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VALORANT Episode 4 Act 2 is now live and all four Controllers in the game – namely, Omen, Brimstone, Astra and Viper – have received either a buff or a nerf.

Controllers, also colloquially referred to as “smokers,” are the class of VALORANT characters who can control space and gain advantages by slicing up the battlefield with their abilities. Prior to the Episode 4 Act 2 patch, Astra and Viper have reigned supreme as the must-pick Controllers in pro play, with Omen and Brimstone seeing little to no play time. To compensate for this, Omen and Brimstone have both been buffed, while Astra and Viper have been nerfed significantly. Here are all the Controller changes you need to know about.

Omen’s smokes are 229% faster

Omen VALORANT
Omen was one of the original Agents in the game. | Provided by Riot Games

Omen, who has a 0% pick rate in VALORANT Champions Tour North America 2022 so far, is getting a buff. The biggest drawback of Omen’s Dark Cover ability was how slowly his smokes travelled. Now the travel speed of his smokes has been increased from 2800 to 6400, which is roughly a 229% increase. The recharge cooldown has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds. To balance the buffs out, the cost for Dark Cover has also been increased from 100 to 150 credits.

Additionally, Omen’s Shadow Step ability now costs 100 credits instead of 150. The pre teleport delay has been decreased from 1 second to 0.7 seconds.

Viper’s fuel depletes faster

VALORANT Viper
Viper is a must-pick Agent on some VALORANT maps. | Provided by Riot Games

Viper, who is considered a must-pick Agent on maps like Breeze, is being nerfed across the board. Notably, her fuel gauge will now deplete 50% faster while her Toxic Screen and Poison Cloud are both active.

Both Toxic Screen and Poison Cloud’s cooldown after deactivating has also been increased from 6 seconds to 8 seconds. Additionally, both will now have a yellow light to indicate they are on cooldown. Her Snake Bite duration has also been reduced from 6.5 seconds to 5.5 seconds.

Brimstone’s smoke range is wider

Brimstone from VALORANT
Brimstone has had a low pick rate in pro play. | Provided by Riot Games

Brimstone is the only VALORANT Controller who can put down multiple smokes simultaneously, but his viability has been low due to the limited radius of said smokes and has been long overdue for a buff. His Sky Smoke ability has been adjusted to be faster; it will now only take 1 second to deploy instead of 2. The deploy radius has also been increased from 5000 to 5500, or from 50 meters to 55 meters.

Furthermore, his Stim Beacon will now also provide a 15% speed boost during its duration of effect in addition to rapid fire.

Astra now only has four stars

Astra VALORANT
Astra currently has the highest pick rate of any Controller by far. | Provided by Riot Games

Astra has long been regarded as the most powerful Controller due to her versatile kit and her ability to use it from anywhere on the map. She’s getting some big nerfs to hopefully even the playing field for other Controllers. Most notably, the total number of stars she can put down has been reduced from five to four. The cooldown upon retrieving a star has also been increased from 14 seconds to 25 seconds. However, the max distance of her star placement has now been increased threefold from 10,000 to 30,000.

Her ability cooldowns have been increased across the board, with Gravity Well and Nova Pulse going from 25 seconds to 45 seconds and Nebula, her smoke, going from 14 seconds to 25 seconds.