It’s been a while since Valorant’s agents have seen some tweaks. With recent patches focusing on squashing bugs and improving the quality of life in some places, it seemed that Riot was more than content with the state of the game balance-wise. However, on Valorant patch 3.05, a couple of agents are getting some light nerfs to help introduce counterplay to their abilities on pistol or eco rounds.
The agents in question? Killjoy and Raze. On patch 3.05, being tagged by a Killjoy turret no longer results in a 72.5% movement speed slow, but a much more manageable 29.5% slow instead. Meanwhile, Raze’s Boom Bots have had their maximum damage reduced from 125 to 80, their minimum damage reduced from 50 to 30, and their cost reduced from 400 to 300 to reflect the loss of power.
But these aren’t the only agent tweaks on Valorant’s latest patch. Breach’s Aftershock, Brimstone’s Orbital Strike, and Sova’s Hunter’s Fury can all now deal damage to various pieces of utility – such as Killjoy’s Nanoswarm or Cypher’s Trapwire – where they couldn’t before. Riot says this change has been made to “reward those of you who are creative with the ability sandbox, using your tools to solve the obstacles other agents are creating.” Makes sense.
Valorant patch 3.05 will also introduce a new map, Fracture, which we got our mitts on at a preview event last week. Should you want to check out what we think of it (as well as some spicy picks that might help you climb the Valorant ranks), then check out our Valorant Fracture map preview. Riot is also introducing an Unrated Fracture-only queue for the next two weeks, giving players a proper chance to get to grips with the new map.
On the competitive side of things, Immortal rank tiers are back. Players will once again have to scale from Immortal 1 to 3 before they can ascend to Radiant. Competitive ranked distribution has been adjusted to reflect the change, which you can find out more about here.
Meanwhile, those who buy into the Premium Battlepass will receive a 3% XP boost towards tier progression until the end of Act 2. However, if you’re thinking of AFK’ing in Deathmatch or Snowball Fight to farm XP, don’t bother, as Riot has improved its AFK detection logic to better-spot farmers on the new patch.
Bug-wise, Riot continues its crusade against the little blighters. You can check out the full list of fixes in the full patch notes here.
