VALORANT Patch Notes 4.04

This is the start of VALORANT Episode 4 Act II, the one focused on cleaning house. It starts with the promised Yoru overhaul, a reshaping of the Controller role, and a renovation to Icebox (don’t skip that Ascent update though).

The pure changes are listed below, but we have two special dev articles lined up that will dive deeper behind the changes and goals for the Controller Agent and Icebox updates. 

Check out What’s New in Act II article for a look at the Community Battlepass and new skinline.

AGENT UPDATES

GENERAL

• Improved the system used to place abilities at targeted ground locations. This update should make it easier to find valid placement locations in tight spaces. These are the abilities affected:
  • Omen’s Shrouded Step
  • Viper’s pit
  • Chamber’s Trademark and Rendez-vous
  • Every Killjoy ability
  • Yoru’s Gatecrash
  • Sage’s Barrier Orb

OMEN

As strategic diversity in VALORANT evolved, Omen has struggled to find his place within the meta. Many of you enjoy his gameplay loop, but have found it increasingly difficult to justify his selection in higher tiers of play. We want to increase his reliability as a Controller by rolling back a selection of early nerfs to Dark Cover, and sharpen his combat-focused abilities.

BRIMSTONE

Brimstone is in a healthy spot overall, but he wasn’t performing well in scenarios where we think he should excel. The limitations on his smoke deployment and his Stim Beacon’s versatility were leaving him too constrained. With these changes, we’re hoping Brimstone will be a competitive choice on a healthy portion of the map pool.

ASTRA

With the mastery of Astra’s play patterns over time, she’s become an overwhelming force in both coordinated and high MMR play. She’s crowded out Brimstone and Omen by replicating their strengths and they simply couldn’t keep up with the map-wide impact of her utility. We’re taking steps to create clearer relative weaknesses in an attempt to carve more space for our other Controllers. This starts by reducing her overall utility output and increasing her ability cooldown , in the hopes that this will increase the importance of each move she makes. Paired with this, we’re taking the opportunity to provide some quality-of-life updates and bug fixes that we feel are long overdue.

VIPER

We like Viper’s hybrid Controller/Sentinel role on the roster, really. But her buffs and our newest map additions have turned her into a must-have Controller and best-in-class Sentinel in more situations than we think a dual-role Agent should fill. With the below changes, we hope to create stark decision points on when Viper should manage her fuel as well as provide clearer counterplay opportunities and attack windows for her enemies.

YORU

Yoru is here with a few more tools in his belt, ready to Gatecrash his way back into your hearts (WHO WROTE THIS?) Fakeout is now a mirror image of Yoru and should help with adding a way to punish deceived enemies. Gatecrash’s teleport beacon—now with the ability to fake the teleport cues—will allow Yoru to create pressure around the map, confusing enemies as they second guess their backline safety. Dimensional Drift now gives Yoru full vision and access to his utility, allowing him to take space with his team while creating pressure on the backlines. We’re happy to be able to lean heavy into Yoru’s deception fantasy and are excited to see him back in your hands!

If you want some background on how we got here, read our previous breakdown.

MAP UPDATES

ASCENT

• B orb can now be taken from the lower box (previously, you had to double jump up to the box to get it)

ICEBOX

This set of Icebox updates are focused around B Site and adjusting some of the problem spaces throughout the map. Stay tuned for an upcoming article where map designer Joey Simas dives deeper into these changes and what we hope to see from Icebox in the near future.

B Green

Changes to B “Green” lane are focused on improving attacker options and making the space more comfortable to play in.

Before

After

• Doorway from Attacker spawn building near Green lane moved to the first cubby. This is to give attackers a new way to approach B Green instead of having to enter from two similar positions.

Before

After

• Green lane slightly widened. This is to make moving through this space more comfortable.

Before

After

• Pocket in Green lane near Yellow extended. This is to make angles toward B Site and Snowman more clear and readable.

B Site Rework

The B Site rework is focused on adding more importance to controlling the site when attacking and making engagements around the site more manageable.

Before

After

• Yellow container adjusted and new stack of crates added. As players have settled into Icebox we’ve noticed a lot of rounds revolve around anchoring down behind yellow during post plant situations. This change should allow Yellow to retain some power while adding more value to holding space on the actual site.

Before

After

• Lower container removed and geometry adjusted into a cubby facing Green. Doorway on the upper container widened and it’s position adjusted. This should allow players to better isolate fights around the site and make utility usable more meaningful.

Before

After

• Outer wall on B site and crane structure brought in toward the site. Narrowing the site allows for more controllers to comfortably use their utility without having to worry about gaps.

Before

After

• Building in Back B closed off. We want to encourage attackers to push further and hold more space. Closing off this building should allow players to better anchor themselves in Snowman. It should also better highlight using B Fence to cut off rotations.

Before

After

• Plant zone on B site adjusted. This change is to encourage more spike plant diversity while retaining some safer defaults to work with. You can now also plant on the bridge from kitchen to upper container as well.

Mid

The changes to mid are aimed at adjusting lines of sight and making these spaces more comfortable to play in.

Before

After

• Back wall in Kitchen adjusted. This change should help moving through this space feel more comfortable and allow players to more easily clear this space.

Before

After

• Crates added to Orange lane to block line of sight from under tube to danger.

Before

After

• Boiler ramp geo simplified and slightly narrowed. Smokes will now fully cover Boiler and players should find head peeks from ramp more predictable.

A Site

A Site can feel overwhelming for defenders so these changes should give them some new options and allow them to better isolate Attacker angles.

Before

After

• Cover on back A site adjusted. This change should give Defenders a little extra space to anchor on.

Before

After

• Head peek on attacker side pipes removed. Where Attackers can peek from on A Site can feel overwhelming. This change should allow Defenders to better isolate where threats can come from.

Before

After

• Doorway into A lowered to prevent foot shot on players on top of screens.

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

Introducing initial testing of a new “deterministic map system” in LATAM. The goal of this system is to increase the variety of maps that players will encounter. If there are no issues, we plan to activate this system (explained below) for all regions within the next few days/week. Although this is LATAM region only, we are including it here as a heads up if we decide to expand. Stay tuned to the official VALORANT channels for updates.

• Deterministic map selection follows 3 rules when picking a map, after players have been selected to play a match.
• The system will look at all maps players have played over the last 5 maps for that mode.
• The system will remove any maps that a player has played twice in the past 5 maps.
• The system will pick the least played map.
  • If all maps have been removed due to the “Twice Played” rule, those maps will be added back to the pool and the least played map will be picked.

BUGS

Agents

• Fixed issue where enemies wouldn’t trigger Cypher’s Trapwire in rare situations
• Fixed the boom not showing up for Astra if planted while in Astral Form
• Fixed a bug where Viper’s Toxic Screen audio could play in the next round if it is activated right on round end
• Fixed Yoru’s Gatecrash icon showing up as a big white circle on Brimstone’s targeting map
• Fixed a bug where Chamber’s teleport would sometimes fail when cast immediately after firing the last bullet of Headhunter
• Fixed a bug where Chamber’s Tour de Force would inconsistently spawn slow zones when firing at KAY/O during NULL/CMD

Social

• Fixed an issue with AFKs in Escalation game mode

Esports Features

• Fixed a bug where the timer would overlap itself while viewing the megamap as an observer

Game Systems

• Fixed an issue where you could tap the scroll wheel to activate the defuse audio without actually initiating a defuse.