There have been numerous complaints swirling about VALORANT’s newest patch, 7.04, a large replace that appeared to return out of nowhere for even probably the most devoted gamers.
Among the new updates to our favourite brokers are complicated, and understanding why these puzzling modifications have been made continues to baffle the participant base. One essential ingredient of the 7.04 patch notes many could have missed in a frenzy to scroll to their favourite agent’s modifications is the developer’s reasoning.
“Whereas Patch 7.04 consists of modifications to over half of the roster, the modifications are sharply centered on rising sport state readability,” the notes learn.
Although the Riot builders have all the time been adamant VALORANT is an FPS sport first and requires tactical gunplay, the latest inflow of recent brokers with new talents has made the sport extra cluttered. From purely a standpoint of wanting to cut back this muddle, it is smart to implement modifications like this. But when that is the purpose, possibly Riot needs to be releasing brokers with much less AOE and exterior utility within the first place.
Earlier than this patch, the sport was in one of many healthiest states I’ve ever seen VALORANT in, and I fear these modifications are going to revert the state of agent balancing again to an terrible spot. I additionally fear about the way forward for defending sport state readability if Riot plans to proceed releasing brokers on the tempo that has been set during the last three years.
There are solely so many utility varieties that may be built-in, and with extra brokers the sport will inevitably be extra complicated.
The state of the sport
Earlier than patch 7.04, VALORANT was in one of the vital balanced states the sport has seen in its three years. Each agent on the roster was viable and getting playtime, even within the professional scene, the place a powerful meta normally dictates brokers which might be clearly in or out.
At VCT Champions 2023, every single agent besides Deadlock, the game’s newest, was played at least once. This can be a stark distinction from tournaments in earlier years the place mirror compositions had been the norm, and a uncommon recognizing of a duelist apart from Jett or Raze was headline information.
A part of the frustration with this patch lies within the truth the sport seemingly had no issues with the steadiness of its brokers. Except for a couple of outliers just like the aforementioned Impasse—who, in all honesty, may need been too new for gamers to combine anyway—and Harbor, who has lengthy been caught on the backside of tier lists, each agent had their place. Even Jett, the longstanding queen of VALORANT, didn’t significantly want nerfs.
But clearly, in an effort to enhance “sport state readability,” many brokers wanted modifications.
What’s “sport state readability?”
Recreation state readability refers to your capability to know and interpret what is going on round you whilst you’re in a sport of VALORANT. An instance of a transparent sport state is a one-vs-one on a specified angle between two brokers with minimal or no utility left. On this state of affairs, the place your enemy is, and what utility they’ve at their disposal, and might make an knowledgeable choice about what to do subsequent with this info.
An instance of a cluttered sport state can be a state of affairs the place all gamers are left alive, and one workforce makes use of a Harbor wall, Viper wall, Jett smokes, Fade eye, and Raze grenade to take the positioning. On the opposite facet, a Brimstone has smoked an entry level, Viper has deployed her final, and a Chamber has set a entice down on the positioning, whereas their Omen goes on a flank and prepares to deploy a Paranoia flash.
On this scenario, the positioning itself is cluttered with an unlimited array of utility without delay, and as a person participant rotating onto the positioning, you should have no thought what is going on instantly.
Many VALORANT gamers liken these kinds of situations to Overwatch, as a result of the barrage of utility makes it very tough to have a correct gunfight.
The place VALORANT Patch 7.04 is available in
The purpose of Patch 7.04 is to attenuate the quantity of cluttered conditions gamers face in a sport. Subsequently, talents which might be deployed externally onto a web site are the primary ones receiving nerfs. Different modifications goal to decelerate the tempo of the sport as a complete, which is probably going why Jett has been hit with the nerf hammer once more.
The primary items of utility nerfed on this patch had been the entire giant AOE ultimates. Which means Killjoy’s Lockdown, Viper’s Pit, Brimstone’s Orbital Strike, and Breach’s Rolling Thunder have all been nerfed through a further final level wanted earlier than they are often forged.
Nonetheless, after we consider the precise results these ultimates have, they actually aren’t the primary talents one would suspect as targets for a nerf. The primary ults we’d put up on the chopping board would be Fade’s Nightfall and Neon’s Overdrive, however neither had been touched. It additionally appears unusual an final like Dusk, additionally an AOE final, isn’t thought-about to intervene with sport state readability.
Lockdown, Orbital Strike, and Rolling Thunder are all pretty simple ultimates to counter. Viper’s Pit is one other story, however the former three talents serve extra as delay or deterrence techniques moderately than talents meant to get kills.
As well as, a latest UI change really made it so gamers are already extra conscious when AOE talents will stun, injury, or blind them. Now, it appears the devs could have taken this notion too far.
Different exterior utility like Skye’s Trailblazer and Seekers have additionally obtained well being nerfs so they’re simpler to kill, leading to much less chance that an opponent will suffer from a standing change like a blind or stun.
But not the entire modifications in 7.04 are straight nerfs. One significantly fascinating change is a buff to Astra’s wall, the place the sound has now been lower off utterly as an alternative of simply muffled. Although this may increasingly appear to be a puzzling change at first, it really does fall according to rising readability. As an alternative of being confused by extra sound as you method the barrier, this modification “eliminates uncertainty,” in response to the patch notes.
This patch may be a step in the correct course for gamers who don’t wish to see VALORANT change into Overwatch 2.0, however in the long run, Riot must make extra widespread modifications to not solely current but in addition future brokers if sport state readability is their true purpose.
Ultimately, a part of what makes being good at VALORANT so spectacular is with the ability to learn and deduce a cluttered scenario within the first place.
Concerning the creator
