Riot Games released a new Valorant Dev Update and shared with everyone some very important information, including the community's most requested feature: replays.
Valorant replays have been a request from before the game was even fully released, as players want to look at and examine what happened in their game to understand and improve in the highly competitive tactical shooter. It's a feature that Counter Strike has, and so one that players feel should be in the game, especially now that we're four years into its lifespan. Today we got the first demonstration of a Valorant replay system, however, it is tempered by the fact that it is a prototype.
Why is it taking so long to get a Valorant replay system?
A common question, or meme is why it's taking so long, which was addressed in the video by Marcus Reid, the Valorant Tech Lead. A lot of the problem is that Valorant wasn't built with a replay system in mind, which means making it requires a lot of work. For a replay system to be of use to players after all, it has to be accurate, and not show things like doors floating to nowhere, or be a second off on how it resolves all the action.
Getting everything to process properly in a replay, as well as handling elements like pausing that are important to it are hurdles for them, though they are working on it. According to Reid, they are focused on getting it right, so for now it looks like it will be a while until we see Valorant replays, but the prototype demonstrated today at least serves as proof it is on the way. It doesn't appear that the Riot Games layoffs have halted, or slowed down the progress on replays.
What is coming to Valorant in 8.11 and Beyond?
Of course, the replay was only part of the whole Dev Update, although by far the most consequential part in the long term. Map rotation was given a discussion, and the team promised that there would be more transparency in how they are doing rotation going forward. In that spirit, they mentioned that Valorant 8.11, coming in early June, will rotate Breeze and Split out, while Haven and a new map will come in.
On the balancing front, they explained a bit about their general philosophy and the reason why they don't focus on just buffing everyone to the upper power that is there now, but also nerf is so that they can maintain the balance of Agent powers with tactics, and gunplay. A focus right now is on making more agents able to fill any particular role, even if it means nerfing the best agent for that role right now.
For balance changes, 8.11 will be focused on the Duelist role. In it, Riot will be nerfing Raze because it is too much of a dominant pick right now for their preference. On the other side though, they'll be buffing Iso (who joined the game last year) and Neon by making them better at what makes them unique, the shield for Iso, and Neon's sliding ability.
Raina is also going to get worked on, as they have found that while she's been very strong in ranked play, she has a poor win rate in higher-level team play situations. While they didn't discuss how they aren't going to do it, the goal for the changes to Reyna will be to make her better in those team play higher level matches, while weakening her in ranked. These will be the last major balance changes likely before Champs, so if you were hoping for something else, it is unlikely to be soon.
After champs, Riot is promising larger balance updates, and mode changes coming to Valorant, with more details to come later this year. Over the summer, they'll also be revealing some map-related things that will be released after Champs.
