Valorant patch 1.02 is a big one because it will see the addition of Competitive Matchmaking to the game. However, the ranked version of Riot Games’ tactical shooter isn’t live in-game yet. The Valorant team is still trying to squash some lingering bugs before they activate it. Patch 1.02 also makes some solid changes to Viper, numerous adjustments on the maps, and an important change to movement speed after you’ve been tagged.
It’s worth mentioning that Phoenix’s Run It Back has seen slight nerfs. The skill remains unchanged, but Jett’s Blade Storm will refresh when she kills a Phoenix using his Ultimate ability. Reyna will also generate Soul Orbs when she kills Phoenix during Run It Back. Here’s the infographic summing up the changes:
Valorant Competitive Matchmaking
The Valorant team has confirmed that Competitive Matchmaking will come with this patch. The patch notes also outline the changes made since the closed beta. They are exactly what we expected given Ian Fielding’s ranks and competitive post.
The rank icons have been updated so that the top rank is now Radiant. And in placement matches, the skills disparity range has increased to allow players to rank with friends.
The Valorant Twitter account has suggested the game’s ranked mode will come in the next couple of days.
We found another bug that puts competitive at risk, so we're holding off turning on ranked for a while longer. Sorry for the delay, we're working as fast as possible to get a fix and, when we get one, we'll turn ranked on. Predicting a day or two, but nothing confirmed yet.
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) June 24, 2020
Viper changes
The first change the Valorant team has made to Viper will allow her Toxic Screen to burn through walls. Still, the emitters still need to be placed on valid locations (the ground). But now you can shoot them through walls instead of having to aim over them. This change will make Viper more effective on all maps, rather than just some locations on certain ones.
Snake Bite now inflicts the fragile debuff, which causes enemies to take double damage for a short time. In exchange, the ability’s damage has dropped. Pushing through Viper’s Snake Bite will now be a tall order for any agent.
Poison Orb is one of Viper’s most useful abilities. If placed correctly, she can set up one-way smokes, like many other agents. However, Viper could continuously reactive her Poison Orb and keep enemies at bay too easily. To counter this, Riot has increased Poison Orb’s activation cooldown from five to six seconds.
Write this down
The latest Valorant patch also makes a few other notable changes. The UI has received some dramatic changes. You’ll notice menus have moved around, and agent contracts have been moved out of the Collections section. But that’s not the good stuff. You want to hear about gameplay changes.
The Bucky shotgun is now a lot less accurate while on the move. When you’re tagged by an enemy bullet, your movement speed decreases. But the latest patch decreases the amount you slow down. The speed reduction for being tagged used to be 80%. It is now 70%. And when tagged through a wall, you will now slow by 25% instead of 35%. Reaching the desired slow amount now also takes twice as long.
Additionally, surrendering early is now an option in Valorant matches. You can type “/ff”, “forfeit”, “concede” or “surrender” to give up. All players on the team wanting to surrender must agree to the forfeit to end the game. You can vote by typing “/yes” or “/no”. But don’t quit too easily. Valorant is a game of two halves, and the balance can shift dramatically in each. Each team can only vote to surrender once per half.
You can check out the detailed patch notes on the Valorant website for even more changes. It also has the list of bug fixes, performance improvements, UI updates, and changes made to Spike Rush. Here’s hoping Riot can swat the last lingering bugs quickly and release Valorant‘s competitive matchmaking soon.
