VALORANT‘s German tinkerer is getting some noticeable changes to her kit in today’s patch.
Patch 1.11 tweaks a couple of Killjoy abilities in an effort to limit her global presence. To compensate for that nerf, her ability to lock down a site will be boosted. And some minor adjustments to Breach and Cypher should improve agent balance a bit.
“Her global recon should be hit pretty hard here but we have slightly boosted her stalling power to counterbalance that nerf,” the patch notes read. “All in all, we hope to keep Killjoy in a very similar place power wise but give her a stronger identity as the premiere on-site defender.”
Killjoy mains often use their Turret for recon, setting and forgetting it in a spot where it can pick up enemy flankers or a team rotation. It appears Riot wants to move away from that strategy completely, giving her Alarmbot and Turret a 40-meter deactivation range. Players will have to be fairly close to her gadgets for them to be activated, unlike Cypher’s traps.
To make up for the range nerf, Riot buffed three of her abilities. The Turret cooldown after being picked up will now be 10 seconds, down from 20. The range at which Alarmbot can be detected is decreasing to seven meters, down from nine meters, as well as its pick-up cooldown dropping to seven seconds from 20.
And Killjoy’s once-overpowered molly is getting some much-needed help. The range that Nanoswarm can be detected at is dropping from five to 3.5 meters. And its damage per second is increasing to 45, instead of 40. While her grenade previously ticked in chunks, it’ll now tick smoother and faster every 0.25 seconds.
Breach’s full flash time is increasing to two seconds, from 1.75, to make him an even better initiator. And Cypher’s Trapwire and Spy Camera will now be revealed and disabled upon his death. This should force the sentinel to play even more passive to get maximum efficiency from his kit.
