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Alright so we all know Riot devs have been hinting at Yoru rework anytime soon. It could be the next act, and the reasoning for this is Viper had her rework at patch 2.06 which means it's possible for Riot to make big changes between acts and not between episodes, since people are saying his rework will be at next episode.
Anyway, taking Viper's huge buff in reference, rito generally tries to keep true with the agents, and won't give the agent new abilities right off the bat, but try to improve upon the kit without messing with the lore associated with the agent.
FAKEOUT (C) / footsteps
This ability is the weakest in the kit right now, and I'm not sure how the buff might happen here. Yoru's fakeout triggers KJ's bots and Raze's boombot, but Cypher and Sova prove to be counters to this ability, the recon dart not detecting footsteps and not setting up tripwires unless it's placed really low.
They might stop Sova from being the counter and it getting detected by recon darts, but not the owl drone (because you can just see it).
There's also the new agent Deadeye coming, and we don't know their abilities yet but I think it will NOT be counter to Yoru's fakeout (kit gets fooled by Yoru footsteps). It might be possible other agents will get a nerf instead to buff Yoru in comparison.
Lorewise, it seems like Yoru takes echo footsteps from the Dimension realm (idk just call it that), so if the footsteps were to become a shadow clone instead, it would retcon the lore, unless they want to give a lore reason as to why the footsteps became a shadow clone. It is, however possible for other sounds to be added to the footsteps, since it is an "echo", it's possible that Fakeout will be able to make reload sounds/other sounds that can further fool the enemy, since most people who play against Yoru already knows about this ability and sometimes can guess if the sound is made by the ability.
My guess is either detection via recon drone AND/OR increase charges (maybe the first 4 charges in the game and Yoru can pretend he has the whole party LOL) AND/ OR add reload/ability equip/other sounds to the footsteps
EDIT: I saw the blind status effect when omen's paranoia hits the footsteps. Maybe the footsteps will fake a "blinded" sfx on Skye's birds
BLINDSIDE (Q) / flash
The flash is right now the only reason people some people play Yoru. It's already pretty powerful, but it's the only value Yoru has for the team, kind of like Breach during the 3 flashes era.
Every agent has equip animation for flashes so it's unlikely to be removed.
My guess is either faster activation time OR no changes.
GATECRASH (E) / teleport
I think the biggest issue with the teleport, that I've heard some people saying, is that it's not fast enough for escaping. Jett's dash, Reyna dismiss, and Raze satchel are all great for escaping sticky situations, perfect for a duelist that gets kills and nyooms. Even Raze's satchels seems to be faster sometimes: you can throw the satchel immediately with one click.
If the buff is to remove the equip time, and immediately place the teleport, there might be some issues to this: Yoru has voicelines for left click and right click, which would render these obsolete. Does Rito allow this? I don't know, but it seems less likely to me.
Right now, if you leftclick the teleport, it moves around as fast as a person walking. If they made this teleport travel faster, it would be more suitable for on-the-fly teleport decisions and more duelist like.
A, crazy buff idea that might work is blind enemies within a radius when teleporting, but this idea wouldn't work because the player will just use this instead of using Yoru's C flashes, so in terms of gameplay fairness it probably wouldn't work. In terms of lore, it might because he's coming through another dimension, and Yoru grabs his flashes from another dimension, so there might be some naturally occurring flashes in that universe idk
Another possible idea is to inflict instant decay similar to Viper's when Yoru teleports nearby. Lorewise, Yoru comes from another dimension and theoretically there isn't any air in that dimension which is why he can only stay for a while and wears a mask when staying there. Also, Cypher has some voicelines saying Yoru is freezing (literally) so we can infer the other dimension is cold af. So lorewise it would make sense that when you are near a Yoru teleporting, there would be air getting sucked into the dimension (air moves towards vacuum) and a cold chill coming from Yoru's teleport.
My guess is more sound reduction when its travelling AND/OR faster moving teleport AND/OR decay near teleporting Yoru (reduces after sometime)
DIMENSIONAL RIFT (X) / Ult
This ult seems to have no use other than collect info, which Skye's dog and Sova's drone does way better (and costs less). Some people have used this ult to shorty, or to pick up guns or the spike. I don't think they would ever patch the picking up spike thing. The ult is incredibly weak for an ult.
But I do think the reason the ult duration is so short is because Yoru holds his breath in the other dimension, hence the mask. To extend duration of ult you need to buff Yoru and make him go through diving lessons.
Going on with my theory of the other dimension being cold and airless, it's possible that Yoru exiting the dimensional decay inflicts decay around people. This would make this ult stronger and more useful and more like an ult, rather than just a info gathering or trolling thing. It's also possible a buff would be Yoru can place teleports while inside his ult, so after info gathering, he can figure out the best place to place his teleport and place it, all while still in ult.
Skye's cabbages exist as a counter to this ult, so if they decide to stop Skye's cabbages from detecting Yoru in ult, there would be no counters to this ult, except maybe Cypher's ult. Cypher's ult hacks minds so it would make sense to detect an enemy location based on info from a dead enemy (his title is Mind Thief). The cabbages detecting Yoru makes no sense, but Rito might try to keep Skye's ult as a counter to Yoru, provided they buff Yoru's ult in a different way.
My guess is longer duration AND/OR decay in a set radius when exiting ult (reduces over time) AND/OR use other abilities while in ult.
Ethoz, one of the only Yoru mains in the world, actually said Yoru is A rank and is only trash because no one knows how to play him. Yoru as a Duelist is as loose fitting as Breach as an Initiator and Sage as a Sentinel i.e. he's completely different from other agents in the same class. Unlike a Duelist, his job isn't to entry it seems, but more to lurk, because his kit isn't very entry like, unless they make the TP move faster. Yoru is made to be a lurker but other agents can also lurk and have more useful util. While decay effects might suit the Other Dimension lore it might not fit well into his Lurker persona. I mean, these are just predictions but we'll see
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