Riot Games has released Patch 13.00 for VALORANT. In addition to introducing the new Summit map and the Retake game mode, the developers focused on global agent balance changes. The main goal of the patch is to increase the value of tactical information while reducing the punishment for using abilities early in a round.
The changes to Sentinel agents are aimed at making site defense more reliable while allowing for greater flexibility when repositioning traps during rounds. Reckless site executions without prior reconnaissance will now be punished much more severely.
The fire rate of her Turret has been increased by 50%, while the movement speed of Alarmbot has also been increased by 50%. The duration of Nanoswarm has been extended from 4 to 5 seconds.
The amount of self-healing provided by Healing Orb has been doubled, increasing from 50 to 100 HP.
The cooldown of Interceptor after being recalled has been reduced from 30 to 20 seconds. The range of Crosscut has been increased from 24 to 30 meters, while its activation time after deployment has been cut in half to 0.75 seconds.
The deployment time of Trapwire has been reduced from 0.9 to 0.7 seconds.
The cooldown of GravNet has been reduced from 60 to 50 seconds.
To provide more effective counterplay against Sentinels, the developers have simplified information gathering for most Initiators by reducing the cooldowns of their key abilities.
For five agents, the cooldown of their signature abilities has been reduced from 60 to 50 seconds:
Gekko also received significant individual buffs: the cooldown on his abilities after retrieving his companions has been reduced from 20 to 15 seconds. The only agent in the Initiator class that received no balance changes in this patch was Tejo.
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