The September 17 update for Valorant is a little smaller than the last few patches the game has had thrown its way. But that doesn’t stop the changes in update 1.08 from being very welcome indeed.
As well as the removal of its friendly fire damage to allies, Raze’s Satchel now has a slight delay before it deals maximum damage, making it less effective as an immediate attack on enemy players. It can also be shot to set it off. The Guardian is also getting another buff, with a 100 credit cost reduction and an increase to rate of fire and recovery speed. Riot hopes to make it a competitive budget option that can rival the Bulldog in some situations.
Finally, and perhaps most important of all, map rotation is getting some changes. You’ll now be much less likely to play the same map in a row, which should reduce those endless slogs playing nothing but Bind over and over and over. Catch the full September 17 Valorant 1.08 patch notes from Riot Games below the jump.
Valorant 1.08 patch notes - September 17
© Riot Games
Below are the full patch notes for the September 17 Valorant 1.08, featuring changes to Raze, the Guardian and map rotations.
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 to 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 buff
- 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
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.
- 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
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
Those were the full Valorant 1.08 patch notes for September 17. Catch up on all previous changes and all our other content for Riot’s shooter by clicking here to head to the game’s hub page.
