Cover-Credits:
With Respawn gearing up for Apex Legends Season 16 coming in February, players are expecting a lot more from the new season. Season 15 caught a lot of flak for lack of balance changes to Legends which led to a fairly stale meta. However, recent leaks suggest this may have been for a reason. Leaks by YouTuber Thordan Smash suggest that Apex Legend classes are getting major changes in the new season. Here is all we know about the potential upcoming changes to Legend classes in Season 16 of Apex Legends.
Leaks suggest a Pathfinder rework along with a Legend class overhaul
YouTuber Thordan Smash tweeted about the new Apex Legend class changes heading to the game for Season 16. he said, “The new classes in Apex Legends have another leaker putting out info about them...and I'm all for it. Pathfinder finally getting a solid rework baby.” He also detailed some of the anticipated changes.
The legends in the game are divided into four broad categories, namely offensive, defensive, recon and support. According to the leaks, the legends in the offensive or assault class will be divided into a new Skirmisher class which will include high mobility legends like Wraith. Given the class’ description, it is also likely to include legends like Octane and Pathfinder. Pathfinder is also likely to get a rework. Fans of the legend have been asking Respawn to change up his lacklustre kit for a while now. The Assault classes are likely to also get red bins and extra inventory slots for ammo.
According to leaks, defensive legends are to be classified as Control legends which lock areas down. Respawn seems to want to make a distinction between shield-based lockdowns and more aggressive ways of locking down areas. Although Newcastle can also hold areas down with his ultimate, he and Gibraltar are going to be reclassified as Support. In a previous AMA on Reddit, Respawn’s Lead Game Designer, Devan McGuire talked about why Apex has so few legends in the Support class. Apex Legends’s high TTK (time to kill) leads to quick fights and limited opportunities to reset. Respawn doesn’t want to disturb the game’s current TTK so any heal-based support needs to be balanced carefully so as to not make healing and resets too powerful. The reclassification of the Support class will broaden the scope of the role to include both shield, item and heal-based legends.
Thordan also added, “It also makes sense that LAN is February 2nd now in London, no class changes until February 14th on season 16 so pros aren't impacted until the next split.”
