The Valorant 2.03 update brings key changes to both weapons and Agents. On the latter front, particular attention has been paid to Reyna nerfs that aim to change her style of play. There have also been a few small Yoru buffs, though more is on the way. If you’re interested to know the full changes, we’ve broken them down below along with the full Valorant patch notes.
Valorant patch notes: Reyna nerfs and Yoru buffs
© Riot
Reyna has received both nerfs and buffs in the 2.03 update for Valorant. They’ll largely serve as nerfs to players stomping lobbies of unskilled opponents but should help her serve more of a team role in competitive matches.
The biggest Reyna nerfs/changes are as follows:
- Maximum Devour(Q) and Dismiss(E) charges reduced 4 >>> 2
- Slain enemies that Reyna has damaged in the last 3 seconds now drop Soul Orbs, even if Reyna does not land the killing shot
- Cost of Devour and Dismiss charges increased 100 >>> 200
Reducing Devour and Dismiss charges to two means Reyna isn’t quite so capable of blitzing through entire enemy teams, healing, or turning invisible as she does. In particular, this will impact her ult, which usually allows reyna to both heal and reposition instantly upon every single frag. The price of Devour/Dismiss charges has also been doubled, meaning you’ll be paying the same mount for half as many uses.
However, where Reyna nerfs have hit, buffs also follow. Reyna can now claim souls off enemies she’s injured in the last three seconds, encouraging her to peek with teammates when securing kills. This no longer means Reyna is an all-in character who’s designed to frag solo. Work with your team and don’t be angry if they land their shots. At least developer Riot seems to be having fun with the news, posting memes about the patch on Twitter.
https://t.co/YkQFdAlC3i pic.twitter.com/KNmGKOaUz0
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) February 17, 2021
On the other side of things, poor new boy Yoru has received a few small buffs. He’s not performing as well as Riot had hoped, and while the 2.03 update Yoru buffs are small, it sounds like more will be on the way. Here are the key changes:
- Gatecrash now displays the range at which the tether can be seen by enemies while moving on the minimap
- The range that enemies are able to hear the audio of a Gatecrash teleport is now displayed on the minimap
- While in Dimensional Drift, Yoru’s minimap is now visible
- Enemies within Yoru’s vision range, while in Dimensional Drift, are now revealed to ally minimaps, as well
- Dimensional Drift can no longer body block enemies
Yoru has struggled with his abilities being far too obvious to opponents, making it almost impossible to surprise enemies. As such, you can now see where enemies might be able to spot your teleport from, along with the audio range. In addition, his fake footsteps should sound the same as his real ones now. His ult also received a slight buff, meaning allies will see anyone you spot on their minimap, though you can no longer block them as they try to escape Sova or Brim’s ults.
Beyond those two Agents, the biggest changes come to the Stinger and Marshall, the former of which has had its accuracy and rate of fire nerfed, along with a price increase. The Marshall has had a buffm boosting its zoom and movement speed, along with a reduction in cost. Check out the precise changes including Reyna nerfs, Yoru Buffs, and Stinger changes in the full Valorant 2.03 patch notes below.
Valorant 2.03 patch notes
© Riot
Agent updates
Reyna
- Dismiss/Devour
- Maximum Devour(Q) and Dismiss(E) charges reduced 4 >>> 2
- Slain enemies that Reyna has damaged in the last 3 seconds now drop Soul Orbs, even if Reyna does not land the killing shot
- Cost of Devour and Dismiss charges increased 100 >>> 200
Yoru
- Gatecrash
- Gatecrash now displays the range at which the tether can be seen by enemies while moving on the minimap
- The range that enemies are able to hear the audio of a Gatecrash teleport is now displayed on the minimap
- Dimensional Drift
- While in Dimensional Drift, Yoru’s minimap is now visible
- Enemies within Yoru’s vision range, while in Dimensional Drift, are now revealed to ally minimaps, as well
- Dimensional Drift can no longer body block enemies
Brimstone
- Incendiary
- The audio of the Incendiary’s lingering fire zone will be easier to hear when other actions and sounds occur nearby.
Phoenix
- Hot Hands
- The audio of the Hot Hands lingering fire zone will be easier to hear when other actions and sounds occur nearby.
Weapon updates
Marshall
- Movement speed when zoomed is now at 90% of unzoomed movement speed (previously, zoomed movement speed was 76% of unzoomed)
- Price decrease 1100 >>> 1000
- Zoom magnification increased 2.5x >>> 3.5x
Stinger
- Price increased from 1000 >>> 1100
- Full auto fire rate reduced from 18 >>> 16
- Full auto fire now reaches max spread at bullet 4, instead of bullet 6
- Adjusted pitch (vertical) recoil curve for full auto, recoil climbs more aggressively past the 3rd bullet
- Adjusted pitch (vertical) recoil to be more aggressive after the first burst
- Added more error on bursts after the first one
- Improved recovery time on burst mode from .45 >>> .4
Frenzy
- Price Increased from 400 >>> 500
Mode updates
Escalation mode added
- This is a quick (approx. 7–9 min.) and fast-paced 5v5 game mode where you must race through progressively less lethal loadouts with your team. The loadout gamut varies from match to match, but always features a mix of both weapons and abilities. The same list of loadouts is always used by both teams throughout the match.
Competitive updates
- AFK-ing in Competitive games for a prolonged period (currently defined as 6 or more rounds) will now result in a penalty of 8 rank rating points
- We understand that sometimes your computer, ISP, etc. may have some issues during a game, so we won’t punish you for missing some rounds—but we want to encourage players to come back from those AFKs and play through their Competitive matches.
- Act Rank Badges will now be based on your highest rank win, instead of your ninth best win
Quality of Life updates
- All sprays will now be destroyed on round start.
Death Sequence updates
- Timing
- Fade to black start time decreased 1.75 seconds after death >>> 1.5 seconds after death
- Time spent on a full black screen increased ~0 seconds >>> 0.25 seconds.
- The total time of the death sequence has not changed, it remains at 2.75 seconds
- Camera movement smoothed significantly , especially for those under poor network conditions
- Prior to patch 2.03, any of you (but especially those with high ping or packet loss) could experience camera jitter during the death sequence.
- Based on our investigations of this issue, you can rest assured this camera jitter did not impact combat performance—anyone experiencing this issue was already dead during the unsmooth movement.
- Now everyone, regardless of network conditions, will have smooth camera movement during the death sequence.
Bug fixes
- Fixed issue where Yoru’s decoy had slightly different sounding footsteps than Yoru himself
- Fixed issue where the in-world indicator for Cypher’s Cyber Cage disappeared if it took damage
- Fixed issue where Sova’s Owl Drone could clip through specific map geo and view the other side
- Fixed issue where players already affected by nearsight would momentarily see inside smokes that should instead nearsight them
- Fixed issue where Skye’s Seekers would no longer work if she was killed at a very specific moment while casting them
- Fixed issue where Yoru was unable to equip a weapon or ability if he cancelled out of Dimensional Drift right as its buffs activated
- Killjoy’s Lockdown can no longer be placed inside Sage’s Barrier Orb in some instances
- If Barrier Orb is placed on top of Killjoy’s ult, the section of the wall covering the ult will now be destroyed.
- Fixed issue where teleporting to Yoru’s Gatecrash right as it expires caused him to fall through the map to his death (rip)
- Fixed issue where Yoru’s Bait could sometimes fall through the floor when the stationary version was placed
- Fixed issue where Sova could sometimes get the voice over for Hunter’s Fury to play, even though it isn’t used, by trying to equip the Owl Drone at the same time
- The End of Game screen will no longer display “Average Abilities Cast per Round” as 0
- Fixed a couple input bugs around possessing and unpossessing objects (Cypher camera, Sova drone, etc.) in the same frame which lead to locking all inputs or locking view direction
- Sorry Cypher mains—thanks for all the reports!
- Fixed an issue where certain settings would not display while in game
- Your player icon color on the minimap is now white if you turn on any color blind settings
- Fixed a few input issues that were causing players to get stuck using orbs or planting the Spike
Those were the full Valorant 2.03 patch notes including Reyna nerfs and Yoru buffs. Head over to our Valorant hub for more content covering the game.
