Alex Gibson
All the changes have been trialed on the game’s public beta environment (PBE) server over the past week, and Twinfinite has already discussed how the Agent changes are likely to impact the meta in a detailed feature.
Let’s check out the confirmed patch notes in full below:
AGENT UPDATES
Dan “penguin” Hardison, designer at Riot Games explains that the changes are intended to rebalance the Agents according to better fit their roles as initiators and duelists: We believe that Initiators should still be able to make solo plays, but they should ideally be weaker than their Duelist counterparts in these scenarios“
Skye
Guiding Light’s destructibility didn’t feel like meaningful counterplay, instead overtly punishing when Skye tried to throw them at a longer range. By increasing the top-end output and rewarding Skye for bending her birds into the right spots, we intend to foster more teamwork and differentiate her Guiding Light from other flashes in the game—especially when compared to Duelists.
GUIDING LIGHT (E) flashbang scaling paradigm changedThe max flash duration of Skye’s Guiding Light now scales from 1s to 2.25s over a .75s charge up after being castGuiding Light can no longer be shot and destroyedNew VFX, UI, and sounds added to communicate new gameplay intentUnequip Delay out of Guiding Light increased .75s »> .85s
KAY/O
FLASH/DRIVE (Q)Underhand (right-click) flashbang max duration decreased 2s»>1.25sOverhand (left-click) flashbang max duration increased 2s»>2.25sUnequip Delay out of both flashes increased .6s »> .85s
Reyna
Reyna’s flash underperforms as a selfish entry-tool, especially at higher skill levels. This set of changes is intended to give Reyna more agency around how she decides to peek after casting Leer. Also, it should sharpen Leer as a powerful angle-breaking tool against Operators on maps with longer sightlines. We’ve also felt like individual casts of the eye remain in the world for too long when the eye isn’t destroyed. If Reyna is now able to make more selfish plays off her Leer, we then wanted to reduce some of the value it has when thrown for teammates.
LEER (C)Wind-up of nearsight effect decreased .6s »> .4sRange Restriction on Leer removedNearsight unequip delay decreased: .7 »> .5Duration decreased 2.6s »> 2.0s
Yoru
Yoru is a tricky agent, as we need to balance him around his capability to throw flashes during his ultimate. We opted to go with a simple duration increase for Blindside as we feel maintaining the turning counterplay around his flash and clone is important to avoid excessively frustrating situations.
BLINDSIDE (Q) duration increased 1.5s »>1.75sFlash Visual Updates3 – P visuals for flashed enemies and allies now render behind the player’s head the moment that the flash starts to fade. This should give a clearer indication if players are full flashed or if the flash has started to fade.1P visuals when fully flashed now shrink overtime to give a better indication of when the full flash will end and the flash fading out will begin.Increased the window for awarding assists on flashes, nearsights and concusses from 1 »> 3 seconds after the debuff starts to fade.
We felt the assist window on these debuffs didn’t reflect their actual duration of impact, and want to make sure the supportive players are more often recognized and rewarded for setting up situations their teammates capitalize on.
MAP UPDATES
Fracture
Fracture is receiving quite a few quality-of-life changes alongside some larger updates to Dish/A Drop and A Ropes. Going to go in the order of minor to major changes.
Arcade – Opened a cubby here to make it easier for Attacking side to hold against Defender aggression from both directions.
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B Site – “Jump” up has been changed to a ramp directly onto the site platform, which should make moving around that space more straightforward.
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B Generator – Space here tightened slightly to make smoking this spot easier. A small corner has also been removed to simplify attempts to re-clear the site.
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Defender Spawn – Removed a small cubby to slightly simplify those retakes.
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A Halls – Improved movement and simplified the space in A Halls by removing a corner.
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A Site – A minor simplification of the space as part of the overall changes to the surrounding areas.
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A Dish – The dish is intact but removed the far path to make moving through this space more direct for both sides. We found trying to watch/control these spaces simultaneously was unnecessarily difficult for all. The team hopes the changes here and on A Drop will encourage everyone to use this route more often.
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A Drop – The drop down is no longer a 50/50 check when entering, which should make it a little more appealing as a way for Attackers to squeeze A site from two sides.
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A Rope – This path has been a little too easy for Attackers to control with a single smoke. The adjustments should give Defenders more options for both the initial hold and retaking A. Watch your step.
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PROGRESSION UPDATES
Below are features that we’ve wanted to make for a while just as much as you’ve wanted them. We’ll admit, there’s still so much more that we can do, like inclusion of additional filtering options, a search function, expansion of the random feature to other content types, and more. The team wants it and are working on it—but we didn’t want to wait until every possible option was covered for us to release the changes here. Better a version of something than not having it at all. This team shares the same belief as the rest of VALORANT: that the value of a “live service” game means we can develop with you and improve over time. It does mean that sometimes new stuff may seem bare bones as we vet a feature’s value, incrementally. As we push forward with both Favorites, Filters, and Randomizer (along with other QoL) we’re taking this step by step approach. Give us your feedback so we can improve this game together. —Micah Worsham, Manager, Game Production
Can now mark Favorites in Collection: These Favorites will persist for your account until you change them and allow you to filter down to the items that represent your style best.Weapon skinsPlayer CardsSpraysGun BuddiesAccount Level BordersAdded ability to equip a “Random Favorite” for every weapon typeEquipping this particular weapon will make it so that in each game you play, you get one of your favorite weapons (along with one of the variants you own) at random each time you enter a match.Added the ability to filter your CollectionWeapon SkinsFavorites / Non-FavoritesOwned / UnownedTiersPlayer Cards, Sprays, Gun Buddies, Level BordersFavorites / Non-FavoritesOwned / Unowned
BUG FIXES
AGENTS
Fixed issue where KAY/O’s NULL/CMD disabled Killjoy’s Turret if the turret is hit by a pulse but Killjoy is notFixed issue where Killjoy’s Turret fires straight forward after firing at an enemy and then losing sight of themFixed issue where Killjoy’s Turret would fire with no target when coming online if it was disabled while firing at a targetFixed a bug where Phoenix would not automatically re-equip a weapon at the end of Run It BackFixed Breach’s Rolling Thunder showing dead enemies hit in the combat reportFixed issue where if a player was deafened by multiple sources, when the first deafen ended it removed the deafening effect completely
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