Riot Games detailed Yoru changes coming to VALORANT in Patch 13.01, including a Gatecrash buff that should give him some of his power back.
Yoru has been on the back foot ever since his nerfs in Patch 12.05. With VALORANT Patch 13.01 on July 14, Riot is giving Yoru some of his power back. First, Gatecrash duration is increased from 15 seconds to 20 seconds, giving you more time and space to do things before having to decide to teleport.
To further build on Yoru’s deception fantasy, the Fakeout clones now hold Yoru’s last equipped weapon instead of defaulting to his strongest weapon. This isn’t necessarily a buff, but something to keep in mind when playing against skilled Yorus. There were already players who would drop their gun before sending out the clone to change its weapon and confuse enemies, but now it’s an official part of his kit.
Yoru’s nerfs in Patch 12.05 significantly lowered his popularity in both regular games and pro play. In Competitive, Yoru’s current pick rate is at 1.1 percent, according to Tracker.gg. The only other sub-two percent pick rate Duelist is Waylay, who also lost some of her power with nerfs to Saturate in Patch 12.06. More popular Duelists, like Raze and Phoenix, sit at four percent and 5.9 percent, respectively.
In VCT, Yoru almost doesn’t see action. During Masters London, Yoru was picked only twice, according to vlr.gg. Both times it was Ilya “something” Petrov from Paper Rex in two different series against LEVIATÁN. Instead, the most popular Duelists in the tournament were Jett, Raze, Phoenix, and Neon.
Other changes in Patch 13.01 include slight Outlaw nerfs and a buff to Iso, making the weapon equip after using Double Tap instant. Riot also rolled out better rank manipulation detection tools as it prepares to issue penalties for confirmed rank manipulation.
