Valorant 10.04 Update: New Agent Waylay and Major Balance Changes Revealed!

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The upcoming Valorant update, version 10.04, is nearly here! It introduces a fresh Duelist character called Waylay, along with significant changes in the form of both buffs and nerfs for various Agents.

In early 2025, Riot Games debuted a fresh character for Valorant, named Tejo. This Colombian Initiator has been generating quite a stir on Future Earth, causing developers to address some initial issues with minor adjustments.

It’s understandable if you thought there wouldn’t be another new Agent for a while, but Riot has surprised us! During Masters Bangkok on March 2, Waylay, a Thai Duelist, was unveiled. This character is expected to have some formidable abilities.

In the upcoming 10.04 update, she’ll make her appearance, but there’s more to look forward to. Some significant adjustments are also on their way for Valorant.

Waylay joins Valorant

10.04 update introduces a significant new feature: Waylay. Starting from March 5, The Duelist will gradually be introduced, with the initial phase commencing at 9 am Pacific Time.

Waylay primarily focuses on speed, yet it offers additional methods to hinder adversaries as well.

  • Refract: INSTANTLY create a beacon of light on the floor. REACTIVATE to speed back to your beacon as a mote of pure light. You are invulnerable as you travel.
  • Light Speed: EQUIP to prepare for a burst of speed. FIRE to dash forward twice. ALT FIRE to dash once. Only your first dash can send you upward.
  • Saturate: INSTANTLY throw a cluster of light that explodes upon contact with the ground, HINDERING nearby players with a powerful movement and weapon slow.
  • Hinder: Applies a debuff that SLOWS which impacts: Fire Rate, Recoil Recovery, Equip Time, Reload Speed, Movement Speed, and Jump Speed
  • Convergent Paths: EQUIP to focus your prismatic power. FIRE to create an afterimage of yourself that projects a beam of light. After a brief delay, you gain a powerful speed boost and the beam expands, HINDERING other players in the area.

Agent buffs and nerfs: Tejo, Clove, Deadlock, Iso, and Neon

Furthermore, significant modifications are on the horizon for Tejo, Clove, Deadlock, and Iso. Specifically, Tejo’s ability to demolish Killjoy’s Lockdown will cease to function, while his Guided Salvo damage is being reduced from 70 to 65.

Regarding adjustments for Clove, developers at Riot Games have observed that she has been performing exceptionally well in ranked matches, necessitating some fine-tuning. The cooldown on her Ruse ability has been extended by 10 seconds, while the timer for her Pick Me Up move speed has reduced to just five seconds.

Map pool changes

In addition, the layout of the maps used in competition is being significantly altered. The maps Ascent and Icebox will once again be featured in both competitive and deathmatch games. Unfortunately, the maps Abyss and Bind will no longer be included.

To signify Ascent’s comeback, Riot has modified a section of the B Main wall within B Lane to prevent bullets from passing through it. Farewell then, to the players who frequently use Odin in that spot.

Related

Valorant Agent 27 Tejo: Abilities and everything we know so far

FAT L TO ALL THE ASCENT ODIN USERS // #VALORANT

— Valorant News (@ValorINTEL) March 2, 2025

You can check out the full patch notes from Riot Games for Valorant’s 10.04 update below.

Valorant update 10.04 patch notes

ALL PLATFORMS

AGENT UPDATES

  • Waylay
    • Our newest Duelist, Waylay, is joining the roster from Thailand! She’ll be released in a staggered rollout to all regions starting at 9:00 AM PT on March 5th.
    • Refract
      • INSTANTLY create a beacon of light on the floor. REACTIVATE to speed back to your beacon as a mote of pure light. You are invulnerable as you travel.
    • Light Speed
      • EQUIP to prepare for a burst of speed. FIRE to dash forward twice. ALT FIRE to dash once. Only your first dash can send you upward.
    • Saturate
      • INSTANTLY throw a cluster of light that explodes upon contact with the ground, HINDERING nearby players with a powerful movement and weapon slow.
        • Hinder
          • Applies a debuff that SLOWS which impacts:
            • Fire Rate
            • Recoil Recovery
            • Equip Time
            • Reload Speed
            • Movement Speed
            • Jump Speed
    • Convergent Paths
      • EQUIP to focus your prismatic power. FIRE to create an afterimage of yourself that projects a beam of light. After a brief delay, you gain a powerful speed boost and the beam expands, HINDERING other players in the area.
  • Clove
    • Clove has been overperforming in ranked so we’re making some adjustments to their abilities to keep ranked in a healthy spot. Similar to balance changes we’ve made in the past, we’d like to continue encouraging Controller diversity by making space for other Agents who have similar strengths.
    • Meddle
      • No longer explodes after a 1.3 second timer after casting. Explodes after contact with the ground after a 0.75s timer.
      • Projectile audio has been updated to fit this new behavior.
    • Ruse
      • Cooldown duration increased from 30s >>> 40s
    • Pick Me Up
      • Health buff duration increased from 8s >>> 10s
      • Move speed duration reduced from 8s >>> 3s
  • Deadlock
    • As Deadlock players have improved over time, her reactive stalling potential is solidifying as one of her unique strengths. As a result, we want to encourage GravNet as one of her primary tools to pounce onto targets that are disrespecting the areas she controls.
      • To account for GravNet swapping to a signature, we’ll be shrinking the size and increasing some of its counterplay. Since the skill will be cast more frequently, we’d like to encourage plays to be more intentional and precise about placement. 
    • Barrier Mesh
      • Changed to a non-signature ability 
      • Cost: Free >>> 400 credits
    • GravNet 
      • Changed to a signature ability with 40s cooldown
      • Total Size decreased from 16m >>> 13m
      • Gravnet’s Projectile audio loop has been updated to increase its gameplay clarity.
      • When an enemy removes the net, the audio cue of the net breaking now plays for all players.
  • Iso
    • Since his updates in patches 8.11 and 9.0, Iso has been a bit of a one-trick pony around his Double Tap. These changes are intended to redistribute power around Iso’s kit to make him a more well-rounded agent. Changes to Undercut intend to increase his overall strategic options, and Contingency is receiving an alternate cast paradigm to support slower play and its ability to isolate angles. 
    • We’re reverting Iso’s Double Tap tagging change, as trying to kill Iso through his shield is already a highly frustrating and powerful moment. 
    • Changes to Kill Contract are intended to ensure that won duels in the arena always spawn an orb.
    • Undercut
      • Reduced charges from 2 >>> 1
      • Cost increased from 200 >>> 300 credits
      • Now applies Suppression alongside Vulnerability for the same duration (4s) on players hit.
    • Contingency
      • Now has an Alt-Fire cast that makes the wall move at half the speed
        • This does not affect the duration of Contingency.
    • Double Tap
      • Iso now receives a Heavy Penetration tag rather than a Wall Penetration tag when the shield is broken. This means he’s slowed more upon his shield breaking.
    • Kill Contract
      • BUGFIX: If Iso DOES NOT have Double Tap’s buff applied, the ultimate will now automatically apply it so that won ultimate duels always spawn an orb. 
  • Neon
    • VFX around Neon’s Overdrive have been updated to make Neon and her directionality clearer when she is fighting with Overdrive active. 
  • Tejo
    • Since Tejo’s release, we’ve been monitoring the interaction where Tejo can destroy Killjoy’s Lockdown with his Guided Salvo. 
    • For context, we typically prefer when abilities interact in a way that allows players to be creative in how they use them to respond to other utility used in the round.
      • But in the case of Tejo’s Guided Salvo cooldown model, both players get into unsatisfying stalemates where neither Tejo nor Killjoy want to be the first person to cast. So we’re changing Guided Salvo so that it requires more teamplay to successfully destroy a Killjoy ultimate. Killjoy’s Lockdown will now survive Guided Salvo with 5 HP.

Guided Salvo 

  • Damage decreased from 70 >>> 65 
  • Guided Salvo now does 50% damage to non-player objects.

MAP UPDATES

  • Map Rotation
    • Ascent and Icebox are back IN the COMPETITIVE and DEATHMATCH queues.
    • Abyss and Bind are OUT of the COMPETITIVE and DEATHMATCH queues.
  • Ascent
    • While bullet penetration is a meaningful system that rewards map knowledge and situational execution, we feel like the weapon spam here at barrier drop is currently creating unhealthy gameplay and frustrating experiences. This change will give Attackers some added safety at barrier drop when first approaching B Main.
    • B Main
      • Changed part of the B Main wall along B Lane to non-pennable.  

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS UPDATES

  • Combat Report
    • Overhauled visuals of the detailed damage breakdown panel to be more organized and intuitive.

BUG FIXES

  • Agents
    • Neon
      • Checked in a more systemic fix to an issue where Neon could jiggle her head up and down while sliding if mashing strafing inputs.
    • Fade
      • Fixed an issue where Fade’s hands got stuck in place if she crouched while holding Nightfall out.
  • Competitive
    • Fixed an issue where the Rank Shield icon on the Match History page would disappear after playing a non-Competitive game.

KNOWN ISSUES

  • General
    • There is a bug where the first person camera angle may be slightly offset from the expected player point of view while spectating another player.

CONSOLE ONLY

AGENT UPDATES

  • Generally speaking, we believe that the best version of VAL is true across all platforms. As a result, we only look to make console-specific changes when absolutely necessary. We’d like to take this opportunity to adjust any changes that may no longer be needed. If you’re curious, we approach this problem by taking a look at data and community feedback to evaluate performance on each platform.
  • Neon
    • We’ve been paying close attention to Neon for a long time on console… After her nerfs in patch 9.11, we looked at her current power-profile and are comfortable in increasing some of her potential.
    • Overdrive
      • Head Damage Multiplier increased 2.5 >>> 3.0 (Standardizing to PC)
      • Body Damage Multiplier: 1.0 (unchanged, already same as PC)
      • Leg Damage Multiplier increased 0.75 >>> 0.85 (Standardizing to PC)
    • Sprint
      • Fuel Drain Per Second: 0.11 >>> 0.1 (Standardizing to PC)
  • Yoru
    • Yoru often occupies a niche, high-mastery, high-return position in the Agent roster. Yoru’s kit is difficult to master but players can realize significant returns on their time investment. When looking at the data, his power-profile overall was lower than expected for the effort required. 
    • We took a look at your feedback around his kit feeling “clunky” on console, and have looked to remove some of the changes that are both making his kit feel more difficult to execute.
    • Dimensional Drift
      • Unequip delay decreased 1.2s >>> 0.8s (Standardizing to PC)
    • Fakeout
      • Max flash duration increased 2.0s >>> 3.0s (Standardizing to PC)
      • Flash explosion delay increased: 0.6s >>> 0.8s
        • Note: We’re keeping the console-specific counterplay added to Yoru’s Fakeout.
    • Blindside
      • Max Flash Duration increased from 1.25s >>> 1.75s (Standardizing to PC)
      • Flash Explosion Delay: 0.7s >>> 0.6s (Standardizing to PC)
  • Reyna
    • Reyna’s Leer is relatively weaker than we expected over time.
      • Leer Health increased 40 >>> 100 (Standardizing to PC)
        • Note: Similar to Yoru’s Decoy Flash, Leer continues to have a slightly longer (+0.2s) activation time and duration. This patch does not change that.

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2025-03-04 17:53