Apex S16 legend changes

After 4 long years, it seems Apex Legends is beginning to re-invent itself and the S16 legend changes are more than enough proof of that. Now that the new season is almost upon us, we know for certain many aspects of what the general META is shifting towards.

Respawn has been teasing a lot of nerfs/buffs that were absent in S15, and we can finally say for certain, what those additions will be. Without further ado, let us list every single change for S16 for the affected Legends.

Shaping the future of competitive apex

Respawn are really shaking the very foundations they’ve built over the years with S16 legend changes. The most important of all is how teams will now rotate based on map knowledge. The most significant changes here are:

• No more Beacon-scanning
• No more fortify (fatass legends receiving reduced damage)

Now, the first one is obviously what we’re most excited about. Every single high-end team would rotate early with knowledge of the last 3 circles in the game, so not having this is going to be huge. This knowledge isn’t entirely lost (as we will see later), but it shifts in such an unpredictable way, it is just awesome.

The latter change is very fun to see. It seems the devs finally want to even the playfield out and allow legends to peak through based on their utility and abilities, rather than how much damage they can soak. It remains to be seen how this is balanced in terms of hitboxes/being a fatass (sorry Gibby/Caustic mains).

Leaving the old Meta in the dust

Let’s start with the obvious change – the new Legend Classes. Since there’s no new Legend incoming for S16, Respawn has completely reworked each legend to fit a certain class. The old classes are gone and in their stead, we will have:

• Assault (offensive abilities for opening fights).
  – Legends of this class are: Mad Maggie, Ash, Bangalore, Fuse, and Revenant
  – They will have exclusive access to a new Loot bin (Red) which has weapon attachments and gun upgrades
  – Another passive for every Assault legend is being able to carry more ammo (20% more per magazine)
• Skirmisher (the “escape” and movement abilities bunch)
  – Includes: Wraith, Pathfinder, Mirrage, Octane, and Valkyre
  – They can see inside incoming Care Packages (know when that Kraber’s inbound)
• Recon (finding an enemy placement and tracking teams)
  – These include: Seer, Bloodhound, and Crypto
  – By scanning beacons, Recon legends won’t see the ring’s location, rather, they will see the location of every enemy team for 30s (similar to Crypto’s surveillance Tower on King’s Kanyon)
• Controller (Legends who can limit movement and secure an area)
  – These include: Catalyst, Wattson, Caustic, and Rampart
  – This is the new class that can now scan for the Ring, thanks to a brand new item introduced in the game. It is called Ring Console.
• Support (the utility/combat ressers)
  – Newcastle, Lifeline, Loba, and Gibraltar
  – Blue bin update: super buffed to grant big meds
  – SUPPORT LEGENDS CAN CRAFT EXPIRED TEAMMATE BANNERS! ATTENTION! THIS IS HAPPENING! It will only cost 30 crafting mats. It’s a crazy good change that can potentially shift the META tremendously.

Legend-specific nerfs and buffs

Now that we have the Legend-wide changes out of the way, let’s talk specific legend buffs and nerfs in s16. There’s a lot to go through so let’s get snappy:

• Seer: Ultimate now has a shorter range bubble and lasts for a shorter period (needs much longer to recharge)
  – Passive is reworked: enemies will only show on the heartbeat radar if you pinpoint the actual spot of the enemy. Plus, they increased the animation to set up the heartbeat sensor, so you cannot just switch weapons off/on to scan more easily. One more thing to note here is that if you get scanned by a Seer’s passive, you will get notified with a sort of “ping” sound.
• Bloodhound: Ultimate is reworked. Instead of extending the duration once you down an enemy, it has a finite duration. However now, the Ult spawns white ravens when there aren’t any enemies around. Interacting with them will lead the Bloodhound to the nearest enemy team.
• Wraith: Ultimate now has twice the travel distance + added speed of travel. TTV Wraiths, REJOICE!
• Pathfinder: Ultimate now places for twice the distance. You also zip around MUCH faster, so you can also launch much further than your enemies.
• Horizon: Gravity Lift (Q) is finally fixed (no more accuracy). The lift, however, is now much faster.
• Mirage (MEGA BUFFS): While reviving, both Mirrage and the revived teammate remain invisible for 2 more seconds once the animation is done!
  – If your clone is shot for a Bamboozle, your team gets the location of the enemy who shot him on the map.
• Lifeline: slowdown from when you revive with your D.O.C. is reduced
  – You can put your Support Package from much further away
  – The Support Package drops much faster