Valorant Patch notes 5.12, the final patch of the year, has been made public by Riot Games. It is a significant upgrade that will affect practically every agent on the roster. Not only are the poorest Valorant agents being buffed while the finest ones are being nerfed in version 5.12, but there is also an emphasis on shaking up the ability meta in preparation for Episode 6 in January. The ability economy has undergone significant modification thanks to Riot, and the way that gadgets are damaged has also changed. Valorant Patch Notes 5.12
We’ve got a hefty one for you. Check out all the Agent updates (and a Spectre update 👀) in Patch Notes 5.12 here: https://t.co/Mb7pXhyxVo pic.twitter.com/4JqPeDETBE
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) December 6, 2022
Riot has increased the point costs of the Agent Ultimates that have large, site-wide footprints. These changes should reduce their overall frequency and increase counterplay against them at the strategic level. In addition to the Ult adjustments, they also made a tuning pass on Agent ability economy. The areas targeted in this pass include: Total loadout cost outliers (for their respective role), Agents with a lack of pistol round buy options, and unintended power relative to the cost of the ability.
Valorant patch 5.12 updates:
1) Agent Updates
Breach
Rolling Thunder (X)
- Ultimate Points increased 7 >>> 8
Chamber
Headhunter (Q)
- Spread increased after 2nd bullet, when spamming. This is explicitly meant to reduce low-precision body-shot spam as an effective combat measure at range.
Rendezvous (E)
- Chamber now places a single anchor that can be teleported to while inside its range
- Radius increased 7.5m >>> 13m
- Removed teleport activation height restriction
- Increased weapon equip time after teleporting 0.4s >>> 0.7s
- Headhunter is unaffected by this change
- Destroying Rendezvous teleport anchor now disables it for the remainder of the round, instead of being placed on a cooldown.
- Chamber no longer incurs an additional cooldown when recalling his Anchor after teleporting.
- Health decreased by 80 >>> 50
Trademark (C)
- The trap is now range restricted
- Trademark will disable when Chamber moves out of range, and reactivate once he is inside.
- Can now be recalled mid-round without a line of sight
- 30s cooldown on recall
- Destruction remains permanent
- Initial Arm Time increased 2s >>> 4s
- Health Increased 1 >>> 20
Tour De Force (X)
- The fire rate decreased by 57.5%
Slow
- This applies to both Trademark and Tour De Force
- Reduced duration 6s >>> 4s
Cypher
Trapwire (C)
- Health increased 1 >>> 20
Fade
Prowler (C)
- Health decreased by 100 >>> 60
Harbor
High Tide (E)
- Duration increased 12s >>> 15s
Cascade (C)
- Duration increased 5s >>> 7s
KAY/O
ZERO/POINT (E)
- Health increased 1 >>> 20
NULL/cmd (C)
- Ultimate points increased 7 >>> 8
Killjoy
Lockdown (X)
- Health increased by 150 >>> 200
Nanoswarm (C)
- Health increased 1 >>> 20
Omen
Paranoia (Q)
- Cost decreased by 300 >>> 250
Phoenix
Blaze (C)
- Cost decreased by 200 >>> 150
Raze
Boom Bot (C)
- Health decreased by 100 >>> 60
Blast Pack (Q)
- Health increased 1 >>> 20
Sage
Barrier Orb (C)
- Fortify delay increased 3.0s >>> 3.3s
Healing Orb (E)
- The self-heal total amount decreased 60 HP >>> 30 HP
- Ally heal total amount increased 60 HP>>> 100 HP
Sova
Recon Bolt (E)
- Health increased 1 >>> 20
Skye
Trailblazer (Q)
- Cost increased 250 >>> 300
Regrowth (C)
- Cost decreased by 200 >>> 150
Viper
Viper’s Pit (X)
- Smoke integrity regen time 5.0 >>> 25.0
- Max time out of smoke decreased by 15.0 >>> 8.0
- Ultimate points required 7 >>> 8
Yoru
Gatecrash (E)
- Health decreased by 100 >>> 60
- Cost decreased by 200 >>> 150
Weapon update
A significant nerf to the Spectre weapon is another non-agent update. A new damage range has been added for rounds fired from 30 metres or farther since the SMG was a little too potent at long range. Previously, shots beyond 20 metres would deal 22 damage, but now they deal 22 damage between 15 and 30 metres, and anything beyond that will deal 20 damage.
DAMAGE MULTIPLIER UPDATES
The most significant overall modifications involve the destruction of destructible items. Now, pretty much any ability that deals damage in an AoE, like Incendiary from Brimstone and Snakebite from Viper, will harm an enemy’s utility. Some goods have had their HP rebalanced so that they can still be destroyed by one bullet but will last a little longer if they are nicked by fire. This was done in an effort to prevent making some utility that is one shotted completely useless.
