• The Valorant 1.09 patch comes with four major changes: Operator nerf, 5 agents get abilities slightly tweaked, landing accuracy nerf and forced name changes.
  • Operator increased to 5000, movement, fire-rate reduced
  • A forced name change for players with offensive or misleading names

This is quite a big patch, most of the changes focused towards the operator, with a price increase, movement and fire rate reduction and increased inaccuracy when moving. The rest of the changes are some minor balancing of agent abilities, including fire rate of Reyna and Brimstone, landing accuracy has been nerfed and there has been a forced name change (for offensive names or impersonating Riot staff).

Operator Nerf

The Operator nerf is big and sees a 500 price increase, decreased scope movement speed, reduced accuracy speed when moving or stopping, fire rate reduction, instant equip time increase and leg shot damage decreased. The goal is to reduce the operators aggressive capacity (making is harder to quick-scope and peek), and giving more opportunity for counterplay.

  • Increased price from 4500 >>> 5000
  • Decreased scoped movement speed from 76% >>> 72%
  • Adjusted weapon deadzone from becoming inaccurate at 30%
  • movement speed >>> 15% (become
  • inaccurate sooner, become accurate later when stopping)
  • Firing rate reduced from .75 >>> .6
  • Instant equip time adjusted from 0.3 >>> 0.5 (instant equip plays after tapping orb, bomb defuse/plant tap, Jett Cloud Burst, and Phoenix Curveball)
  • Leg shot damage decreased from 127 >>> 120

Omen: Paranoia Fix

The hitbox of paranoia looked smaller than what was actually visible to players so it has been cleaned up.

  • -Updated projectile VFX to better represent its hitbox, especially when it is traveling towards your POV.

JETT: BLADE STORM (BURST FIRE)

The burst fire of Jett’s ult has been performing better at long range than intended so has been nerfed.

  • The time between consecutive Burst Fire use has increased from 0.33 seconds >>> 0.45 seconds
  • Daggers thrown in Burst now have a damage falloff that begins at 12 meters and drops steadily (to 35 damage) at max falloff
  • Headshot multiplier on Burst Fire reduced from 3x >>> 2x

Viper Buff

Despite being buffed in 1.07 the dev team still feel Viper’s impact is lower than desired so another small buff sees her start each round with 100 fuel, her snake bite debuff staying for 2 seconds after leaving the acid pit, and faster speed and weapon re-equip in for casting. “This round of changes continues in the same vein as patch 1.07—increasing her flexibility, especially when trying to play with teammates.”

  • FUEL: Viper now starts the round at 100 fuel (previously 50)
  • SNAKE BITE:
    -Vulnerable debuff applied from Snake Bite now lingers for 2 seconds after leaving Viper’s acid
  • VIPER’S PIT:
    -Move speed doubled while casting
    -Viper now fast equips her weapon after casting, re-equip times vary per gun—but on average will reduce her weapon down time by .4 seconds

Reyna: Empress

The increased 25% fire rate with Reyna’s ult was too strong with weapons such as heavies and smgs so it has been reduced to something more reasonable.

  • Fire rate bonus decreased from 25% >>> 15%

Brimstone: Stim Beacon

Devs felt his stim beacon was performing more weakly than intended so brought it up to match with Reyna’s new fire rate.

  • Fire rate bonus increased from 10% >>> 15%

All Weapons

Players were landing and hitting jump shots too easily so it was nerfed a little. This seems to be more of a nerf for Operator players who want to play this game like Quake.

  • Jump land inaccuracy state changed from gradual >>> binary
  • Jump land inaccuracy duration increased from .2 >>> .225
  • Jump land inaccuracy value increased from 5.0 >>> 7.0 (more inaccurate for .225s after a land)

Social Updates

Players with offensive names or disguising themselves as Riot staff will be forced to change their names.

  • Riot ID Reviews
  • Players that have been reported for inappropriate Riot IDs will now be reviewed automatically after the match has ended. If their name is flagged as inappropriate, they will be forced to change their Riot ID the next time they log in to the Riot Client.
  • Removed Multi-line Breaks in Chat
  • Some sneaky people were impersonating system messages to troll others into quitting a match. Enough!
  • Changes to party push to talk settings will now take effect immediately
  • The chat window can now be pinned to stay open across menus
  • Social Panel Sorting Logic
  • Sorting algorithm for the social panel has been updated to make it more intuitive for players as they interact with it.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed issue where Sova’s hitbox was incorrect while using his Owl Drone
  • Fixed bug where Omen’s glowing eyes weren’t properly removed when he cancelled his ult
  • Fixed a bug where Custom Game preferences would be wiped after navigating away from the Custom Game lobby