Valorant patch 1.09 is going to have a big impact on the tactical shooter’s gameplay. Five agents (Omen, Jett, Viper, Reyna, and Brimstone) have received changes. The Operator has received the nerfs revealed by Nicholas ‘Nickwu’ Smith. Jumping, while stylish, is now a lot more likely to get you killed. Plus, offensive player names are getting the boot.
There’s a lot of rationalization being done for the various changes with this patch. If you’d like to read the complete developer patch notes, you can check them out here.
Valorant agent updates
Omen’s Paranoia has received a visual update to better represent its hitbox. You should now be able to tell exactly where the projectile ends in order to avoid it. Particularly, when it’s traveling directly towards your point of view.
Jett’s ultimate ability, Blade Storm, has had its Burst Fire toned down. The time between consecutive Burst Fire shots has been increased to 0.45 seconds – up from 0.33 seconds. The daggers shot using Burst Fire now have damage falloff starting at 12 meters. The damage will drop steadily the further away the target is to a minimum of 35 damage per dagger. Blade Storm’s Burst Fire has also had its headshot multiplier reduced from 3x to 2x. The Valorant team explained that Burst Fire is intended for close-range attacks, but players have been using it to get kills over 20 meters away.
Valorant patch 1.09 continues trying to bring Viper into the meta. The agent is simply too slow and often caught off-guard by her more responsive counterparts. Viper now starts a round with 100 fuel, up from 50. The Vulnerable debuff applied by her Snake Bite now lingers for two seconds after a player leaves the acid. Viper now has double move speed while casting Viper’s Pit. Plus, she will reequip her weapons faster after casting her ultimate.
Reyna has received a nerf to her ultimate ability, Empress. The fire rate bonus she receives in this form has been reduced from 25% to 15%. Brimstone, on the other hand, has had the fire rate bonus of his Stim Beacon increased from 10% to 15%.
Valorant Operator changes
We reported yesterday on the changes that have been made to the Operator. You can follow the link to see exactly what they are. However, the Valorant team has given a lot more explanation for the changes with the patch notes.
Max “Orcane” Grossman, the Lead Agent Designer for Valorant, explains that the Operator is the most powerful angle-holding weapon in the game. It forces players to expend utility like smokes and flashes to push the Operator user off an angle. However, players using the Operator were able to re-peek angles too easily because of the low movement penalties. Similarly, players were able to “dry peek” (without using utility) when pushing an angle and reliably get kills with the Operator.
All of this made the utility and other weapons in the game less impactful. This leads to frustration and dissatisfaction in gameplay. Obviously, Riot Games doesn’t want that. Hence the numerous nerfs to movement while using the Operator. Plus, the price increase means players will no longer be able to purchase an Operator and armor on round three.
Keep your feet on the ground
Along with the Operator nerfs, all the weapons in the game have received a movement nerf related to jumping. Players were able to shoot accurately too soon after landing from a jump, which could be used to peek angles in unexpected ways. Now, jump land inaccuracy has been changed from gradual to binary. The inaccuracy duration has been increased from 0.2 to 0.225 seconds. Plus, you will be less accurate during this time with the inaccuracy value being increased from 5.0 to 7.0.
That, as they say, is that. For now. I am very pleased with all the changes made in this patch and think it shows the Valorant team has a good idea of what is good for the health of the game. If you’d like to go over all the patch notes in detail, check them out on the Valorant website.
