Riot has just shipped out a major update to their FPS title VALORANT, and it has introduced some heavy changes to the game.
The first and perhaps the most significant of the changes were the fixes to the various agents in the competitive shooter. After hundreds of requests from the fans, the newest agent Killjoy has finally received a nerf. Riot primarily focused on balancing out her Nanoswarm, which according to them has been “a terror to play against.”
The damage per second of Nanoswarm has been reduced from 60 to 40 and a brief windup time has been introduced before the damage begins. Visual effects have also been added to make it easier for players to spot the grenade hidden in the ground.
However, the agent that received the biggest nerf was Sage. Her healing capabilities were reduced significantly while her slow orb also took a hit.
Here are the changes to Sage as mentioned in Riot’s blog:
- Heal reduced from 100 over 5 seconds >>> 60 over 5 seconds
- Self heal reduced from 100 over 5 seconds >>> 60 over 10 seconds
- Slow Orb size reduced by 30%
The cost of Barrier Orb was reduced by 100, and will now spawn at 400 HP before becoming fortified to 800 HP after a span of 3 seconds.
Viper was probably the biggest winner of the patch, her Toxic Screen can now be placed during the buy phase through spawn barriers, and goes up faster along its full length once it starts to form. The decay on her smoke abilities will no longer affect allies.
Breach also received significant buffs to his skillset. His Flashpoint charges were increased to 3 and Concussion will now de-scope players and make them unable to scope for its duration.
Other than these, the Shotguns of the game received a nerf to their aimpunch along with multiple other bug fixes and quality of life changes. The full details of the new Valorant patch can be read here.
