Fade has officially joined the VALORANT Protocol.
Image Credit: Riot Games
Fade is finally here! VALORANT fans can now let out a sigh of relief as the newest Initiator is finally officially released for Patch 4.08. We’ll go over her abilities below and compare the official abilities with the leaked ones.
We discussed the changes to Jett and Sova in our previous articles, but no leak could have prepared anyone for the actual Patch 4.08 changes for two of the most popular Agents in the meta. Hold on to your seats, Jett and Sova mains; you’re in for a (very) bumpy ride. Oh, and Neon gets slightly balanced as well!
Finally, some important Five Stack Queue changes are here to complete the Patch 4.08 update. Let’s get into the nitty-gritty details, shall we?
Fade is Finally Here
The newest VALORANT Initiator has officially made it to the game, and it seems like most of the leaked information about Agent 20 was spot on. Way to go, data miners!
Her entire kit retains the same ability names as the leaked ones: Prowler, Seize, Hunt, and Nightfall. All of which can be used to gather more information in various ways than any other Initiator in the game. In addition, her abilities have a dark theme going about them – it’s almost as if you’re stuck in a nightmare when facing Fade on the battlefield.
Wait. Did you feel that? *shiver*
If you haven’t seen the Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer for Fade, here you go:
We’ll go over her abilities in detail in a follow-up article, so make sure you stick around the PlayerAssist website for that!
Nerfed to the Ground
Jett
Riot Games hated the fact that their poster child, Jett, had to be nerfed, and it showed. First, they released a dedicated article explaining why they had to do it. Second, they inevitably had to nerf another Agent in Sova to make the Jett nerfs and Fade release feel less crippling.
Speaking of nerfs, the changes to Jett’s Tailwind ability wasn’t as simple as we initially thought they would be.
- Upon pressing E, Jett consumes her Tailwind charge, and after a .75 second delay, she activates a 12-second window where she can dash out on the next keypress.
- Jett’s Tailwind charge can still be regained with two kills.
- To keep parity with the changes to Jett dash, the functionality for Dash during Knife rounds in Escalation will be adjusted.
Not only is the insta-dash gone, but Riot has also gone ahead and added a slight delay to the initial activation of Tailwind as well. This will force Jett players to think before they act (or press the E button, for that matter).
Sova
The nerfs don’t stop there, as the nerfs to Sova’s Owl Drone are worse than we thought.
We initially thought the two-second reduction of the Owl Drone duration was bad; try three seconds now in the official Patch 4.08 update as Owl Drone now only lasts 7-seconds total. Unfortunately, the bleeding doesn’t stop there.
Owl Drone health is reduced from 125 to 100, making it much easier for players to shoot the Owl Drone out of the skies.
While the Owl Drone pings remain at two pings, as we mentioned in our Sova Owl Drone and Shock Dart Nerf article, the initial delay before the pings reveal is increased from 1.2-seconds to 1.6-seconds.
Fortunately, the proposed changes to Shock Dart remain the same as we previously mentioned in our Sova Nerf article.
Shock Dart’s Max Damage was reduced from 90 to just 75 now, and the radial damage has also been adjusted accordingly (less damage from other edges of Shock Dart relative to the new 75 Max Damage Cap).
These changes probably brought Sova down from S or A Tier to a solid B-Tier at the very least. With Fade in the mix, we do not doubt that she will be the go-to Initiator moving forward. RIP Sova Patch 4.08.
Neon
Neon also received minor tweaks to her Battery Energy, as kills now recharge her energy bar to just 25% previously, to 100% in the latest update.
Riot made some quality of life changes to High Gear as well:
- Slide cannot be cast during equip delay
- Velocity restriction removed
- Neon can now slide sideways and forward and only requires that she is moving
- Energy drain increased 6.7/s>>>10/s
Finally, Fast Lane has had its damage removed, making it a more viable entry wall not just for Neon but also for her entire team.
Five-Stack Queues
Competitive Changes in Five-Stack parties were introduced in Patch 4.08 as well.
Five-Stack Competitive Queues involving a mix of Iron-Diamond 2 will not have an RR penalty.
On the other hand, if one other player in the Five Stack falls outside the usual grouping (Iron-Diamond 2), there will be a 25% RR penalty for ALL players in the Five Stack.
If anyone in the party is ranked greater than Diamond 2 (outside the usual grouping) up to Immortal 3, a 25% RR penalty will be enforced.
If a Radiant player is present in the Five Stack, but everyone else is still within the normal grouping (Iron-Diamond 2), a 75% penalty will still be enforced for all players.
These are welcome changes done to help curb smurfing or boosting by higher-level players.
New Horizon
This new patch brings in some welcome changes, including an exciting new Agent in Fade, Neon upgrades, and positive improvements to how Five Stack Queues work.
On the other hand, the other changes might be tough to swallow, especially for Jett and Sova fans, as their favorite Agents have received substantial nerfs to their go-to kits.
With that said, Patch 4.08 is an exciting new update that will shape the VALORANT meta going forward. We can’t help but feel ecstatic about it!
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