Riot Games has published the full patch notes for VALORANT’s 12.05 update, which is focused on ‘supporting coordinated teamplay and increasing pick diversity across the board.’ It’s a patch that aims to boost team synergy and, to do that, some Agents have had their power stripped a little, making them less of a choice for lone wolf-style players.
This update also adds Miks, a Croatian Agent who ‘takes the stage channeling pure sound energy.’ If that sounds like your kind of thing and you’re seeking ‘his infectious passion and sonic powers’, read on to find out what he’s all about.
Miks Has Entered VALORANT
First up, let’s get the Agent updates out of the way by talking about Miks’ arrival
- Abilities:
- Harmonize
- EQUIP Harmonize. Target an ally and FIRE to activate a Combat Stim on yourself and the ally that refreshes with each kill. ALT-FIRE to grant Combat Stim to yourself.
- M-pulse
- EQUIP M-pulse. ALT-FIRE to toggle between Concuss and Healing outputs. FIRE to throw the device. Upon landing, M-pulse sends out sound waves, either Concussing or Healing players.
- Waveform
- EQUIP a Map Targeter. FIRE to set locations. ALT-FIRE to spawn Smokes at selected locations.
- Bassquake
- EQUIP Bassquake. FIRE to build up and unleash Sonic Radiance forward, knocking back, Deafening, and Slowing players.
- Harmonize
Sage is the first listed Agent with major changes in 12.05:
- Healing Orb – Ally Targeting
- With the release of Miks, we have updated our Ally Targeting UI/UX and brought those updates to Sage. You’ll see a new widget above the targeted ally’s head, and an additional highlight around the agent’s model.
- Crystal Model Update
- We’ve added crystal growths to Sage’s model and key art to show the price she is paying for repeatedly pushing the limits of her power.
Also addressed are Skye, Yoru, and Clove:
- Guiding Light (Skye)
- Added 60s Cooldown
- Gatecrash (Yoru)
- Duration beacon is active reduced 30s >> 15s
- Blindside (Yoru)
- Charges reduced from 2 >> 1.
- Ruse (Clove)
- Smoke duration 14s >> 6s (when casted while dead)
- Meddle (Clove)
- Area of effect reduced 6m >> 4m
What Else Has Changed in VALORANT?
Gameplay systems have been overhauled in 12.05, introducing new ‘Assist Banners’, an adjusted killfeed that displays the assistant player’s Agent icon and action, and better, clearer status effect tags.
In terms of VALORANT maps, Lotus and Fracture have been added to Competitive and Deathmatch queues, while Abyss and Corrode have been removed.
The team said:
Overall we are happy where Lotus is at as a map in the pool. But as part of our effort across all maps to reduce weapon spam when the barrier drops, we have changed some walls on A side of the map. We also have been seeing consistent ability usage towards the A-lobby choke when barriers go down. We don’t want to stop this completely, but feel moving the jump up to vines will give attackers a better chance to fight for rubble.
Knockout has arrived in VALORANT with 12.05. This limited-time mode is a round-based tactical elimination mode that resurrects fallen teammates upon getting a kill. It’s innovative and uses a territory-based system that revolves around orbs that must be captured to shift the line of offense towards the enemy ‘side’ of the map.
Further competitive updates were also applied:
- We’re adjusting the Ranked Rating thresholds to hit Immortal 2, 3 and Radiant to bring parity to leaderboard requirements across all of our regions.
- We’re not adjusting any of the underlying MMR systems, so we expect the same players to show up on the leaderboard.
- We made a QoL update to the new Rank summary screen that we implemented in patch 12.04.
- You can now access the Social Panel and select Play Now directly from that screen.
And in terms of bug fixes in 12.05:
- Agents
- Fixed a bug where a floating gun may briefly appear when a suppression effect interrupts Gekko’s Thrash, Sova’s Owl Drone, or Astra’s Astral Form.
- Fixed a bug where Veto’s Interceptor would detect a stealthed Cypher Spycam.
- Fixed a bug where Harbor’s relic was not glowing when equipping Storm Surge in Left-Handed Mode.
- Fixed a bug where picking up a dead player’s weapon would cause you to auto-equip it when they were resurrected.
- Fixed a bug where Brimstone’s Sky Smoke equip pose was displaying unintended VFX when viewed far away.
- Fixed a bug where Deadlock’s Barrier Mesh could be used to float into the air by completely blocking the ziplines at Attacker spawn on Fracture
- General
- Fixed multiple localization issues on the End of Game (EOG) Scoreboard screen.
- Fixed an issue where a friend’s most recent match was not always updating in the Career view.
- Fixed an issue where the progression bar could overlap with the top tabs in the EOG Progression tab.
- Fixed an issue where the focus highlight could be delayed on the EOG Timeline screen.
Are you happy with VALORANT’s 12.05 update? Let us know what you’re thinking on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that DreamHack Birmingham will have a $1.7 million prize pool
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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