VALORANT Patch 4.04: Yoru Rework, Controller Agent Changes, Icebox Rework

Yoru is back with even more tricks up his sleeve.

VALORANT’s much-awaited Patch 4.04 update is finally here! Riot describes the 4.04 update as more of a housecleaning update than a full-featured one. However, as you read about it today, Patch 4.04 has enough changes to make VALORANT a more complete and polished game.

Here are the changes!

Agent Updates

Riot updated the placement systems for many ground-targeted abilities, making it easier for players to find useable ability placements around the map. Here are the abilities affected by this change:

• Omen’s Shrouded Step;
• Viper’s Pit;
• Chamber’s Trademark and Rendezvous;
• Every Killjoy Ability;
• Yoru’s Gatecrash;
• Sage’s Barrier Orb;

Omen

Omen used to be at the top of the Controller food chain before a series of nerfs brought him back down to earth for a few patches. The presence of more value-filled hybrid Agents, such as Viper and Astra, made it even harder to pick Omen in most matchups.

For Patch 4.04, Riot takes the training weights off of Omen and reintroduces a host of updates that will help make him a more powerful and viable pick in the meta.

Dark Cover

• Cooldown decreased from 40s >>> 30s;
• Cost increased from 100 >>> 150;
• Projectile Speed increased from 2800 >>> 6400;

Shrouded Step

• Cost decreased from 150 >>> 100;
• Pre-teleport delay decreased from 1s >>> 0.7s;

Paranoia

• Added forward spawn offset so players adjacent to Omen are not hit;

To sum it up, Omen’s Dark Cover sacrifices cost for less cooldown and increased projectile speed, while Paranoia is not easier and safer to use when pushing with teammates.

Brimstone

There are two things remarkable about Brimstone’s smokes compared to other smoker Agents in the meta:

• Its ability to be deployed at the same time;
• Low cost;

Unfortunately, Brimstone is handicapped by Sky Smoke’s range. Viper and Astra’s ability to cast long-range smokes and play Sentinel roles simultaneously is too valuable to pass up for most matchups, making Brimstone a tough pick to justify in the meta.

Riot brings in much-needed buffs to Brimstone’s Sky Smoke and his Stim Beacon, making him a more viable pick in the meta.

Sky Smoke

• Deploy time decreased from 2 >>> 1 second;
• Deploy radius increased from 5000 >>> 5500;
• Smoke height increased to match other Controllers;

Stim Beacon

• Now also applies a 15% speed boost in addition to RapidFire;

Astra

Omen and Brimstone are equally great Controllers in their own right. Unfortunately, “great” is a relative term that depends on what is being compared.

The only reason Omen and Brimstone are sidelined for other Controllers, such as Viper and Astra, is that both Controllers are too powerful in the current meta.

To accentuate the buffs made to Omen and Brimstone, Riot decided to nerf Astra to make her a less prominent Controller and make other Controllers equally viable in most situations.

Stars

• Max Stars reduced from 5 >>> 4;
• The cooldown on retrieving a Star increased from 14 >>> 25;
• Astra can now pick up placed Stars during the Buy Phase to refund their charge immediately;
• The Max distance of Star Placement increased from 10000 >>> 30000 to allow her to place Stars across the further corners of the maps;

Gravity Well

• Cooldown increased from 25 >>> 45;
• Gravity Well Size Decreased from 525 >>> 475;
• Gravity Well no longer affects anyone fully underneath the Gravity Well;

Nova Pulse

• Cooldown increased from 25 >>> 45;
• Nova Pulse no longer affects anyone fully underneath the Nova Pulse;

Nebula

• Cooldown increased from 14 >>> 25;
• Nebula cooldowns are now sequential instead of simultaneous;
• Nebula size increased from 410 >>> 475;

Astral Form

• While in Astral form, pings are no longer blocked by level geometry that Astra cannot see;
• Astra’s targeting ring in Astral form is reduced to one ring that reflects the now unified size of all her utility;
• Astra’s targeting ring no longer randomly disappears when aiming across some map locations;
• Increased the speed of the overlay that covers Astra’s screen when transitioning in and out of Astral from;
• Fixed an issue where Stars were placed slightly above the location Astra was targeting;

Viper

Viper is so strong that many maps in VALORANT, like Breeze, require a Viper pick to play optimally.

She is a fantastic Controller/Sentinel hybrid that feels too strong for a hybrid Agent in the meta, as she is often picked over Sentinels such as Sage, Killjoy, or Cypher.

A few nerfs to Viper’s overall utility in Valorant Patch 4.04 will help accentuate the buffs given to Omen and Brimstone regarding smoking and will help make the other Sentinel Agents more viable than Viper in some maps.

Fuel

• Fuel drain increased by 50% when Toxic Screen and Poison Cloud were active;
• Viper’s fuel bar now turns red when she does not have enough fuel to activate her abilities;

Toxic Screen

• Cooldown after deactivating increased from 6 >>> 8;
• The cooldown timer now starts when her smoke dissipates instead of when the deactivation telegraph plays;
• Deactivation delay decreased from 1 >>> 0.8;
• Toxic Screen now has yellow lights that indicate when it is on cooldown;
• Removed delay on Toxic Screen disabling when Viper is suppressed;
• Added a unique VO (Voice Over) line that plays when her smoke is disabled by suppression;

Snake Bite

• Duration decreased from 6.5 >>> 5.5;

The Master of Deception is back

Yoru is a fascinating VALORANT character that is only let down by his skill set. The fan-favorite cocky and overconfident Japanese Duelist might let off a cool and (over) confident aura but is, unfortunately, let down by his previous abilities as they offer too little in most Agent lineups in the meta. 

Patch 4.04 finally brings in much-needed buffs and changes to Yoru’s abilities. Riot has added a couple of powerful changes to how his Fakeout, Gatecrash, and Dimensional Rift abilities work to make him a more significant Duelist.

Let’s take a quick dive into the changes.

Fakeout

• Charges reduced from 2 >>> 1;
• Decoy HP: 150;
• Decoy is now a fully running version of Yoru and can only be sent running forward;
• Right-click to place a stationary marker for the decoy;
  • Reactivate similarly to footsteps to create the decoy that runs forward;
• Upon taking damage from an enemy gun, the decoy winds up, turns towards the enemy that shot it, and explodes after a short delay;
  • Enemies within the cone are flashed;

Let’s face it, Yoru never fooled anybody with his useless footstep decoy in the old Fakeout. What it was, though, was a great “fake rush” ability that we will truly miss in the lower elo.

This new Fakeout ability? Now, this is where the fun starts.

Yoru’s Fakeout Charges have been reduced from two to just one. However, this single Fakeout Charge will probably do more damage to enemies than two useless fake footsteps anyway.

New Fakeout sends a Yoru decoy fully running forward. When enemies get faked out and shoot down the Yoru decoy, the decoy turns towards the shooter’s direction and explodes after a short delay, flashing anyone within a cone.

Placement is the same as old Fakeout, which is a plus. Right-click places a Fakeout marker for manual activation later in the round, while left-click immediately deploys the decoy.

Gatecrash

• Charges increased from 1 >>> 2;
• Cost: 200 Credits;
• Cooldown charge refresh was removed and switched back to 2-kill reset;
• Gatecrash can be faked by pressing F while hovering over the beacon;
  • Fake teleport will play audio and portal visuals as if Yoru attempted to teleport;
• The time it takes for teleport beacon has decreased from 1.5 >>> 0.5 seconds;
• Teleport beacon’s in-game audio while traveling was reduced from 22.5 >>> 12.5m;
• The teleport beacon’s speed has been increased from 675 >>> 800;
• Upon activating a fake teleport, the beacon creates a small decal on the floor for 30 seconds to indicate the location of the fake teleport;

For Valorant Patch 4.04, Gatecrash now travels faster, has more charges, can be used to fake a teleport (!), and is stealthier than ever before.

Perhaps the most significant change is Yoru’s ability to “fake” a teleport. Now that will turn heads around the map and help make Yoru a terrifying Agent to play against.

Dimensional Drift

• Duration increase from 8 >>> 10 seconds;
• Yoru is not revealed to enemies;
• Unequip delay time increased from 0.6 >>> 1.2 seconds;
• Yoru is now able to cast all utility of his ultimate;
• Yoru’s footsteps can now be heard within 15m of Yoru’s location;
• Cast delay added upon casting Dimensional Drift, preventing the invulnerability frame on the cast;

Yoru’s old Dimensional Drift was nothing more than a glorified scouting tool. As an Ultimate Ability, Yoru’s Dimensional Drift felt underwhelming to many players, especially when compared with other Dueliests’ Ultimate Abilities, such as Jett’s Knives, Raze’s Showstopper, and Neon’s Overdrive.

For VALORANT Patch 4.04, Riot devs decided to give Yoru’s Ultimate Ability the love and care it deserves: Yoru can finally use abilities using Dimensional Rift.

While the total Ability Points needed have increased from 5 >>> 7, we cannot deny the infinite possibilities this revamped Dimensional Rift brings.

Decoy markers for post-ult play? Check.

5-man flashes from the flank? Check.

Your imagination is the only limiting factor when playing Yoru now.

Map Updates

Ascent

Ascent received a minor change to how the B-site Ultimate Orb can be accessed. Players will no longer have to jump up the large box since Orb can now be captured from the small box – excellent quality of life improvement.

Icebox

Icebox sees numerous changes to various entryways and on-map elements in Patch 4.04. Riot says that everything they changed in Icebox for Patch 4.04 aims to make gameplay more comfortable around the map.

Most of the changes were made in the following areas on Icebox:

• B Green;
• B-site;
• Mid;
• A-site;

Overall, these Icebox changes aim to make the whole map less claustrophobic and help give other areas of the map more use by limiting the viability of spots, such as B-Yellow.

Competitive Updates

You might have experienced queuing the same map three times or more in a row, which is not fun for most players.

The Deterministic map selection update ensures this does not happen again moving forward, so you can play unique maps each time you queue for a match.

• Deterministic map selection follows three rules when picking a map after players have been selected to play a match.
• The system will look at all maps players have played for that mode over the last five maps.
• The system will remove any maps a player has played twice in the past five maps.
• The system will pick the least played map.
  • If all maps have been removed due to the “Twice Played” rule, those maps will be added back to the pool, and the least-played map will be picked.

BUGS

Of course, no major update is complete without bug fixes that help iron out how in-game elements interact, making gameplay a more smooth and streamlined experience.

Here are the bug fixes in the Valorant 4.04 Patch Notes as listed by Riot Games:

AGENTS

• Fixed issue where enemies would not trigger Cypher’s Trapwire in rare situations;
• Fixed the boom not showing up for Astra if planted while in Astral Form;
• Fixed a bug where Viper’s Toxic Screen audio could play in the next round if it is activated right on the round end;
• Fixed Yoru’s Gatecrash icon showing up as a big white circle on Brimstone’s targeting map;
• Fixed a bug where Chamber’s teleport would sometimes fail when cast immediately after firing the last bullet of a headhunter;
• Fixed a bug where Chamber’s Tour de Force would inconsistently spawn slow zones when firing at KAY/O during NULL/CMD;

SOCIAL

• Fixed an issue with AFKs in Escalation game mode;

ESPORTS FEATURES

• Fixed a bug where the timer would overlap itself while viewing the mega map as an observer;

GAME SYSTEMS

• Fixed an issue where you could tap the scroll wheel to activate the defuse audio without initiating a defuse.

Disrupting the Metagame

Riot continues to push updates in line with Episode 4’s namesake – VALORANT Episode 4: Disruption. Patch 4.04 brings much-needed game-shaping changes like Agents, Maps, and gameplay elements to Valorant, disrupting the current meta in favor of a more balanced gameplay experience.

With Yoru’s rework now complete, our favorite Japanese Duelist will finally be able to bring more value and impact to his team. Like you, we are excited to see some exciting, mind-bending highlights that are just waiting to be made by the community.

In Riot’s words, along with some significant Agent buffs and nerfs, map changes around Ascent and Icebox aim to make gameplay more comfortable. They will surely help make VALORANT a more polished game moving forward.

That is about it! Check the PlayerAssist website for more VALORANT updates, gaming guides, gaming news, game codes, and more!