Jett has been one of Valorant’s best agents for a long time, but the game’s latest patch has made her a bit of a distraction. Valorant patch 4.08 nerfs double agent, buffs Neon and adds new agent Fade to the fight. The patch was released on Wednesday, just in time for the game’s new Act.

The most high-profile update of the patch is definitely the change to Jett’s Tailwind ability. The previous version allowed her to dash from one place to another in an instant, but the new version will require some thought. Once patched, Jett must activate Tailwind, a process that involves a short delay, and then use the ability within a 12-second window. This means that Jett players can no longer be fully reactive and will now have to prepare their dashes before using them.

Another big change in the patch is the addition of a new Fade agent who uses shadows to help spot his enemies. Owl also received some nerfs with a shorter window to use his Owl Drone ability and less damage from his Shock Darts. Meanwhile, Neon has received a couple of buffs, including smoothing sliding and removing damage from walls, allowing teammates to safely enter and exit them.

Jett character changes

It’s crazy to think how the perception of Jett’s power has evolved from once being considered one of the weakest agents in the beta to being a mainstay in most builds. The team has always loved what Jett brings to the lineup: breaking through defenses on layups and making flashy plays with impressive mechanical skills. But some of its other influences on the game have extended beyond VALORANT’s core tactical cycle in troubling ways.

With this update, we want to bring Jett back to that core cycle of having her make her shot and then use the power window to make those signature explosive plays. This should create clear signals for other players to consider and understand that Jett made an intentional call. Jett’s new dash will require adjustments for players, but we believe this is the best solution to balance maintaining Jett’s identity and improving gameplay.

We designed and tested dozens of prototypes for Jett’s dash, but they didn’t deliver. Some of them avoided having to double-click the dash ability button, but still ended up being less intuitive for players. Some of them were better for Jett players, but didn’t give us confidence that they were solving the game health issues we were trying to solve.

As players have mastered Jett, her dash has proven unhealthy for the tactical cycle in several ways that we believe are critical enough to address.

Notes and characteristics

JETT

The team loves what Jett consistently brings to combat, but as the game has evolved, some of her influences have gone beyond what we feel is good for VALORANT’s tactical promise. Our Tailwind update aims to address these issues while maintaining the aggressive site positioning and impressive points Jett has to add to the roster. Check out our full article on the Jett update here for a full breakdown of our approach and philosophy behind this update. We expect this change to affect agents around Jett and the ecosystem in general, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on not only Jett, but any cascading effects on the entire registry.

Fair wind

• After pressing E, Jett expends her TailWind charge and after a 0.75 second delay activates a 12 second window in which she can dash the next time the key is pressed;
• Jett’s Tailwind Charge can still be regenerated with 2 kills;
• To maintain parity with Jett dash changes, Dash functionality during Knife rounds in Escalation will be adjusted.

NEON

We’ve been keeping an eye on Neon and wanted to make some quality of life changes to address some of the difficulties when playing for or with Neon.

General

• Battery energy gained after killing an enemy is increased by 25%>>>100%

High gear

We noticed that Neon experienced some difficulties when using movement for combat, including failed inputs due to the speed limit. We hope these changes help make her glide more naturally during fights.

• Slide cannot be applied while on gear delay
• The speed limit has been lifted
• Neon can now slide sideways and forward, all she needs to do is move
• Energy consumption increased by 6.7/s>>>10/s

Fast lane

• Fixed wall damage

This change aims to push Fast Lane into a more attractive option for Neon or an ally by preventing the devastating part of random damage and adding a bit of future safety.

OWL

In high-level or professional games, the Owl has been a staple for quite some time. While his power doesn’t feel as deeply as Jett’s, his impact in coordinated settings is almost unparalleled. We wanted to focus on the amount of space that Owl Drone practically guaranteed and introduce additional counterplay opportunities for opponents. The reduced drone duration means that Owl must take more risks in his positioning to clear deeper corners, and the ping detection adjustments (below) give opponents more opportunities to mix up their positioning without feeling forced to leave the zone entirely. Shock Dart has also taken a hit as we continue to improve the damage output of non-absolute abilities so that they kill less often

Owl Drone

• Duration reduced by 10s >>> 7s
• Health reduced by 125 >>> 100
• Opening the dart
• Number of detection pings reduced by 3 >>> 2
• The initial delay before the first ping shows an increase of 1.2s >>> 1.6s*
• *The delay between the first and second ping remains 1.2 s
• Quality of life
• Changed the crosshair color to green to stand out better on the white HUD
• Removed [Target Hit] confirmation text delay.
• The [Target Hit] confirmation text now remains on the player’s screen when switching from the Owl Drone.
• [Target Hit] confirmation text now stays on screen for 2 seconds, up from 1 second
• Adjusted the sound of dart hits for both Sova and the player to make confirmations more noticeable
• Fixed a bug with the Owl Drone where the Dart Cooldown UI element would not update properly after tagging an opponent.

Impact dart

• Maximum damage reduced by 90 >>> 75
• Radial damage has been scaled to match the new maximum damage.

AGENT CAPACITY AMMUNITION

• Jett’s Bladestorm, Raze’s Showstopper, and Sova’s Hunter’s Fury will now show how much ammo they have left after equipping

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

5-stack queues

• Reduced rank gain/loss penalty for various 5-stack configurations
• If EVERYONE in your party is Iron–Diamond 2:
• No RR penalty if within normal grouping
• 25% RR penalty for all players if any player goes outside the normal grouping
• If ANYONE in your party is Diamond 3–Immortal 3 (but no one in your party is Radiant)
• 25% RR penalty for all players
• If ANYONE in your group is radiant
• 75% RR penalty for all players
• Adjusted partner search to reduce wait time for 5 stacks

CORRECTION OF ERRORS

Agents

• Fixed an issue where Jett could be unable to use abilities or weapons while using Tailwind immediately after she has exhausted her Bladestorm Daggers
• Fixed a bug where Yoru could teleport out of bounds when using Gatecrash
• Fixed various exploits that allowed Yoru to use a weapon before fully disguising himself at the end of his ultimate

Productivity

• Fixed a bug in the Shooting Range where bots would respawn without weapons