Long-awaited changes to VALORANT agent Yoru will finally be coming soon.
One of today’s most popular tactical 5v5 shooter games is VALORANT, released by Riot Games back in June 2020. Its dynamic hero-based gameplay and easy-to-learn mechanics have intrigued a lot of players to try the game.
VALORANT releases new agents every now and then. Riot usually releases most new agents in a pretty strong state. But one of the agents who failed to do so was agent 15, Yoru. Riot had announced in December 2021 that Yoru would be getting a rework, and data miners revealed that it would be released sometime in 2022.
Yoru players were disappointed with the impractical and inefficient abilities of the agent after its initial release. And as always, Riot has paid attention to player feedback and decided to change the Japanese duelist.
Read More: VALORANT Yoru Rework confirmed for 2022: Ability Changes, Adjustments, and More.
Rework Announcement
Before releasing the newest agent, Neon, Riot declared that they would be doing a “globetrot” to each of the agents’ origin locations, starting with Neon in the Philippines.
Today, Riot announced that after visiting Sage in China, it was time to drop in on Yoru in Japan. According to data miners, the Yoru rework will probably come out in patch 4.03. Riot released Patch 4.02 earlier last week. And after Riot’s Tweet today, we can be sure that the rework of the Japanese agent is coming very soon.
Although people are criticizing the post for its strange choice of fonts, everyone is excited to see how the improved agent will impact the game in the future.
State of the Agents Yoru:
Riot Games recently released a blog post with details showing the full Yoru Rework.Below you will find all the details about the new upcoming Yoru rework-
FAKEOUT
Fakeout—an ability that currently directionally mimics the sound of Yoru’s footsteps to mislead enemies—is now a full copy of Yoru, that runs forward, and when damaged, explodes and debuffs enemies.
As added flavor, when the copy is shot, it faces the direction of the person that fired the shot and flashes towards their position in a conal direction.
- As an ally of Yoru, you will be to tell that it is his copy, and not the real Yoru. This is so that Yoru is not accidentally confusing his allies between who the real one is, and who the copy is.
- As an enemy of Yoru, they will see an identical copy of Yoru.
- During playtests we found that the copy was effective at disrupting an enemies moment-to-moment gameplay—which is awesome—but not when your team gets confused. Below are some of the early explorations for how to visualize the ally Yoru copy.
GATECRASH
Not much has changed with this one since the last post, aside from the team creating the additional art elements needed to bring this portion of Yoru’s update to life. The big thing here is the “puddle” left on the ground after a fake teleport. While the goal of the fake teleport is to create confusion about Yoru’s location, you should be able to go to where the fake teleport occurred, and then understand whether the real Yoru is around, or was it a misdirection?
DIMENSIONAL DRIFT
OK, prepare for a text dump. Here’s a summary of the changes during Yoru’s ult:
- Yoru is no longer revealed to enemies
- Yoru is able to cast all utility while in Dimensional Drift
- Enemies can hear Yoru’s footsteps
- Nearsighted is removed
- Unequip delay time is increased slightly
- Cast delay added when casting Dimensional Drift, preventing the invulnerability frame on cast.
When looking at updating Yoru’s ultimate, we wanted to fix some of the unintended play patterns that have shown up in-game, and instead give Yoru the tools to gain ground on enemies using stealth and initiate the rest of his team to follow.
Reducing the amount of time he can stay invisible should also stop the “invincible” Yoru from simply dancing in his enemy’s face. The new unequip time is meant to hinder the combo of blasting Shorty right after switching to visible. An added delay to his invulnerability stops Yoru from relying too much on running around with his mask in his hand and jamming it on at the first sight of danger.
Instead, Yoru can now see the battlefield unhindered, allowing him to enter enemy zones, take in the state of the map and mastermind a play— based around Yoru’s change that allows abilities during his ult.
Imagine a Yoru that can send teleporters into new places—deep behind enemy lines, place flashes to move enemies off angles for his team, or possibly land the perfect blind to mask his “de-stealth” and claim a frag. We think this update unlocks a lot of new possibilities for a Drifting Yoru, and we hope that it helps bring some of his fantasy of stealth infiltration to life.
Read More: VALORANT Will Let Players Favorite/Unfavorite Weapon Skins Soon, A New Leak Suggests
