While the consensus among players what that Raze could use a small nerf, no one expected Riot Games to act so quickly in their closed beta of VALORANT. With the new patch 0.47, the developers have made quite a few changes to the game, including how melee damage works against destructible objects, to Sage’s Barrier, and more.
Beginning with Raze, several changes have been implemented that will shift the Agent from spamming abilities towards a more skill-intensive kit. First, the number of Paint Shells has been halved from two to one, and now have a kill reset. To refresh the cooldown, players need to get two kills, and this should make Raze far more balanced at lower skill levels and probably underpowered at the highest levels of ranked play.
The audio cues for Paint shells, Blast Pack, and Showstopper have also been adjusted, making it easier for opponents to hear the ability being used in the middle of hectic gunfights. Raze players might be looking to new Agents, especially if they loved the easy kills that could be scored from an overabundance of ability spamming.
The second big change deals with Sage’s Slow Orb, which now also reduces the airspeed of players within the zone and making it so one can walk through without making noise. This should offset the strategy of bunny hopping through the area of effect to bypass the core function of the ability and give Sage players move value for their use.
The third major change has to do with melee damage, as melee attacks now inflict double damage per hit to destructible items, including Sage’s Barrier and Haven’s metal double doors. The developers state that this is because there simply were not enough options available during early, low econ rounds for dealing with these obstacles, and now there is a high-risk, high-reward strategy for players to try, regardless of their loadout.
These three changes are quite significant, and they are sure to affect how players approach each match. The real question now is whether Raze will still be worth taking into a matchup. Without a doubt, we will be seeing some amazing highlight clips of Raze dominating the competition with the use of abilities, obtaining the necessary two kills for a cooldown refresh, and then eliminating a few more opponents. It will be rare, but it is sure to look flashy.
Readers can click here for the rest of the patch notes, which feature several changes to maps, bug fixes, and quality of life improvements.
Source: beta.playvalorant.com
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