Valorant introduces Harbor buffs alongside Cypher and Fade changes in Patch 5.10

Patch 5.10 of Valorant is set to bring forward a variety of interesting changes to the game, including buffs for Agents like Harbor and Cypher, and a long-awaited nerf for Fade.

Riot Games has also planned to introduce a brand new feature for the North American region, allowing the game to detect and reduce disruptive situations by muting player chats while they are still in-game.

The changes for Fade and Cypher were expected for quite some time and were recently tested out in Valorant's PBE patch 5.10. However, tests for the Harbor buff were omitted due to the simple nature of the change, surprising players all over the world as it makes its way into the game.

Patch 5.10, which is scheduled to arrive on November 15, 2022, will introduce a Harbor buff that increases the Agent's Cascade (C) ability's number of purchasable charges from 1 to 2. Detailed information on the ability and its effects are mentioned below in this article.

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How does the Harbor buff in Valorant patch 5.10 affect his place in the current meta?

According to Valorant developers at Riot Games, a portion of the game's playerbase did not use Harbor's abilities enough and felt constrained to a certain degree while playing the Controller Agent.

With the new changes in Patch 5.10, the game's developers hope to make it easier for players to learn and use Harbor, while making it more convenient for skilled Controller players to use the Indian Agent efficiently.

As mentioned earlier, Harbor's Cascade ability will be getting buffed in the upcoming patch.

Cascade is essentially a vision-blocker ability that allows players to cast a wave of water from the ground and send it forward in a certain direction. Upon reaching its maximum distance of 35 meters, or upon re-equipping, the Cascade wave will stop and remain stationary for a duration of five seconds.

While the wave is active, any Agent that comes into contact with it, be it an ally or enemy, will be slowed by 30% for 0.6 seconds. This flexibility allows players to use it in place of a smoke-ability or as a deterrent to slow down enemies.

Cascade, similar to Harbor's Cove and High Tide abilities, had only a single charge before. However, as of Patch 5.10, players will be able to purchase a maximum of two Cascade charges, thereby improving the Agent's efficiency as a Controller Agent.

Although an adept Controller Agent, Harbor's initial kit compromised on a few factors that could have allowed the Agent to be an efficient choice for a solo Controller. With the changes arriving for Harbor in Patch 5.10, players may finally be able to utilize Harbor effectively.

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Other Agent changes coming to Valorant in Patch 5.10

Along with the Harbor buff, players can also expect major ability and quality-of-life changes for Cypher and Fade.

Cypher

Since the arrival of Chamber, Cypher has lost his place in Valorant's meta and is often excluded from ideal Agent compositions in any of the game's seven active maps. Hence, a substantial buff for the Sentinel is expected to improve his place in the meta and balance the state of Sentinels in Valorant.

Trapwire

• Maximum Trapwire length increased 1000 to 1500

Neural Theft

• Now reveals enemies twice. There is a four-second delay between the reveals
• Time restriction to cast on enemy corpses has been removed
• Maximum cast distance increased 1200 to 1800

Quality of Life

• Updated the yellow silhouette used for Cypher’s reveal on Spycam and Neural Theft
• Yellow silhouette will now disappear if the revealed enemy becomes visible to you to help reduce confusion of seeing two representations of the enemy in different places
• Yellow silhouette will now start to dim and fade faster to make it more distinguishable from an actual enemy
• Cypher’s placed utility is no longer destroyed by allies’ AOE damage

Fade

Ever since Fade's arrival in Episode 4 Act 3, she has had a phenomenal presence in the game's meta and has subsequently affected the state of Initiators as well. With a few nerfs to Fade's utility kit, Riot Games expects to bring balance to the Initiator Agents in Valorant.

Prowlers

• Duration reduced from 3 to 2.5 seconds
• Delay on bite after reaching target increased from 0.4 to 0.6 seconds
• Hitbox improvements
• Nearsight duration on hit reduced from 3.5 to 2.75 seconds
• Prowlers now fizzle out and no longer debuff instead of debuffing its target if they teleported away before it finished its animation

Nightfall

• Cost increased from 7 to 8