Patch 1.02
It can be really frustrating to start up a match of something that could go on for 40 minutes, only to find out that one or more of your teammates left out of the gate. You kind of have to go through the motions until the inevitable loss, but thankfully Riot Games is adding a surrender option toValorant: just as they did toLeague of Legendsso many years ago.
Here’s how it works. Basically, you’re able to “call for an early surrender,” using the chat system, which requires a 100% team vote to pass. To prevent spamming, you can only call for a vote once per half and only spark it after reaching the eighth round. It’s restrictive, but that’s deliberate, to prevent surrender abuse.
In other news, Viper has been buffed so that her poison abilities are a little stronger now, with a small nerf to her poison orb cooldown (up to six seconds from five). Jett got a no-brainer quality of life upgrade on her blade storm ult (it now procs a refresh after Phoenix dies during his ult), as did Reyna with her Soul Orbs (basically, a faux Phoenix ult death now ostensibly counts as a death). Cypher got a few bug fixes for his abilities, and that’s about it: not a huge shakeup.
You can find the bulk of the patch notes below. For specific character and map changes,visit the full blog post, which provides visual cues for the alterations.
Valorant Patch Notes 1.02
HUD & UI
We’ve included a set of menu UI changes as part of our ongoing work to clarify the client experience coming out of Closed Beta. This is only a small portion of the improvements, but should push overall usability in a positive direction.Navigation and UI changes are disruptive, so we appreciate your patience adjusting to the new approach and we hope you find the changes to be upgrades after you settle in.
As always, thank you for your continued feedback. We have a long way to go, but we’ll keep hammering on the client UI until it’s a stellar experience for everyone.
QUALITY OF LIFE
Update to Tagging(slowdown effect when hit by enemy fire)
Tagging is intended to reward the player with better positioning and the player that successfully lands a shot on the enemy first. When tagged, you will now more gradually transition to the reduced tagging speed. In addition, the reduced tagging speed is slightly more forgiving. If you are positioned close to cover, this should allow you to potentially escape when tagged more frequently than before. Also, the effects of being tagged should feel less jarring especially when playing with higher ping.
Tagging through walls has been further reduced which should enable reliable escapes when being shot through walls.
Practice Mode
PERFORMANCE UPDATES
The team primarily focused on smoothing out framerates in certain scenarios. Mostly this helps out mid to high spec machines.
