The first full patch since Riot’s vacation brings some much-needed changes to Valorant.

Riot finally addresses the hit registration issue. Riot states, “We've had issues with hit registration clarity caused by players moving into hit VFX (i.e. a player crouches their head into the space of a body shot VFX), which caused confusion on where a shot landed. This change should make it clear where a shot hit, and where on the body, even if a character is moving.”

Only time will tell if the changes are enough to fix the issue that plagued the game since beta.

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Sage gets hit by the nerf bat pretty hard. Her heal on allies is decreased from 100 HP over five seconds to 60 HP over 5 seconds. Her self heal has decreased from 100 HP over five seconds to 60 HP over 10 seconds. The size of her slow is reduced by 30% and her wall now starts with 400 HP and requires a three-second delay before fortifying to 800 HP. The healing nerf alone would push the agent away from being a must-pick. The nerfs on her slow and wall potentially push Sage out of the meta entirely. Some major teams, like Cloud 9 and TSM, began playing around with Sage-less comps even before the nerfs. Expect to see a lot less Sage in ranked and professional games.

Killjoy’s Nanoswarm also sees a nerf, with the damage dropping from 60 per second to 40 per second. Players have complained about the specific ability since her launch. The changes will not dissuade players away from the agent. With the extreme Sage nerfs, Killjoy may see higher priority.

Viper receives some small buffs, with her wall activating faster. Allies will not be affected by Viper’s decay, and can also see her ultimate radius on the minimap. The changes do not address the core issues plaguing the agent, but they are another step in the right direction.

Breach gets some aggressive buffs. First, he can now purchase three flashes, and the windup time is decreased. The detonation delay between blasts on his ultimate is also decreased. Finally, concussed enemies are de-scoped and can not re-scope. The buffs turn Breach into the premier counter against the Operator. Riot heard the complaints of there being a lack of utility needed to counter Operators and gave Breach the tools to do just that.

Shotguns are seeing further nerfs, and Riot hopes that these changes will “improve the feel of playing against shotguns and to ensure that they don’t end up doing odd things.” The most impactful weapon change goes to the Vandal. Players almost always choose the Phantom over the Vandal, and Riot wants a more even spread. The hope is to address this by increasing the weapon’s fire rate from 9.25 to 9.75 and the damage from 39 to 40.

Patch 1.07 is currently live.

Sources: Riot Games

Next: Valorant: Sentinels Reclaim The North American Throne, Winning The PopFlash Invitational