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For many the 15th Season, Eclipse, of the most popular FPS Battle Royale, Apex Legends is going to be a “make or break” situation. This isn’t a doomsday warning nor is it one of those “Apex is dying” quotes being constantly spammed over Twitter message boards. However, there is something to be said about the state of Apex Legends as of late – the release of Overwatch 2 hurt the viewership and player count numbers dramatically, and Respawn has been eerily silent on how they are going to take on Blizzards’ juggernaut.
The pains Apex players have been experiencing for many seasons now remain unaddressed – for one, there’s zero talk on audio improvements, the Ranking system is the same and on the gameplay side, we haven’t had a new weapon since The Rampage. So, why should we get excited about the new season?
New Legend: Catalyst
With the release of the new season titled Eclipse, we have a brand new legend that is poised to finally end the “wall-hack” META that plagued S14 with the use of Seer. Catalyst which is hailed to be the first transgender woman in Apex, has a unique set of abilities that will make it a nightmare for teams that rely heavily on knowing enemy positions with legends like Seer, Bloodhound or Crypto.
The slick Catalyst is using Ferro-fluid as a sort of “techno-mancy” to bewitch opponents who rely on speed and sight. Her passive allows her to strengthen or repair doors which take much longer to kick / take down. This extends to other structures such as Rampart’s or Newcastle’s Barricade.
Her Tactical is called “Piercing Spikes” and it can be used to slow down enemies on a targeted area. Enemy legends like Octane who rely on speed take a beating with this but can use the jump pad to move over the area.
Catalyst’s place in the new META for this season is however mostly reserved due to her ultimate – using the Dark Veil, she basically creates a huge wall of darkness that cannot be penetrated by scanning. If enemies go through the Veil, they are slowed and their vision is obscured for a short period of time, making them much more vulnerable.
New Map: Broken Moon
As is tradition, the new map will be available for players for the first two weeks, with added rotation of Olympus and Worlds Edge (rip King’s Kanyon). There aren’t a lot of details though we know for certain that the map is going to give the new legend a ton of places to shine (like close corridors, barricades and choke-points, though there is going to be a fast zip-line system that can help you quickly navigate from one place to the map to another.
Disappointing Patch Notes In Eclipse
Apart from a few quality of life changes and having Lifeline’s passive be useless (yet again) by making it available to other support legends (i.e. opening the Blue Bins), there weren’t many notable takes from the patch notes.
The R301 goes gold and not in the care package (a dread for many an Apex player), while the RE-45 with Suppressor Rounds will go into the care package drop (new gun meta incoming! 🙂 The Mastiff is back as ground loot and there are several small nerfs / buffs to guns like the Volt and RE99. The Crafter giveth the Havoc but taketh the Spitfire and the Peacemaker away – though we have everyone’s favorite gun after the Mozambique (the P2020) as a ground loot again.
The main issue however, is the unexpected lack of any legends’ buffs or nerfs. There’s a huge ongoing debate why Respawn decided to drop a new legend without any sort of adjustments to the playable roster. No love for Crypto or Watson, Lifeline is fine (/sniff), Gibby’s pick rate has probably flatlined… There can be several reasons behind this but mostly, if we had to guess, it’s the very varied and extremely “Gibby-less” META from the last season (where Seer dominated but we now see a legend that is a direct counter to him). Things should get interesting.
Eagle-eyed players and data miners have found some, interesting, additions to the ping-system, like this “enemy voice” ping (which is quickly becoming a meme since the audio from enemy teams is non-existent most of the time).
Ranked received just one (tiny) update
This is basically it.
Oh, and lest we forget, there was a huge ban wave for top-tier Ranked players who abused the Arena.
A shining sun after the Eclipse?
So, what do you think about the new season? Are you excited about the new legend and the map? It sure looks pretty – the map and the legend we mean 🙂
It can get pretty hectic and with Respawn still not doing anything to help players, it will be harder than ever to climb the ranks. But fret not – the BlazingBoost Apex Legends team has everything to help you get ready for the Eclipse: https://blazingboost.com/apex-legends
Feel free to check the Hardcore Coaching and Starter Packs if you are new to get a glimpse of what it means to become a Legend in the world of Apex.
Read more about Apex Legends on our blog! 🙂
