Valorant patch 4.08 will be released soon and Riot Games has already announced its patch notes including the details about the content and updates coming to the game. This includes the introduction of the new Turkish agent Fade, along with a new battle pass, competitive rank rest, and major agent balance changes.
The most eye-catching detail will be the agent balance changes, and the most interesting one will be the Jett and Sova nerf. After the details regarding the nerfs were leaked, there were mixed reactions from the community regarding them. In addition to this new gameplay, updates will also be coming in this patch. You can find the complete patch notes below explaining all the changes coming with Valorant patch 4.08.
Valorant 4.08 Patch Notes
Agent Updates: Fade Goes Live
The new Initiator agent will be available as soon as the update goes live. After the release of her first gameplay look, she is a potential replacement for Sova. Although it might take time to bring her into meta as players need to keep playing her more and more so that they can understand her better. To understand better about Fade you can look into her details here.
Jett
Since the release of Jett in beta, she has been one of the most picked agents. The reason for it is because of her signature ability, Tailwind. Tailwind allows her to dash quickly into any direction, which allows her to enter a site or engage in a fight and dash out after a kill or a whiff. After a lot of discussions in the community, Riot developers have decided to nerf her signature ability without taking out her uniqueness. Here are the complete details about the infamous upcoming Jett nerf:
Tailwind
- Upon pressing E, Jett consumes her Tailwind charge and after a 75-second delay, activates a 12-second window where she’s able to dash on her next keypress
- Jett’s Tailwind charge can still be regained with 2 kills
- To keep parity with the changes to Jett dash, the functionality for Dash during Knife rounds in Escalation will be adjusted
We love what Jett brings to the roster, but some of her impacts on the game have pushed beyond VALORANT’s core tactical cycle in worrisome ways. So, we’re adjusting her Tailwind in Patch 4.08 to address this concern.
Read more on these changes: https://t.co/Pkvj4eRUAe pic.twitter.com/iuWSWRAjcs— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) April 20, 2022
Neon
Surprisingly, Neon is also buffed in the upcoming patch. Here are the complete details regarding her upcoming balance changes:
General
- Battery energy received upon killing an enemy increased 25%>>>100%
High Gear
We’ve noticed Neon has faced some friction when using movement to lead into combat, specifically failed inputs due to the velocity restriction. We hope these changes help with making her slide a lot more natural when engaging in fights.
- The 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
Fast Lane
- Wall damage removed
- This change is intended to push Fast Lane into a more attractive option for Neon, or for an ally, by preventing the disruptive portion of doing incidental damage and by adding a bit of safety moving forward.
Sova
After Jett, Sova is the most picked agent in Valorant, whether be it in a professional game or a ranked game. It is mainly due to his abilities that allow teams to spot the enemies without initiating any fight. Some even call his abilities wallhacks, as it reveals your real-time location. His balance changes were a long time overdue as most of the agents have been gone through with it and Sova was left to balance out accordingly. Here are the complete details about Sova in the new Valorant 4.08 Patch:
Owl Drone
- Duration reduced 10s >>> 7s
- Health reduced 125 >>> 100
- Dart Reveal
- The number of reveal pings was reduced 3 >>> 2
- Initial delay before first ping reveals increased 1.2s >>> 1.6s*
- *Delay between the first and second ping remains 1.2s
- Quality of Life
- Changed crosshair color to green to better stand out against the white HUD
- Removed delay on [Target Hit] confirmation text
- [Target Hit] confirmation text now remains on the player HUD when transitioning out of Owl Drone.
- [Target Hit] confirmation text now remains on screen for 2s, previously 1s
- Adjusted audio on drone dart hits for both Sova, and the player hit, to make confirmations more noticeable
- Fixed a bug with Owl Drone, where the Dart Cooldown UI element would not properly update after tagging an opponent.
Shock Dart
- Max Damage decreased 90 >>> 75
- Radial damage has been scaled in accordance with the new max damage.
Agent Ability Ammo
- Jett’s Bladestorm, Raze’s Showstopper, and Sova’s Hunter’s Fury will now show how much ammo they have left when equipped
Competitive Updates
5-Stack Queues
- Reduced Rank Rating gain/loss penalty for different 5-stack configurations
- If EVERYONE in your party is Iron–Diamond 2:
- No RR penalty if within normal grouping
- 25% RR penalty for all players if any player falls outside of the normal grouping
- If ANYONE in your party is Diamond 3–Immortal 3 (but no one in your party is Radiant)
- 25% RR penalty for all players
- If ANYONE in your party is Radiant
- 75% RR penalty for all players
- If EVERYONE in your party is Iron–Diamond 2:
- Tuned matchmaking to reduce wait time for 5-stacks
- You can read the basics of how Rank Rating penalties work for 5-stacks in our previous patch notes.
Bugs
Agents
- Fixed a bug where Jett could find herself unable to use abilities or weapons when using Tailwind immediately after depleting her Bladestorm daggers
- Fixed a bug where Yoru could teleport out of bounds when using Gatecrash
- Fix for various exploits allowing Yoru to use weapons before fully decloaking at the end of his ultimate
Performance
- Fixed a bug in the Shooting Range where bots would respawn unarmed