VALORANT Patch 4.09 will only bring a few general changes, but changes to the increasingly popular Chamber will significantly affect how much control the Agent can exert on a map.
Alongside the Chamber nerfs detailed below, Patch 4.09 also includes some VFX updates for the recently introduced Fade, as well as some minor competitive updates and bug fixes.
Chamber
– Cost of business card skill increased from 150 credits to 200 credits.
– Reduced the number of business card loads 2 >>> 1
– Increased the audio range of the Business Card skill.
Notes from the developers on Business Card nerfs:
“Currently, Chamber's Business Card outperforms the abilities of other Sentinel Agents in both reliability and power; this seems inconvenient given the amount of defensive-combat tools Chamber has spread across the rest of his kit. We believe Chamber's identity is defined by his unique weapons and defensive-combat mobility, so we lower the Agent's global protection/knowledge level and increase counterplay in a single premium trap. This means Chamber has to make a choice based on whether he wants to play around the Business Card selfishly or use the skill to help his teammates instead.
Notes from the developers on the Sentinel role:
“When we think of the Sentinel role, we think of his overall ability to maintain map control and defend territories. We believe Sentinel players should have many options and methods to control and defend territories using Sage's reactive slowing abilities, Cypher's site monitoring devices, or defensive tools and weapons like the Chamber. As with all of our Agents, it is important for Chamber to identify strengths and weaknesses. As always, all eyes will now be on the Chamber changes and if we see that the defense is suffering disproportionately to the offensive, we will remedy this."
Trays
Nightfall (X) – You'll now see less flickering texture on diagonal walls when using Fade's ultimate. Also added VFX for added clarity and visual impact.
Mihla (Q) – Changed VFX (Visual effect) to the sphere for a more dynamic presentation in 1p and Agent selection.
Competitive/esports features
– Party Leader Transfer — You can now change the leadership of your party.
The current party leader can right-click on the name of the player they want to delegate and select "Make Leader" from the drop-down menu.
– Made a number of minor tweaks and updates to the UI.
– Added Observer feature to toggle the Leaderboard.
Mistakes
Agent errors
– Fixed a bug where Jett's Like the Wind was sometimes unavailable when cast immediately after using Jett's fog.
– Fixed a bug that caused Jett's ultimate gauge to sometimes stay active after throwing all knives.
game bugs
– Fixed an issue where an unwanted “usage” entry could occur after abilities such as Skye's wolf or Sova's Reconnaissance Drone are activated.
