Riot is giving “precise gunplay” a serious bump in the biggest VALORANT update of the 2025 season. With Patch 11.08 set to completely flip the tac shooter’s meta through utility reworks, map updates, and weapon balances, you’d probably want to hit the Practice Range (or Aim Labs) more often than before.
Scheduled to go live on Oct. 15 (CT), VALORANT Patch 11.08 is set to bring longer ability cooldowns, major agent nerfs (and subtle buffs), much-requested Pearl and Abyss reworks, favorable weapon tuning, and plenty more. The full patch notes are now out, so here’s an overview of all the changes that are coming your way.
All agents buffs and nerfs in VALORANT Patch 11.08
Patch 11.08 brings changes to almost every VALORANT agent, revamping every role to fit the game’s focus on gunplay. The changes mostly include significant nerfs to agent abilities, but Riot has also fit in some buffs to keep the balance.
While some overpowered agents like Vyse, Cypher, and Yoru have taken quite a bit of damage, Riot hasn’t quite nerfed anybody “to the ground.” With that said, here’s a summary of all Patch 11.08 changes affecting agents in VALORANT.
Global initiator and sentinel updates
Refresh utilities in VALORANT are set to have longer cooldowns than before, majorly affecting the initiator and sentinel classes. Here’s a summary of these changes:
Sentinels
- Cooldowns increased on destroyed utilities, from 45s to 60s.
- Debuff durations decreased to match systemic changes
- Health decreased on breakable abilities.
Initiators
- Initiator Signature ability recharge times increased from 40s to 60s. This will only affect Sova, Breach, KAY/O, and Fade since Skye and Tejo don’t have rechargeable utilities, and Gekko’s kit works differently.
- Flashes (Skye, Breach, and KAY/O) now apply for a uniform 2.25 seconds.
Global ability changes
Combat Stim, Nearsight, and Concuss will now apply the same quality of debuffs or buffs across all agents.
- Nearsight vision range increased from five to seven metres for Omen’s Paranoia, Skye’s Seekers, Fade’s Prowlers, and Reyna’s Leer.
- Combat Stim now works the same for Brimstone’s Stim Beacon, KAY/O’s NULL/CMD, and Reyna’s Empress.
- Concuss duration for every ability is now 2.5 seconds.
Duelist changes
Here are the biggest highlights of all duelist changes in Patch 11.08:
- Yoru can no longer use flashes and clones while in his ultimate.
- Neon’s stun now affects enemies for a shorter time and her fuel takes longer to charge, although she can run for a longer time.
- Area of Iso’s Kill Contract (ultimate) has been reduced.
- Area and impact of Waylay’s Convergent Paths (ultimate) has been reduced, along with nerfs to Saturate.
- Reyna’s Leer health has been reduced along with Empress’ combat stim nerf.
- Raze is now affected by the Slow debuff while in mid-air using Blast Packs.
Initiator changes
Here are the biggest highlights of all initiator changes in Patch 11.08:
- Breach: Ultimate nerf with reduced area and concuss time, Fault Line’s concuss time reduced to 2.5, flash duration increased to 2.25 seconds
- KAY/O: Underhand flash duration increased to 2.25 seconds, combat stim buffs in ultimate
- Fade: Ultimate nerfed with reduced area and time of effect, but buffed with consistent 80 decay damage. Haunt stays in the world for a shorter time
- Gekko: Wingman and Thrash HP reduced, longer cooldown on Globules, concuss time of Wingman reduced
Controller changes
As a collective step toward a weapon-dominant future in VALORANT, Patch 11.08 will hit controller agents with nerfs to bring them in line with other agents.
- Astra: Smoke cooldown increased to 35 seconds, Nova Pulse and Gravity Well’s cooldown increased to 60 seconds, while concuss and vulnerable durations reduced.
- Omen: Smoke cooldown increased to 40 seconds, blind’s speed increased, but travel distance decreased
- Viper: Instant decay upon contact with her wall, orb, and ultimate reduced to 10 HP from 30.
- Brimstone: Combat stim nerf
Sentinel changes
Like other classes, the sentinels are getting some major changes too.
- Vyse: Arc Rose (blind) no longer plays blind confirmation message, and flash duration reduced, wall is now easier to bait out, ultimate radius reduced
- Cypher: Spycam no longer invisible when enemy is in a eight-meter radius, Trapwires have been reworked to no longer concuss enemies, only slow and reveal them after windup
- Killjoy: Turret and Alarmbot reactivation time increased, Turret bullets now slow enemies by 50 percent
- Sage: Wall segments now have reduced HP, but Barrier Orb now costs 300 credits (down from 400) and fortifies faster
- Deadlock: Barrier Mesh’s mini nodes health reduced, Sonic Sensors’ concuss duration reduced, price of Barrier Mesh decreased to 300 credits
For more details on how Patch 11.08 affects your favorite VALORANT agents, check out our dedicated guide.
All map reworks in VALORANT Patch 11.08
Abyss and Pearl are getting major changes “to enable more creative site holds and post-plants.”
Abyss’ B site and Mid have been updated to foster more ways for defenders to defend or reclaim space and for attackers to claim space and make their way into a site.
Pearl’s B site has always been attacker-friendly, but this changes drastically with VALORANT’s Patch 11.08. The reworks will balance the gameplay out for both attackers and defenders, and discourage monotonous post-plant plays—like holding the Spike from B Long.
For more details on what’s changed, check out our “all map reworks” guide for VALORANT’s Patch 11.08.
All weapon updates in VALORANT Patch 11.08
To further minimize ability impact, Riot is buffing gunplay with Patch 11.08. Here are the changes, summarized:
- Shots will be more predictable for all rifles, except Guardian. Spray control will improve.
- Spectre’s tap fire and sprays will become easier to control and utilize. Stinger’s spray will kick in faster.
To know more about all weapon updates included in Patch 11.08, check out this detailed guide.
Gameplay Systems updates
If you thought previews for placeable abilities like Deadlock’s Sonic Sensor and Cypher’s Spy Cam are a bit choppy for your liking, Riot has polished them up in Patch 11.08—especially for Sonic Sensors, which will now feel less snappy and smoother.
Placement previews now align better with the eventual location where you want to place the ability.
Player Behavior updates
Players can now report others under a new “Rank Manipulation” category, which encompasses smurfing, wintrading, and boosting. Don’t use the “Cheating” category for these types of disruptors going forward to ensure the correct level of investigation.
Premier mode updates (PC only)
A new stage of Premier starts with Act Six, bringing a set of mandatory rules into effect. At the end of Act Six, the top 16 teams in Invite will remain in Invite. All other Invite teams will be demoted at the start of the next stage.
All of these rules are listed under the Standings tab under Premier mode, so make sure your team knows everything they need to before the final season of the year begins.
Team Tags extended to VCT teams
With Patch 11.08, the Team Tags feature has been expanded to include tags for VCT teams. Pros will now have their team’s tag shown before their name in the social panel, in the lobby, in-game, and on the Competitive Leaderboards.
VCT team names and tags are reserved only for partnered teams. So, if your team has the same team name or tag as a VCT partner, your team owner will receive a prompt to change the team name.
You can check out the official VALORANT 11.08 patch notes here.
