Valorant Patch Notes Breakdown (Patch 5.12)

Patch Notes Breakdown 4.04

Welcome to our Valorant patch breakdown! We’ll be discussing all the buffs, nerfs, and adjustments related to agents, guns, maps, and more for every patch.

The day has finally come… substantial nerfs have been announced for Chamber. The French Sentinel has been dominant in all aspects of play since his release just over a year ago in November 2021.

We’re going to review all of the Chamber changes, how we foresee him fitting in the meta, how he’ll be played, and how you can counter him.

Patch 5.12 is also introducing other map and quality of life changes to the game which we’ll go over as well.

Au Revoir Chamber

Every single one of Chamber’s abilities are being altered in this patch, we’ll go through each one of them individually.

Headhunter (Q)

🠗 The bullet spread after the 2nd shot is increased when spam firing Headhunter

New 

Old 

Rendezvous (E)

🗘 This ability is now only 1 Anchor rather than 2
🠕 The radius of the Anchor increased from 7.5 meters > 13 meters
🠕 There is now no height restriction to using the teleport
🠗 Weapon Equip time is increased from 0.4 seconds > 0.7 Seconds
Headhunter is not subject to this change
🠗 When Rendezvous is destroyed it is unavailable the rest of the round, and not on cooldown
🠕 When recalling the Anchor after it is used, it does not go on cooldown again

Trademark (C)

🠗 The trap is now range restricted like Killjoy’s Alarm Bot and Turret
🠕 Trademark can be recalled mid round without line of sight, and put on a 30 second cooldown
🠗 Arm time increased from 2 seconds > 4 seconds
This is the time from the moment the trap is placed to when it can be triggered
🠕 Health increased from 1 > 20
🠗 Slow duration reduced from 6 seconds > 4 seconds

Tour De Force (X)

🠗 Fire Rate decreased by 57.5%
🠗 Slow duration reduced from 6 seconds > 4 seconds

New

Old

Thoughts on the Changes

There are a lot of changes here, and a fair amount of them are actually buffs. The buffs are much smaller than the nerfs, and this is a net very large nerf overall. This set of nerfs will definitely have a much larger impact on Chamber’s status in the meta than his last round of nerfs that reduced Rendezvous’ radius.

The changes to his two weapon abilities, Headhunter and Tour De Force are straight nerfs, and this is something that was much needed for the ultimate. Tour De Force fired too quickly, and Chamber was not punished for missing his initial shot the same amount as a player with the Operator due to the fire rate difference. This change will put the ultimate more in line with how countering the Operator is.

Trademark is nerfed the most, and will really restrict Chamber’s map coverage moving forward. The new range is equal to Killjoy’s, and will most likely heavily lessen Chamber’s pick rate on larger maps. Chamber will be confined to one section of the map as he will now place his Rendezvous in one lane, and will have to place his Trademark in an adjacent lane due to the limited range.

Rendezvous got the most changes, and was definitely nerfed, but Chamber still has his anti-trade teleport mechanic which is by far the most powerful part of his kit. This is why Chamber will still be picked. Being able to play an off angle, get a kill, and teleport out to prevent a trade is extremely strong. The 2 to 1 Anchor change will make it such that Chamber cannot fall back as far to guarantee safety, prevents being able to set up for fast rotates, and lets the other team have a better idea of where he teleported to. The radius increase will actually allow Chamber to lean more into the early pick set up and will be something to take advantage of on offense as it allows him to go further out a choke point and be able to teleport.

Other 5.12 and 2023 Changes

Map Updates

After a 6 month hiatus, the map rotation is once again changing! It was announced that Split will be returning and both Bind and Breeze will be leaving in 2023. With one map entering and two maps leaving, it is assumed that in the new year we will be getting a new map with Episode 6. Stay tuned for details on the new map as they are released!

Other Agent Updates

All agents’ destroyable utility has been increased from 1>20 health

Damage over time abilities such as Snakebite now damage utility. The health change was implemented from preventing these abilities to instantly destroy utility, but maintain the ability to one shot utility with a weapon.

Breach

🠗 Rolling Thunder requires 7>8 ultimate charges
🠗 Aftershock deals 250% > 100% damage to non-players

Brimstone

🠗 Incendiary deals 100% > 50% damage to non-players

Fade

🠗 Prowler health reduced 100>60

Harbor

🠕 High Tide duration increased 12 seconds > 15 seconds
🠕 Cascade duration increased 5 seconds > 7 seconds

KAY/O

🠗 NULL/cmd requires 7 > 8 ultimate charges
🠗 FRAG/ment deals 250% > 100% damage to non-players

Killjoy

🠕 Lockdown health increased 150 > 200
🠗 Nanoswarm deals 100% > 50% damage to non-players

Omen

🠕 Paranoia cost decreased 300 > 250

Phoenix

🠕 Blaze cost decreased 200 > 150
🠗 Hot Hands deals 100% > 50% damage to non-players

Raze

🠗 Boom Bot health decreased 100 > 60
🠗 Blast Pack deals 1200% > 250% damage to non-players
🠕 Paint Shells deal 100% > 250% damage to non-players
🠕 Boom Bot deals 100% > 250% damage to non-players

Sage

🠗 Fortify time for Barrier Orb increased from 3 seconds > 3.3 seconds
🠗 Self Heal reduced from 60 HP > 30 HP
🠕 Ally heal increased from 60 HP > 100 HP

Skye

🠗 Trailblazer cost increased 250 > 300
🠕 Regrowth cost decreased 200 >150

Viper

🠗 Viper’s Pit smoke integrity regen time increased from 5 seconds > 25 seconds
🠗 Max time out of Viper’s Pit increased from 15 seconds > 8 seconds
🠗 Viper’s Pit ultimate orbs required 7 > 8
🠗 Snakebite deals 100% > 50% damage to non-players

Yoru

🠗 Gatecrash health decreased 100 > 60
🠕 Gatecrash cost decreased 200 > 150

Assists Reworks

The grace period of utility based assists have been increased by 1 second.

Spectre Changes 🠗

• New damage falloff values given
• Old
  • 0-20 meters = 26 damage
  • 20+ meters = 22 damage
• New
  • 0-15 meters = 26 damage
  • 15-30 meters = 22 damage
  • 30+ meters = 20 damage

Highlights

• Breach Aftershock can no longer destroy Killjoy’s Lockdown
• This can really open up Killjoy on Haven, Fracture, and Split where Breach is a common pick
• Killjoy is looking to be a big winner of the new patch between Chamber nerfs, other balance changes, and map pool rotations in which 2 maps she was weaker on being removed from the pool.
• Skye is looking to be a bad spot right now
• Her 2 best maps were removed from the pool
• Her best ability had its price increased
• Harbor is slowly getting buffed
• This contrasts the approach of Chamber of being extremely strong on release and Riot struggling to bring him down in power
• Smurfing Updates are also said to be in 5.12, but no details have been released yet what that will entail
• We will keep you up to date on the newest details of the new map and Episode coming with the new year

That concludes our Valorant patch breakdown for 5.12! Be sure to check out to see how these changes affected our Valorant agent tier list.