Riot Games releases a new Valorant patch that makes major changes to playable characters Raze and Sage. The patch also features a fix for a major, game-breaking bug with Cypher's Spycam which Valorant closed beta players discovered last week.
The Valorant closed beta has now been updated to version 0.47 and Riot Games has released some patch notes along with it. Valorant playable character Sage has been heavily affected as melee attacks now do double the damage to destructibles like Sage's barrier and the metal double doors on the Haven map. Riot says that this provides a "high-risk, high-reward method for players to interact with her wall" whatever their loadout. Sage's Slow Orb now allows players to walk through it without making noise and it also slows the airspeed of players in its zone so enemies can't just bunny hop around it.
Riot has also nerfed Raze, a playable character that has been called incredibly powerful by many Valorant players. Raze now has one Paint Shell and not two, they have a minimum duration for exploding, and they have a kill reset so that players have to get two kills to refresh the cooldown. The Valorant team has tuned the audio for Paint Shells, Showstopper, and Blast Pack too to make them easier to hear.
The Valorant patch comes with some bug fixes too like a bug that stopped audible footsteps showing on the mini-map and a bug with corrupted packets that caused a rare server crash. Orb has been moved to B Mid to B Main on the Split map and several exploits have been fixed on the Bind, Haven, and Split maps. Riot has confirmed plans to add new maps to Valorant after release, so fans can expect map exploit fixes to become a regular part of the game's updates.
There are also some quality of life changes to the game. Riot has "reduced outbound network traffic from client for players running at high frames-per-second" while ensuring that this hasn't affected gameplay or responsiveness. The developer has spoken about Valorant and its Riot Direct ISP plan, something which could give the game the technical edge over titles like Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
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MELEE DAMAGE
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Melee attacks now inflict double the damage per hit to destructibles, including
- Sage’s Barrier
- Haven’s metal double doors
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Why?
- There weren’t enough options during low econ rounds—such as the first round and right after switching sides—to combat Sage’s Barrier Orb. Our intent is to add a high-risk, high-reward method for players to interact with her wall, while still being able to take it down, no matter their loadout
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Melee attacks now inflict double the damage per hit to destructibles, including
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RAZE
- Reduced Paint Shells from 2 to 1
- Paint Shells now have a kill reset, requiring players to get 2 kills to refresh cooldown
- Tuned and adjusted audio for Paint Shells, Blast Pack, and Showstopper so that they’ll be easier to hear in hectic scenarios
- Fixed an edge case where the secondary cluster of Paint Shells would explode quicker than intended. They now have a minimum duration before exploding.
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What’s up with that?
- Raze’s goal is to be a highly-threatening duelist that punishes enemies posted in predictable positions, but we felt like the cluster grenades and their number were creating overly oppressive scenarios. Also, players should be supplied proper gameplay information and the audio cues on all of Raze’s abilities didn’t match their threat, so we changed the audio of each. For example, when the Showstopper is equipped or fired from a distance, players should be able to clearly identify and interpret the threat.
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SAGE
- Slow Orb now also slows the air speed of players in the zone
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Players can now walk through the Slow Orb without making noise
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Why though?
- Players were able to circumvent too much of Sage’s Slow Orb by bunny hopping through the zone. We want the minimum slow amount to be a bit more consistent with all movement in the zone, while still allowing for bunny hopping and walking to provide a slight benefit to traversing the zone. Also, we feel adding a stealthy yet slow way to move through the field brings more nuance to playing against the zone and a bit more uncertainty for Sage, since she can't necessarily hear people who move through
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Why though?
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MAP UPDATES
- Several exploits fixed on Bind, Haven, and Split
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Split: Orb moved from B Mid to B Main
- The intent is to alleviate some pressure from mid and provide more incentive for players to control B Main.
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QUALITY OF LIFE
- Reduced outbound network traffic from client for players running at high frames-per-second
- Some ISPs and network setups were throttling game traffic, impacting gameplay by causing large spikes in network latency as FPS increased.
- No impact to gameplay / responsiveness
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BUG FIXES
- Fixed a rare server crash caused by packets occasionally being corrupted by some players’ networks
- Cypher’s Spycam can no longer use weapons
- Fixed a bug where footstep audible range would sometimes not appear on the minimap
It's unclear if Riot is planning any major updates for the Valorant closed beta or if it will just be making sure the game works before its summer 2020 release. No launch date has been confirmed for the game and that may be because Riot is unsure how long it will take to fix everything it finds from beta testing.
Valorant releases this summer on PC.
Source: Riot Games