While the movement accuracy of rifles taking a hit in Valorant patch 2.02 was warmly received within the community, many players have subsequently called for similar adjustments to be made to SMGs, as well as the Frenzy machine pistol. For example, 100 Thieves player Nicholas ‘nitr0’ Cannella last week tweeted out that “pistol rounds have been more RNG than I thought was even humanly possible with this Frenzy meta”; a sentiment echoed in the tweet’s replies.
Game developer Nicholas ‘Nickwu’ Wu Smith recently addressed this on his Twitch stream, stating that while these weapons would remain better “on the run” than other classes, there were other balancing options he was looking at.
For the Stinger, Nickwu revealed that there would be tunings to the Stinger’s range on patch 2.03. This would hopefully ensure that, while devastating on the move, players will have to pick their battles more carefully at longer distances. Meanwhile, the dev announced that the Frenzy would be getting a price increase from 400 to 500 credits, bringing it in-line with the Ghost.
While this new patch will see the aforementioned nerfs, the Marshal sniper rifle on the other hand is getting some much needed love. While pros like TSM’s Matthew ‘Wardell’ Yu are renowned for their Marshal play – something Nickwu notes while revealing the change – we mere mortals are going to need a little bit of extra help.
All of the discussed changes have indeed made it to Valorant patch 2.03, the notes for which you can find below.
Agent Updates
Reyna
Reyna has had a bit of a power shift on this patch. Her maximum (Q) Devour and (E) Dismiss charges have been reduced from four to two, while the cost of these charges has been increased from 100 to 200 credits.
With that being said, enemies now drop Soul Orbs if Reyna has hit them in the last three seconds before they die, even if she doesn’t land the killing blow. As such, while Reyna players may not be able to use her abilities as often each round, there are now more opportunities to do so.
Yoru
Yoru has definitely been in need of some tweaks to bring him into a better spot. When The Loadout spoke to Fnatic’s Jake ‘Boaster’ Howlett about the game’s latest agent last month, he also concluded that Yoru needed some buffs. On patch 2.03, while Riot hasn’t tweaked Yoru’s numbers, they have made some sizable quality of life changes to help provide more information to both himself and his team.
(E) Gatecrash now displays both the range at which the tether can be seen by enemies while moving, as well as the range that enemies are able to hear the audio of the teleport, on the minimap.
Meanwhile, (X) Dimensional Drift no longer hides Yoru’s minimap while active. Additionally, foes spotted by Yoru while in Dimensional Drift will also appear on allied minimaps. These changes will hopefully see less-coordinated solo queue teams gain some extra value from having a Yoru in their comp. A final change to Dimensional Drift makes it so that Yoru can no longer body block enemies while sneaking around.
Weapon updates
Marshall
- Movement speed when zoomed 76% >>> 90% of unzoomed movement speed
- Price decreased from 1100 >>> 1000
- Zoom magnification increased from 2.5x >>> 3.5x
Stinger
- Price increased from 1000 >>> 1100
- Full auto fire rate reduced from 18 >>> 16
- Full auto fire now reaches max spread at bullet four (down from bullet six)
- Full auto vertical recoil climbs more aggressively past the third bullet
- Burst fire vertical recoil climbs more aggressively past the first burst
- Burst fire recovery time improved from .45 >>> .4
- More error has been added to bursts after the first burst
Frenzy
- Price increased from 400 >>> 500
Competitive updates
- Players who AFK in Competitive games for six or more rounds will now result in an eight point rank rating penalty.
- Act Rank Badge will now be based on your highest rank win out of the nine wins required to fill your badge.
Quality of life updates
- To help keep the map clutter-free, all sprays will now be cleared at the beginning of each round.
Death sequence improvements and updates
- Fade to black start time decreased from 1.75 >>> 1.5 seconds after death
- Time spent on a full black screen increased from ~0 >>> 0.25 seconds
- Total death sequence time remains unchanged (2.75 seconds)
- Camera jitter during the death sequence has been smoothed. This issue was more pronounced if players had high ping or packet loss.
Bugs
16 bugs have been dealt with this patch. Although Riot has yet to disclose what those bugs are, hopefully the list includes the minimap bug recently encountered by Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek, which let the streamer see his enemy roaming around.