Riot is making changes to Raze, the Guardian, and map rotation in the latest patch for VALORANT. These updates are aimed at balancing gameplay and improving the overall experience for players.
Raze has been a dominant force in competitive mode, but Riot is addressing this by adjusting her satchel damage in Patch 1.08. This change will bring her power level down and create a more balanced playing field.
The Guardian, on the other hand, hasn’t been widely used in solo queue as players prefer the Vandal and Phantom. To encourage its usage, Riot is increasing the Guardian’s fire rate and lowering its cost.
You can find the full list of updates coming to VALORANT‘s Patch 1.08 here.
Agent Updates
Raze
Blast Pack
- Initial damage reduced to 15 with a 0.2 meter inner radius, falling off to 5 minimum damage
- The satchel arms after 0.5 seconds, increasing its max damage to 50
- Shooting the blast pack causes it to detonate, dealing its current damage amount
- The satchel no longer damages allies
Weapon Updates
Guardian
- Price reduced from 2500 to 2400
- Improved rate of fire from 4.75 to 5.25 rounds per second
- Improved weapon recovery from 0.35 after 3 bullets to 0.2925 after 3 bullets
Map Rotation Changes
- The matchmaking queue now considers your recently played maps across all modes
- This ensures a higher chance of playing on a map you haven’t played recently
- It also reduces the likelihood of playing on the same map multiple times in a row
Quality of Life Improvements
- Observers will now see a timer instead of their screen being obscured when observing a blinded player
- Fullscreen blind for observers can be enabled in the options
- Improved minimap performance
- The social panel no longer sorts when hovering or interacting with it
- Updated wording in the All Ranks modal on the Career page to align with Competitive overtime rules
Bug Fixes
- Fixed visual effects for Prime Classic
- Upgraded Prime levels (2–4) now have the correct tracers, sound effects, and other visual effects
- End of Game screen no longer displays a “Still processing” message and missing matches in the Career tab
- Fixed display of “High Skill Disparity” in Custom Game Lobbies
Related keywords: Riot Games, VALORANT patch, Raze changes, Guardian improvements, map rotation adjustments, quality of life updates, bug fixes, competitive mode, solo queue, matchmaking.