Valorant Patch 1.07: Breach and Viper buffs will significantly help their pick rate in pro play

Much like Sage, Viper’s kit has also been addressed by Riot in a continuous series of patches since Valorant’s official release. However, instead of getting nerfed, Viper has been receiving buffs after buffs but still remains one of the most unpopular Agents in the game.

During Valorant’s closed beta, Viper had been marked as a C-tier Agent, and even with continuous buffs, she couldn’t exactly be a meta pick.

Much was the same for Breach as well, and though he was hailed as one of the most broken Agents in the game during the closed beta, he soon fell from grace as players slowly found it easy to play around his kit because of a lot of counterplay options.

With Valorant patch 1.07, Riot seeks to give the two most unpopular Valorant Agents some agency so that they can be picked more often during pro play.

Viper gets many 'quality of life' changes in Valorant patch 1.07

Viper's abilities are a lot like a double-edged sword (Image credits: Riot Games)

Viper’s unpopularity lies in the fact that she needs good team coordination and know-how to pull off. Her abilities are a lot like a double-edged sword and harmed her allies as much as her enemies if the player was not communicating well with the rest of his/her Valorant teammates.

She hardly got picked in any of the Ignition Series tournaments. Much like Jett, she has an incredibly high skill expression but is not as flashy or as satisfying to play.

Riot looked to buff her in the following way in Valorant’s patch 11.07:

1. Toxic Screen

• Can now be placed during the buy phase of rounds, through spawn barriers.
• Toxic Screen now goes up faster along its full length, once it starts to form.

2. Decay

• Decay on all smoke abilities no longer affects allies.

3. Viper’s Pit

• The area of Viper’s Pit is now shown on her team’s minimap when deployed.

Being able to set up her Toxin Screen during the beginning of a round and not harming her own teammates with Decay are some much-needed quality of life changes for Viper. With this, her pick rate is bound to go up in the next Valorant tournament.

In the official patch release Riot said:

“This change should allow Viper, in many situations, to get her wall placed pre-round and then join her team before the barrier drops—or create uncertainty about her location when the round begins.”

This will allow her to have a lot of execution power and will help her teammates push into a site early in the round.

Breach’s CC abilities are made more potent

Breach is an unpopular Agent because he has a lot of counterplay (Image Credits: Riot Games)

Breach is a walking, talking truck of CC but even with all these utility abilities, he is still a very unpopular Agent, and it's solely because of the fact that he has a lot of counterplay.

His abilities are well telegraphed with a decent windup time that allows the enemies to reposition and avoid much of the utility that is coming their way.

Riot is making the following changes to his kit in Valorant patch 1.07:

1. Flashpoint

• Off-screen flashes now match the behaviour of other flashes in Valorant and apply a minimum amount of flash more aggressively.
• Charges increased from two to three.
• Reduced windup time from 0.6 seconds to 0.5 seconds.

2. Rolling Thunder

• Detonation delay between blasts decreased from 0.3 to 0.255.

3. Concussion

• Concuss now de-scopes players and prevents re-scoping.

All of his crowd control abilities are going to be made much more potent in 1.07, and by minimising the various counterplay options, Breach might just become a much sought-after pick in Valorant’s competitive play.