Riot Games rolled out Patch 11.08 for VALORANT with a clear objective: push the game back toward gunplay and away from some of the more oppressive utility interactions. The update, which goes live on Oct. 15, 2025, introduces roster-wide changes to Nearsight, Concuss, and stim effects and then proceeds to reshuffle the balance of nearly every agent.
The developer framed the tweaks as a way to promote higher-skill ability usage while letting aim matter again. The full, original developer notes are linked below.
Patch Notes – VALORANT Patch 11.08
Nearsight, Combat Stim, and Concuss effects have been globally adjusted to increase predictability and reward players who practice around them.
- Nearsights
- Affects Fade’s Prowler, Omen’s Paranoia, Reyna’s Leer, Skye’s Seekers
- Nearsight radius increased from five to seven meters.
- Concuss
- Affects Breach’s Fault Line, Gekko’s Wingman, Neon’s Relay Bolt, Astra’s Nova Pulse
- Concuss duration decreased to 2.5 seconds.
- Stim Unification
- Affects Brimstone’s Stim Beacon, KAY/O’s NULL/CMD, Reyna’s Empress
- Faster reload time modifier: 90 percent
- Increased firing rate modifier: 10 percent
- Weapon draw time modifier: 90 percent
- Weapon recovery speed modifier: 10 percent
All duelist changes in VALORANT Patch 11.08
Many duelists were nudged down a peg so other kits can compete. Here are the specific agent adjustments.
Iso
- Kill Contract (ultimate)
- Length decreased from 48 to 36 meters.
Neon
- High Gear
- Battery recharge decreased, time to recharge to full battery increased from 20 to 60 seconds.
- Battery drain of High Gear and Overdrive reduced, increasing sprint time with full battery from 12 to 16 seconds.
- Relay Bolt
- Concuss duration decreased from 3.5 to 2.5 seconds.
Reyna
- Leer
- Health decreased from 80 to 60.
- Empress: Updated to match stim standardization
- Faster reload time reduced from 25 to 10 percent.
- Increased fire rate reduced from 15 to 10 percent.
- Increased weapon draw speed reduced from 25 to 10 percent.
- Increased weapon recovery speed reduced from 25 to 10 percent.
Waylay
- Saturate’s Hindered duration decreased from four to three seconds.
- Convergent Paths (ultimate) no longer spawns an afterimage of Waylay, and there’s no push back when casting.
- Ultimate now briefly restricts aim rotation and movement speed similar to Breach’s Rolling Thunder when casting.
- Hindered duration decreased from seven to six seconds.
- Initial windup decreased from two to one second.
- Width decreased from 18 to 13.5 meters.
- Decreased movement speed buff on ult from 15 to 10 percent.
Yoru
Yoru was tuned to be a purer duelist with fewer team utility windows.
- Gatecrash
- Health decreased from 60 to 20 HP.
- Audio now plays from Yoru’s location when Yoru teleports or fakes it.
- Fakeout’s Flash duration decreased from three to two seconds.
- Blindside
- Flash duration decreased from 1.75 to 1.5 seconds.
- Flash now follows the standard flash falloff curves as other agents.
- Yoru can no longer cast Blindside, or set up his fakeout during Dimensional Drift (ultimate). He can still cast the initial Gatecrash and reactivation, as well as reactivation of Fakeouts.
Raze
Raze now experiences the slow debuff while midair with Blast Pack, matching how other dash mechanics interact with slows.
All initiator changes in VALORANT Patch 11.08
Initiators saw a number of cooldown increases and concuss changes, with several ultimates adjusted as well.
Breach
- Fault Line
- Cooldown increased from 40 to 60 seconds.
- Initial windup decreased from 1.2 to 1.1 seconds.
- Concuss duration decreased from 3.5 to 2.5 seconds.
- Flashpoint
- Flash duration increased up from 2 to 2.25 seconds.
- Rolling Thunder
- Width decreased from 23 to 18 meters.
- Concuss duration decreased from six to four seconds.
- Ult points decreased from nine to eight.
Fade
- Haunt
- Cooldown increased from 40 to 60 seconds.
- Haunt active duration decreased from two to 1.5 seconds.
- Prowler
- Visibility in Nearsight increased from five to seven meters.
- Nightfall
- Deafen and Marked duration decreased from 12 to eight seconds.
- Width decreased from 24 to 20 meters.
- Decay now remains a consistent 80 damage over its duration instead of decreasing over time.
Gekko
- Cooldown upon reclaim of Globules increased from 10 to 20 seconds.
- Wingman
- Health decreased from 80 to 60 HP.
- Concuss duration decreased from 3.5 to 2.5 seconds.
- Thrash
- Health decreased from 200 to 180 HP.
KAY/O
- ZERO/POINT: Cooldown increased from 40 to 60 seconds.
- FLASH/DRIVE: Underhand maximum flash duration increased from 1.5 to 2.25 seconds.
- NULL/CMD (ultimate): Updated to match Stim standardization
- Increased fire rate reduced from 15 to 10 percent.
- Added standardized weapon draw time for stims.
- Increased weapon draw speed by 10 percent.
- Added weapon recovery speed for stims.
- Weapon recovery speed increased by 10 percent.
Sova
- Recon Bolt
- Cooldown increased from 40 to 60 seconds.
All controller changes in VALORANT Patch 11.08
Controllers received several cooldown increases and concuss reductions. Astra in particular saw multiple heavy adjustments.
Astra
- Gravity Well
- Fragile duration decreased from five to 2.5 seconds.
- Cooldown increased from 45 to 60 seconds.
- Nova Pulse
- Concuss duration decreased from 3.5 to 2.5 seconds.
- Cooldown increased from 45 to 60 seconds.
- Nebula
- Cooldown increased from 25 to 35 seconds.
Brimstone
- Stim Beacon: Updated to match stim standardization
- Increased fire rate reduced from 15 to 10 percent.
- Increased movement speed reduced from 15 to 10 percent.
Omen
- Dark Cover
- Cooldown increased from 30 to 40 seconds.
- Paranoia
- Projectile speed increased from 16 to 20 meters per second.
- Travel distance reduced from 32.5 to 25 meters.
- Visibility in Nearsight increased from five to seven meters.
Viper
- Initial contact with the wall, orb, and ultimate now inflicts 10 instant HP decay instead of 30.
All sentinel changes in Patch 11.08
Sentinels took some of the largest structural nerfs. The goal is clearer counterplay for attacker teams when dealing with defensive utilities.
Vyse
- Arc Rose
- Arc Rose is now destructible after the flash windup starts.
- Audio cue and voiceline alerting Vyse and her allies about enemy flashed has been removed.
- Flash duration decreased from 2.25 to two seconds.
- Cooldown increased from 45 to 60 seconds after destruction.
- Recalling the ability will now always incur a 20 seconds cooldown.
- Shear
- You can now bait out the wall trap more easily.
- The wall now spawns immediately when an enemy enters and then leaves its trigger zone.
- Enemies hear an audio cue when they enter the trigger zone.
- Razorvine
- Health decreased from 40 to 20 HP.
- Steel Garden
- Initial windup increased from 3.4 to 4.4 seconds.
- Radius decreased from 32.5 to 26 meters.
Cypher
- Spycam
- Inactive camera will be revealed to enemies when you are within eight meter radius of the camera, and will also have an accompanying audio tell.
- When the camera is active, there will be a louder persistent camera audio for enemies with a 12 meters range.
- Cooldown when destroyed is increased from 45 to 60 seconds.
- Trapwire
- Trapwire activation windup decreased; PC: 1.5 to 0.9 seconds, Console: 2.5 to 1.9 seconds.
- Trapwires no longer activate to offer the Concuss and Tether debuffs. Instead, it slows and reveals enemies after the windup.
- Players crossing a Trapwire will be immediately slowed. Trapwire will now activate after 0.9 seconds (down from 1.5 seconds) and reveal players if not destroyed. Players can also nullify its effect by moving four meters away from the attached location.
Killjoy
Killjoy’s Turret now applies a slow, but the rest of her kit takes heavier penalties.
- Turret
- Cooldown when destroyed increased from 45 to 60 seconds.
- Reactivation time for turret increased from 0.5 to two seconds.
- Turret movement tagging per bullet increased from 29.5 to 50 percent. Enemies are now slowed by 50 percent.
- Added a “windup” effect when Killjoy first re-enters the activation range.
- Alarmbot
- Health decreased from 50 to 20 HP.
- Reactivation time increased from one to two seconds.
- Added a “windup” effect when Killjoy first re-enters the activation range.
Deadlock
- GravNet
- Cooldown increased from 40 to 60 seconds.
- Barrier Mesh
- Cost reduced from 400 to 300 HP.
- Health of smaller nodes decreased from 570 to 480 HP.
- Sonic Sensor
- Concuss duration reduced from 3.5 to 2.5 seconds.
Sage
- Barrier Orb
- Cost reduced from 400 to 300.
- Now fortifies faster, from 3.3 to two seconds.
- Health of Barrier segments decreased from 800 to 600 HP.
If you want to argue about whether this makes the game better or just more frustrating, the team will read your hot takes. Drop them over on X, Bluesky, or the YouTube channel.
