Riot reveal long-awaited Yoru buffs

While Yoru joined Valorant's roster with much fan-fare, it quickly became apparent that his powers looked better on paper than they did in practice.

Released in January 2021 as part of the Episode 2 Act 1, he has received several buffs since (and even a nerf) but the developers have been clear for a while now that a more extensive rework was needed to make Yoru viable, being the Agent that is least-picked across all ELOs.

That rework has felt like a long time coming but, thanks to a recent State of the Agents blog post, we not only have a look at Yoru's new-look abilities but also a tentative release date.

"Yoru v2.0" revealed 

In what many are referring to as Yoru v2.0, the Valorant devs have explained that they want to lean into Yoru's ability to deceive.

"The aim is for Yoru to have better tools to trick opponents, a stronger baseline value across his kit, and higher impact per round," explained Valorant Character Designer, Ryan “Rycoux” Cousart.

It appears all of Yoru's abilities will be getting some sort of change; but for the moment, only Fakeout and Gatecrash were revealed.

Fakeout will be getting a huge buff, the footsteps will remain but also be coupled with a visual "carbon copy" of Yoru, that once shot and explodes will debuff surrounding enemies.

Gatecrash, Yoru's teleport, will see its travel speed increased by 20% and only be seen and heard by opponents from much closer distances. Yoru will also be able to fake his teleport (similar to Omen) with the same audio cue being made.

The developers also teased changes to the Dimensional Drift (flash) and promised another State of the Agent early next year showcasing his entire new skill set.

The long-awaited Yoru update is expected to be released within the first couple of months of 2022.

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Featured image courtesy of Riot Games.