Another day brings another patch from Riot Games. This time, it is the Valorant Patch 9.11, which is the last patch before the new year; this Valorant Patch aims to balance some agents, such as Neon and Vyse who dominated the pick, especially Neon with her overpowering two slides and full accuracy shooting while sliding, another thing Riot Games is fixing in the Patch 9.11 is the ping system which should fix the ping and spray meta and some light bug fixes that aim to make the game look and feel better.
Here’s a full breakdown of the newest Valorant Patch 9.11:
Patch 9.11 Highlights/ Image courtesy of Riot Games.
Contents
Agent Updates
Neon’s Abilities Update: High Gear and Overdrive are being adjusted to encourage more intentional and strategic play.
- High Gear Changes:
- Sliding will require more deliberate decision-making.
- Increased cost for using the slide.
- Enhanced effectiveness in close-quarters combat to reward aggressive play.
- Reduced effectiveness at long ranges to limit consistency in long-range engagements.
- Slides 2 >>> 1
- Accuracy during slide
- Complete accuracy >>> Crouch-walking accuracy
- Overdrive Changes:
- Increased counterplay opportunities for opponents to stall or disengage.
- The ultimate cost increased to 8 points due to its high average round impact.
- Duration of ultimate: 20s >>> 10s
- Ultimate points 7 >>> 8
Vyse
Vyse has been getting its first buff since its release, and here are every changes Riot Games has made to it.
Razorvine Updates:
- Improved space-holding effectiveness.
- Addressed unclear gameplay scenarios with Razorvines on high objects.
- Damage Changes:
- Damage per tick of moving through Razorvine 6 → 10.
- Vertical Spawn Adjustment:
- Drop spawn height is reduced from 450 → 300 to limit the impact on players below high objects.
- Dash Interaction:
- Now slows enemy dashes, similar to Sage’s Slowing Orb and concuss effects.
Arc Rose:
- The quality of life has been improved to make aggressive plays easier after placing Arc Rose.
- Equip Speed:
- Changed from Normal → Fast after casting.
Gameplay Systems Updates
Riot Games created the ping system to allow the players to communicate without a microphone. Over the years, players have developed a system that helps them utilize the ping system beyond its intended use. Many players use it as a spam button where players ping the bomb to their teammates and kill the diffuser; even the dead players can ping the spike and alert their team. Patch 9.11 introduces a new way of using the ping system. Here are all the changes that were made to the ping system.
- Smokes now block in-game pings, placing them on the smoke instead.
- Map pings will only appear on the minimap, not the actual gameplay.
- New ping visuals and sounds were introduced for better differentiation.
- A future patch will include a cheat function for map pings to appear in the gameplay during custom games for practice purposes.
Before
After
Mode Updates
Team Deathmatch
A small adjustment was made to the team deathmatch mode when the player is at stage one he will be receiving a Regen Shield instead of light shield.
- Stage 1 Classic
- Light Armor >>> Regen Shield
Lastly, these changes were necessary for the overall health of the game, especially the Neon nerf after she dominated both pro play and ranked matches with her overpower utilities and complete accuracy while sliding, which made a hard target and almost unstoppable ultimate, fair to say that this patch was much needed for Valorant.
Another interesting thing this patch has brought is the introduction of the new ping system, which denies players from playing back and relying on spam. Instead, Riot Games decided it would be best for more aggressive fights during post-plants, and playing time correctly is the right choice moving forward in this game.
