Patch 5.12 Will Change Nearly Every Agent

December is expected to be a fascinating month for Valorant, and it looks like the Riot Games team wants to close all the crucial goals for the game. The biggest hype so far has been around Chamber's nerfs, which a large part of the playerbase perceived as a very well-timed Christmas present. But as it turns out, Chamber's nerfs are just the tip of the iceberg, and virtually every Agent will get some kind of change.

So, let's check out all the changes that will hit the game in Patch 5.12!

Valorant Patch 5.12: All Agent Changes

We will go through all of the Agent changes alphabetically, so if you want to find out if your main Agent got hit, follow the rules of the alphabet! As the majority of Agents got changed, we'll list out all the Agents that will not receive any changes in the upcoming patch, and these are: Astra, Jett, Neon and Reyna.

Breach

• Rolling Thunder cost increased to 8 Ultimate Points (from 7)

Starting with Breach, we are a bit surprised by these nerfs. Sure, his Ultimate Ability was always strong in general, but this Agent is not at all that easy to play overall.

So, in our opinion, a solid Ultimate Ability for an Agent who is hard to pilot and not always a good pick is not a bad thing. However, seeing the direction in which Riot wants to go with the overall balance of the game, these changes stop being so strange.

Brimstone

• Incendiary can now damage and destroy enemy utility
• Orbital Strike can now destroy Chamber's Rendezvous

These buffs won't change anything for most players, but high-level pro play will probably see pro players pop up to test lineups that counter set-ups from Agents like Killjoy. Nothing big, but still something nice for Brimstone mains.

Chamber

Headhunter Changes

• 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

Rendezvous Changes

• Chamber now places a single anchor that can be teleported to while inside its range
• Radius increased to 26m (from 15m)
• 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 to 0.7 (from 0.4s). 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 Changes

• 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
• 30s cooldown on recall. Destruction remains permanent
• Initial Arm Time increased to 4 seconds (from 2 seconds)
• Health increased to 20 (from 1)

Tour de Force Changes

• Fire rate decreased by 57.5%

Slow Changes (Trademark and Tour de Force)

• Reduced duration to 4 seconds (from 6 seconds)

So yeah, au revoir, mr. Chamber. What is more to say, really? He probably still will be a "considerably good" pick for a Sentinel, but come on – it won't be the same Agent anymore, not even close.

Cypher

• Trapwire health increased to 20 (from 1)

Fade

• Prowler's health decreased to 60 (from 100)

And here we have another nerf for Fade's Prowler ability. Still, this ability got a bit killed already recently anyway, so this change won't make a big difference.

It's also worth noting that Fade's Prowler can now we be destroyed by multiple Agent abilities, which also makes it a bit worse. Still, not changing too much.

Harbor

• High Tide's duration increased to 15 seconds (from 12 seconds)
• Cascade's duration increased to 7 seconds (from 5 seconds)

It was obvious that Harbor needed some love; this Agent is just not a good Controller pick. But do these buffs help him? Probably not, still a long way to go in our opinion.

KAY/O

• ZERO/point's health increased to 20 (from 1)
• ZERO/point can now damage Fade's Prowler
• NULL/cmd cost increased to 8 Ultimate Points (from 7)
• FRAG/ment will now play a voice line telling your allies how many enemies have been suppressed (we love this change)

• Psst, want to learn how to play KAY/O? Be sure to check out our in-depth Agent guide for him: Valorant KAY/O Agent Guide: Abilities, Strategies & More

Killjoy

• Nanoswarm's health increased to 20 (from 1)
• Nanoswarm can now damage and destroy enemy utility
• Lockdown's health increased to 200 (from 15)

Omen

• Paranoia's cost decreased to 150 (from 200)

Yep, this ability was overpriced for a long time; very nice gesture towards Omen mains.

Phoenix

• Blaze's cost decreased to 150 (from 200)
• Blaze can now damage and destroy enemy utility
• Hot Hands can now damage and destroy enemy utility

We love the fact that the Blaze's cost got decreased to 150 Credits, especially since other wall abilities cost no more than this, and Phoenix's wall is not specifically any better.

Raze

• Boom Bot health decreased to 60 (from 100)
• Blast Pack health increased to 20 (from 1)
• Blast Pack now damages Fade's Prowler
• Paint Shells now damages Fade's Prowler

Sage

• Barrier Orb's fortify delay increased to 3.3 seconds (from 3 seconds)
• Healing Orb self-heal decreased to 30 HP (from 60 HP)
• Healing Orb ally increased to 100 HP (from 60 HP)

It looks like Riot wants to push Sage's identity more on the support side by giving her a full heal option for allies. Well, after all, Sage is a Sentinel, not a Duelist, and sometimes we tend to forget that. These are, despite appearances, quite significant changes, even though they don't seem so, as self-heal will no longer be as effective as it was before; in fact, it often won't be worth the charge, to be honest.

Skye

• Trailblazer's cost increased to 300 (from 250)
• Regrowth's cost decreased to 150 (200)

And here we have some nice balance tweaks for Skye that may not be as significant, but they will surely impact this Agent in some way, and we will all feel this.

Sova

• Recon Bolt health increased to 20 (from 1)
• Shock Bolt can now damage Fade's Prowler
• Hunter's Fury can now damage and destroy enemy utility

Viper

• Viper’s Pit smoke integrity regeneration time increased to 25 seconds (from 5 seconds)
• Max allowed time out of Viper’s Pit decreased to 8 seconds (from 15 seconds)
• Viper's Pit cost increased to 8 Ultimate Points (from 7)
• Snakebite can now damage and destroy enemy utility

This could be a challenging time for popular Controller Agents, and we're already explaining why. Riot has just released a new Agent from this class that has totally failed, and its pick rate is probably not even close to where game developers would like it to be. And so, Viper, as the strongest Controller in the game, has now been dealt a pretty hard blow to even things out a bit, and this will definitely affect the metagame.

Still, we would not expect Harbor to rule the metagame now. In our opinion, these changes for Viper will positively affect the pick rate of Brimstone and Omen, while Harbor and Astra will wait for some buffs.

Yoru

• Gatecrash health decreased to 60 (from 100)
• Gatecrash cost decreased to 150 (from 200)

So yeah, as you have probably noticed by now, most of the changes in this patch will be more for the game's consistency rather than balance, and we lowkey click baited you. Sorry.

Still, Valorant Patch 5.12 has a lot more in store than just these Agent tweaks, and now we are going to move on to all the other changes that will come with it!

Valorant Patch 5.12: General Changes & Gameplay System Updates

Spectre Damage Changes

Spectre is going to receive some massive changes that will balance the weapon out, and they will look as follows:

Spectre Damage Changes | #VALORANT pic.twitter.com/LLChbJgNON

— Mike | Valorant Leaks & News (@ValorLeaks) December 3, 2022

So yeah, apparently the weapon will now become more of an SMG rather than a mini rifle. Jokes aside – we love this, and we feel like it is a perfect solution to balance it all out.

Assist Tail Tuning

Riot will change the rules regarding the time after the expiration of an applied debuff that counts for collecting assists.

From now on, the time counted to collect assists kills will be increased for virtually every debuff. What does this change? Actually, only that everyone will have more assist kills. And that's pretty much it.

Damage Multiplier Updates

We will also get multiple changes regarding how much damage Agent abilities will deal to non-players (stuff like Sage's wall, etc.). Here's how it all looks for the current Patch 5.12 version on PBE:

Allied Ability Damage Immunity

Another pretty big change that we will get in Valorant Patch 5.12 is that some abilities will now be immune to allied damage. These are:

• Chamber's Rendezvous & Trademark
• Cypher's Spycam
• Fade's Prowler & Haunt
• KAY/O's ZERO/point
• Killjoy's Alarmbot & Lockdown
• Raze's Blast Pack & Boom Bot
• Skye's Seekers & Trailblazer
• Sova's Owl Drone & Recon Bolt
• Yoru's Gatecrash & Fakeout

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
• 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 Boom Bot would explode on contact with Yoru’s Gatecrash beacons

Valorant Patch 5.12: Release Date

All these changes will hit the game on December 12th, and this will be the last update for Episode 5. Are you excited for all of these changes? If so, please let us know on our Discord server and feel free to share your thoughts!