Cover-Credits:
Riot Games announced that it was testing potential changes to the kits of Yoru, Phoenix, and KAY/O on Valorant’s Public Beta Environment (PBE) over the weekend. Comms Strategist Jeff Landa took to Twitter to explain these changes one by one.
He wrote, “Testing potential Yoru, Phoenix, and KAY/O changes in the PBE this weekend. PBE people, do your thing!”
All three agents have had low win rates in solo queue.
The following are the pick and win rates of Yoru, Phoenix, and KAY/O on Patch 4.08, according to Valorbuff.
Pick rates
Phoenix: 10.4%
KAY/O: 19.5%
Yoru: 13.4%
Win rates
Phoenix: 46.1%
KAY/O: 44.2%
Yoru: 44.4%
Phoenix buffs on the horizon in Valorant PBE
Three abilities in Phoenix’s kit are getting changed and they are his flash, his wall, and also his ultimate.
Curveball
Equip a flare orb that takes a curving path and detonates shortly after throwing. Fire to curve the flare orb to the left, detonating and blinding any player who sees the orb. Alternate Fire to curve the flare orb to the right.
Now Riot is increasing the flashes’ maximum duration and decreasing its windup.
Flash Max duration increased 1.1 seconds > 1.5 seconds
Flash Windup decreased 0.7 seconds > 0.5s seconds
Blaze
Equip a flame wall. Fire to create a line of flame that moves forward, creating a wall of fire that blocks vision and damages players passing through it. Hold Fire to bend the wall in the direction of your crosshair.
Riot Games in the PBE update will change this ability in a way that it will now equip Phoenix’s weapon earlier if he stops bending his wall.
Run it Back
Instantly place a marker at Phoenix’s location. While this ability is active, dying or allowing the timer to expire will end this ability and bring Phoenix back to this location with full health.
Jeff Landa wrote, “Will now spawn at the marker w/ [with] the amount of shields he had when the ability was cast.”
Yoru buffs on Valorant PBE
Yoru is getting significant buffs for his Ultimate - Dimensional Drift.
Equip a mask that can see between dimensions. Fire to drift into Yoru's dimension, unable to be affected or seen by enemies from the outside
The following are the buffs on the PBE:
Increased duration of ultimate 10.0 seconds >>> 12.0 seconds
Reduced unequip time 1.2 seconds >>> 0.8 seconds
Valorant PBE changes lined up for KAY/O
Two major abilities of KAY/O are getting significant changes: Frag/Ment and Null/Cmd.
FRAG/ment (C)
Zone diameter reduced 10m >>> 8m
Damage now applies without needing line of sight
NULL/cmd (X)
Now, only allies will hear the full channel audio of reviving KAY/O, while downed
These changes look good on paper and we will have to wait and see whether all this translates into higher pick and win rates for these Agents once these changes go live on the Valorant servers.
