Valorant patch notes – 7.08 update adds much-needed smoke changes

pcgamesn.com:

As an Astra player, I love watching my enemies tentatively step into my sparkling purple nebula, guns at the ready, terrified that one misstep will lead to them losing their heads. That sense of power is fun if you’re the smoker, but not so much if you’re on the receiving end of it. With the latest round of Valorant patch notes, though, tracking smokes and their respective timers just got a lot easier.

As a former Controller main in Valorant, I know just how powerful a well-placed smoke can be – especially mid-match when no-one has their eye on the exact time that it was placed. While you can count down the timer at the start of a match, keeping track of when smokes dissipate in the FPS game is hard – especially when the bullets inevitably start flying.

Now, however, there are new visuals and audio clips that will play ahead of the smoke dissipating. Astra, Brimstone, and Omen’s smokes will now see shimmering specs of light appear 1.5 seconds before they vanish for good, accompanied by a rather satisfying wooshing sound, which you can hear in the video below.

Going forward, this’ll make smokes a lot easier to track and let you make more informed pushes – no more lurking and praying required.

The other changes are relatively minor, but include an expansion of the Agent bar in Agent Select to accommodate for new additions to the game’s ever-expanding roster, as well as an easier selection system for level borders and player cards. You can see how both look on the image below.

Below are the the Valorant patch notes for the 7.08 update, with bug fixes omitted. You can check those out here.

If you’re anything like me, your player card has to match your Valorant skins, so this will make things a lot easier. If you aren’t