Recent Act 1 Battlepass Player Card Leak from Episode 8 Provides a Preview of Valorant’s Future Agent and Subtly Hints it being a Controller!
With the final patch of 2023, Valorant embarks on a new journey in 2024, promising an exciting year for the franchise. There have been hints in the new battle pass for Episode 8, Act 1 regarding the introduction of a new agent to the popular PvP game. The player card sneak peek was released by well-known Twitter user ValorLeaks, who also provided some extra information regarding the upcoming release of a new agent.
Apparently, the agent is set to release in the Act 2 of Episode 8 in March. It has been a few months since the release of the newest duelist Iso, and the addition of a controller could really spice up players’ experience. A few users voiced their displeasure with the role, suggesting that adding a “Initiator” would be a better choice.
Last Patch of the Year 7.12
The most recent and final patch for Valorant for 2023 was released on December 5th. In the patch, “Skye” and “Gekko,” two of the most popular initiators in the game, received both nerfs and buffs with an additional TDM map “Drift”.
Agent Updates
Gekko
Being able to retrieve his pets is one of Gekko’s special abilities. The goal of this update is to accelerate the process so you can recover them in more circumstances. Furthermore, dizzy has become easier to recover and more reliable.
- Reclaim for Dizzy (E), Wingman (Q), and Thrash (X)
- Reduce reclaim channel time from 2s >>> 1s
- Dizzy (E)
- Once Dizzy is ready to shoot and sees a target, they will shoot faster and the projectile will travel faster.
- Pre-fire targeting delay decreased from 0.5s >>> 0.35s
- Missile speed increased from 7000 to 10000
Skye
Skye’s trailblazer will get a major nerf in order to improve teamwork and make gameplay more strategic when navigating around trailblazer.
- Trailblazer (Q)
- Camera movement is disabled during the leap.
- When the Trailblazer is destroyed during the leap, it no longer causes a concuss explosion.
- Trailblazer plays the destruction voice line when destroyed during the leap.
- Trailblazer explosion now concusses allies as well as enemies.
Map
Bug Fixes
- Agent
- Fixed a bug where kills would not be awarded to you while controlling an ability. This affected Sova getting a kill with Shock Dart (Q) while controlling Owl Drone (C), Gekko’s Mosh (C) kills while controlling Thrash (X), and Cypher’s Trapwire (C) kills while controlling Spycam (E).
- When KAY/O is downed during his NULL-CMD (X), the red portrait will now show for everyone in the game.
- Player Behavior
- Fixed an issue where in rare cases, someone would spawn in the next round after being detected AFK, preventing the pistol round bonus for their teammates.
- Premier
- Fixed an issue in Overtime Voting where “Waiting for Opponents” message appears behind the voting team.
