Major Reyna buffs, Skye KAY/O and Fracture adjustments

Reyna’s Leer now has infinite range, A side of Fracture is reworked and Yoru will be meta next patch.

With the Valorant offseason officially underway, the time to make changes is now. While teams will start announcing roster moves in less than 24 hours, Riot have already been working hard. For all of the records and accomplishments we saw at Valorant Champions 2022, a few things were evident. Some maps and agents have to be adjusted, and they should probably take a look at the weapons as well.

Reyna buffs feel strong

Our Empress has had a rough time adjusting to the Valorant meta in 2022. She went from the second most picked agent at Valorant Champions in 2021 to never being picked in the 2022 tournament, without receiving ANY balance changes. As much as this speaks about the growth of the competitive scene, it’s also proof of problematic design. 

These are some of the Reyna changes currently tested on PBE:

• -Her Leer will now blind enemies 0,4 seconds after casting instead of 0,6 seconds 
• -To balance this, her Leer will now last two seconds instead of the previous 2,6 seconds
• -Her Leer no longer has a range limit
• -A major quality of life change that hasn’t been mentioned in the PBE patch notes is that the pullout time of the primary weapon after Reyna casts her Leer has been greatly reduced. 

Nothing feels worse than using your Reyna blind around a corner and still dying because it didn’t near sight the enemy. With the faster and infinite range blind, that won’t be the case on large maps like Breeze and Icebox, nor when clearing corners.

Skye and KAY/O made duelists useless

Despite the meta in Ranked games, Duelist’s play rate has been on the decline in 2022. Chamber took over Jett as the main Operator agent, KAY/O had a more impactful ultimate than Raze and a better flash than Phoenix before his buffs. Double and triple Initiator comps with Skye and KAY/O were the norm, and it was mainly due to the flexibility of their flashes.

These are the Skye changes on PBE:

• -Flash duration scales with the distance traveled by the bird. 
• -There are new visual and audio queues, with the flash charge bar having a line over which it will be a full flash. The flash also can’t be destroyed.
• -Detonating the flash under 0,75 seconds after casting it (the mentioned line), will result in a pop flash, lasting 1,25 seconds. With further distance, the flash goes up to 2,25 seconds in duration.
• -Contrary to Reyna, when Skye now pulls out her weapon after using her flash, it will equip 0,1 seconds slower.

These changes are focused on making these Initiators play for their team, rather than play like Duelists. Slower equipment of weapons, flash duration scaling with distance, and indestructible flashes incentivize Skye to play a more team game.

KAY/O changes on PBE

Similarly to Skye, KAY/O is receiving changes in his pull-out time and duration of flashes. 

• -His pop flash (right click) will now last 1,25 seconds instead of the previous two seconds.
• -To compensate, his throw flash (left click) will go from a two-second duration to 2,25 seconds.
• -Like Skye, the timer for equipping his primary weapon is also getting longer, from 0,6 seconds to 0,85 seconds. This is a lot more than Skye’s change to remove KAY/O as a viable Duelist.

Valorant map Fracture changes and Yoru buff

Yoru’s flash is also getting buffed, now lasting 1,75 seconds instead of the previous 1,5. This is actually a huge buff, considering he can use it in his ultimate ability after his rework. In that same update, they made the exit animation shorter, so get ready for a Yoru meta starting next patch. 

After Pearl, Fracture is the next map to receive off-season changes. A Dish and A Drop have been completely reworked, with an interesting change to A Rope and Sands, and a small tweak to the B spike site.

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