Phoenix, Yoru, and KAY/O will be receiving some buffs and quality of life improvements.
The release of VALORANT’s newest map, Pearl, and the improvements around the Ranking system have all been welcome changes for VALORANT’s Episode 5 Act 1. Although fans lost the ability to play one of the OG maps in VALORANT in Split, Pearl is proving to be a very fun-to-play map that gives off the same vibes as the old Shinjuku-themed map.
It’s only been a week since VALORANT Episode 5 Act 1 rolled fresh off of Riot Games’ oven, yet the company is already working on a few key Agent updates for the next patch.
The June 24 VALORANT 5.01 Patch Notes focused on quality of life changes for three of the less popular Agents in the roster – Phoenix, Yoru, and KAY/O. We go over the VALORANT 5.01 PBE Patch Notes in this article.
Phoenix Buffs
Phoenix is finally receiving some buffs, albeit minor ones, for now.
Riot Games expressed how they believe Phoenix should be played – aggressively – and that most of his other abilities rely on his flash ability, Curveball, to become more effective.
We believe Phoenix’s Curveball is the cornerstone of his kit, and as we explored asjutment options it became clear that Cuveball being more powerful unlocks his kit as a whole. So we eanted to assess Phoenix in a whorld where Curve ball is more competitive with the rest of the ecosystem to get a sense for the impact of the changes. We view Phoenix as an aggressive entry Agent, so the additonal Run It Back and Blaze changes are inteded to support his proactive intentions when taking space of fight early on into rounds.
Riot Games
In light of this, Phoenix is receiving some buffs to his Curveball, Blaze, and Ultimate Ability.
Curveball
- Flash duration increased 1.1s>>>1.5s
- Flash windup decreased .7s>>>.5s
Blaze
- Phoenix will now equip his weapon earlier if he stops bending his wall
Run It Back
- Phoenix will now spawn at the marker with the amount of shields he had when the ability was cast.
With these changes, Phoenix’s Curveballs should work faster and flash longer, making them even more deadly to enemies caught by his flash.
On the other hand, Phoenix’s Blaze ability will allow him to get back in action faster after using his wall (as long as players don’t curve the wall.)
Previously, using Phoenix’s Run It Back meant that Phoenix would respawn with 100 health but lose all shields before activating Run It Back. With the changes coming for Phoenix in Patch 5.01, using Run It Back will give Phoenix full health plus the shields he had before activating his Ultimate Ability.
Yoru
Yoru’s major rework has made him a more viable Duelist option in most VALORANT matches. However, the ability to use flashes while the Japanese Duelist is in his Ultimate is what opened up a world of possibilities in jawdropping outplays and countless YouTube highlight videos.
However, while the duration of Dimensional Drift itself is pretty decent, the unequip time always felt a bit clunky and rough, causing a bit of awkward delay between throwing a flash and coming out of the Dimensional Drift.
Knowing this, Riot Games has given Yoru some slight polish by giving his Ultimate Ability more duration and significantly reducing the unequip time.
Dimensional Drift
- Increased duration of Dimensional Drift 10s>>>12s
- Reduced unequip time 1.2s>>>0.8s
In addition, a bug around Dimensional Drift where the invulnerability activated later than intended has been fixed.
KAY/O
It’s been a while since Riot Games has given the humanoid anti-Radiant Warmachine some loving. So for Patch 5.01, Riot Games has provided KAY/O with some minor but welcome changes to improve his kit.
FRAG/ment
- Zone diameter reduced 10m>>>8m
- Damage now applies without needing line of sight
If you didn’t know, the visual radius of KAY/O’s molly does not represent the actual damage zone of the ability. Instead, the effective radius is much smaller (10m vs. 8m), so Riot Games has adjusted the visual to make the damage zone more consistent.
NULL/cmd
- Now, only allies will hear the full channel audio of reviving KAY/O while downed.
- Enemies will only hear a short audio cue when revive has started, similar to defuse or ultimate orb taps.
Previously, every player on the map could hear an audio cue whenever a KAY/O was being reset, and this gave enemy players the sound and time cue to catch whoever was reviving KAY/O off-guard.
With this minor change, KAY/O’s teammates can tap the robot and play the audio cue to bait or throw off the enemy team instead. Talk about a complete 180.
Minor Changes Big Differences
The upcoming changes for Phoenix, Yoru, and KAY/O should keep the Agents relevant in the current meta, where Agents such as Phoenix are having difficulty fitting in.
We have to admit, these updates weren’t what we expected when Riot Games expressed their intention to buff Phoenix, but any change is welcome to make the old face of VALORANT shine once again.
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