL/cmd ultimate cost increased from seven to eight.
Killjoy
- Lockdown ultimate health increased from 150 to 200.
- Nanoswarm health increased from one to 20.
Omen
- Paranoia cost decreased from 300 to 250.
Phoenix
- Blaze cost decreased from 200 to 150.
Raze
- Boom Bot health decreased from 100 to 60.
- Blast Pack health increased from one to 20.
Sage
- Barrier Orb’s fortify delay increased from 3.0 to 3.3 seconds.
- Healing orb self heal decreased from 60 health points to 30 health points.
- Healing orb ally heal increased from 60 health points to 100 health points.
Sova
- Recon Bolt health increased from one to 20.
Skye
- Trailblazer cost increased from 250 to 300.
- Regrowth cost decreased from 200 to 150.
Viper
- Viper’s Pit smoke integrity regen time increased from five seconds to 25 seconds.
- Max allowed time out of Viper’s Pit decreased from 15 seconds to eight seconds.
- Viper’s Pit ultimate cost increased from seven to eight points.
Yoru
- Gatecrash health decreased from 100 to 60.
- Gatecrash cost decreased from 200 to 150.
