Respawn has a history of releasing characters in a weaker state at launch, only to give them substantial buffs a couple of seasons later in Apex Legends.
Note: You are reading an old article from 2021. So, the information may not be up-to-date.
This trend of launching legends in a delicate state wasn’t really popular among fans since a new legend release is supposed to be really exciting, not the other way around. Players want new characters to blow them away, but most of the time, they are left a bit disappointed.
Respawn’s rationale behind this decision was to minimize power creep in a hero shooter game. Power creep is basically a process that sometimes occurs in games where new content starts to outstrip the power of previous alternatives slowly. Meaning that if they one-up themselves and release stronger legends with each new season, then that may affect the competitive health of the game.
However, following feedback from the community, Respawn slowly started to change its strategy of releasing legends in a fragile state. Instead, they started to release stronger legends with each new season. For example, Horizon was released in a pretty strong state.
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The Air Will Belong to Valkyrie
This trend might continue in the upcoming season 9, now known as “Legacy.” Respawn development stated that Valkyrie will be powerful at launch. The dev also added that he is terrified that she might be too strong right out of the gate.
Based on what we have seen in the cinematic trailer, Valkyrie seems to have a jetpack tied to her back. On top of that, her ultimate ability is also rumored to have extreme mobility. Characters that have extra movement abilities in Apex Legends, like Horizon and Octane, usually dominate the legend meta.
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Furthermore, a lot of developers at Respawn are also sharing similar sentiment towards Valkyrie and is claiming that she will change up the whole character meta in the game. Seems like we will find out on May 4th.
