Valorant is receiving a brand new update that introduces Iso and various other changes to existing Agents. In addition to Agent changes, the latest update will also bring changes to the Judge Shotgun, in order to improve the gameplay for all.
Iso is a brand new Valorant Chinese Agent who will be joining the game roster as a Duelist. The character will bring various unique abilities that allow him to hunt his foes and change the pace of a game altogether.
Apart from the Agent additions, existing characters will be tweaked slightly to balance them according to the current meta. With that said, here’s all you need to know about the latest 7.09 patch in Riot’s shooter title.
Every change arriving with Valorant 7.09
Cypher buffs against Fade, Raze, and Skye
The latest patch focuses on bringing balance to Sentinel and initiator Agents like Cypher, Skye, and more. According to Riot Games, Cypher has been weak against certain Agents like Raze, Skye, and Fade. To fix that, Cyberpher’s Trapwire (C) ability has been tweaked to help him withstand that. All of these things are mentioned in details below:
Cypher
These changes force attackers to actively destroy traps to break Cypher’s setups and push interactions with utility like Prowlers (C) and Trailblazer (Q) more in Cypher’s favor. In addition, the potency of the traps when they snag an enemy has been increased slightly to make sure opponents have to respect their threat.
Trapwire (C)
- Decreased the time until the trap concusses a captured enemy 3 >>> 1.5 seconds.
- After concussing an enemy or an enemy in the trap being killed, the Trapwire (C) no longer destroys itself but instead re-arms after 0.5 seconds, allowing it to ensnare another enemy.
- Duration of tag slow when hit by the trap increased 0.75 >>> 2 seconds.
These changes to Skye and Fade are meant to add more strategic depth to the placement of Cypher’s Trapwire.
Skye
Trailblazer (Q)
Adjusted Trailblazer’s collision so that it goes under Trapwires placed at mid-height. This won’t affect the hitboxes for weapon damage.
Fade
Prowler (C)
Adjusted Prowler (C) collision so that they go over Trapwires placed at foot height and under Trapwires placed at head height. This won’t affect the hitboxes for weapon damage.
Raze
Raze will have to be more precise with her Paint Shells (E) in order to deal damage to enemies, including destroying enemy traps. Additionally, Raze will need to be more intentional in picking between using the Blast Pack (Q) for mobility or damage.
Paint Shells (E)
- Primary grenade explosion radius 6m >>> 5.5m.
- Secondary grenade explosion radius 6m >>> 5.25m.
- Primary grenade explosion minimum damage 15 >>> 1.
- Secondary grenade explosion minimum damage 15 >>> 1.
- Damage multiplier to enemy utility 250% >>> 100%.
Blast Pack (Q)
- Satchel doesn’t deal damage until fully armed.
- Satchel arm time increased 0.5 seconds >>> 1.5.
Weapon Changes
JUDGE
Valorant will be changing Judge into a hunker-down-style shotgun, making it less effective while moving around. Moreover, the magazine size of the weapon has been adjusted as well, making it difficult to go for multiple kills in one reload. Here’s everything done to the weapon.
- Reduced max mag size from 7 >>> 5
- Increased Jumping spread from 1.25 >>> 2.25
- Increased Running spread from .10 >>> .75
Player Behavior Changes
When reporting others in the game, there is now an added option to also mute who you’ve just reported.
When reporting a player in the game, players now have the option to mute the person who has been reported. These changes have been introduced to combat toxicity and improve the social standards in the game.
Social Updates
- Updated the icons that appear in the Friends List when friends are playing other Riot Games.
- We now detect people in Riot Mobile and TFT, and display unique icons for people playing these games. ( People who are online in Riot Mobile have a “gray dot” Player Card Image.)
- The failsafe “Unknown Product” icon is now a red Riot fist instead of the gray dot.
- Updated the icons shown for people in LoL, LoR, and WildRift.
Premier relates updates
The next stage of Premier (Episode 7 Act 3) has been tweaked with several updates and feature additions. Here’s what is new with the latest update:
- Premier practice: There will be windows of time where you can queue for practice on select non-match days, check your calendars for the schedule! These matches will follow the Premier match structure, but will not affect your Premier Score.
- Enrollment updates: Teams created before or during the new ‘Team Creation Window’ will now be able to recruit members and participate in Premier at any point during the Stage!
- Timeouts: In every match, teams will have one timeout per side and an additional timeout in Overtime.
- Premier crests: Crests will now reflect your team’s performance and evolve over the entire stage.
- Playoff qualification threshold: Valorant will be reducing the qualification threshold to 600 points in this stage. Since, the end of the year remains the busiest for many, it is hard to schedule matches for all. Thus, Riot Games will be forgiving during this time of the year.
Matchmaking
Adjustments have been introduced to make matches fairer during weekly matches. These changes will be reflected soon with the patch 7.09 update.
Zones
Some regions can’t support the same number of divisions, so Riot Games has made adjustments to certain zones to support generally healthier queue times and improved match fairness.
BUG FIXES
General
- Fixed an issue where some people’s hardware configurations resulted in a white screen at login.
Gameplay Systems
- Fixed a rare issue where detaching from a rope would cause a footstep noise.
