VALORANT Patch 11.08

Overview

Hello everyone, this patch is a big one! The entire VALORANT team has been working to bring VALORANT closer to our long-term vision for the game, preserving our core identity as a tactical shooter while evolving toward a healthier balance between gunplay and abilities.

TL;DR- we are making adjustments across gameplay to create a healthy dialogue in combat - one where there are clear ways to respond and adapt to what the enemy team is doing round over round. These changes aim to strike a healthier balance between sharp gunplay and the unique abilities that give VALORANT its signature tactical flavor. They span agents, weapons, and maps, all aimed at rewarding strategic decision-making in VALORANT.

GENERAL UPDATES

• Our end of year balance patch is meant to adjust how our maps, weapons, and agents work together. The tuning pass in this patch is designed to reinforce what we call "the competitive dialogue"-the round-to-round exchange between attackers and defenders that rewards adaptation and strategy.
• Over time, as player skill and ability impact have grown, uncoordinated utility has at times felt just as impactful as well-executed, strategic plays. This has reduced meaningful opportunities for counterplay and diminished the strategic depth we aim for in VALORANT. These changes are focused on striking a healthy balance between gunplay and the abilities that make VALORANT its own unique flavor of tactical shooter.

General

• The agent updates this patch are focused around how we can support higher mastery around ability usage. We want to allow your gunplay to do the talking, while you use abilities strategically and intentionally to gain advantages. These changes should reward players who use abilities well in the right time and place. Additionally, we're also reducing the size of some of the largest ultimate abilities.
• We're also aiming to create more consistency across the game's various debuffs, making it easier to build muscle memory when playing with or against effects like Nearsight, Concuss, and Stims.
• Nearsight radius increased from 5 >>> 7m
• Concuss
• Concuss duration decreased to 2.5s
• Stim Unification
• Reload time modifier: 0.9
• Firing rate modifier: 1.1
• Weapon draw time modifier: 0.9
• Spread recovery modifier: 1.1

Initiators

Initiators are intended to be the go-to agents for breaking angles and creating openings for their team. With this update, we're adjusting how often they can use their signature abilities within a round. These abilities should remain impactful, but now demand more coordination and deliberate timing to unlock their full value.

Flashes have always been a critical tool for challenging angles, and in a world with less frequent signature abilities, we want them to retain the power needed to start fights. To support that, we've increased the strength of Initiator flashes so they remain reliable tools for setting up engagements.

• Breach
• Initial windup decreased from 1.2s → 1.1s
• Concuss duration decreased from 3.5s → 2.5s
• Flash Point
• Rolling Thunder
• Concuss duration decreased from 6s → 4s
• Ult points decreased from 9 → 8
• Fade
• Haunt active duration decreased 2s → 1.5s
• Prowler
• Nightfall
• Width decreased from 24m → 20m
• Decay now remains a consistent 75 damage over its duration instead of decreasing over time
• Gekko
• Wingman
• Concuss duration decreased from 3.5s → 2.5s
• Thrash <
• KAY/O
• FLASH/DRIVE
• NULL/CMD
• Added standardized weapon draw time for Stims
• Added weapon recovery speed for Stims
• Sova

Duelists

Most Duelist gameplay is in a healthy state, so we're making minor tunings. We want stuns and slows to feel rewarding when they lead to kills, so we're making adjustments that will reward precise timing and well-coordinated ability combos.

• Iso
• Neon
• High Gear
• Battery drain reduced, increasing sprint time with full battery from 12s → 16s
• Relay Bolt
• Reyna
• Empress
• Reduced reload time decrease from 25% → 10%
• Reduced fire rate increase from 15% → 10%
• Increased weapon draw speed reduced from 25% >>> 10%
• Reduced weapon recovery speed increase from 25% → 10%
• Waylay
• Convergent Paths
• Ultimate now briefly restricts aim rotation and movement speed similar to Breach's Rolling Thunder when casting
• Hindered duration decreased from 7s → 6s
• Initial windup decreased from 2s → 1s
• Width decreased from 18m → 13.5m
• Decreased movement speed buff on ult from 15% → 10%
• Yoru
• Gatecrash
• Audio now plays from Yoru's location when Yoru teleports or fakes it
• Fakeout
• Blindside
• Flash now follows the standard flash falloff curves as other Agents. Previously, Yoru's flashes that were slightly offscreen were more effective than intended
• Dimensional Drift
• He can still cast the initial Gatecrash and reactivation, as well as reactivation of Fakeouts
• Raze
• If Slowed, the force from Blast Pack will be reduced, similar to how slows affect other Dashes

Controllers

Controllers were largely in a healthy state and required few changes, though some abilities have been adjusted to align with recent roster-wide updates.

• Astra
• Cooldown increased from 45s → 60s
• Nova Pulse
• Cooldown increased from 45s → 60s
• Nebula
• Brimstone
• Decreased movement speed increase from 15% → 10%
• Omen
• Paranoia
• Travel distance reduced from 32.5m → 25m
• Viper

Sentinels

Sentinels are premier at defending territory, but we think there can be more room for dialogue between attackers and defensive Sentinel utilities. These adjustments aim to make it easier to take advantage of intended counterplay while sharpening each Sentinel's unique identity. We're also reducing the health of some of the tankier shootables to make them sponge less of your bullets.

• Vyse
• Arc Rose
• When enemy players are successfully flashed, the audio cue and voiceline alerting Vyse and her allies is removed
• Flash duration decreased from 2.25s → 2.0s
• Cooldown are slightly adjusted
• Recalling the ability will now always incur a 20s cooldown
• Shear
• Razorvine
• Steel Garden
• Radius decreased from 32.5m → 26m
• Cypher
• Spycam
• When the camera is active, there will be a louder persistent camera audio for enemies with a 12m range
• Cooldown when destroyed is increased from 45s → 60s
• Trapwire
• Console: 2.5 → 1.9s
• Players are no longer revealed after 0.5 seconds of the tripwire winding up
• If you move more than 4m outwards from the wire it will now immediately zap you instead of pulling you back
• Trapwire zap no longer concusses its target. Instead, it will slow + reveal its target for 1 second.
• Killjoy
• Turret
• Reactivation time for turret increased from 0.5s → 2s
• Turret movement tagging per bullet increased 29.5% >>> 50%
• NEW: Added a "windup" effect when Killjoy first re-enters the activation range
• Alarmbot
• Reactivation time increased from 1s → 2s
• NEW: Added a "windup" effect when Killjoy first re-enters the activation range
• Deadlock
• Barrier Mesh
• Health of smaller nodes decreased from 570 to 480
• Sonic Sensor
• Sage
• Fortification delay reduced from 3.3 seconds to 2 seconds
• Health of Barrier segments decreased from 800 to 600

MAP UPDATES

• In general, our focus for this patch was to encourage more on-site play for both teams, and to make planting for main more risky and predictable.
• Pearl
• Adjusted cover positioning on and around the site - These changes will encourage more direct engagements on the site itself
• Abyss
• B-Site
• Mid
• MAP POOL UPDATES

WEAPONS UPDATES

Our goal is for VALORANT's gunplay to feel rewarding to master with exciting weapon choices, allowing for players to express their playstyles in how they take fights. Each weapon in our arsenal should feel they have a unique identity with their own strengths and weaknesses and though the arsenal has felt like it's overall pretty healthy, we want to make sure we continue to push on making weapons feel like competitive choices for different scenarios and round economy states.

PC ONLY

• Rifles
• A quick definition for those of you who may not know-
• Yaw switch time: how quickly the gun swaps horizontal recoil from one side to the other. When yaw switch time increases, this means you have more time to counteract the recoil
• Protected bullet counts: how many bullets in a spray you can use before your gun has a chance of yaw switch
• Bulldog
• Chance for horizontal (Yaw) to switch increased from 6% → 10%
• Phantom
• Chance for horizontal (Yaw) to switch increased from 6% → 10%
• Protected bullet count increased from 6 → 8 bullets
• Vandal
• Chance for horizontal (Yaw) to switch increased from 6% → 10%
• Protected bullet count increased from 4 → 6 bullets
• Submachine guns
• Spectre
• Tap Efficiency increased from 2 → 3
• Horizontal (Yaw) switch time increased from 0.18s → 0.28s
• Protected bullet count increased from 4 → 5 bullets
• Stinger
• Total spread increased from 1.3 → 1.5
• Total spread accrued faster from 7 bullets → 6 bullets
• Vertical (Pitch) recoil curve increases more aggressively

CONSOLE ONLY

• Spectre
• Stinger
• Bulldog
• Phantom
• Protected bullet count from yaw (horizontal) switching while spraying, increased from 5 → 8 bullets
• Vandal
• Protected bullet count from yaw (horizontal) switching while spraying, increased from 5 → 6 bullets

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

• Starting in 11.09, accounts detected for sharing must enable Riot Mobile multi-factor authentication (MFA) to access Competitive queue. Other modes will remain unaffected.
• For now in 11.08, you can check out the banner in the Competitive lobby or this article for more information on the upcoming changes.

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS UPDATES

• We've improved how Placeable Abilities like Cypher's Spycam and Deadlock's Sound Sensor previews when placing in our maps. All previews will now better align to the eventual location of your ability.

PLAYER BEHAVIOR UPDATES

• Added "Rank Manipulation" as a new reporting category.

PREMIER UPDATES

• Welcome to Stage V25A6!
• Demoted teams will seed into the zone they originally promoted from. Next Stage, Team Owners can change their zone in the Team Settings dropdown anytime before the team plays a match.
• If your team cannot be placed into a zone at the start of the next Stage, your Team Owner will be prompted to select a zone.
• Divisions other than Invite will not have demotion, and teams will still be promoted or be seeded into a division as normal at the start of next Stage.
• Contender Eligibility updates
• To be Contender Eligible in 2026, you must perform a qualifying action in Stage V25A6 or at any point in 2026.
• Qualifying actions include:
• Reach Immortal 3 or higher peak rank in Competitive.
• Play in a Playoff match in Elite 5.
• Contender Eligibility for 2026 expires at the end of 2026.
• VCT Team Tags
• VCT team names and tags are reserved ONLY for VCT partnered teams.