Valorant Episode 4 Act II patch balances controllers, tinkers with Icebox, and finally reworks Yoru

In a dev diary at the beginning of the year, Riot Games revealed that it would press pause on the development of new agents and maps to focus on solidifying the foundation of the hero-based tactical shooter. The developer was referring to bringing balance to the agents, finally reworking Yoru, and the usual tweaks and improvements that come with every patch. So, the patch for Valorant Episode 4 Act II doesn’t include anything new, but it does include changes to all the Controller agents, as well as some map tweaks.

Before anything else, let’s run through the massive update to Yoru’s abilities. His Fakeout is now a clone of the agent, instead of just footsteps. It’s similar to Mirage’s clones from Apex Legends. It only has one charge, since it’s a lot more powerful now. Plus, the clone will turn to look at the enemy that shoots it and, after a short delay, explode in a blinding flash. Yoru can now fake teleport with his Gatecrash ability. It also gains an additional charge — up to two. As for his ultimate, Yoru can now use all of his abilities while in Dimensional Drift. It also lasts two seconds longer, and enemies can’t see him at all while using it. However, the time to draw his weapon when coming out of the ultimate is doubled to 1.2 seconds.

Vying for control

Omen has received a buff in Valorant patch 4.04. His Dark Cover now moves a lot faster and has a 10 second shorter cooldown. It does cost 50 more Credits, but that’s a good price for the improvements to the ability. Shrouded Step now plays out faster at 0.7 seconds. Plus, it costs 50 Credits less.

Brimstone also received some buffs in this patch. His smoke now casts in just one second — two times faster than before. Its radius has also been improved from 5,000 to 5,500, and its height has been increased. Brimstone’s Stim Beacon now applies a 15% speed boost along with its attack speed increase.

Astra receives some much-needed nerfs with this patch. Her maximum number of Stars is down from five to four. On top of that, the cooldown on her Stars has been increased from 14 to 25 seconds. Gravity Well’s cooldown has been upped to 45 seconds, and the size of the Well has been decreased to 475 (50 less than before). Nova Pulse and Nebula have also had their cooldowns increased. Nova Pulse to 45 seconds, and Nebula to 25 seconds.

Viper was also overperforming in the previous patches, so she’s getting toned down. Her Fuel will now drain 50% faster when both Toxic Screen and Poison Cloud are active. Both of those abilities have also had their reactivation cooldowns increased from six to eight seconds. Finally, the duration of Viper’s very oppressive Snake Bite has been reduced by one second to 5.5 seconds.

Tinkering with Icebox

Riot also decided to focus on improving the experience and balance on Icebox with the Episode 4 Act II Valorant patch. Numerous areas of the map have been reworked, but the B-site has received the most changes. You can see the most significant changes to both sites in the images below.