Source Credits: Riot Games Valorant Patch 2.03
Valorant Episode 2 has already surprised many gamers and is one of the favorite patch notes amongst all. The last patch notes 2.01, is a little shocking because it has many disappointing updates that the community didn’t think about. Mainly in Patch 2.01, the updates have a deal with Jett’s Smoke, wherein its duration has now been dropped from 7 seconds to 4.5 seconds to help the developers to continue maintaining the Controller Agent role. They fix many glitches, like the most popular known to be a bug that would cause either a Radiant icon or an error message to show during the End of the Game screen instead of the correct rank details, which is fixed now.
Valorant Patch Notes 2.03 are out now, and Riot Games have posted an official article on their Blog website.
Among the many changes in Patch 2.03 are Yoru's first balance, Escalation goes live, and we blunt the sting of the Stinger. Read that and more here: https://t.co/7i9qTBHSvP pic.twitter.com/akGjQnT5cl
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) February 17, 2021
Contents
Valorant 2.03 patch notes
This is the patch where we humble the Stinger by adding a degree of mastery to the weapon rather than leave it potent in one too many areas. The Marshal and Frenzy also get respective price adjustments.
As forecasted in our State of the Agents, Yoru gets his first set of balance changes with the hopes of getting him closer to his intended impact and performance. Reyna’s Devour and Dismiss was running wild round-over-round, so those charges have been reduced. Don’t worry, Reyna-maniacs; she’ll now get Soul Orbs from anyone she’s recently damaged, even if she didn’t land the kill shot.
Don’t forget the newest game mode; Escalation goes live. You can read more about how it all works in our story.
AGENT UPDATES
REYNA
“Reyna gets a dual nerf and buff in hopes of reigning in some of her “pub stomp” potential while still keeping her viable in balanced and coordinated play. The charge reduction should limit how much impact she can have round over round when she’s heavily out-gunning her opponents—but allow enough room for the 1v5 dream when Empress(X) is active.
The price increase of Devour and Dismiss in tandem with the Frenzy price increase (see below) should also push some tougher economic decisions during the pistol round. Now, she’ll no longer be able to buy a charge or Leer(C), her Soul Orb abilities, and upgrade her pistol. On the flip side, Reyna getting Soul Orbs from recently damaged enemies should help her reliability when playing around teammates and reduce the animosity when an ally lands the final blow and Reyna goes empty-handed.”
- 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
“While we investigate future changes to Yoru that target his power and ability to achieve his core promise, we wanted to make a few changes that we felt would improve his use today. Gatecrash wasn’t providing much information about when enemies could see or hear his teleport fragment, so we added a few pieces to make that easier. As far as the ultimate, we’ve noticed a burden on Yoru having to communicate threats between his allies and his destination and wanted to make it easier for him and his team to understand the state of the round when they set up the ultimate pincer.”
Gatecrash(E)
- Gatecrash now displays the range at which the tether can be seen by enemies while moving on the minimap.
- The range that enemies can hear the audio of a Gatecrash teleport is now displayed on the minimap
Dimensional Drift(X)
- 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(Q)
- The audio of the Incendiary’s lingering fire zone will be easier to hear when other actions and sounds occur nearby.
PHOENIX
Hot Hands(E)
- The Hot Hands lingering fire zone’s audio will be easier to hear when other actions and sounds occur nearby.
WEAPON UPDATES
MARSHAL
“We wanted to sharpen the Marshal’s strength as a sniper with a movement speed buff when zoomed. The intent is to carve out a strong, agile, hit-and-run identity for the weapon. There’s a price buff too because the weapon is not as versatile as others in its range.”
- 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 (FULL AUTO FIRE)
“The Stinger’s been strong for some time, and while we like that it is threatening at any stage of the game, it’s proved to be too potent in too many areas. We’re taking a swing at raw DPS with the fire rate reduction (full auto only) and made spread and/or recoil adjustments to both firing modes. The intent is to designate optimal ranges for the respective firing modes and introduce degrees of mastery to the weapon. The price increase is meant to bump the premium a bit on the Stinger’s now nerfed, but still potent, versatility.”
- 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.
STINGER (BURST FIRE)
- 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
“Frenzy has surged into popularity recently, and while we’ve enjoyed seeing that, it feels like it’s pushed out a lot of other options on pistol rounds. We’re interested in seeing what a price bump does to purchase rates. As usual, we’ll monitor this weapon for any follow-up tuning.”
- Price Increased from 400 >>> 500
MODE UPDATES
- This is a quick (approx. 7–9 min.) and fast-paced 5v5 game mode where you must race through progressively less-lethal load-outs with your team. The loadout gamut varies from match to match but always features a mix of both weapons and abilities. Both teams throughout the match always use the same list of load-outs.
- Our biggest goal for Escalation is to offer a quick, fun mode that encourages social play and provides a chance for you to practice using new weapons in a lower-stakes environment. We’re also excited to offer a uniquely short and quite crazy mode to round out what we have!
- This was one of our more highly requested game modes, so we’re especially excited to bring this one to you.
- TBD on exactly how long this will be live, but we’d like to keep this one out for as long as it makes sense, depending on your engagement
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 wins instead of your ninth-best win.
QUALITY OF LIFE
- All sprays will now be destroyed on round start.
DEATH SEQUENCE IMPROVEMENTS AND UPDATES
“Two changes have been made specific to the death sequence, that is, all the stuff that happens once you are killed and before you become a spectator from beyond. We hope these changes improve the experience and game feel by addressing the smoothness of the camera movement and the sequence’s general timing. We cannot, however, bring you back to life. That’s Jett’s job.”
- 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.
