Following an abysmal pick rate for last year’s Valorant Champions Tour (VCT 2021), these reworks might just be what Yoru needs to kick himself back into the meta and out of the pool of the least-picked Valorant Agents.
Flashy Beginnings
When the balicomb-spinning, disappearing Japanese agent Yoru was introduced as a new addition to the Valorant agent roster last year, many were hyped by his flashy and deceptive tactics. He would be the first agent to have a flashbang utility that bounces off the first object it hits before exploding, bringing in a new and creative way for entry flashers to snuff out opponents without getting blinded by their own flash. He was also the first champion to come equipped with an auditory deception utility in his kit, as well as a pocket teleport ability that also acts as yet another decoy aside from his fake footsteps utility.
Basically, when Yoru first came into the scene, he seemed like an overloaded agent— on paper. Unfortunately, things weren’t that great once players got the hang of Yoru; both playing as him and against him, which happened a lot quicker in higher elos and in the professional level. Players soon found out that although Yoru’s kit opened a lot of opportunities for him to pick off opponents—again, on paper, he was more of an aggressive reconnaissance agent whose abilities are used to gather information on the enemy team’s whereabouts rather than going in to pick off enemy agents. Practically, the Japanese duelist agent played more like a rugged sentinel, which was a job for more suited agents like Killjoy and Cypher, you know, actual sentinel agents. This led him to become the least-picked agent in both high elo matches and even in professional play, seeing only an 8.7% pick rate in the entire professional season.
A Fresh Look
Riot Games recently announced that Yoru would be getting a major rework and would go live anytime during Episode 4 Act 1. In a recent article by Riot Games itself, they detailed a few changes that would practically (and hopefully) change the way Yoru is played and turn him into a legitimate duelist rather than an agent that sits on the boundary between duelist and sentinel.
In the article, Riot explained how Yoru’s Fakeout will now have a full body, which will be recognizable to allies but not to enemies.
The illusion explodes after a set amount of time, debuffing enemy agents caught in its area of effect. However, if an enemy damages it before that set amount of time, it releases a flashbang in a cone towards the attacker’s direction.
His teleport ability Gatecrash will be seeing some change as well. The ability can now be expended to fake a teleport, allowing Yoru for more deceptive tactics, fitting into his thematic of a slip-and-slide agent that disappears into the void after picking up a kill.
As if that wasn’t overwhelming enough, his ultimate Dimensional Drift will be receiving a LOT of buffs.
In case you didn’t catch all of that, here are some of the changes to his ultimate:
- you are no longer revealed to enemies while “drifting”
- you are able to cast utilities while in ultimate mode
- you are no longer nearsighted while using the ultimate
Seems like a lot? Well, they removed his invulnerability while casting the ultimate, so fair’s fair, right?
A Work in Progress
If these changes to Yoru seem too much or too little for you, you’d be relieved to say that Riot Games is still working on these rework changes, so you might not really see flashing body double Yoru in the final output.
But, whether they go through with all of these changes or just some of them, we’re all hoping that this rework Yoru would finally get his time in the spotlight in high elo and probably even in pro play.
