VALORANT Patch Notes 7.12

It’s the last Patch for 2023 and Episode 7!
Game Updates
Jo-Ellen “Riot JoEllen” Aragon

Howdy, all! Jo-Ellen here.

It’s the last patch for Episode 7 (and for 2023!). That means you’ve got a Battlepass to finish and some more ranks to climb before it all resets in the new year. But in the meantime, we’ve got Gekko and Skye updates, a new TDM map, and more below.

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AGENT UPDATES

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GEKKO

One of Gekko’s unique strengths is being able to reclaim his creatures. This change aims to make that process faster so you can reclaim them in more situations. In addition, we’re also increasing the reliability of Dizzy (E) to increase Gekko’s confidence when using the ability and to provide more incentive for him to engage with its reclaim.

  • Reclaim for Dizzy (E), Wingman (Q), and Thrash (X)
    • Reduce reclaim channel time from 2s >>> 1s
  • Dizzy (E)
    • Once Dizzy is ready to shoot and sees a target, they will shoot faster and the projectile will travel faster.
    • Pre-fire targeting delay decreased from 0.5s >>> 0.35s
    • Missile speed increased from 7000 to 10000

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SKYE

These changes are centered around pushing Skye to be more deliberate when using Trailblazer (Q):

  • By locking the camera on Trailblazer when leaping, Skye has to be more thoughtful when making the choice to get extra distance with the leap vs fully clearing multiple angles without the leap.
  • Enemies are now rewarded for successfully destroying Trailblazer mid-leap as it will cancel the concussion explosion.
  • Making the concussion universal in terms of how it affects allies and enemies brings it in line with other abilities like Gekko’s Thrash. This requires more coordination and intentionality for Skye and her team to play around the Trailblazer successfully.
  • Trailblazer (Q)
    • Camera movement is disabled during the leap.
    • When the Trailblazer is destroyed during the leap, it no longer causes a concuss explosion.
      • Trailblazer plays the destruction voice line when destroyed during the leap.
    • Trailblazer explosion now concusses allies as well as enemies.

MAP UPDATES

  • Our newest map, Drift, is joining our roster of Team Deathmatch maps! Drift features a long range mid, isolated side lanes and exciting ways to swap lanes.

PERFORMANCE UPDATES

  • Raw Input Buffer
    • Beta tag removed
    • Default value changed from off to on
      • Existing setting values will not be impacted

PLAYER BEHAVIOR UPDATES

  • Implemented Party Invite Codes so that party leaders will be able to generate invite codes that other people can use in-game to be able to join the same party.

BUG FIXES

  • Agent
    • Fixed a bug where kills would not be awarded to you while controlling an ability. This affected Sova getting a kill with Shock Dart (Q) while controlling Owl Drone (C), Gekko’s Mosh (C) kills while controlling Thrash (X), and Cypher’s Trapwire (C) kills while controlling Spycam (E).
    • When KAY/O is downed during his NULL-CMD (X), the red portrait will now show for everyone in the game.
  • Player Behavior
    • Fixed an issue where in rare cases, someone would spawn in the next round after being detected AFK, preventing the pistol round bonus for their teammates.
  • Premier
    • Fixed an issue in Overtime Voting where "Waiting for Opponents" message appears behind the voting team.