VALORANT Patch Notes 3.0 - What's New?

by Juandi June 18, 2021

The full patch notes have been reproduced below:

AGENT UPDATES

ALL AGENTS

  • Signature abilities now only provide a minimum of one charge per round instead of accumulating a charge every round.
    • For example, if you have a two charge signature ability and you end the round with one charge remaining, you will not gain an additional charge
  • Charges gained from cooldowns are now always temporary
  • Visibility returns faster during the fadeout period of all flashes

AGENT: KAY/O

KAY/O is the latest Initiator on the VALORANT roster, stacked with gear to suppress, flash, and explode the smartest of plays. The anti-Radiant weapon is a machine unlike any other.

See all of KAY/O’s abilities on Riot Games' Agent page.

ASTRA
Nova Pulse (Q)
Cooldown time increased 12 >>> 25
Gravity Well (C)
Cooldown time increased 12 >>> 25
Stars/Astral Form (X)
Stars are now inactive when placed during the buy phase
When the barriers drop, her Stars charge for 1.4 seconds before becoming active and usable.
On Attack, Astra can now see the Spike’s location in Astral form
This representation does not animate so it will not provide additional info on the status of the Spike.
Recall cooldown increased 8 >>> 15
Granted signature charges decreased 2 >>> 1
Star cost decreased 200 >>>150

BREACH
Flashpoint (Q)
Total charges reduced 3 >>> 2
Cost increased 200 >>> 250
Projectile speed decreased 2500 >>>2000
Fault Line (E)
Full charge time decreased 1.5 >>> 1 second
Width increased 600 >>> 750
Telegraph windup time decreased 1.3 >>> 1
Concussion duration increased 3 >>> 3.5
Unequip time after firing decreased 1 >>> .7
Cooldown time increased 35 >>> 40
After Shock (C)
Now explodes 3 times with each blast dealing 60 damage with no fall off, blasts are .6 seconds apart
Explosion radius increased 260 >>> 300
Unuequip time after firing decreased 1.1 >>> .9 seconds
Cost increased 100 >>> 200
Rolling Thunder (X)
Width of all explosions increased to 2300, which was the previous width of the final explosion

BRIMSTONE
Incendiary (Q)
Cost increased 200 >>> 250

CYPHER
Neural Theft (X)
Ultimate points required decreased 7 >>> 6

JETT
Updraft (Q)
Cost increased 100 >>> 150
Tailwind (E)
No longer breaks Cypher’s Trapwire
Cloudburst (C)
Cost increased 100 >>> 200
Bladestorm (X)
Ultimate points required increased 6 >>> 7

KILLJOY
Alarmbot (Q)
Cooldown after pickup increased 7 >>> 20
Turret (E)
Cooldown after pickup increased 10 >>> 20

OMEN
Paranoia (Q)
Cost decreased 400 >>> 300
Dark Cover (E)
Granted signature charges reduced 2 >>> 1
Omen now must buy his second smoke for 100
Cooldown time increased 35 >>> 40
Shrouded Step (C)
Cost increased 100 >>> 150

PHOENIX
Curveball (Q)
Cost increased 200 >>> 250

RAZE
Model Update
Model has been updated with a polish pass
Boombot (C)
Cost increased 200 >>> 400
Showstopper (X)
Ultimate points required increased 7 >>> 8

REYNA
Leer (C)
Cost increased 200 >>> 250

SAGE
Slow Orb (Q)
Cost increased 100 >>> 200
Barrier Orb (C)
Cost increased 300 >>> 400
Resurrection (X)
Ultimate points required increased 7 >>> 8

SKYE
Trailblazer (Q)
Vision radius increased 1750 >>> 2250
Max concussion duration increased 3 >>> 4
Cost increased 200 >>> 250
Guiding Light (E)
Charges reduced 3 >>> 2
Charges are now replenished on a 40-second cooldown
Skye no longer needs to re-equip to trigger her flash
Guiding Light’s projectile now goes around corners tighter when free-flying and is more responsive to guiding
Audio attenuation when cast reduced 3250 >>> 1250
Cost of charges increased 100 >>> 250

SOVA
Shock Dart (Q)
Cost increased 100 >>> 150
Recon Bolt (E)
Cooldown time increased 35 >>> 40
Owl Drone (C)
Cost increased 300 >>> 400
Hunter’s Fury (X)
Ultimate points required increased 7 >>> 8

VIPER
Snakebite (C)
Duration reduced 8 >>> 6.5
Outer edges of Viper’s acid patch form faster to ensure it is lethal if an enemy sits in the entire duration
Cost increased 100 >>> 200

YORU
Blindside (Q)
Cost increased 200 >>> 250
Gatecrash (E)
Cooldown time increased 35 >>> 40

WEAPON UPDATES

ALL WEAPONS

  • Bullet tagging changed from 75% slow >>> 72.5% slow
    • “Tagging” is the slowing effect you feel when hit by bullets
  • Weapon Deadzones changed from 30% >>> 27.5%
    • “Deadzone” in VALORANT refers to the movement speed a player becomes inaccurate

ALL RIFLES

  • Walking inaccuracy changed from 1.3 >>> 2.0
  • Running unchanged at 5.0

ALL HEAVIES

  • Walking Inaccuracy changed from .5 >>> 2.4
  • Running unchanged at 6.0

ALL SMGS

  • Walking inaccuracy changed from .3 >>> 1.0
  • Running inaccuracy changed from 2.0 >>> 2.5

CLASSIC

  • Walking inaccuracy changed from .25 >>> .84
  • Running inaccuracy changed from 1.5 >>> 2.1

FRENZY

  • Price decreased 500 >>> 450
  • Walking inaccuracy changed from .25 >>> .8
  • Running inaccuracy changed from 1.0 >>> 2.0

GHOST

  • Walking inaccuracy changed from .25 >>> .92
  • Running Inaccuracy changed from 1.85 >>> 2.3

SHERIFF

  • Walking inaccuracy changed from .25 >>> 1.2
  • Running inaccuracy changed from 2.0 >>> 3.0

JUDGE

  • Price increased 1600 >>> 1850
  • Damage falloff at 10m changed from 13 per pellet >>> 10 per pellet
  • Damage falloff at 15m changed from 10 per pellet >>> 7 per pellet

BULLDOG

  • Hip-fire (full auto mode) firing rate increased from 9.15 RPS >>> 9.5 RPS
  • Price decreased 2100 >>> 2050

SHORTY

  • Price decreased 200 >>> 150

STINGER

  • Price decreased 1100 >>> 950

BUCKY

  • Price decreased 900 >>> 850

MARSHAL

  • Price decreased 1000 >>> 950

ARES

  • Price decreased 1600 >>> 1550

OPERATOR

  • Price decreased from 5000 >>> 4700

GUARDIAN

  • Price decreased 2400 >>> 2250

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

Here are all of the competitive updates included in VALORANT update 3.0 patch notes:

  • Reduced the possibility of feeling “hard stuck” on older accounts. If your skill improves, your rank should properly reflect that, regardless of account age.
  • Matchmaking accuracy will improve across all ranks, which should lead to a smoother ranked climb and reduce how hard you may swing up and down in rank
  • While winning games is still the most important factor, individual performance will also be accounted for to improve matchmaking at Immortal+
    • This should result in better matches at the highest levels.
  • Close games will have a smaller effect on rank rating gains and losses
  • Adjusted our Rank Rating curves, so climbing (or falling) should feel less volatile
  • Updated Rank distribution
  • Placements raised to Diamond 1
    • This should help reduce the grind for our players at the top

PERFORMANCE UPDATES

Players with medium to high spec machines (CPU bound systems) may see up to 6% performance improvements as a result of the following work:

  • Improved clipping plane calculations using multithreading
  • Improved thread utilization across multiple cores for distributed tasks
  • Optimized camera calculations
  • Optimized ambient audio for each map
  • Fix for Character Ability HUD invalidation box
  • General optimizations for all ability animations

SOCIAL UPDATES

  • Hover Cards have been added to the social panel
    • Hover over your friends list to quickly learn more about the players you have added. 
  • You can now invite to party with Riot ID in custom game

GAMEPLAY TECHNOLOGY

KILLFEED

  • Your kills will get an additional highlighted border to make them stand out
  • Kill assists will also be shown to the left of the killfeed entries
  • The killfeed will also display a highlighted border for your assist portrait
  • The killfeed will display certain ultimate abilities when players on either team are killed in a second-life state or revived
    • For example: Sage’s player resurrection or Phoenix’s death during his Run It Back ability.
  • Added multi-colored killfeeds in cases where kills would result in the same team color appearing side by side

“ROUND ROLLBACK” FEATURE FOR TOURNAMENT MODE CUSTOM GAMES

  • This feature allows you to set the game back to the start of a previous round and re-play the game starting from there
  • To enable the feature, go to “Options” while setting up a Custom Game and toggle “On” Tournament Mode
    • Moderators can activate a rollback
    • If Cheats are enabled as a Custom Game option, all players can activate a rollback.
  • During the match, the Round Rollback feature can be found in the “Cheats” section of the Menu.
  • Added the ability to toggle on and off the outer crosshair lines!
  • Adjusted assist timings and thresholds for utility-based assists to make them more consistent across different Agent abilities.

PROGRESSION UPDATES

  • Happy anniversary VALORANT! To celebrate, Riot has added a new Year One Event Pass—this is similar to a Battlepass but it's completely free and has some really cool goodies.
    • This will be active for the duration of Patch 3.0 and will only last till 3.01 goes live.
  • What's a party without friends? Riot has also added a Squad Boost: You will get extra XP when you play in a premade group.
    • +8% boost for one additional player, +12% for two, +16% for three, and +20% for a full squad.
    • This will also be active for the duration of 3.0.
  • Riot is also permanently adding Account Leveling: A new way to recognize and reward you for your time playing in all VALORANT game modes.