Riot Games intends to make significant improvements to Valorant via the 5.07 PBE (public beta environment) patch. Agents, namely Reyna, Kay/O, Skye, and Yoru, are currently receiving the most attention, and the new changes are expected to benefit them.
The developers have alluded to potential character modifications in the State of the Agents, which might soon be implemented in the live version of the game. Despite the lack of an official release date for the patch, readers can get an idea of the prospective changes coming to Valorant via the PBE notes.
The 5.07 PBE started on September 23 at 4:00 pm PDT/ 4:30 am IST.
Valorant's Reyna, Yoru, Skye, and KAY/O in PBE 5.07
The developers noted that many Duelists with flash abilities have been surpassed by some of the Initiators when it comes to creating kills using their flashes. Skye and KAY/O are often better at aggressive 1v1s than Agents like Yoru, Phoenix, or Reyna, who the developers anticipate will flourish in such situations.
With that in mind, they are introducing some much-needed changes to the Agents. These alterations are designed to boost Skye and KAY/O's teamwork and decrease their efficacy when used in isolation.
Riot Games also wants to boost the incentive for players to spend more time honing their flash talents. The developers feel that Initiators should be able to go solo when using flashes as Duelists, although they should preferably be weaker than their Duelist counterparts. It was also mentioned that two of the changes indicated under Skye and KAY/O were absent in this PBE build but are planned for Patch 5.07.
Here are the changes that Riot Games is testing for the Initiators:
Skye
- Guiding Light (E) flashbang scaling paradigm changed
- The max flash duration of Skye's Guiding Light now scales from 1.25s to 2.25s over a .75s charge up after being cast
- Guiding Light can no longer be shot and destroyed
- New VFX, UI, and sounds added to communicate new gameplay intent
- [Not in PBE] Unequip Delay out of Guiding Light increased .75s >>> .85s
KAY/O
FLASH/DRIVE (Q)
- Underhand (right-click) flashbang max duration decreased 2s>>>1.25s
- Overhand (left-click) flashbang max duration increased 2s>>>2.25s
- [Not in PBE] Unequip Delay out of both flashes decreased .6s >>> .85s
Reyna and Yoru
Here are the changes that the developers are testing for the Duelists in Valorant:
Reyna
Leer
- Wind-up of nearsight effect increased .6s >>> .4s
- Range Restriction on Leer removed
- Nearsight unequip delay decreased: .7 >>> .5
- Nearsight unequip delay set to “Instant”
- Duration decreased 2.6s >>> 2.0s
Yoru
- BLINDSIDE (Q) duration increased 1.5s >>>1.75s
- Flash Visual Updates
- 3P visuals for flashed enemies and allies now render behind the player’s head the moment that the flash starts to fade. This should give a clearer indication if players are full flashed or if the flash has started to fade.
- 1P visuals, when fully flashed, now shrink overtime to give a better indication of when the full flash will end and the flash fading out will begin.
- Increased the window for awarding assists on flashes, nearsights, and concusses from one >>> three seconds after the debuff starts to fade.
Bug fixes in PBE
Valorant Agent bug fixes that are being introduced in the PBE:
- Fixed issue where KAY/O’s NULL/CMD disabled Killjoy’s Turret if the turret is hit by a pulse, but Killjoy is not.
- Fixed issue where Killjoy’s Turret fires straight forward after firing at an enemy and then losing sight of them.
- Fixed issue where Killjoy’s Turret would fire with no target when coming online if it was disabled while firing at a target.
- Fixed a bug where Phoenix would not automatically re-equip a weapon at the end of Run It Back.
- Fixed Breach’s Rolling Thunder showing dead enemies hit in the combat report.
- Fixed issue where if a player was deafened by multiple sources when the first deafen ended, it removed the deafening effect completely.
- Reduced the size of the hologram on the body marker that shows up when dead bodies are turned off.
Updates to the Progression system in Valorant are mentioned below:
Favorites and filters
- Added the ability to favorite gun skins, Player cards, Sprays, Gun Buddies, and level borders (favorites persist until un-favorited)
- Added the ability to filter your collection (filters persist until next login)
- Gun skins: Owned/Unowned, Favorites/Non-Favorites, Tiers (Select, Deluxe, Premium, Ultra, Exclusive)
- All others: Owned/Unowned, Favorites/Non-Favorites
Random favorites
- In addition to being able to sort through your weapon collection and set your favorite weapons, you can now equip the Random Favorite for every weapon type. This will ensure that each game you play, you get one of your favorite weapons, along with one of the variants that you own, at random every time you enter a match.
Riot Games has certainly provided a whole list of changes that they have implemented in the PBE patch notes. The Valorant community will be hoping that these changes balance out the 5v5 battlefield.