Raze was the only agent to see any updates in Valorant’s 1.05 update, and once again, she’s received a number of nerfs to try and bring her more in line with the rest of the game’s roster.
The big news from Valorant’s August 4 1.05 patch was definitely the arrival of Killjoy, who might take away the title of “most OP agent in the game” away from Raze – especially after the latter saw another round of nerfs from the same patch.
Since she was released all the way back in April for the game’s closed beta, players have complained that Raze and her kit are much too overpowered and easy to dominate with compared to Valorant’s other agents.
Apparently Riot has been listening to our complaints, as she was the only agent to receive any kind of update – and that’s good news for everyone (except Raze mains), as two of her more troublesome abilities, Blast Pack and Showstopper, have been nerfed.
Starting out, we’ll look at the changes to Raze’s Showstopper ultimate, the rocket launcher she seems to pull out of nowhere and start blasting with. The time to equip the ultimate has been increased from 1.1 seconds to 1.4, and the quick equip has gone from .5 to .07. Developers also reduced the visual effects when she fires the rocket and on the missile’s trail.
One of the biggest issues players had with Raze’s ultimate is that, even if it doesn’t kill you, it would basically act as a sort of quasi-smoke, making it difficult to target the agent as she fires away at the enemy.
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“With the lethality of Raze’s Showstopper, we wanted to make some changes that will provide enemies more time to plan and acquire Raze when hearing ‘Fire in the Hole!’” Riot devs explained in the patch notes. “Additionally, we have adjusted her VFX so that players are able to notice Raze as she fires, increasing their ability to shoot a Raze that takes riskier plays.”
Her Blast Pack time bomb ability definitely saw the heaviest nerf out of the two, with its damage being reduced by a third, from 75 to just 50. This is significant because now instead of being able to cut into the health of a fully armored opponent, it will only take them down to their base of 100 health, instead of 75 overall.
“Raze’s Blast Pack has been hitting players a bit too hard, able to kill a fully armored enemy in certain situations,” devs explained. “We want to reduce this ability’s efficacy at damaging players while sharpening its ability at clearing enemy utility and obstacles.”
Only time will tell if these changes will have any real effect on the chaos the agent is capable of in a given match, but with the release of Killjoy and her automated turret among other abilities, Raze’s reign as the most controversial Valorant character could be coming to a close.
