Riot Games is in the midst of trialing a bunch of interesting changes to Valorant over on the Public Beta Environment (PBE) server this week. For starters, as we\u2019ve highlighted in another recent article, Fracture is getting a major overhaul that looks very promising. But the more impactful changes pertain to the reworking of several Agents\u2019 flashes, which, if locked in after this week\u2019s trial run, seems destined to shift Valorant\u2019s meta in a big way \u2014 though, as is sometimes the case, shifting it differently for ranked and pro play. <\/p>\n

Update: The changes that were trialed on the PBE server and discussed in this article have now officially been locked in by Riot Games. They are set to go live over the next 48 hours; you can check out the full notes for Patch 5.07 here.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before we go any further, let\u2019s quickly review those changes, which impact four of Valorant\u2019s flash Agents: Skye, Kayo, Yoru, and Reyna. <\/p>\n

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• KAY\/O <\/strong>\u2013 underarm flash is now less powerful his left-click flash is much stronger, both have been tweaked to flash for different lengths of time. The idea here is to push the Agent more toward the support role, rewarding precise left-click flashes and removing some of his ability to be self-sufficient in the flash role.<\/li>\n
• Skye<\/strong> \u2013 Skye\u2019s birds now cannot be destroyed, and they flash for longer depending on how far the bird has traveled. Her re-equip time is now slightly longer, too. Again, similar to KAY\/O, Skye is now more of a support Agent since her flashes don\u2019t have a strong effect after having been popped at close range. <\/li>\n
• Reyna <\/strong>\u2013 Reyna\u2019s leer now has an infinite range, blinds enemies faster after being deployed, and her weapon re-equip time after using the ability is also quicker.<\/li>\n
• Yoru <\/strong>\u2013 Flash lasts for longer and is animated in a clearer way to help players understand whether an enemy is flashed. Yoru also benefits from a longer window to gain an assist from using a flash.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  I\u2019ve spoken in a previous article about Chamber\u2019s big rebalance as having a pretty positive impact in the pro scene play but more or less none in ranked, and I\u2019m reminded of something similar reviewing these changes. In the case of Chamber, reducing the number of trips available to him and then later nerfing his abilities across the board saw trip-centric sentinels like Cypher and Killjoy see much higher pick rates in pro games. In ranked, however, Chamber is still seen in nearly every match.<\/p>\n

  Once again with these latest flash changes, I think Riot is spot on with its intentions to push each Agent closer to their intended role \u2014 Skye and KAY\/O should be more supportive, and Reyna\/Yoru should be able to benefit more from their own utility. The problem is that in all but the very highest elo of Valorant, players don\u2019t really utilize Agents according to their intended roles. Generally speaking, they prefer to play the ones that are easiest to use and most effective for fragging. Supporting roles aren\u2019t necessarily ignored, but they aren\u2019t a priority.<\/p>\n

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