Viper, along with most of the Agents in VALORANT’s Controller class, is getting changes in VALORANT Patch 4.04. The toxic Agent is getting some slight nerfs along with some added indicators for her abilities that will let players know when her Fuel is low. While her notes may look daunting, the changes coming her way are minimal and mostly involve small fixes. But, they could change how she is played across certain maps and in the professional meta.
Viper nerfs
Viper is getting her deactivation on her Toxic Screen and Poison Cloud increased in VALORANT Patch 4.04. Both used to be six seconds, now they will be eight seconds. Both cooldown timers will now start when the smoke screen starts to fade away, as opposed to before when it happened when the deactivation telegraph displayed across the bottom of the screen. Both abilities will also have yellow lights displayed while they are on cooldown.
The deactivation delay in her abilities is also getting a slight decrease, by just .2 seconds. With KAY/0’s addition to the game, suppression became a new mechanic in VALORANT. Viper has had a wonky interaction with suppression since its introduction, so Riot Games has added a voice line that will play when she is hit with the mechanic.
The delay between when she is suppressed and when her Toxic Screen and Poison Cloud go away have also been removed.
Lastly, Viper’s molly, Snake Bite, has been nerfed slightly. The ability’s duration has been decreased from six and a half seconds to five and a half.
Fuel changes
Viper’s Fuel has also been nerfed as the resource drain has been increased by 50% when both Toxic Screen and Poison Cloud are active. This makes the use of both risky in some situations as most current Viper setups involves having both active at certain points. Her Fuel bar also has a new indicator as it will turn red when she does not have enough resources to activate her abilities.
