Valorant Patch Notes Released, Nerfs Raze in First Big Update

Valorant, still in closed beta, just got a new set of patch notes that take aim at a few different [...]

By Tanner Dedmon

Valorant, still in closed beta, just got a new set of patch notes that take aim at a few different parts of the game like Raze, Sage, and exploits which players had been discussing since the beta's release. The patch isn't live just yet, but it's the first one that the game's set to receive during its time and closed beta and will be available soon. Ahead of that release, Riot Games shared a list of changes to preview what the game will look like post-patch as well as explanations for why the things that are being adjusted needed to be changed.

Rivaling the patch notes of already released games in terms of detail and structure, the notes for the game's first update were released by Riot this week ahead of the update's Wednesday arrival. Raze is unsurprisingly one of the first concerns addressed in the update since the oppressive character has become a point of contention among players compared to other picks who largely have utility-based abilities. Sage is the only other character who was specifically called out in the patch notes while some bugs and exploits are to be patched that'll affect different characters in other ways.

For those familiar with League of Legends patch notes, you'll see a similar structure used here with one of the most helpful parts of the notes being the explanations for why things are being changed. You can find all of the patch notes listed below to see what's happening with different parts of the game, and expect the update to be live on Wednesday.

Melee Damage

When players start a Valorant match, they don't have the funds to purchase more powerful weapons. This means utility-based obstructions like walls are tougher to get through because players lacked damage. Riot's solution to this is buff melee damage against the structures as detailed below.

  • Melee attacks now inflict double the damage per hit to destructibles, including:
    • Sage's Barrier
    • Haven's metal double doors
  • 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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Raze

Raze is the big one of the patch notes, the character who can blow up enemies and make their tactical decisions feel not so tactical. The character's still going to be explosive post-patch, but hopefully won't be so oppressive.

  • 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.
  • 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

Sage is another character who comes up often in discussions, so it's not surprising that she's in the patch notes as well. The changes for Raze are centered solely around her Slow Orb ability and how enemies are able to navigate through it.

  • Slow Orb now also slows the air speed of players in the zone
  • Players can now walk through the Slow Orb without making noise
  • 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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Map Changes

Valorant has a few different maps for players to play on, and just like they would in any shooter, they've identified some exploits causing problems on certain ones. Those exploits have been fixed along with a map change on Split that'll cause players to change up their tactics.

  • Several exploits fixed on Bind, Haven, and Split
  • 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

Valorant can run on systems that even find themselves on the lower end of the hardware scale, but some players may have still been experiencing lag spides and other FPS problems. Some quality-of-life changes implemented by the update may resolve that.

  • 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

From footsteps to crashes, the update also has a few bug fixes included. One of them involved hostile cameras which are currently able to use weapons under certain circumstances, but that "feature" won't be around for much longer.

  • 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
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