Valorant’s new patch adds Fade and nerfs Jett’s instant dash

Jett has long been one of Valorant’s best agents, but the game’s latest patch is taking a bit of wind out of her sails. Valorant patch 4.08 nerfs the dualist Agent, buffs Neon, and adds the new Agent Fade to the fray. The patch was released on Wednesday, just in time for the game’s new Act.

The patch’s most high-profile update is definitely the change to Jett’s Tailwind ability. The previous version let her instantly dash from one spot to another, but the new version will take some premeditation. After the patch, Jett has to activate Tailwind, a process that includes a short delay, then use the ability within a 12-second window. This means that Jett players can no longer be completely reactive, and will now have to prepare their dashes before using them.

The patch’s other big change is the addition of the new Agent Fade, who uses shadows to help spot her enemies. Sova also got a few nerfs with a shorter window to use his Owl Drone ability and less damage to his Shock Darts. Meanwhile, Neon got a couple of buffs, including smoothing out her slide and removing damage from her walls, letting teammates walk in and out of them safely.

For a look at all the changes in Valorant’s 4.08 update you can check out the full patch notes.

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Valorant Patch 4.08 notes

Agent updates

Fade goes live

• See her abilities on our Agents page.
• See Fade’s debut trailer. You’ll wake up screaming.

Jett

The team loves what Jett has continually brought to the fight, but as the game has evolved, some of her impacts have pushed beyond what we think is healthy for the tactical promise of VALORANT. Our update to Tailwind aims to address these concerns while maintaining the aggressive site takes and awe inspiring highlight plays Jett should bring to the roster. Check out our full article on the Jett update here for a complete breakdown of our approach and the philosophies that drove this update. We expect this change to have ripple effects on the Agents around Jett and the ecosystem overall, so we’ll keep a close eye not only on Jett, but any cascading impacts on the entire roster.

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 next key press
• 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

Neon

We’ve been keeping an eye on Neon and wanted to make some quality of life changes to help remove some friction when playing as, or with, Neon.

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.

• 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

At high-level ranked or pro play, Sova’s been a staple for quite some time. While his power has not been felt as viscerally as Jett’s, his impact in coordinated settings is nearly unmatched. We wanted to focus on addressing the amount of space that the Owl Drone practically guaranteed, and introduce additional counter play opportunities for opponents. A reduced Drone duration means Sova has to incur more risk in his positioning to clear deeper angles, and the adjustments to ping reveal (below) give opponents more opportunity to mix up their repositioning without feeling forced to completely exit the area. Shock Dart has also taken a hit as we continue to sharpen damage outputs on non-ultimate abilities, so that they kill less frequently

Owl Drone

• Duration reduced 10s >>> 7s
• Health reduced 125 >>> 100
• Dart Reveal
• Number of reveal pings 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 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 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
• Tuned matchmaking to reduce wait time for 5-stacks
• You can read the basics on how Rank Rating penalties work for 5-stacks in our previous patch notes.

Bug fixes

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
• Fixed 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