3 Biggest Changes in Valorant Episode 3
By Ayrton Lauw
Episode 3 in Valorant has had some of the more ambitious changes for players for the game's first birthday. As the game shifts towards its goal of providing "precise gunplay" for its players, various weapons and Agents have all been adjusted for the release of the newest Episode 3.
3 Biggest Changes in Valorant Episode 3
As there were a lot of changes for this patch, developers decided to provide a better experience for their players as there have been large nerfs and buffs for both weapons and agents, all the while improving the user interface to make the game more visually appealing.
1. Changes to Accuracy
As part of the sweeping changes to the games promise of "precise gunplay" developers have made guns more inaccurate when moving while shooting. It isn't a shock to the community that the "run-and-gun" playstyle was just as deadly as it was unfair when players were just spraying and running with their Agent and it would somehow translate to a headshot. To combat this, this recent patch has had changes for all of the weapons in the game. Rifles, among other guns, have all had their walking inaccuracy changed with higher values and some have had both their walking inaccuracy and running inaccuracy changed to higher values as well. The community has been at arms on the issue, and developers have seemed to take a step in their direction with this change, though the values are minimal when looking at it on paper, however, the update has made running-and-gunning a lot harder, if not impossible to do now.
2. Price Updates
Changes to prices of a wide variety of guns have both nerfed and buffed the effectiveness of the weapons. Weapons like the Judge shotgun cost 1,600, but now has been changed to be even more expensive at 1,850. Though some of the more powerful guns have been nerfed, other weapons that were not so popular have decreased in price, serving as a buff to allow more gameplay with those weapons. One of the more eye-raising price changes is for the Operator sniper rifle, as it was the game's priciest gun to purchase from the menu at 5,000, it has now decreased to 4,700 - still the most expensive gun, but does ease the pressure off buying this gun immensely.
3. Agent Balances
Some Agents in the game have been adjusted to help balance gameplay for all players, whether that be changes to abilities or smaller interactions between other Agents. Most Agents have had their ultimate ability points increased by one point in order to alleviate using ultimates very early on. Some of the smaller changes include Jett's Tailwind (E) ability, which can now be caught by Cypher's Trapwire (C) ability if dashed through. The largest change to an agent would have to be to Breach's Rolling Thunder (X) ultimate ability which now has all of its explosions changed to the same size as the final explosion when previously the size would increase when reaching towards the endpoint of its explosions. He has also had his flash ability, Flashpoint (Q), reduced from three charges to only two now, along with Skye who's also had her charges on Guiding Light (E) also reduced from three charges to two.