Apex Legends Balance Changes

Respawn Entertainment revealed today that they will be making several changes to Apex Legends, the hugely popular Battle Royale game that came out of nowhere in early February.

In a Reddit post on March 7th the developer announced they would be making some changes to a couple of weapons as well as features and hitbox sizes across the majority of the Legends, or characters, that players can choose to embody while attempting to make it to the coveted Champion position. Let’s take a look at a few of these…

Weapon Adjustments

Respawn has indicated both the Wingman and the Peacekeeper weapons will receive reductions in stats as well as availability. These two guns are undoubtedly two of the most popular weapons in the game, potentially due to the fact that they are overpowered.

Wingman

Rate of fire reduced from 3.1 -> 2.6 shots per second.
Skullpiercer Headshot damage multiplier reduced from 2.5 -> 2.25
Increased base hip fire spread and decreased the rate at which hip fire spread decays (shrinks back down).

Peacekeeper

Shotgun Bolt rechamber rate has been reduced for the Peacekeeper only.

Level 1 mitigation 10% -> 7.5%
Level 2 mitigation 20% -> 13%
Level 3 mitigation 25% -> 16%

They’ve also stated that these guns will be less plentiful in King’s Canyon and that energy weapons and ammunition will become more plentiful.

A cause of major concern is the variety of different hitbox sizes. Hitboxes are essentially the space you need to hit in order to damage a character. Naturally, the larger the hitbox of your character, the more of a disadvantage a player has when being fired upon by their enemies. These are the types of changes that will be made when Apex Legends starts its first season, which is said to be starting later this month.

Hit box size reductions and optimizations for Caustic, Pathfinder and Gibraltar

We’re better sizing hitboxes to character gear & model

Since these adjustments have a MAJOR impact on the game, we want to make sure there aren’t any major bugs, so we didn’t want to rush them out

If these adjustments prove to be insufficient, we’ll consider additional adjustments during Season 1

Caustic

Traps – Reduced cooldown to 25 seconds from 30 seconds
Traps – Increased radius and proximity radius by about 10%
Traps – Removed a 1 second delay on the smoke dealing damage to players

Pathfinder

Insider Knowledge – Increased the number of beacons in the world to 12 from 10

Lifeline

Care Package – Removed slight chance that level 4 armor and helmets will drop

Wraith

Into The Void – Cooldown increased from 20 -> 25 seconds

Bangalore

Double Time – Reduced move speed bonus to 30% from 40%

What do you think? Are you happy with the proposed changes? Will they make the game more balanced? Are we ever going to get tired of pinging the Mozambique?