Valorant Patch 1.08 Notes Reveal Raze Nerf, Guardian Buff, & Map Rotation Fix

Riot Games has issued its latest patch for Valorant, which should make some small but important tweaks to the game’s meta, as well as introduce one widely requested quality of life improvement.

While Agents Killjoy and Viper were the focus of the last update, Patch 1.08 only changes Raze. It’s yet another nerf for the rocket-wielding Latino duelist, whose ability to inflict damage with her utility has been a little OP from the get go.

Specifically, her Blaster Pack, which is her grenade utility. Here are the changes:

• 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

Next up, it’s a weapon buff for the Guardian, which was nerfed a while back and hasn’t really found its place in the meta since. The gun is now cheaper, has less recoil, and an improved rate of fire. Changes are as follows:

• 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

Next up, a big quality of life improvement in the form of a map rotation fix. Ever since the game’s full launch, players have been frustrated time and time again by the game seemingly becoming stuck on a single map. I’ve played sessions with my squad when we’ve literally played Bind five times in a row.

Here’s the fix:

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

Other quality of life improvements include the following:

• 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 are as follows:

• 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

Interestingly, in the introductory paragraph of today’s patch notes Max “Orcane” Grossman, lead agent designer for Valorant, said that the team is considering making changes to the Op moving forward. The weapon has been upsetting some players for its dominance in competitive games and there’s a call for a nerf of some kind.

Apparently, the development team is taking its time in thinking of a viable change for now, so we’ll have to wait and see what they come up with.