Viper receives a much-needed buff in Valorant patch 2.06

Viper was one of the first agents introduced to the players in the early stages of the open beta in Valorant.

From zone control and damage to equal footing in both offensive and defensive scenarios, the poison lady of Valorant boasts a unique kit. She has unique maneuvering skills and requires constant presence of mind, making Viper arguably one of the toughest agents to master.

Due to the recent game meta being flashy and very fast, line-ups have almost always neglected the controller role when it comes to determining the perfect line-up. Except for Omen, most of the controllers have not even been considered to be an option. With the recent buffs given to various controllers and slowing down the pace of the game, Riot finally wishes to make the controller role as viable as the others.

After months of being the weakest agent in Valorant, Viper has finally received some much-needed buffs in the patch update 2.06.

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Viper’s timeline in Valorant

Since the launch of Valorant in June 2020, Viper has seen some of the lowest pick rates throughout the timeline of Valorant. With a number of different buffs, Riot has tried several times to incorporate Viper as a viable pick.

Ever since her release, her pick rate has been well below the 3% mark, and it got worse as time went on, and she was left as the weakest agent in the game. Currently, according to Blitz.gg, the pick rate of Viper across all ranks in Valorant is as low as 1.9%.

Agent pick rates (Screengrab from Blitz.gg)

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Viper buff in Valorant patch update 2.06

After receiving countless criticism over the usefulness of Viper, she has finally received a buff to her kit in patch update 2.06. With the official patch notes of Episode 2, Riot confirmed that despite the cries from the community to rework Viper, they shall be keeping her the same but will surely work on her abilities to make her viable. Seeing how such an interesting agent being wasted on the sidelines, Riot finally incorporated the following buffs to the poison lady,

Ability buffs of Viper-

Toxin(Passive):

• Enemies that cross through Viper’s Poison Cloud, Toxic Screen, or Viper’s Pit are instantly inflicted with at least 50 decay. Their decay level increases the longer they remain in contact with toxin.
• While in cloud, Decay over time decreased 15 >>> 10
• When out of Viper’s cloud, delay before health regen decreased 2.5 >>> 1.5

Snakebite(C):

• Equip time has been decreased 1.1 >>> 0.8

Poison Cloud(Q):

• Can now immediately be redeployed when picked up, but grants a temporary charge instead of a permanent charge
• If active when Viper dies, Poison Cloud now remains up for an additional two seconds, or until Viper runs out of fuel.
• Pickup distance increased 200 >>> 400

Toxin Screen(E):

• If active when Viper dies, Toxic Screen now remains up for an additional two seconds before deactivating
• Full blind distance from the wall increased to better match the blind distance from the edge of smokes

Practice Tools

• In custom games with cheats and infinite abilities enabled, Viper can hold down “activate” on Poison Cloud and Toxic Screen to recall them
• In custom games with cheats and infinite abilities enabled, Poison Cloud’s landing location is shown on the minimap while equipped

This certainly does put Viper on Valorant's roadmap, enabling her to be picked more often than ever before. With such a low toxin decay rate and such high damage numbers, she can finally be utilized to her fullest.

The community, though skeptical about this buff on how it will improve her overall playstyle, still rejoiced over her much-needed buff.