Brimstone and Omen’s pick rates rise while Astra and Viper’s decline after VALORANT Patch 4.04

VALORANT Patch 4.04 introduced massive changes to the entire cast of controller agents. Those changes have already led to a small resurgence for the buffed Brimstone and Omen at the expense of both Astra and Viper.

As first reported by Dexerto, Brimstone’s competitive pick rate over the first week of Patch 4.04 has sat at 24.2 percent of matches, just behind other controllers Viper and Omen, according to Valorbuff. This is a step up from his 17.8-percent pick rate across all of Patch 4.0. His win rate has spiked slightly as well, up from 48.9 percent to now 51.3 percent.

While not as sizable as Brimstone’s rate increase, Omen’s pick rate has improved as well from 23.7 percent up to 27.2 percent. But his win rate is down a single percentage point a week into Patch 4.04.

Both Viper and Astra have taken hits to their popularity as a result. Astra, who’s competitive pick rate for Patch 4.0 was already low despite her overwhelming presence in professional matches, has seen her pick rate drop from 13 percent to 8.7 percent. Her win rate has taken a small hit too but has only dropped from 48 percent to 47.4 percent. Viper’s pick rate has declined as well, down from 31.6 percent to 28.4 percent. And her win rate has also dropped from 52.1 percent to 49.4 percent.

This isn’t a surprising result considering Patch 4.04 heavily buffed Omen and Brimstone while both Viper and Astra were nerfed. The smokes for Omen and Brimstone have been improved and Brimstone received a speed boost buff to his Stim Beacon ability. Astra’s star placement abilities were nerfed, as were some of her star activation abilities. Viper’s toxic abilities were also nerfed.

The other star of the update was Yoru, with the long-discussed reworked kit of his finally getting introduced. His improved ultimate ability, flashy Fakeout, and enhanced Gatecrash have seen his pick rate almost double from 7.3 percent to 14.3 percent. But his win rate has not improved just yet.

The sample size is small so far with only one week played in the new patch, but Riot’s goal of balancing the controller class appears to be working so far. It’s unclear what could be next during this maintenance-oriented act.