As Season 29 of Apex Legends reaches a midpoint, the developers at Respawn have shared some of the changes coming in the second half of the season. In a recently shared blog post addressing the state of the game, Respawn laid out which Legends are being tweaked – with the Apex Games’ newest Legend, Axle, being the center of attention.
In short, the major changes are nerfs to Axle, Conduit, Mad Maggie, and Valkyrie– all overwhelmingly popular characters this Apex Legends season in terms of pick rat –while less utilized Legends like Pathfinder, Ballistic, and Seer are all gaining buffs. Another significant addition is a new hop-up for shotguns meant to make close range encounters more satisfying.
Nerf: Axle gets axed (sort of)
All new Legends introduced to Apex are meant to shake up the meta in some capacity. In Axle’s case, this meant speeding up fights in a game that’s almost infamously fast with her speed boost tacticals.
In their blog, Respawn made an interesting admission that all new Legends are introduced almost too strong on purpose, as otherwise players won’t try them out. They wrote, “players are simply not incentivized to try something new if it does not shift the meta in a meaningful way and create new ways of play”.
Since players have now had plenty of time to test out Axle and see how she can impact their gameplay, now is the time to scale back and settle her pick rate down to more reasonable numbers (she currently sits at over 17%).
| Tactical | Number of active Nitro Gates reduced from 3 to 2 for base kit. |
| Ultimate | Axle’s Kickstart will no longer blast players straight up in the air and back down again. Instead, it will launch its target in an arc based on the speed and direction they were already going, giving “the Kickstart victim more agency”. |
| Upgrades | Level 2 Upgrade (formally Super Slider) replaced with a new upgrade that reduces Tactical cooldown and increases Nitro Gates from 2 to 3. |
With Respawn’s method of slowly and steadily altering Legend abilities, it may take a while to see Axle drift down the pick rate leaderboard. Hopefully the removal of so many Nitro Gates will help slow down the battlefield to some extent during firefights.
Nerf: Mad Maggie, Valkyrie, and Conduit receive minor nerfs
To fill out the rest of the top-picked Legends, Mad Maggie, Valkyrie, and Conduit enter the scene. Unlike Axle, each of these characters are receiving minimal tweaks that should hopefully balance their pick rate among their class (especially in the case of Conduit amongst Controller Legends).
In keeping to their effort to balance Legends to a reasonable state, Conduit had been significantly improved at the beginning of this season. These upcoming nerfs are simply a scaling back of Conduit at a too-powerful state.
Mad Maggie
| Tactical | Cooldown increased slightly (more exact numbers will come in future patch notes). |
| Ultimate | Maggie’s Ultimate will no longer drop speed boosts, but instead leave “sprint boosts” to allow players to push enemy squads without gaining too much speed. |
| Upgrades | N/A |
Valkyrie
| Tactical | N/A |
| Ultimate | Valkyrie’s soft landing from her launch is being removed, as the ability to scan and drop in on enemies almost unannounced gave her an unfair advantage. |
| Upgrades | N/A |
Conduit
| Tactical | Increased cooldown to balance out her recently gained double Tactical charge from the beginning of Season 29. |
| Ultimate | N/A |
| Upgrades | Enduring Barrier will not regenerate through damage from the Ring (though it will work normally through other types of damage). |
Buff: Ballistic aims for a comeback
Ballistic has known the epic highs and lows of the pick rate leaderboard ever since his release in Season 17. Currently, he sits in the bottom three with a 0.6% pickrate. To remedy this, Respawn is giving him some much needed upgrades to his kit.
| Passive | Ballistic’s Sling weapon respawns with him (in every game mode from Ranked to Mixtape). |
| Tactical | Ballistic now has two base Tactical charges for his overheat Whistler, its damage is now back to 50, and the effect will last for 15 seconds. However, the overheat will now only apply to the weapon in an enemy’s head – swapping weapons is now an option for counter play. |
| Ultimate | The team-wide boost will give a sprint boost rather than a speed boost, allowing full teams to push their enemies (much like Mad Maggie’s Ultimate) without granting overall speed. |
| Upgrades | The upgrades available to Ballistic are being overhauled. Killing Time has been moved to level three while three new options have been added. Extra Bullet: Gain an extra Tactical charge for a total of three. Trap Mode: Longer duration for Whistler and deals 35 damage while in trap state (a modified version of Lasting Bullet). Quiet Time: Applies Silence when it hits an enemy rather than when/if they overheat along with a short slow effect. |
Buff: Pathfinder earns a new passive
Pathfinder’s whole kit is centered on rotating around the map, with ziplines as the central element. Given his large hit box, this has often made him an easy target when zipping around. To solve this, the developers have allowed Pathfinder to tuck his legs up when zipping – simultaneously making him safer when using his Ultimate and making him even more adorable.
The upgrades to Pathfinder mostly speed up the process of deploying and using his various abilities, which should hopefully boost his popularity among the ever-popular Skirmisher class.
| Passive | Tucked legs! |
| Tactical | Pathy now has two charges for his grapple with a flat cooldown of 20 seconds. |
| Ultimate | Zipline will now deploy faster with a reduced cooldown, making it easier for players to use their Ultimate more frequently. |
| Upgrades | Field Research: Now gains all Recon class perks. Ringermaster: Now gains all Controller class perks (including the ability to reinforce Hardlight Mesh, overshield when in the Ring, and spawning Evac Towers at ring consoles). Landing Gear: Replacing Grapple God, Pathfinder gains soft landings and better air control. |
Buff: Seer speeds up
Like plenty of other Legends, Seer’s buffs include speeding up his abilities to make it easier for him to gain situational information. Interestingly, this also includes the added ability for his Tactical to slow down “high speed abilities”.
| Passive | Heartbeat sensor’s activation time is now faster. This means more frequent heartbeats to find enemies and more consistency whether unarmed or weapon equipped. |
| Tactical | Seer’s Tactical will have a much shorter delay when launching to make hitting enemies easier. As a bonus, his Tactical will also kill momentum on speedy abilities like Axle’s slide and Ash’s dash. |
| Ultimate | When players set up Seer’s Ultimate, it will now scan everyone in the area once to show Seer and his squad who’s in the area before they start to move around. Cloaked enemies will now also leave footsteps like normal enemies. |
| Upgrades | N/A |
A new shotgun hop-up: The Executioner
As acknowledged by Respawn, shotguns are a finicky weapon that easily goes from overpowered to feeling useless from one season to the next. Two shotguns in particular – the Peacekeeper and the Mastiff – are the focus of this new upgrade due to data that indicates players die most often while holding them. As the developers wrote, “how often have you gotten that quick swap to the Peacekeeper, secure the down, only to be killed a moment or two later?”.
To solve this shotgun issue, a new hop-up called Executioner is coming to Apex Legends. This new attachment will begin regenerating shields over a few short seconds after players have knocked an enemy, giving them an extra boost of health during the heat of a close-range battle.
The full patch notes for the second split of Season 29 are coming in just a few days on June 22, which will certainly be of interest for competitive players preparing for the upcoming playoffs at the Esports World Cup in early July.
