Yoru is a VALORANT agent with a high skill ceiling and plenty of room for skill expression, but that also makes him extremely potent in higher ranks, and especially in pro play. Yoru can do almost everything, which is why Riot Games is hitting him with more nerfs.
With VALORANT Patch 12.05 coming on March 18, Riot is reducing the number of Blindside charges to one and reducing the duration of the Gatecrash to 15 seconds. This addresses his greatest strengths: the strongest general use flash and map-wide rotations.
“In general, we think Yoru is too strong and is starting to bleed into other roles at the cost of comp diversity. So we’re adjusting his strongest abilities, Gatecrash and Blindside, so that Yoru has to make more meaningful tradeoffs when he decides to use them,” Riot wrote in the patch notes.
During Masters Santiago 2026, Yoru has been the most picked agent alongside Viper, sitting at 62 percent, according to VLR.gg. The only map he had a lower pick rate on was Corrode, where teams opted for Waylay and Neon.
Riot already nerfed Yoru in Patch 11.08, following VALORANT Champions 2025, where he also had a dominant pick rate among Duelists. The nerf removed the ability to use the Blindside and Fakeout inside Dimensional Drift, added a sound queue playing from Yoru when he uses the teleport, and reduced the effectiveness of his flashes.
This turned Yoru’s Ultimate more into an intel-gathering tool, requiring more setup from the team to use it offensively. The added sound queue to the Gatecrash also ensured Yoru can’t lurk and regroup with his team without revealing any information.
The goal of 12.05 is to focus on coordinated teamplay and increasing pick diversity, which is why more selfish agents are getting nerfed. This also includes Clove, whose smoke duration when cast after death is reduced to six seconds, and Meddle’s AoE is reduced from six to four meters. Unfortunately, in Yoru’s case, this may also further reduce his skill expression.
With no imminent changes coming to Waylay or Neon, the two Duelists will likely continue to dominate the meta in pro play. At the same time, the changes may result in higher pick rates of flash initiators, like Skye and KAY/O. However, how these changes land in Competitive remains to be seen.
