Respawn has finally given us an in-depth look into what kind of meta-changing character updates they have in store for us in the upcoming season of Apex Legends called “Legacy”.
Legacy is a massive shift for Respawn as they have finally moved on from marketing Apex Legends as just a battle royale game with the introduction of Arenas game mode. Respawn states that they want to take this gameplay loop in a completely new direction.
Read More: Apex Legends Arenas 3v3 style game mode explained
Apart from all the new game modes, Respawn has also made some major changes to the overall character meta in the game. For example, they completely removed the low-profile perk from the game with the Legacy update.
Full patch notes:
Legend Updates:
Low Profile Removed
Dev Note
After our successful experiment with Wraith’s hitboxes, we are now confident that we can solve balance issues between smaller and larger Legends through changes to their kits and hitboxes. It is finally time for Low Profile to go the way of the dodo. (Sorry dodos.)
Low-profile was more of a bandaid fix to keep the gameplay more balanced since every legend in Apex had different hitboxes. So, Respawn gave characters like Wraith, Lifeline, Wattson the low-profile perk that made them susceptible to extra 5% damage to compensate for their small hitboxes.
However, they finally decided to remove the low-profile perk from the game altogether. This should create a more even playing field for low profile characters following the Legacy update.
Octane
- Stim: Reduced cooldown between stims from 4s to 1s. Increased health cost from 12hp to 20hp.
- Increased bullet spread while in the air and shooting from the low Launch Pad trajectory.
Dev Note
Octane continues to perform really well after the latest changes. Too well? We still love the frequency of the Jump Pad, but we’d like to make using Stim something Octane thinks about doing at the right time, instead of always slamming it by default.
Fuse Received Massive Buffs
Fuse was hyped up to be a really overpowered character at launch, but that soon changed following his official launch as many felt that his kit was not as overpowering as it seemed at first glance.
That may change as Respawn gave Fuse some pretty powerful buffs in the Legacy update. He now has two Knuckle Cluster charges similar to Revenant. This should give him more opportunities to create space using his tactical ability during combat. On top of that, his tactical cooldown was also reduced from 25s to 18s.
Lifeline Res shield Removed
Lifeline was also in line to receive some changes since her passive res shield was a nightmare to deal with in a 1v1 scenario. Devs even hinted towards this change for some time now. And it finally came to fruition in the Legacy update.
Following the Legacy update, Lifeline will no longer provide shields while reviving her teammates. However, her ultimate cooldown has been reduced by 60 seconds and it will guarantee an upgrade to the player’s current loadout. This is a welcome change but the removal of the shield may turn out to be too crippling. Only time will tell.
Loba’s tactical finally fixed!
According to Respawn, Loba’s tactical ability received some extra attention and it will perform more reliably starting from the Legacy update. However, her ultimate cooldown was increased by 30 seconds.
Bangalore smoke changes:
Bangalore also received a small change to her kits as her tactical smoke canisters will no longer deal any damage.
Horizon
- Gravity Lift: Reduced lift speed by 30%. Reduced side-to-side acceleration. Limited the time you can sit at the top of Gravity Lift to 2 seconds. Increased cooldown from 15s to 20s.
- Horizon’s abilities will now get zapped by Wattson pylons.
Dev Note
Horizon is powerful and popular, but that’s not why we’re making these changes. We believe that mistakes in Apex Legends should be punishable, and when Horizon could just get herself out of bad positioning while popping a whole battery, this just wasn’t true. These changes have two goals: 1) make it much more possible for enemies to shoot Horizon as she sits in her gravity lift and 2) make gravity lift less of an impromptu sniper tower.
Bloodhound
- No longer receives assists from Eye of the Allfather.
Dev Note
Bloodhound’s scan is strong, but the goal of this change, in particular, is to reconsider assists and their implications for Ranked Points. There’s enough intrinsic value in sonar scans, and it’s a slippery slope to consider crediting assists for other non-damaging abilities. Crypto will remain an exception. The active nature of Crypto’s drone scan is notably different from the passive option with Bloodhound. This should encourage Bloodhound players to act on the information they get from the scan, to eliminate instances where they might try to snag a quick assist without committing to a fight in the same way Crypto has to.
Crypto
- Crypto’s drone can now scan and open care packages.
- Can no longer use his drone to “hijack” a respawn beacon that’s already in use.
Read More: Respawn is already working on legends for season 13 and 14 of Apex, confirmed by a dev
