Summary
Apex Legendshas revealed that Conduit, Bangalore, and Revenant are getting hit with some significant nerfs in an upcoming update. These changes to the popular Legends are coming as part of the recently revealed Shadow Society Event forApex Legends, starting on March 26.
Arriving shortly after theInner Beast Collection Event inApex Legends, the Shadow Society Event looks to bring a new LTM called Lockdown, which is described as a four-squad free-for-all in which teams need to capture zones to earn points. The event will also bring new cosmetics, including an Apex Artifact, a new Mythic Melee cosmetic similar to Heirlooms but can be used by any Legend. Besides new content meant to keep the game fresh, the developer has packed a bunch of Legend changes into the upcoming update as well.
Ahead of the release of the Shadow Society Event, Respawn Entertainment has revealed the patch notes for the update. Among the changes, Conduit, Bangalore, and Revenant are getting substantial nerfs to their respective kits. Specifically, Bangalore will see her Smoke Launcher cooldown increased from 33 to 35 seconds, and the duration will be decreased to 11 seconds, previously 18. Furthermore, smoke particles will disappear more quickly, and enemies can no longer be damaged by the exploding canister. As if that was not enough, the developer is also nerfingBangalore’s Rolling Thunder, increasing the cooldown from 4 to 4.5 minutes.
While Conduit’s Ultimate will not be affected like Bangalore’s in this upcoming patch, her Tactical will receive some significant alterations. According to the patch notes, the Radiant Transfer cooldown will be increased from 26 to 31 seconds. In addition, the regen interruption delay time will increase to two seconds, previously one.
Rounding out the list of characters receiving major nerfs is Revenant. The Simulacrum will see his Forged in Shadows ability nerfed in several ways: Shadow Pounce will no longer refresh after getting a knock in Shadow form, and the decreased cooldown on this Tactical while using this Ultimate has been removed. Furthermore, the cooldown on Forged in Shadows has been increased by 60 seconds.
Despite the changes to Bangalore, Conduit, and Revenant potentially being most impactful, the Shadow Society Event update will change various other Legends. For example,Caustic’s gas damagewill increase by one with each tick. In addition, upgrades have been adjusted for several Legends, including the previously mentioned Bangalore, Revenant, and Caustic.
Time will tell how these changes impact thecharacter meta inApex Legendsthroughout the remainder of Season 20. Bangalore, Conduit, and Revenant have been among the most picked Legends in the battle royale recently, so it will be interesting to see if these nerfs are enough to dissuade players from using them.
Care Package
Dev Notes: Over the seasons, we’ve been improving the lethality of crate weapons to increase excitement and usefulness. This has led to early Care Package weapons feeling disproportionately strong, so we’ve decided to push them to later in the game rather than pulling back on their strength. Offering gold weapons in their stead keeps the early drops relevant but not as dominant.
Weapon Spawn Rates
Dev Notes: Normalizing these spawn rates should smooth out the looting experience and ammo economy across maps when it comes to weapon variety. Ex. the 30-30 had a higher spawn chance than a Triple Take in high tier zones—they now have the same spawn chance in high tier zones.
CAR(from Season 20 launch, missed in Patch Notes)
EVA-8 [Care Package]
Dev Notes: We’re satisfied with how the EVA-8 is performing in very close quarters combat, but it falls a bit short just outside of barrel-stuff range. We hope an improvement to its blast pattern, projectile size, and handling speed will round out its place as a CQC monster.
Rampage
Dev Notes: The Rampage LMG energize time was slightly misaligned with the buff kicking in, resulting in unintentional interruptions right as it was about to finish. This adjustment tightens all that up.
Wingman [Care Package]
Dev Notes: At the start of the season, we locked the optic to the 1x HCOG as a stop-gap fix to remove the Digital Threat from the Wingman. Digi on Wingman represents an immense power spike, and our preference is to keep the power of the Wingman in the weapon and not the optic.
Ballistic
Dev Note: Ballistic didn’t receive the full suite of upgrades we wanted to give him on launch, and these upgrades won’t be his last. Decoupling Extra Bullet and Lasting Bullet (alongside the addition of Speedy Whistler) creates more versatility with the Tactical on a Legend that’s more one-dimensional than some.
Dev Note: Bangalore’s smoke has been dominant for a while now. We thought about reducing smoke charges, but keeping two with a shorter lifetime encourages more plays with the smoke than longer plays IN the smoke (limiting its omnipresence in fights). Adding the Tactical Cooldown in place of the Ultimate Cooldown promotes a more meaningful choice between two core components of her kit. The Cover Me tracking potential was doing more work than intended, especially through smoke, so we’ve dialed this back to point you in the right direction rather than provide perfect positional info.
Dev Note: Caustic’s Particle Diffuser upgrade makes it much harder for players to escape his larger gas cloud and getting that early in game could be quite oppressive. We’ve moved this upgrade to spike his power in the late game specifically. The goal of the gas changes is to create more counterplay options when playing around gas; dipping in and out of it should still be punished with the Gas Slow, but moving within it is now a possibility for willing test subjects as long as they don’t experiment for too long.
Conduit
Dev Note: Ahh yes, Revenant’s best friendOctaneConduit. She continues to be a strong pick, given her ability to maintain pressure by supporting aggressive allies in flights. Part of the counterplay is to interrupt her shield regen with damage, but we are seeing that it’s all too easy to evade briefly and have the regen kick back in almost immediately. Increasing this delay not only stops the regen for longer, it also cuts into the overall duration of the regen and its potential healing—making it more possible to combat her total healing output.
Dev Note: Gift Wrapped was a pretty strong choice that revived a lacking Support pick in higher levels of play. However, it didn’t feel entirely on brand for our combat medic and it led to some issues controlling the power spike and frequency of Care Package weapons. We’ve replaced this with a more deterministic draw for gold items that Lifeline can use to support her squad. Rapid Response was also a popular choice; let’s see if a cooldown-free DOC makes this decision more interesting.
Dev Note: Revenant has been a powerful contender in Ranked for a few seasons. This change aims to reduce the frequency of his Ultimate and pushes using late game upgrades to improve his Tactical (instead of giving him more frequent movement in his most powerful state). Agile Assassin was a cautious addition at launch, knowing the power of Revenant. However, it required too small of a window to take advantage of the minor charge-time improvement it gave to be viable, so it has been removed.
Seer
Dev Note: Seer’s upgrades were seeing one-sided pushes to regain his lost range and scan duration, and Tactical upgrades didn’t change how hard the ability is to land consistently. These changes push Seer to make a choice on his Ultimate early on, and then tap into one direction of his Tactical in the late game—which has been adjusted to hit more frequently.
Wraith
Dev Note: Wraith was one of a couple legends with a Level 3 Ultimate related cooldown option, but this didn’t give her enough time to maximize the Ult’s effectiveness as a rotational tool in earlier stages of the game. Swapping this with her Tactical Cooldown now makes our interdimensional skirmisher’s choices less one-dimensional as you now have to choose between Tactical improvements.
Apex Legends
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Conquer with character in Apex Legends, a free-to-play* Hero shooter where legendary characters with powerful abilities team up to battle for fame & fortune on the fringes of the Frontier.Master an ever-growing roster of diverse legends, deep tactical squad play, and bold new innovations that go beyond the Battle Royale experience—all within a rugged world where anything goes. Welcome to the next evolution of Hero Shooter.This game includes optional in-game purchases of virtual currency that can be used to acquire virtual in-game items, including a random selection of virtual in-game items.
