Viper in Valorant: How the recent buffs turned the worst Agent into one of the best in the game

If you aren’t new to Valorant’s Agent tier lists, then you are probably aware that Viper was initially considered to be one of the worst Agents in the game.

Her C-tier rating came from the fact that she was incredibly difficult to handle by newer players as well as experienced ones in solo queue. She was only useful in well-coordinated and pre-made squads as her abilities required a lot of communication and accurate shot-calling.

So it wasn’t all that surprising when the Valorant devs decided to show her some love in patch 1.02, with the changes making her one of the best Agents in the current meta.

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The Viper Buffs in Valorant Patch 1.02

Valorant devs have made significant changes to Viper

• Toxic Screen now burns through walls, placing emitters at all valid locations (e.g., the ground) over its length.
• Snake Bite, taking damage will make a player fragile for a short time.
• Fragile is a debuff that increases damage taken. Note that the total damage is unchanged (the damage is lowered, but fragile increases it - it all evens out)
• Poison Orb activation cooldown increased :: .5s >>> 6s

In one of his streams, Riot’s Morello spoke about bringing in a new mechanic called ‘Fragile’ to Viper's kit. This will be added to her Snakebite and will last as long as the ability. However, players entering the snakebite will be affected by ‘Fragile’ for a few seconds longer, even after they leave the ability’s zone of influence.

This change, along with the alteration to her toxic screen (making it pass through walls), makes her a very viable solo queue pick as it allows her more playmaking and zoning potential.

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100Thieves Hiko thinks that it’s going to be the Viper and Omen meta

Former CS: GO professional-turned-captain for the 100T Valorant squad Hiko suggests the game’s meta is slowly moving away from Sage, Cypher and Brimstone to Viper and Omen.

In one of his recent streams, Hiko says that when it comes to smokes and vision-obscuring Agents, Omen and Viper reign supreme in the current meta.

To him, Viper is a “better long term” investment than Brimstone. He said:

“Like Brim right now is kind of cheesy with his mollies and his ult, but I think that Viper’s mollies now are probably better. The reason why Omen is so good is because his flash is insane and also his smokes are super necessary for AWPers.”

However, he is not the only one with this opinion. Viper is witnessing a higher pick rate in solo queue at the moment and has been preferred over Brimstone ever since the Valorant patch 1.02 went live.