Have you played Valorant lately in high-skill lobbies? Lobbies in which you see Skye as the default pick for each team no matter the map? Well, that’s no longer should be happening, or at least less frequently, as Riot Games has decided to nerf Skye’s Ultimate cost, movement speed, and her notorious Guiding Light ability. But let’s see and talk about the additional changes in this update.
On the contrary, Riot Games decided to buff KAY/O’s flash windup time and also his ultimate, which now doesn’t stop pulsing once he’s downed, which should contribute to a much more robust site overtake. One of the duelists is also seeing a significant nerf, and that is Jett. Jett will no longer operate with three clouds of smoke. Instead, it will have only 2. The other major change to Jett is that her Bladestorm will no longer recharge the knives with a right-click kill.
Furthermore, the update is altering some penetration changes, which involves a rework of some of the existing creates becoming completely impenetrable. The patch is already LIVE in the NA region, and it’s supposed to arrive to EU a day later, on Wednesday, September 22.
Unequip time after casting or bending Guiding Light’s projectile increased .5 >>> .75
Windup time after activation before the flash goes off increased .25 >>> .3
Seekers (X)
Cost increased 6 >>> 7
KAY/O
FLASH/drive
Duration of windup telegraph reduced 0.5s >>> 0.3s
Duration of windup telegraph reduced on Right Click 1s >>> 0.3s
The audio attached to the in-flight projectile has been removed
NULL/cmd
Does not stop pulsing after being downed
JETT
Cloudburstcharges reduced 3 >>> 2
Our feeling here is that Jett has one too many smokes, and it’s contributed to a sense that she could get away with using them at any time, have more to spare, or spam them without much thought.
The reduced charges for her smoke should hopefully make the choice on whether to smoke a choke point, smoke a path for a dash, or make a one-way, a more tactical one.
Bladestorm Right-click/Alternate Fire kills no longer recharge Jett’s kunai
By removing the recharge, we hope Jett mains will optimize for the single kunai kills in order to keep the Bladestorm going and really play into the high precision fantasy Jett is all about.
We want to incentivize the high skill primary fire kills while still allowing the low-risk-low-reward burst fire option.
Bladestorm Right-click/Alt. Fire damage changes are reverted, damage and multipliers will mirror the left-click
We’ve seen Jett’s right-click be very unpredictable and feel that it’s confusing to have different damage rules than the left-click. This change should unify how both modes of fire work and provide a little more predictability if Jett decides to go for the single kill as opposed to chaining.
MAP UPDATES
FRACTURE
Tunnel to Generator/Canteen areas can no longer be bullet penned (a.k.a. wallbang)
One crate on B site is no longer pennable
This should create a safer planting option for attackers, while retaining a riskier, but more powerful option.
ICEBOX
The crate stack on B site is no longer pennable, this is to create a safer planting option for attackers
HAVEN
One stack of crates on C site is no longer pennable, this is to create a safer planting option for attackers
ASCENT
One crate on A site is no longer pennable, this is to create a safer position on site for defenders
BIND
One stack of crates on A site is no longer pennable, this is to create a safer planting option for attackers
I've spent half of my life playing video games, ever since the competitive 1.6 era. Now I am happily married to Margarita Kicevski, and have two beautiful children. My goal is to deliver fresh news and updates, but most of the time I want to work on guides. Since I have rebooted this website, I am planning on making it huge. Just you wait!
