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The arrival of the new Agent - Skye, will not be the only major update that Valorant patch 1.11 receives in the coming week.
Riot has a slew of changes planned for some of the existing Agents in the game, and it would seem that Breach, Brimstone, Killjoy, and Cypher will be under the microscope this time around.
In a recent exclusive with Hitscan, Senior Game Designer of Valorant, Max ‘Orcane’ Grossman, provided the players an insight on some of the changes that they want to bring to the game.
While Breach is all set to receive further buffs, Orcane also tells us that Cypher and Killjoy will indeed be scaled down a bit, while Brimstone receives some much-needed balance tweaks.
Expected changes for Valorant patch 1.11
Breach Buff
During Valorant patch 1.11, Breach got a severe boosts to his playmaking potential, and because of this, his pick rate went up considerably in both pro play and average matchmaking.
However, according to Orcane, the Breach buffs were not nearly as enough, and the dev says that, “I know there’s a community sentiment of Breach feeling really strong right now. Internally, the data does not even remotely backup that sentiment,”
Hence we can expect a minor buff to his kit, and not changes that will make him the most broken Agent in the game.
The major issue that Breach has been facing since Valorant’s closed beta, is that he still requires an incredible amount of team coordination to pull off.
The Agent is an enabler and acts as an effective aid for entry fragging duelists like Raze, Jett, and Reyna.
As Breach can accidentally inflict cc on his own teammates, players can indeed “feel his presence a lot”, but it can be very hard to capitalize on his stuns and flashes if there is a lack of good communication within the squad.
Though Breach is outperforming on the professional stage, his impact is not nearly as enough in the lower tiers.
Brimstone balance tweaks
During Valorant’s closed beta, and the early weeks of the Ignition Series, Brimstone was a must pick in every game.
However, in the current meta, he is not as potent as he used to be, and in the latest Renegades x NSG Invitational, he had the second-lowest pick rate out of all the Agents.
With Omen and Jett on the side, Brimstone has lost much of his potency as the main utility Agent.
His abilities are going understated, and it’s because of this that Riot wants to provide him with some much-needed tweaks.
Orcane states, “When we look at Brimstone, there are reasons that I still think he’s really potent but I think he suffers in a couple of key areas with regards to flexibility compared to a character like Omen,”
It’s true that when it comes to kit usage, Brimstone is very one dimensional, and acts as nothing more than a ‘smoke bot’ for his teammates and the enemy team to play around.
Adding a bit of playmaking potential to his kit will considerably help his pick rate.
Killjoy and Cypher nerfs
Killjoy and Cypher have some of the best scouting abilities in Valorant. In a low-TTK shooter, where information is everything, Cypher and Killjoy enjoy a decent pick rate across all competitive tiers.
In the right hands, both of these Agents can be incredibly oppressive, and Riot has planned to bring the nerf hammer down on them in Valorant patch 1.11.
Orcane suggests that “Killjoy has always been, in our minds, very potent at locking down a single site. Whereas Cypher is more about creating this information network across the map. So we’re really trying to drill into those identities.”
Killjoy has some of the best defensive capabilities in Valorant, and can easily rival Sage during her pre-nerf state.
With her turrets and Alarm Bot, she can pretty much hold off a plant site all on her own, and slow down the most aggressive of enemy pushes, giving her teammates enough time to rotate across the map.
