Valorant’s latest patch is making map selection more random

Valorant’s latest patch is here, but Riot’s only making a few light changes to the game this time around. The patch brings a few small nerfs to Raze, buffs the Guardian a bit and, most importantly, makes sure you’re not stuck playing the same map over and over again.

Raze’s nerfs in this patch only target her Blast Packs and mostly just take away some of their direct damage when detonated in mid-air. The Blast Packs now have an arming time of .5 seconds once they land, in order to ramp up to their full 50 damage. If you throw one out and detonate it before it’s armed, it will only do 15 damage. As an added bonus though, Blast Packs no longer deal damage to allies.

The Guardian has also been adjusted to make it a little more powerful, or at least make it into a viable option. The semi-automatic rifle now only costs 2,400, and fires a little faster. This probably won’t turn the Guardian into a Phantom or Vandal replacement anytime soon, but it might make it worth buying from time to time.

The last big change in this patch comes to the matchmaking system, which will now be a little bit smarter about the way it selects which map you play on. While the old system was random — or close to it — this new system will be “pseudo-random.” This means that the system will make it less likely for you to play on the same map you’ve just finished. Riot’s goal with this change is to prevent players from playing the same map several times in row, which was a common complaint from the community.

For a look at all the changes coming to Valorant in patch 1.08 you can find the full patch notes below.

Valorant patch 1.08 notes

Agent Updates

Raze

Blast Pack

• Initial damage reduced to 15 with a .2 meter inner radius, falling off to 5 minimum damage
• Once the satchel lands, it arms after .5 seconds, increasing it’s max damage to 50
• Shooting the blast pack causes it to detonate, dealing its current damage amount
• Satchel no longer does damage allies

Raze’s Blast Pack has been dishing out damage without giving enemies much counterplay. This change should help make it very clear when Blast Pack’s damage poses a threat while maintaining the utility aspects of the Blast Pack that players have begun to master. The blast pack now does not ‘fizzle’ when shot and will still do damage, meaning it should still be approached carefully if in lethal range.

Weapon Updates

Guardian

• Price reduced from 2500 >>> 2400
• Improved Rate of fire from 4.75 >>> 5.25 RPS (rounds per second)
• Improved weapon recovery from .35 after 3 bullets to .2925 after 3 bullets

We don’t think the Guardian can (or should) compete directly with the Phantom or Vandal but we’d like it to have a place where players can feel good opting into the gun at the new price, is a competitive purchase in certain economic circumstances or map scenarios, and isn’t as punishing when an enemy gets close!

Map Rotation Changes

Matchmaking queue for all modes has been updated to measure all your recently played maps, throughout all modes, so that for any given queue you:

• Have a better chance of playing on a map you haven’t played recently
• Are much less likely to play on the same map several games in a row

It’s happening! The possible pool of maps you can get placed on is now ‘pseudo-random’ rather than pure random. What that means is if you just played, say, Haven, the matchmaker will deprioritize that map in your next game.

Quality of life

• Observers will now see a timer rather than their screen being obscured when observing a player who is blinded

Full screen blind for observers can be turned back on in the options, for all you masochists

• Minimap performance improvements
• The social panel will now pause sorting while you’re hovering or interacting with it
• Updated verbiage in the All Ranks modal in the Career page to be more consistent with Competitive overtime rules

Bug Fixes

• Prime Classic VFX fixed

There was a bug in which upgrade Prime levels (2–4) were not playing the correct tracers, sound fx, and other VFX

• Fixed a bug where the End of Game screen would display a “Still processing” message, and then wouldn’t show that match in your Career tab
• Fixed a bug where “High Skill Disparity” would display in Custom Game Lobbies