Riot Games has curbed Viper’s power with toxic nerfs in VALORANT Patch 8.08. From her strategic prowess to her ability to control the battlefield, the agent’s dominance in the professional scene and beyond has been undeniable—but it will soon no longer be her world.
Valorant New Patch 8.08 (Viper Nerf, Cypher Nerf)
These changes to the toxic controller focus on reducing her overall stalling uptime and forcing players to manage her abilities more strategically. Patch 8.08 should make Viper’s weaknesses clear, forcing her to commit to her positioning while attempting to manage shorter individual uptimes per smoke use.
Riot has reduced the cooldown for reactivating her smokes and wall from 5.5 seconds to five, and increased the minimum fuel required to activate them by 10 percent. Additionally, Viper can only pick up Poison Cloud during the Buy Phase.
Her Snake Bite ability has also been adjusted, reducing its charge count to one and increasing the acid pool duration by a full second. According to Riot, the fact that Snake Bite can only be used once means that Viper will be able to rely on it less once she runs out of smokes. This is a change made to make fuel management more important. By making it last longer, it becomes deadly to any opponent who stays in the acid pool for its full duration.
