Riot Games is making changes to some of the least and most-picked agents in Valorant.
The Valorant patch 5.10 Public Beta Environment notes list an extensive change log of Cypher buffs and Fade nerfs — with potentially big ramifications for their place in the meta.
While Fade is currently one of the most popular agents in the game in both pro and casual play, Cypher has since languished at the bottom. As part of Valorant’s original roster of agents, the Moroccan sentinel has been a victim of power creep as new agents were added to the game.
- Full roster of every Pacific league team in VCT 2023
- Reap the souls of your opponents with Valorant’s spooky Soulstrife skin bundle
Cypher buffs and Fade nerfs are coming in Valorant patch 5.10
Cypher
Trapwire
- Maximum Trapwire length increased from 1000 to 1500
Neural Theft
- Neural Theft now reveals enemies two times. There is a four second delay between the reveals
- Time restriction to cast on enemy corpses has been removed
- Maximum cast distance increased from 1200 to 1800
Quality of Life
- Updated the yellow silhouette used for Cypher’s reveal on Spycam and Neural Theft
- Yellow silhouette now disappears if the revealed enemy becomes visible to you to help reduce the confusion of seeing two representations of the enemy in different places
- Yellow silhouette now starts dimmer and fades faster to make it more distinguishable from an actual enemy
- Cypher’s placed utility is no longer destroyed by allies’ AOE damage
Cypher’s Trapwire and Neural Theft ultimate are getting buffed. The longer Trapwire length opens up more possibilities for trip placement, so his setups should become less predictable.
“We hope to open new Trapwire setups and mix up known play patterns,” said Riot.
Neural Theft now provides more valuable information on enemy positions with two pings instead of one. Previously, the ultimate was severely lacking in terms of providing information on enemy setups, because it only revealed opponents for a split second and did not account for any repositioning.
Cypher can now also cast Neural Theft on any enemy corpse, regardless of when he died. He can do so from further away as well, potentially allowing him to stay safer while casting.
It remains to be seen whether the changes will help Cypher compete with Chamber, an agent that has become the go-to sentinel on many maps.
Former M3 Champions player Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin doesn’t seem to think so. “It feels like nothing has changed,” he said on Twitter. “Cypher is not going to overtake Chamber. But the longer length of Trapwire is differently a good buff.”
Fade
Prowler
- Duration reduced from 3 to 2.5 seconds
- Delay on bite after reaching target increased from 0.4 to 0.6 seconds
- Hitbox improvements
- Nearsight duration on hit reduced from 3.5 to 2.75 seconds
- Prowlers now fizzle out and no longer debuff instead of debuffing their target if they teleported away before it finished its animation
Nightfall
- Cost increased from 7 to 8 ultimate points
“Fade’s Prowlers have been a versatile and difficult-to-play-against ability that we’re looking to sharpen with these changes,” said Riot.
“The duration changes encourage Fade to be more deliberate in the areas that she chooses to sweep, while the other tweaks to the ability are meant to help enemies on the counterplay side of things.”
The changes are reminiscent of the nerfs to Sova in patch 4.08. The duration of Owl Drone was similarly reduced, forcing Sova to use it more prudently.
The changes also address a very specific interaction between Chamber and the Prowler. Before this, Chamber would be nearsighted once bitten by the Prowler, and he would remain affected by the debuff even after teleporting away.
Now, the animation needs to complete in order for the debuff to apply.
Fade has been one of the most effective counters to Chamber, and the nerfs could possibly allow the dapper sentinel even more space to run amok.
You can read the full change notes here.
READ MORE: Overwatch DPS star Carpe is reportedly switching to Valorant with T1
