'Valorant' 8.08 Patch Notes Bring Major Viper And Cypher Nerfs

The patch notes for Valorant update 8.08 have been released and they bring some massive nerfs to both Viper and Cypher as both agents have proven to be annoyingly strong in recent weeks.

Since being buffed back in patch 7.09, Cypher has slowly grown into one of the stronger agents in Valorant but as players have figured out how strong he can be, he has become a little too annoying to play against thanks to his ability to stall enemies for a long time.

To fix this there are two big changes coming to Cypher in the 8.08 patch notes. The first is that his Trapwire now gives enemies more time to react and shoot it before it goes off, and the slow duration has dropped from two seconds to just 1.25 seconds, which should be a big improvement for anyone who gets caught in it.

The other change to Cypher comes to his Spycam, which with some clever positioning can be almost impossible to spot on some maps, giving players a chance to scout the enemy without them knowing. Now, an audio cue has been added when you are being watched, that will repeat while you are in vision. This means that if you can't spot the camera immediately you can move around until the sound stops to figure out where it has been placed and then take it out.

The other agent getting a big nerf in Valorant patch 8.08 is Viper, who has been one of the top agents at the highest levels of play. This patch is designed to make her commit to whatever position she lays down her abilities and rescue the up time of her smokes to reduce the amount of cover she can have.

Specifically, the up time on her Toxic Screen and Poison Cloud have been reduced, and the minimum amount of fuel needed to activate them has been increased. Poison Cloud has also been changed so that it can only be picked up during the buy phase, so now you only have one shot to place it exactly where you want in a round. This should massively increase the downtime of her smokes, giving enemies a better chance to push towards her after waiting out her abilities.

The other change to Viper is a big one to her Snake Bite. Now you can only have one charge, and the price has gone up by 100 to a total of 300. However, its duration has been increased by a second, taking it up to 6.5 seconds and thus making it lethal to any agent that stands in it for the full duration.

Elsewhere in the latest Valorant patch, there are some updates to Premier and a few welcome bug fixes, which you can see in the full patch notes.

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