Valorant Developers Test Out New Flash Changes on PBE

Riot Games developers working on Valorant have pushed some crucial flash changes onto the game’s Public Beta Environment (PBE) server this week. Notably, the PBE server is North American only. The developers stated that they wanted to make some changes to sharpen the roles for Skye, KAY/O, Reyna, and Yoru in Valorant. Riot also noted that this weekend’s PBE cycle will focus on Agent flash changes and Progression updates and will close on 26th September.

The Valorant character design team is constantly discussing the state of the Agent meta and has made changes to sharpen some of the agents and define their roles. “We’re in a more stable state since Champions, and Game Changers teams will have decent time to acclimate before the Game Changers World Championships takes place,” said Riot Games.

Changes to flash abilities in Valorant

Riot Games acknowledged that the duelists with a flash ability in the game are often outclassed by initiators since they can also generate kills for themselves off their flashes. “Skye and KAY/O are often better at taking aggressive 1v1s than Agents that we expect to be able to thrive in those scenarios like Yoru, Phoenix, or Reyna,” it noted.

The main objective of the flash changes is to increase the total teamplay output of Skye and KAY/O when they coordinate plays with teammates and lower their efficacy while engaging in 1v1s. The company and Valorant developers hope to increase the reward for putting more time into mastering the flash abilities of these initiators. “We believe that Initiators should still be able to make solo plays, but they should ideally be weaker than their Duelist counterparts in these scenarios,” said Designer Dan “penguin” Hardison.

The following are the changes that are now live on the Valorant PBE:

Skye

• Guiding Light (E) flashbang scaling paradigm changed: The max flash duration of Skye's Guiding Light now scales from 1.25s to 2.25s over a 0.75s charge up after being cast

• Guiding Light can no longer be shot and destroyed: New visual effects (VFX), user interface (UI), and sounds added to communicate new gameplay intent

• [Not in PBE] Unequip Delay out of Guiding Light increased 0.75s >>> 0.85s

KAY/O

• FLASH/DRIVE (Q): Underhand (right-click) flashbang max duration decreased 2s>>>1.25s

• Overhand (left-click) flashbang max duration increased 2s>>>2.25s

• [Not in PBE] Unequip Delay out of both flashes decreased 0.6s >>> 0.85s

Reyna

• Leer: Wind-up of nearsight effect increased 0.6s >>> 0.4s

• Range Restriction on Leer removed

• Nearsight unequip delay decreased: 0.7 >>> 0.5s

• Nearsight unequip delay set to “Instant”

• Duration decreased 2.6s >>> 2.0s

Yoru

• BLINDSIDE (Q) duration increased 1.5s >>>1.75s

• Flash Visual Updates

1. 3P visuals for flashed enemies and allies now render behind the player’s head the moment that the flash starts to fade. “This should give a clearer indication if players are full flashed or if the flash has started to fade.”

2. 1P visuals when fully flashed now shrink overtime to give a better indication of when the full flash will end and the flash fading out will begin.

3. Increased the window for awarding assists on flashes, nearsights, and concusses from 1 >>> 3 seconds after the debuff starts to fade.

Riot Games felt the assist window on these debuffs did not reflect their actual duration of impact and wanted to make sure the supportive players are more often recognized and rewarded for setting up situations their teammates capitalize on.

• Reduced the size of the hologram on the body marker that shows up when dead bodies are turned off.