Riot Games has already teased us with all the changes they have in stock for the upcoming VALORANT patch 5.10.
VALORANT Public Environment or more commonly known as VALORANT PBE, is a game-testing platform where a few selected players can test new content on upcoming patches that are in development by Riot Games.
Following a small 5.09 patch, Riot Games decided to up the ante with the next patch. As such, in VALORANT PBE patch 5.10, Cypher, a fan-favorite agent, is finally getting some much-needed buffs. His whole kit is getting some love. In short, we could be looking toward the beginning of the great Cypher meta.
On the other side of the aisle, Fade received subtle nerfs that will make her more in line with other initiators. Since many in the community were asking for changes to her kits, Riot obliged and decided to act upon the request from the community. Aside from Cypher and Fade, this PBE patch also introduced bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements.
VALORANT 5.10 PBE Patch Notes
GENERAL
- Menus Update: Having heard the pain caused by removing one-click access to most of our menus, we’ve returned that functionality in the form of icon buttons in the universal navigation at the top of the screen. You’ll now be able to jump from Home, Battlepass, Agents, Career, Collection, and Store with one click from anywhere. Not sure what icon is what? Give them a hover – we’ve added tool tips to help you familiarize yourself.
- Like most changes, this one isn’t final and we’ll adjust based on your feedback!
AGENT UPDATES
Cypher
The changes below are meant to address the predictability of Cypher’s Trapwire setups as well as the lack of reward for pulling off his ultimate—paired with some QoL improvements. We hope to open new Trapwire setups and mix up known play patterns. Neural Theft is slightly more accessible and the second reveal ping should add more pressure on the enemy. Cypher mains, get out there!
- Trapwire
- Maximum Trapwire length increased 1000 >>> 1500.
- Neural Theft
- Neural Theft now reveals enemies two times. There is a four second delay between the reveals.
- Time restriction to cast on enemy corpses has been removed.
- Maximum cast distance increased 1200 >>> 1800.
- Quality of Life
- Updated the yellow silhouette used for Cypher’s reveal on Spycam and Neural Theft.
- Yellow silhouette now disappears if the revealed enemy becomes visible to you to help reduce confusion of seeing two representations of the enemy in different places.
- Yellow silhouette now starts dimmer and fades faster to make it more distinguishable from an actual enemy.
- Cypher’s placed utility is no longer destroyed by allies’ AOE damage.
Fade
Fade’s Prowlers have been a versatile and difficult-to-play-against ability that we’re looking to sharpen with these changes. The duration changes encourage Fade to be more deliberate in the areas that she chooses to sweep, while the other tweaks to the ability are meant to help enemies on the counterplay side of things.
The Nightfall cost is increasing in price, as we’ve found the baseline value of the Ultimate to be on the higher end compared to other ultimates in the game.
- Prowlers
- Duration reduced from 3 >>> 2.5 seconds. (Time the prowler is alive without a trail).
- Delay on bite after reaching target increased .4 >>> .6 seconds.
- Hitbox improvements.
- Nearsight duration on hit reduced 3.5 >>> 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 7 >>> 8.
BUGS
Harbor
- Fixed a bug where Harbor’s Cascade would sometimes spawn under the map.
- Fixed a bug where Harbor’s Cascade targeter on the minimap would shorten when aiming up or down even though the Cascade would travel the same distance.
- Fixed a bug where Harbor’s Cascade targeter on the minimap was slightly shorter than the actual distance it would travel.
Astra
- Fixed a bug where Astra could cast a fake Nebula right at the start of a round before her Star charged up.
Read More: VALORANT Rank Distribution (October 2022)
