VALORANT Episode 3 Act 1 Patch Notes bring major changes

The VALORANT patch 3.0 notes change everything, literally.

Riot Games has implemented patch 3.0 to signal the start of Episode 3 Act 1. This update will include KAY/O, the cybernetic themed initiator with suppression abilities.

As previously reported, the majority of changes are to the pricing of abilities. But, the developer has slightly nerfed Agents like Astra, by increasing the cooldown of her Nova Pulse and Gravity Well abilities, for example. Skye has also been changed, with her Trailblazer given a slight buff while the charges of her flash have been reduced, but can now be replenished after 40 seconds.

Here’s all of the changes coming with Patch 3.0:

All Agents 

Signature abilities now only provide a minimum of one charge per round instead of accumulating a charge every round. For example, if you have a two charge signature ability and you end the round with one charge remaining, you will not gain an additional charge. 

• Charges gained from cooldowns are now always temporary.
• Visibility returns faster during the fadeout period of all flashes.

Astra

Nova Pulse (Q)

• Cooldown time increased from 12 to 25. 

Gravity Well (C)

• Cooldown time increased from 12 to 25.

Stars/Astral Form (X)

• Stars are now inactive when placed during the buy phase.
• When the barriers drop, her Stars charge for 1.4 seconds before becoming active and usable.
• On Attack, Astra can now see the Spike’s location in Astral form.
• This representation does not animate so it will not provide additional info on the status of the Spike.
• Recall cooldown increased from 8 to 15.
• Granted signature charges decreased from 2 to 1.
• Star cost decreased from 200 to 150.

Breach

Flashpoint (Q)

• Total charges reduced from 3 to 2.
• Cost increased from 200 to 250.
• Projectile speed decreased from 2500 to 2000.

Fault Line (E)

• Full charge time decreased from 1.5 to 1 second.
• Width increased from 600 to 750.
• Telegraph windup time decreased from 1.3 to 1.
• Concussion duration increased from 3 to 3.5.
• Unequip time after firing decreased from 1 to 0.7.
• Cooldown time increased from 35 to 40.

After Shock (C)

• Now explodes 3 times with each blast dealing 60 damage with no fall off, blasts are 0.6 seconds apart.
• Explosion radius increased from 260 to 300.
• Unuequip time after firing decreased from 1.1 to 0.9 seconds.
• Cost increased from 100 to 200.

Rolling Thunder (X)

• Width of all explosions increased to 2300, which was the previous width of the final Explosion.

Brimstone

Incendiary (Q)

• Cost increased from 200 to 250.

Cypher

Neural Theft (X)

• Ultimate points required decreased from 7 to 6.

Jett

Updraft (Q)

• Cost increased from 100 to 150.

Tailwind (E)

• No longer breaks Cypher’s Trapwire.

Cloudburst (C)

• Cost increased from 100 to 200.

Bladestorm (X)

• Ultimate points required increased from 6 to 7.

Killjoy

Alarmbot (Q)

• Cooldown after pickup increased from 7 to 20.

Turret (E)

• Cooldown after pickup increased from 10 to 20.

Omen

Paranoia (Q)

• Cost decreased from 400 to 300.

Dark Cover (E)

• Granted signature charges reduced from 2 to 1.
• Omen now must buy his second smoke for 100.
• Cooldown time increased from 35 to 40.

Shrouded Step (C)

• Cost increased from from 100 to 150.

Phoenix

Curveball (Q)

• Cost increased from 200 to 250.

Raze

Model Update

• Model has been updated with a polish pass.

Boombot (C)

• Cost increased from 200 to 400.

Showstopper (X)

• Ultimate points required increased from 7 to 8.

Reyna

Leer (C)

• Cost increased from 200 to 250.

Sage

Slow Orb (Q)

• Cost increased from 100 to 200.

Barrier Orb (C)

• Cost increased from 300 to 400.

Resurrection (X)

• Ultimate points required increased from 7 to 8.

Skye

Trailblazer (Q)

• Vision radius increased from 1750 to 2250.
• Max concussion duration increased from 3 to 4.
• Cost increased from 200 to 250.

Guiding Light (E)

• Charges reduced from 3 to 2
• Charges are now replenished on a 40-second cooldown.
• Skye no longer needs to re-equip to trigger her flash.
• Guiding Light’s projectile now goes around corners tighter when free flying and is more responsive to guiding.
• Audio attenuation when cast reduced from 3250 to 1250.
• Cost of charges increased from 100 to 250.

Sova

Shock Dart (Q)

• Cost increased from 100 to 150.

Recon Bolt (E)

• Cooldown time increased from 35 to 40.

Owl Drone (C)

• Cost increased from 300 to 400.

Hunter’s Fury (X)

• Ultimate points required increased from 7 to 8.

Viper

Snakebite (C)

• Duration reduced from 8 to 6.5.
• Outer edges of Viper’s acid patch form faster to ensure it is lethal if an enemy sits in the entire duration.
• Cost increased from 100 to 200.

Yoru

Blindside (Q)

• Cost increased from 200 to 250.

Gatecrash (E)

• Cooldown time increased from 35 to 40.

Weapon updates; all weapons 

• Bullet tagging changed from 75% slow to 72.5% slow.
• “Tagging” is the slowing effect you feel when hit by bullets.
• Weapon Deadzones changed from 30% to 27.5%.
• “Deadzone” in VALORANT refers to when the player movement speed becomes inaccurate.

All rifles 

• Walking inaccuracy changed from 1.3 to 2.0.
• Running unchanged at 5.0.

All heavies 

• Walking Inaccuracy changed from 0.5 to 2.4.
• Running unchanged at 6.0.

All SMGs

• Walking inaccuracy changed from 0.3 to 1.0.
• Running inaccuracy changed from 2.0 to 2.5.

Classic

• Walking inaccuracy changed from 0.25 to .84.
• Running inaccuracy changed from 1.5 to 2.1.

Frenzy

• Price decreased 500 to 450
• Walking inaccuracy changed from 0.25 to 0.8.
• Running inaccuracy changed from 1.0 to 2.0.

Ghost

• Walking inaccuracy changed from 0.25 to 0.92.
• Running Inaccuracy changed from 1.85 to 2.3.

Sheriff 

• Walking inaccuracy changed from 0.25 to 1.2.
• Running inaccuracy changed from 2.0 to 3.0.

Judge

• Price increased 1600 to 1850.
• Damage falloff at 10m changed from 13 per pellet to 10 per pellet.
• Damage falloff at 15m changed from 10 per pellet to 7 per pellet.

Bulldog

• Hip-fire (full auto mode) firing rate increased from 9.15 RPS to 9.5 RPS.
• Price decreased from 2100 to 2050.

Shorty

• Price decreased from 200 to 150.

Stinger

• Price decreased from 1100 to 950.

Bucky

• Price decreased from 900 to 850.

Marshal

• Price decreased from 1000 to 950.

Ares

• Price decreased from 1600 to 1550.

Operator

• Price decreased from 5000 to 4700.

Competitive updates 

Here’s some of what you can expect from the competitive changes:

• Reduced the possibility of feeling “hard stuck” on older accounts. If your skill improves, your rank should properly reflect that, regardless of account age.
• Matchmaking accuracy will improve across all ranks, which should lead to a smoother ranked climb and reduce how hard you may swing up and down in rank.
• While winning games is still the most important factor, individual performance will also be accounted for to improve matchmaking at Immortal+.
• This should result in better matches at the highest levels.
• Close games will have a smaller effect on rank rating gains and losses.
• Adjusted our Rank Rating curves, so climbing (or falling) should feel less volatile.
• Updated Rank distribution.
• Placements raised to Diamond 1.
• This should help reduce the grind for our players at the top.

Performance Updates 

• Players with medium to high spec machines (CPU bound systems) may see up to 6% performance improvements as a result of the following work:
• Improved clipping plane calculations using multithreading.
• Improved thread utilization across multiple cores for distributed tasks.
• Optimized camera calculations.
• Optimized ambient audio for each map.
• General optimizations for all ability animations.

Social Updates 

• Hover Cards have been added to the social panel.
• Hover over your friends list to quickly learn more about the players you have added. Rank, Account Level, Riot ID, friend note, title, Player Card, and more!
• You can now invite to party with Riot ID in custom games.

Gameplay technology 

Killfeed

• Your kills will get an additional highlighted border to make them stand out.
• Kill assists will also be shown to the left of the killfeed entries.
• The killfeed will also display a highlighted border for your assist portrait.
• The killfeed will display certain ultimate abilities when players on either team are killed in a second-life state or revived.
• For example: Sage’s player resurrection or Phoenix’s death during his Run It Back ability.
• Added multi-colored killfeeds in cases where kills would result in the same team color appearing side by side.
• “Round Rollback” feature for Tournament Mode Custom Games.
• This feature allows you to set the game back to the start of a previous round and re-play the game starting from the desired point.
• To enable the feature, go to “Options” while setting up a Custom Game and toggle “On” Tournament Mode.
• Moderators can activate a rollback.
• If Cheats are enabled as a Custom Game option, all players can activate a rollback.
• During the match, the Round Rollback feature can be found in the “Cheats” section of the menu.
• Added the ability to toggle on and off the outer crosshair lines.
• Adjusted assist timings and thresholds for utility-based assists to make them more consistent across different Agent abilities.

Progression Updates 

• Year One Event Pass – this is similar to a Battlepass but it’s completely free.
• This will be active for the duration of Patch 3.0 and will only last till 3.01 goes live.
• Added a Squad Boost: You will get extra XP when you play in a premade group.
• +8% boost for one additional player, +12% for two, +16% for three, and +20% for a full squad.
• This will also be active for the duration of 3.0.
• Permanently adding Account Leveling.
• Your account Player Card will now display a numeric level based on how much you play.
• In addition to that, you will also be boosted to a certain level based on how many games you’ve played before Patch 3.0.

Bugs 

Agents

• Characters blocked by Sage’s Barrier Orb when resurrected now break the wall to ensure they don’t get pushed inside map geo.
• Fixed Skye’s Seekers showing up on the minimap even when they aren’t visible to an enemy.
• Fixed Viper’s ultimate not showing as active on the team UI when Viper’s Pit is up.
• Fixed bug where Cypher’s Spy Camera could be placed inside the map on mid Icebox.
• Fixed a bug where Reyna’s Dismiss ability could not be rebought if the Buy Menu is closed and reopened during the same Buy Phase.
• Fixed a bug where cancelling Sova’s Hunter’s Fury while charging the shot allows player to skip unequip animation by equipping a weapon, ability or Spike.
• Fixed a bug where picking up Cypher’s TrapWires/Cages and Killjoy’s Nano Swarms during the Buy phase would prevent you from purchasing a second charge in Competitive.
• Fixed a bug that was causing a delay in recent Competitive game’s Ranked Rating updates in Match History.
• Fixed a Career screen visual bug that would show up for those who dropped out of Immortal.
• Fixed a bug that caused a friend’s career to infinitely load.

Social

• Fixed a bug where friends’ names were merging together in the social panel when interacting with them, jumbling them together at times.

Content Support

•  Fixed an issue causing a hitch when viewing skins in the Collection.

Gameplay Technology

• Fixed a bug where the inner crosshair toggle feature wasn’t working
• Fixed a bug where AOE kills were not rewarding the appropriate character if the enemy was in a debuffed state.
• Fixed a bug where the Spike icon pulse and beeping sound were not in sync.
• Fixed a bug where Ally defuse progress bar sometimes fails to appear.
• Fixed a bug where Observer’s Killfeed has no team colors.
• Reverted our fix for the “swirly arms” in the last patch, since it was causing significant animation snapping.

VALORANT Patch 3.0 is set to begin Tuesday, June 22, where these patch notes will come into effect.