Minor Valorant patch 9.03 QoL fix heavily nerfs Brimstone & Viper

Riot Games released notes for Valorant patch 9.03, and the update includes a massive change to Brimstone and Viper in a tiny section players may have missed.

The 9.03 patch notes for Valorant included one small section on “Ground Spreading Abilities,” which includes Brimstone’s Incendiary and Viper’s Snakebite.

The change makes the damaging abilities more consistent in how they spread on the ground and applies damage in their diameter, specifically when interacting with terrain and walls.

While this might seem like a small quality-of-life change or bug fix, it will heavily impact lineups for both characters.

Before this patch, Brimstone and Viper abilities spread under terrain like boxes, rocks, and walls to damage enemies on the other side of the objects. This allowed players to sometimes check corners with these abilities and craft lineups next to boxes or that went through walls for creative post-plant setups.

Spike sites are often dotted with small and large boxes that have become safe places to plant in the current meta.

With this change, players will have to be careful with how they use these abilities on sites post-patch, as being just one pixel off might be the difference between its spread being blocked by a box and a round win.

Players who use either agent regularly will have to test their lineups across every map and reevaluate whether they still work after this patch.

The reaction to the change has been mixed from players. Some Valorant fans are excited that they will no longer be surprised by taking damage through walls.

“Let’s go!! I always thought this was super annoying,” one player said about the change on social media.

Other players are frustrated that their agent has gotten a substantial indirect nerf.

“This is EVIL,” another player said.

Regardless of player sentiment, the change signals from Riot that they never intended to allow ground-spreading abilities to move through walls. Whether this will impact the overall meta, like moving Brimstone and Viper down the tier list, remains to be seen.