After a pretty hefty patch earlier this month, the next Valorant update is doing some gentle tinkering with a couple of agents and weapons. The biggest changes will be seen in the map queue, as players will be less likely to play the same map twice in a row.
Lead Agent Designer Max ‘Orcane’ Grossman says that big changes are coming to the Operator, but the high-damage sniper that dominates Valorant ranked isn’t getting nerfed just yet. Orcane and his team understandably want to make sure any changes to such an important weapon are “just right”.
After handing out a host of buffs and nerfs to agents earlier this month, Riot is happy to let the dust settle and assess the meta changes after a little while longer. According to Orcane, Breach and Viper are seeing a lot more use, but if you’re unsure you should check out our Valorant tier list to help you choose a main.
Here are the full patch notes from Riot Games:
Agent updates
Raze
Blast Pack
- Initial damage reduced to 15 with a .2 metre inner radius, falling off to 5 minimum damage
- Once the satchel lands, it arms after .5 seconds, increasing it’s max damage to 50
- Shooting the blast pack causes it to detonate, dealing its current damage amount
- Satchel no longer does damage to allies
Raze’s Blast Pack has been dishing out damage without giving enemies much counterplay. This change should help make it very clear when Blast Pack’s damage poses a threat while maintaining the utility aspects of the Blast Pack that players have begun to master. The blast pack now does not ‘fizzle’ when shot and will still do damage, meaning it should still be approached carefully if in lethal range.
Weapon updates
Guardian
- Price reduced from 2500 >>> 2400
- Improved Rate of fire from 4.75 >>> 5.25 RPS (rounds per second)
- Improved weapon recovery from .35 after 3 bullets to .2925 after 3 bullets
- We don’t think the Guardian can (or should) compete directly with the Phantom or Vandal but we’d like it to have a place where players can feel good opting into the gun at the new price, is a competitive purchase in certain economic circumstances or map scenarios, and isn’t as punishing when an enemy gets close!
Map rotation changes
The pool of maps is no longer completely random! In a move Valorant is calling “pseudo-random”, whichever map you have just played will be deprioritised when determining your next game. This means you’re less likely to play the same map twice (or three times) in a row.
- Matchmaking queue for all modes has been updated to measure all your recently played maps, throughout all modes, so that for any given queue you:
- Have a better chance of playing on a map you haven’t played recently
- Are much less likely to play on the same map several games in a row
Quality of life
- Observers will now see a timer rather than their screen being obscured when observing a player who is blinded
- Full screen blind for observers can be turned back on in the options, for all you masochists
- Minimap performance improvements
- The social panel will now pause sorting while you’re hovering or interacting with it
- Updated verbiage in the All Ranks modal in the Career page to be more consistent with Competitive overtime rules
Bug fixes
- Prime Classic VFX fixed
- There was a bug in which upgrade Prime levels (2-4) were not playing the correct tracers, sound fx, and other VFX
- Fixed a bug where the End of Game screen would display a “Still processing” message, and then wouldn’t show that match in your Career tab
- Fixed a bug where “High Skill Disparity” would display in Custom Game Lobbies