Valorant

Valorant Newsletter August

Posted by Kinkajouu on 09/08/2020 06:00

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Hello everyone!

Kinkajouu here, your new PIA for Valorant. I'm still getting to grips with the new role but I hope I can do the Division proud Big Smile . Here's the update for August and it's a big one with Act II starting, a new agent and game modes. But first we have the promotions...

PROMOTIONS

EU Battalion

Kinkajouu = PIA /Master Gunnery Sergeant

Ojman = Field Specialist

Jasper = Squad Leader

NA Battalion

AzureFang = Lance Corporal

MicroK = DI / Sergeant

Robakabob = DI / Sergeant

Sturmrage = Field Specialist / First Sergeant

Congratulations to all promoted members! Our community is kept together by the work of these people giving their time to run events and plan things behind the scenes. If you're interested in stepping up and helping out send me message on Discord or look out for announcements in these newsletters for positions that need to be filled. On to the updates....

GAME NEWS

Okay so there's a lot of news with the new agent Killjoy being released and Act I ending and Act II beginning. I've condensed the patch notes down the important stuff but if you prefer getting the full information you can see the notes in full here: https://playvalorant.com/en-us/news/game-updates/valorant-patch-notes-1-05/

AGENT UPDATES

[NEW AGENT]

KILLJOY

A new sentinel agent is being released called Killjoy. Here's the rundown on her abilities.

ALARMBOT

Equip and deploy a bot that hunts down enemies who dare to get in range. When my killer robot friend reaches its target...boom! Enemies who get hit are temporarily vulnerable to double damage from all sources. Hah, so fun.

Hold equip if you want to recall your deployed bot.

TURRET

Sometimes it's good to plant some roots. Deploy a turret that fires at enemies within its 180 degree cone. Hold equip to recall the deployed turret.

With my turret, I can hold an area pretty well myself while the others cover the angles I can't.

NANOSWARM

OK check this out. Throw the grenade. When it lands, it goes quiet. Then, activate the Nanoswarm to deploy a damaging swarm of nanobots and catch the enemy crying.

I love this trick!

LOCKDOWN

You’ll have to adjust your timing for the windup, but once you get this device going, it detains all enemies caught in its radius for about 8 seconds. Yeah, enemies can destroy it—except I built plenty more.

[AGENT UPDATES]

RAZE

Showstopper

Equip Time increased 1.1 >>> 1.4
Quick Equip Time increased 0.5 >>> 0.7
VFX reduced when firing rocket
VFX on rocket’s trail slightly reduced

Blast Pack

Damage decreased 75 >>> 50
Damage to objects now consistently does 600

[GAMEPLAY UPDATES]

Competitive Updates

Patch 1.05 marks the end of Competitive Act I—Competitive Act II starts
- If you earned a rank in Act I, play 3 more games to show your rank again in Act II. If you are a new player you will still need to play 5 initial placement matches so we have more time to calibrate to your skill
- Expect a conservative initial placement, ~2 rank tiers lower than your prior Act I rank, so we are confident you are at or above that skill in Act II. Performance will have a larger impact in your early games, so you will be able to quickly gain rank if you play well and win
Competitive matchmaking now will have a higher chance to match solo and solo/duo players against similarly sized premade groups at the cost of queue times being slightly longer
- Regardless of premade sizes, match balance is sitting fairly close to 50 / 50 for which team wins, but there is often a larger skill disparity between the best and worst players in the games with large premade sizes. This change should reduce the chance of solo players getting into games where there is high skill disparity.

Competitive Act Ranks

With Act I coming to an end Act II brings Act Ranks

"The takeaway: After an Act, all that matters for your Act Rank are your 9 best ranked wins of the act, and how many wins you’ve gotten in the act. So if you peak at Diamond but drop down to Gold, your act rank will only remember the good times. Take another run at Immortal, push those lower rank games out!

As you play, your Act Rank fills with smaller triangles. Each triangle represents your ranked match wins (Gold, Immortal, etc.) over the course of an Act based on the rank you entered the game with (hence your rank for that match).

Wins at higher ranks visually replace your lowest wins to display the best of your Competitive games. For example, more wins at Radiant will push out your earliest wins at Bronze (very aspirational!)."

GAME MODES

Deathmatch drops! Hop in to hone your gunplay mechanics or warm up before you hit ranked
- 10-player free-for-all
- First to 30 kills with a time limit of 6 minutes
- No abilities
- You’ll load in as a random Agent that you own
- Buy whatever weapons you want; heavy armor is given to you automatically
- Killing enemies drops health kits: picking one up fully restores your health/armor AND automatically reloads your weapon.
- All enemies are periodically revealed on the minimap
Deathmatch is in beta as we continue to evaluate game performance and stability. Availability will be limited to specific windows upon deployment of 1.05, with the first window starting Wednesday, August 5.

You can see all the information about Act Ranks and Competitive changes on the blog post on the Valorant website here https://playvalorant.com/en-us/news/dev/act-ii-ranks-and-competitive-changes/

That's it for this newsletter! If you have any feedback please leave a comment or message me on Discord if you think something is missing.

Until next time folks!

Kinkajou, Valorant EU PIA