Apex Legends certainly isn't the game that it first was when it was shadow-released, and now we're heading into the midseason update and Respawn will be making some notable changes.
All of these changes are going to drastically change how some of you play, and we're going to run over the full patch notes below.
Here's what we know.
Apex Legends: All Amped Midseason Patch Notes
It's always an exciting time when a new patch for any game releases, and this time around is no exception for Apex fans.
With some significant changes coming to Octane, Newcastle and Crypto, you're going to want to get up to speed with all of the changes, which can be viewed here, or below.
OCTANE
Octane is a fan-favorite that has dropped in popularity over the years. We’d love to see him reclaim a place in the hearts of our players, so we’re making changes to remind everyone why you fell in love with the adrenaline chaser in the first place!
Octane’s pick rate is below average across all game modes and he sinks to near the bottom of the chart in Diamond/Masters. One of the main complaints about Octane we hear from our community is that, despite being fun for solo players, he lacks team utility. Additionally, Octane is often the character who runs ahead of the pack and looks for (and often finds) trouble; one small misstep can have dire consequences.
As a result, our goals are first to increase individual survivability. Second, create more team utility allowing Octane to better help squadmates. The aim is making him a more viable pick in a variety of team comps. To help achieve these goals we’ve added some new base abilities, and new upgrades to Octane’s kit.
CORE CHANGES
In an effort to enable a layer of survivability we are introducing a new formulation of Stim: Stim Surge. When already Stimmed, activate Octane’s tactical a second time to enter Stim Surge, extending your Stim and granting you Fortified and a Passive Heal.
- Fortified: Reduced damage and no bullet slow
- Passive Healing: Your passive healing immediately re-engages, and continues to heal through damage
UPGRADES
To improve Octane’s team utility, we’re adding a branch of upgrades to boost squadmates who use your JumpPad:
- Squad Rush: Everyone who uses your JumpPad gains Stim on land
- Triple Jump: Gain a third jump from JumpPads
While one branch is focused on increasing team utility, the other is centered around further improving his Stim.
NEWCASTLE
Newcastle was having the opposite problem of Octane: higher ranked lobbies were seeing the value in this heroic protector, but the broader community was not harnessing the value he can bring to a squad.
In buffing Newcastle, our goals are to make him feel less sluggish, hoping it makes him more appealing to play to the broader community.
To help achieve this goal we have incorporated the Swift Shield and Hero’s Hustle upgrades into his base kit, increasing his base movement speed and reducing movement penalties.
CRYPTO
Aside from potentially ALGS, Crypto has seen an extremely low pick rate across all skill bands for a long time.
The biggest pain point we’ve identified is the feeling that he gets left behind by his team while performing his key function: flying his drone. Therefore, our main goal in buffing Crypto is to simply allow him to better keep up with his squadmates.
As a result, we are speeding up Crypto’s interaction with his drone in a few key ways:
- Snappier drone launch, and quicker in/out time for drone
- Allowing him to pilot his drone while doing other things (i.e. zipline, opening a Mythic bin)
- New upgrades that keep him in the fight by allowing him to trailblaze to allies, or earn ult charge faster
WEAPONS
AMPS
We are pleased with the design space of most of our Amps as they have been doing a great job of allowing players to adapt to situations and customize their playstyle. However, we identified that Infinite Ammo was lagging behind other amps so we wanted to give it a bit of a boost. While there are only so many ways to buff “infinite ammo” we elected to go the route of enabling compatibility with Care Package weapons (yes, that means the Kraber.) Adding Care Package weapons into the fold this way will have a much larger impact on the Amps usefulness compared to some of the other adjustments we could make.
R-301 & FLATLINE
Over the past few seasons, the R-301 and Flatline have taken a backseat to some of the more specialized weapons in the roster. They remain beloved classics but their power has not kept up. This has caused the R-301 and Flatline to fall behind in some of our key metrics like Encounter Win Rate.
While making changes to these two staples, our goal is to close the gap in power to the rest of the roster and ensure they remain reliable classics.
To achieve this we are increasing damage on both of these weapons by one. It may seem like a small change on the surface, but it will bring down their Time to Kill across multiple shield breakpoints. We’re excited to see if this reinvigorates the community’s love for the R-301 and Flatline.
PROWLER
At the beginning of Season 27 we equipped the Prowler with autofire burst capabilities. When we made that adjustment we also increased the delay between bursts in an effort to offset the power we thought we’d unlocked. Looking at the Prowler’s performance since, we realize we hit it a little too hard.
Our goal in the followup changes to the Prowler is to bring it to a healthy balance now that the autofire burst has had time to settle into the meta.
To do that, we’re reverting the burst fire delay changes we made at the beginning of Season 27. However, we still want to give the Prowler a little bit of a tune up and ensure the Selectfire Hop-Up’s Automatic Mode feels proportionately rewarding to unlock. That in mind, we’re increasing bullet damage while in full auto mode to 17 (up from 16).
IN CLOSING
We hope you found this helpful in further understanding the thought process behind the decisions we’re making to shift the seasonal meta of Apex Legends. For a comprehensive guide to the changes for 27.1 be sure to check the Patch Notes!
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