Valorant patch nerfs Sage, adjusts rifles and other weapons

Valorant will be receiving a beefy patch that addresses all rifles, Agent ability nerfs, and map updates. There have been numerous bugs circulating around social media, and Riot Games makes sure to address those as well.

One of the biggest changes coming in this patch is to the rifles. The recovery time on the rifles has been updated, which will allow tap and burst firing to be more efficient. Additionally, inaccuracy is accrued any time the gun is fired prior to a complete duration of its recovery time. Riot Games also lowered accuracy while walking from .6° to .8°. Spray firing has been adjusted as it was more effective than Valorant had originally intended.

Rifles aren’t the only big change coming to this patch. Sage, Cypher, Omen, and Viper are all receiving adjustments to their Agent abilities. The duration on Sage’s Slow Orb has decreased from 9 seconds to 7. Additionally, her Slow Orb’s slowing speed has decreased from 65% to 50%, allowing you to move through it at a faster pace. 

Omen’s Dark Cover smoke duration has been increased from 12 to 15 seconds; the smoke’s projectile speed has also been increased. However, the smoke’s cooldown has increased from 30 seconds to 35. Valorant’s reasoning for this is to ensure that there are other control options in higher-tiered play besides Brimstone. 

Listed below are the remaining changes to Agents and rifles:

VALORANT GAMEPLAY AND BALANCE

WEAPON UPDATES

• You will no longer enter the “walking accuracy” state when transitioning from run to stop
  • We noticed many players were entering a walking accuracy state during their run-to-stop transition that made it appear as if shots they fired/landed were done at full speed.
• Deadzone accuracy speed threshold increased: 25% >> 30%
  • Now that you can’t gain walk accuracy while transitioning from a run to a stop, we’ve also slightly increased the size of the deadzone (full accuracy state) to make it a bit easier to get an accurate shot out quickly

ALL RIFLES

• Recovery times on all Rifles have been updated, which should make tap and burst firing more efficient. Inaccuracy is accrued any time the weapon is re-fired prior to a complete duration of a weapon’s respective Gun Recovery Time.
• Base walk accuracy: 0.6° >> 0.8°
  • We felt like walk-spraying with rifles was a little more effective than we’d like, particularly at longer ranges. We’re going to pull back on this accuracy slightly and continue to monitor
• Vandal:
  • Horizontal (Yaw) Recoil reduced by 15% while crouched and stationary
    • This was intended to be the case and now properly matches the crouch benefits of other rifles
  • Gun Recovery Time: .4s >> .375s
  • Tap Efficiency: 4 >> 6
• Phantom:
  • Fixed an issue where the Gun Recovery Time was higher than intended
  • Gun Recovery Time: .55s >> .35s
  • Tap Efficiency: 3 >> 4
• Bulldog Automatic Fire:
  • Fixed an issue where the Gun Recovery Time was higher than intended
  • Gun Recovery Time: .55s >> .35s
• Guardian
  • Fixed an issue where the Gun Recovery Time was higher than intended
  • Gun Recovery Time: .4s >> .35s

Machine Guns

Machine Guns are significantly underperforming other weapons at their price points.  They are meant to be bullet hoses—powerful once they get going. This is a difficult balance to strike in a game where a single bullet from the Vandal will put you down. Our hope here is to make Machine Guns better at what they do (shoot lots and lots of bullets) while also increasing the power of the Ares relative to weapons at a similar price point.

• Ares
  • Price reduced from 1700 to 1600 creds
  • Firing Error (this value is a curve that has intermediate values between each bullet; the second bullet has slightly less error than the first bullet, and so on)
    • Bullet 1: 1.0° >> 0.8°
    • Bullet 5: 0.85° >> 0.75°
    • Bullet 10: 0.75° >> 0.7°
  • Reduced the amount and intensity of horizontal (Yaw) Recoil after the first 8 bullets.
• Odin
  • Reduced the amount and intensity of horizontal (Yaw) Recoil after the first 8 bullets

VALORANT AGENT UPDATES

SAGE

• Slow Orb zone duration decreased from 9 seconds to 7 seconds
• Sage’s Slow Orb slowing amount decreased from 65% to 50%
  • We all know Sage is OP.  We’ve decided to try to reduce some of her stopping power while still allowing her to fulfill her role as the premier staller in VALORANT.  These changes aim to reduce the overall efficacy of her Slow Orb, especially if they are chained back-to-back.

Cypher

• Cyber Cage no longer slows enemies that move through it
  • We’ve always envisioned Cypher as a premier sentinel gathering info on his enemies and picking them off, but the slow on the cage was allowing him to move into Sage’s territory by stalling an entire enemy team. We still think this will be a tool he uses to buy some time, but enemies will now have more options when pushing his defenses, especially when coordinated.
• Spycam cooldown when destroyed increased 30 >> 45 seconds
  • Spycams have been flying into enemy territory like Sova darts at the start of rounds because the punishment for losing one to an enemy is so low. Hopefully, this change pushes you to find a safe hiding place for your initial camera (please not inside a box).

OMEN

• Dark Cover smoke duration increased 12 >> 15 seconds
• Omen’s Dark Cover smoke projectile speed increased
• Dark Cover cooldown increased 30 >> 35 seconds
  • Especially at high-tier play, we’ve seen Brimstone become the dominant controller and we wanted to give his peers a boost to make them more viable while hopefully maintaining their unique playstyles.

VIPER

• Snake Bite radius increased 350 >> 450
  • We’re increasing Snake Bite’s radius to match other area-denial abilities

BRIMSTONE/PHOENIX/VIPER 

• We see you b-hoppers out there, jumping through Incendiary, Fireball, and Snake Bite while taking no damage. We don’t want to completely negate this skill but we also don’t want it to trivialize a whole set of character abilities.
  • Height required to jump out of all damaging area-denial abilities 80 >> 120
  • Snake Bite, Fireball, and Incendiary damage tick speed increased (total damage per second unchanged)

AGENT ABILITY CREDIT COST TUNING

• We felt the credit cost of some abilities did not match the impact those abilities brought to a match and made adjustments for a more accurate reflection
  • Sage Barrier Orb increased from 300 to 400 credits
  • Raze Blast Pack increased from 100 to 200 credits
  • Phoenix Curveball increased from 100 to 200 credits
  • Brimstone’s Incendiary increased from 200 to 300 credits
  • Jett’s Updraft reduced from 200 to 100 credits

Valorant‘s website is where you can find the remaining patch notes.

For more Valorant coverage, stay tuned to Daily Esports.