After what seems like an eternity, VALORANT has finally entered its second Act.

The newest wave of VALORANT content has finally arrived, featuring many features that have been requested by fans since the game’s beta. A slight nerf to Raze has many players rejoicing, casual players can enjoy a new gamemode, and competitive ranks have been reset.

Patch 1.05 features five major changes to the game. Killjoy, a previously leaked Agent, has been added to the game. As the second, post-launch Agent in VALORANT, Killjoy promises to bring massive changes to gameplay. Featuring an automated turret and a defensive playstyle, she looks as though she might give Cypher a run for his money when it comes to locking down a bombsite. Killjoy’s contract is available for activation, meaning that players can start earning experience to unlock her as soon as possible.

For the past three months, Raze has been dominating games when it comes to pumping out kills and throwing rockets down hallways, easily acing the enemy team. While she can definitely still do this, a nerf to her ultimate ability and Blast Packs will make fighting against her a little bit more bearable.

It now takes longer for Showstopper, her annoying rocket launcher, to equip. This will give enemies more time to react to her ultimate’s voice line, gaining 0.3 seconds to duck into cover. While this doesn’t sound like a lot of time, in many situations it will be enough time to slip away from the majority of the damage. There is also a new visual effect associated with her ultimate, making it easier to see her as she sails through the air. Additionally, Raze’s Blast Packs now have a lower damage cap, only able to deal 5o damage to enemies per explosion. This has removed Raze’s ability to to kill an opponent with full armor using only two Blast Packs. These C4-esque explosives allowed Raze to consistently win duels without ever firing her gun, a huge problem in a game that is supposed to be centered around gunplay.

Act Ranks are also live, a feature I discussed in detail last week. Essentially, each Act now rewards players with a badge based on how highly they placed in their ranked games. In this update, ranks are also receiving a soft reset. If players completed their placements in the last Act, their rank will be hidden for three games. It doesn’t seen like MMR or actual ranks will be fully reset, as players aren’t required to play a full five placement matches. It is likely that this ranked change will not affect players’ experiences too greatly.

Another ranked change has affected how matchmaking works. Players are now more likely to face opponents with similar group sizes as them. This means that a pre-made group of five will have an increased chance of fighting against another group of five. While queue times for these groups will inevitably be longer, this will make games a lot closer when it comes to skill gaps.

A huge feature in this update is a new deathmatch mode, a feature that fans have been begging Riot for since the closed beta. This free for all will not be available to play until August 5, and will only be available during certain times as the mode is still in a beta stage.

The final addition coming with the new patch is a brand new Battlepass. With it comes a new wave of weapon skins, gun buddies, sprays, and more. The trailer for the Battlepass can be seen below, featuring a set of skins that look oddly similar to the Sovereign skin line.

Hopefully VALORANT Act II will be well received by fans. Killjoy has the potential to really change the game, and Raze could still be an incredibly powerful Agent.

Source: Riot Games

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