A new live balance update for Apex Legends has brought some changes to technical performance as well as weapon and character balance with the full patch notes published via Reddit.
Respawn Community Manager Jayfresh posted a lenghty Reddit post talking about both Respawn’s approach to making changes to the Apex Legends meta, the way weapons and characters perform and interact, as well as detailing changes already made live by the most recent update. Jayfresh opens up addressing the desire for information on Season 1 and Battle Pass but unfortunately has no real details other than those details are coming and to please be patient.
TL;DR – We make less frequent, better tested, higher impact balance changes in order to minimize the impacts on your time spent mastering the game.
Respawn, much like any other developer with an online game that wants to retain its playerbase through updates and revisions, want to, “make less frequent, better tested, higher impact changes, so it minimizes the effects on your time spent mastering a particular mechanic, weapon, character, etc.” This way patch notes won’t be going up every week and become required reading for those who want to keep up on the latest changes to the battle royale game taking the world by storm.
The major weapon changes for Apex Legends address a combination that has apparently been in major usage by hardcore players: the Wingman and Peacekeeper. Rate of fire, headhsot damage, and hip fire have made the Wingman slightly less effective than it was before, and the Shotgun Bolt attachment for Peacekeeper doesn’t quite mitigate the rechamber rate like it did before. Most importantly the availability of both weapons has been reduced but energy weapons and ammo, once a rare pickup, are now more common.
- Wingman
- Rate of fire reduced from 3.1 -> 2.6 shots per second.
- Skullpiercer Headshot damage multiplier reduced from 2.5 -> 2.25
- Increased base hip fire spread and decreased the rate at which hip fire spread decays (shrinks back down).
- Peacekeeper
- Shotgun Bolt rechamber rate has been reduced for the Peacekeeper only.
- Level 1 mitigation 10% -> 7.5%
- Level 2 mitigation 20% -> 13%
- Level 3 mitigation 25% -> 16%
- Shotgun Bolt rechamber rate has been reduced for the Peacekeeper only.
- Wingman and Peacekeeper availability has been reduced in all zone tiers.
- Increased availability of energy weapons & ammo in all zone tiers.
The P2020 and Mozambique stay the same mostly because Respawn desires there to be a power curve to weapons, not every weapon is going to perform the same as the others, but haven’t completely ruled out retooling the trash weapons.
Large character models will be having their hitboxes adjusted, specifically Caustic, Pathfinder, and Gibraltar. While weapons will have a tier list to their usability, every character should be on equal footing.
Lastly some minor changes include:
- Caustic
- Traps – Reduced cooldown to 25 seconds from 30 seconds
- Traps – Increased radius and proximity radius by about 10%
- Traps – Removed a 1 second delay on the smoke dealing damage to players
- Pathfinder
- Insider Knowledge – Increased the number of beacons in the world to 12 from 10
- Lifeline
- Care Package – Removed slight chance that level 4 armor and helmets will drop
- Wraith
- Into The Void – Cooldown increased from 20 -> 25 seconds
- Bangalore
- Double Time – Reduced move speed bonus to 30% from 40%
As we await Season 1 of the Battle Pass and the heavily rumored Octane character you can enjoy some cosplays of Wraith and Lifeline, as well as read our review of Apex Legends and an older gentleman pulling off some great no-scope shots in-game. The full patch notes for the update can be read on the Apex Legends Reddit.
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