With Act 3 just around the corner, devs have rolled out Patch Notes 1.10 to ensure better gameplay in the upcoming Act. We already know about the new Agent Skye and the new map Icebox. And here they have revealed what all is in store for the third Act of the Ignition Series.
What is Patch Notes 1.10 supposed to bring us?
Other than the new map and the agent, there are a lot of updates in the various sections of the tac shooter. So, here is the complete list of changes that come with this patch note.
Maps
For Icebox, Riot's Comms Associate, Jeff Landa, says that this map has been launched in beta and will be available just for Spike Rush, Unrated and Deathmatch for the first two weeks while they monitor and optimize performances and fix bugs if any comes up. These are the updates that Patch Notes 1.10 will bring us:
- Early in the patch, players queuing for Unrated will more often get placed on Icebox
- Ascenders (Ropes) / Ziplines
- Acceleration adjusted to prevent sudden shifts in direction (this was added in the last patch but wasn’t in the patch notes because well, you might start asking about ziplines)
- Added weapon tagging when shot while on Ascenders
- These changes are intended to make players that are using Ascenders and Ziplines less evasive during combat.
"Each Icebox site is a complex combat space that features plenty of cover and verticality. This map emphasizes skirmishes, sharp aim, and adaptive play. There’s also a zipline that amplifies the feeling of quick action and verticality."
-Jeff Landa
Comms Associate, Riot Games.
Other than this, the following changes have also been added for Bind and Ascent.
- Vision Cones accuracy improved for Ascent, Bind
- Haven, Split may also be updated in this patch
- Called out by Reddit user sabocano
Competitive Updates
Valorant Patch Notes 1.10 means the end of Act 2 and start of Act 3, hence our competitive progress will be saved and tier will be reset to the last tier we attained.
- You can now select your preferred server(s), increasing the chance you will play on a server you want
- The rank disparity for parties capped at 3 tiers (from 6).
- Tightened our competitive matchmaking to reduce skill disparity.
- Immortal+ ranked changes will only be impacted by winning and losing and the decisiveness of the game outcome (how many rounds won or lost by) and not factor individual performance into the calculation
- Will testing and monitoring this change in Act III for potential future implementation in all ranks.
More to Explore: Want free gun skins on Valorant? Claim yours now.
Quality of Life
Valorant Patch Notes 1.10 is all set to upgrade the quality of life by bringing in these changes-
- he Battlepass now has upgrade Variants for the Surge skin line, including the free track Surge Sheriff
- Minimap performance increased
- Tournament mode enabled custom games can now fit up to 12 observers
- Requested guns can now be sold back to the shop, doing so will refund the player who fulfilled the request
- The observer can now hold walk when in freecam mode to reduce speed (fast and slow speed can be configured in settings menu)
- In-world pings are now team-colored for observers
- Reyna and Phoenix ult timers correctly update for observers
- The keybind text in the current spectate target widget has been removed for observers
- Flashed indicator for observers has been updated with new art
- Crosshair setting added that allows crosshair colors to be locked to team color for observers
- Players no longer get stuck trying to descend vent ropes while walking (leaving A-Tower)
- Added new modifier keybind for observers to jump straight to freecam when jumping to a player (left shift by default)
- Plant/defuse progress UI is now always visible to observers and includes which player is taking the action
- Observer player no longer see player-specific hud indicators (e.g. taking damage indicator) when in freecam
- Ability timers now work for dead/spectating players & observers (e.g. Reyna & Phoenix ult durations)
More to Explore- Act 3 roadmap revealed. Check here.
Game Mode Updates (DeathMatch)
Patch Notes 1.10 brings us a revamped Deathmatch scenario with these updates:
- Increased player count 10 >>> 14 players
- Updated spawning algorithm to encourage safer spawns
- Now that we’ve fixed some tech on the backend, we can support up to 14 players without compromising on our commitment to 128 tick-rate servers. With 10 players, you’d sometimes have to run 10 or 15 seconds to even find a fight, which can really kill your flow. Sometimes you’d also spawn way too close to enemies. This was because we had to artificially increase spawn density because of the low player count. Now that the player count has increased, we’ve re-tuned our spawning algorithm to try and give more consistently safer spawns.
- Removed periodic location pulse, and you’ll now only receive a pulse right when you respawn
- Now that there are 14 players on the map, the pulse feels completely unnecessary. We’re keeping a single pulse for players right when they respawn so that they can help get their bearings and find a quick fight without getting caught off guard.
- Increased match length, first to 40 kills (was 30), time limit upped to 9 minutes (was 6)
- We felt like the match length was a little too short to get into a real groove, especially now with more players, so we’re bumping the duration and kill limit up a bit.
- Kill Reloads: On every kill, players get an automatic, immediate full reload of their active weapon (Ares & Odin get 30 bullets back)
- It already felt a little frustrating to have to reload in Deathmatch, and now that player count is higher, reloading feels like even more of a deathwish.
- XP gain increased from 500 to 900 XP
- Honestly, 500 XP felt a little low for Deathmatch. We’re bumping this up to 900 to account for the increased match length with some extra on top.
- Players will now be able to add and view friend notes. Notes from League of Legends will transfer over to VALORANT as well. Players will be able to edit these notes from VALORANT
- The social panel will now pause sorting for a short time while you’re interacting with it
Bug Fixes
Valorant Patch Notes 1.10 will be coming with the following bug fixes:
- Fixed a Shooting Range bug in the plant/defuse module in the shooting range where players couldn’t buy abilities
- Various Shooting Range UI bug fixes in the plant/defuse module, including incorrect text in the buy phase announcement, also adding a halfway tick to the defuse progress bar
- Fixed a bug where other players’ messages would be forcefully filtered out of chat after you sent a message
- Fixed a bug where the text box would not fade away in-game.
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