The winners and losers of VALORANT Patch 5.08

A new wave has crashed onto the beach that is the VALORANT meta via the introduction of the latest agent, the water-bending controller agent Harbor. His arrival coincides with the Patch 5.08 update, as well as the start of Episode Five, Act Three.

Harbor is a unique controller that doesn’t have the typical kit that includes multiple smokes and a disruptive ability that can slow down opposing executes and retakes. But he’s able to wall off multiple angles and spots with his long High Tide water wall, and his Cove orb has a bullet-absorbing shield that serves as an excellent tool for fast takes and pistol rounds.

Outside of the introduction of Harbor, there wasn’t an incredible amount of other changes during this patch. But there’s enough that we can take a good look at the winners and losers of VALORANT Patch 5.08.

Winners: Pistol round enthusiasts

Teams that play fast for pistol rounds and against saving opponents are absolutely going to thrive with Harbor on their team. His previously mentioned High Tide wall goes up quick, and against pistols or inferior weapons, teams can get a safer spike plant down compared to what other controller agents can provide. Cascade is a proper good ability for a team to rush behind with as well.

Losers: Viper Toxic Screen gap glitch abusers

There were only a couple of bug fixes during Patch 5.08, but one of them specifically fixes an issue where Viper could place her Toxic Screen walls in specific locations for a small ground-level gap to appear. A popular place for this was on Icebox, letting players place a wall on the A site so they could see enemies on the rope from Nest to A through the gap. Well, it’s gone now.

Winners: Battle pass owners

Not every act battle pass is a slam dunk, but the Episode Five, Act Three pass is pretty stacked with nice goodies. The best reward set in the Act Three pass is definitely the Starlit Odyssey skins. It’s one of the nicest battle pass reward skin lines released in a while and players can get the Vandal as early as tier 25.

Losers: Anyone stuck with Harbor as the sole controller

As fun as Harbor is in pistol rounds and in fast-play rounds, if he’s the sole controller for an entire match, you’re gonna have a bad time. He lacks the ability to smoke/cover lots of ground like the other controllers, and he doesn’t have an ability that can disrupt executes or retakes like Brimstone’s incendiary, Omen’s Paranoia, or Viper’s Snakebite.