VALORANT’s upcoming patch 2.09 will see several interesting changes including a new game mode, tactical timeouts, and an Agent adjustment.
For the past few patches, Viper has seen a great deal of change. First, her decay rates for viper’s pit and poison cloud saw massive buffs that drastically increased her pick priority. In professional and ranked play alike, Viper became a staple on Icebox and remained a viable pick on various other maps. It seems as if this exponential growth in Viper’s pickrate was something Riot was not intent on.
In their patch 2.09 update, Riot claimed “before the last change, enemies tended to disregard and simply push through the smoke” but since the change “victims avoid it at all costs.” Hoping to find some synthesis in Viper’s balancing, her decay effect has been reduced from 50 to 30. Ultimately, this may negatively effect her pick priority ahead of Masters Stage 2 considering these buffs are what initially led to her popularity.
Replication – VALORANT’s newest game mode
Described as VALORANT’s version of URF plus all-for-one, this unique game mode will launch with patch 2.09 and end on May 25th. This game mode puts a twist on the classic 5v5 spike mode as all players on the same team will be selected the same Agent. All abilities, with the exception of ultimates, will be refreshed between rounds without charge.
Given the inherent ability of flash characters to make this an otherwise unpleasant game mode, Riot smartly included Flashguard. Afterbeing flashed twice in a 4 second timeframe, the flashguard effect protects players from being blinded for 5 seconds.
This new game mode is bound to create some chaotic games and is made to test the limit of Agent matchups.
Also read:
- These are the 10 teams that’ll be competing on LAN at VALORANT Masters Reykjavik
- Breeze, Coach Slots, and more in Patch 2.08 Notes
- VALORANT – These are the rewards from Episode 2 Act 3’s Battle Pass
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