Meet Wattson – Apex Legends Character Trailer: https://youtu.be/BuqnLGbjhkY
How ranked play will work:
Interesting idea to frame rank point loss as an “entry fee”
At least it doesn’t seem so punishing and full of malfeasance that is the Destiny 2 ‘ranking’ system for Competitive where you can lose all your points/progress even if you have the most kills.
At least the way the do it in Apex, you can get progress from kills even if your team loses cause the other guys are afk bots.
So, I played the crap out of this last night. Some impressions.
The daily/weekly challenges are very interesting. Also, they are apparently not the same for everyone. Everyone apparently gets a randomly generated set of them.
There are ones which I would expect, like, “Get X damage with weapon Y”, or “Place in the top 5 X times”.
There are ones like “Get X kills while using Bloodhound’s Beast of the Hunt ability”. There are also ones like, “Get X knockdowns with Octane, Lifeline, or Gibraltar”, which is nice because they count knockdowns instead of just kills.
There are some which involve landing in a specific part of the map, which is cool, because it mixes stuff up a bit in terms of where folks land, especially since everyone has different goals. So we’ll start and someone will be like, “I got a challenge to land in the market.” and then we’d go there.
An interesting thing is that you can advance in battle levels via just experience from killing folks and stuff, but most of your progress is actually linked to the challenges, many of which will instantly give you an entire level. All challenges will either give you a battle level directly, or they will give you “stars”, which are effectively another separate XP count… basically, you get bonus battle rank XP for completing challenges.
The map changes are DRAMATICALLY bigger than I expected. Some of the areas, like the Valley, are entirely different now, with very large new buildings, with the old ones destroyed, etc.
The new character, Watson, is very interesting. The fences provide a totally new area denial mechanism, and her ultimate can be extremely useful. It recharges your shields, and destroys any incoming projectiles (including things like airstrikes). On some level, she seems like just a better option than Caustic, so it may result in some buffs to caustic (who honestly, is a pretty weak character right now).
Overall though, an impressive set of changes.
Sounds great! I’ve been busy since this came out going to races at Lincoln and Grandview the last two nights but I hope to play at least a little bit this evening.
That’s “Wattson” to you, though. :)
Some info about a bunch of weapons changes:
One thing I forgot to mention, which I had noticed, and that this confirms…
The new ammo mods can result in crazy damage.
The alternator, specifically, has gotten huge upgrade potential.
Apex Legends Season 2 - Weapon Tuning Patch Notes
New Hop-Up: Disruptor Rounds
- Increased damage to shielded targets.
- Compatibility: Alternator / RE-45
New Hop-Up: Hammerpoint Rounds
- Increased damage to unshielded targets.
- Compatibility: P2020, Mozambique.
New Attachments: Energy Mags
- Increases magazine capacity.
- Increases reload speed at rare and above.
- Compatibility: Havoc, Triple Take, Devotion.
- Reduced default mag sizes on compatible weapons.
Skullpiercer Hop-Up: Upgraded to gold tier & increased rarity.
Flatline :
- damage 16 → 19
P2020 :
- damage 12 → 13
Triple Take x Precision Choke :
- choke time 1.5 → 1.1
Alternator:
- damage 13 → 15
- recoil mitigation increased for all barrel attachments.
Kraber:
- damage 125 → 145
- headshot scale 2.0 → 2.05
- leg damage scale 0.76 → 0.8
- slightly increased rarity
Ammo Stack Sizes
- Shotgun max stack reduced from 64 to 16. Players now need multiple stacks of ammo to run a shotty.
- Energy max stack increased from 60 to 80; now matches Light/ Heavy ammo.
Rotated Gold Weapons
- Flatline
- Alternator
- RE45
- Mozambique
- P2020
Check the alternator… it’s damage per round has increased from 13 to 15… But disruptor rounds increase it further against shields.
Supposedly, according to some source, the damage per round with disruptors, in the alternator goes up to 36 per round. THIS IS CRAZY. It will take down purple shields in 3 shots… and it’s a freaking SMG.
I can’t confirm that personally, but I can confirm that I had a gold RE-45 last night, with disruptor rounds, and it absolutely wrecked everyone I went up against with it.
I’m looking forward to trying this again. Hopefully the new ranked mode will keep be with other scrubs
Well, I suspect it will take a little while for folks to separate out into higher tiers.
That’s very cool. Thanks for the list! I get the Skullpiercer change for Wingman but not for the Longbow. I think maybe they should break that apart into separate hop ups. Maybe some kind of headshot damage up for the Longbow and G7 instead of having it be Wingman and Longbow?
That Flatline buff seems rather good… I will try that tonight.
I think the only change is that it was made slightly more rare? I think its effect is still the same?
Gold tier and rarity is a big nerf IMO for it with the Longbow IMO. The 'bow is just not worth picking up without it and now that it’s going to be even harder to find one, that means I probably won’t pick it up much at all anymore.
I like that sniping is less effective in Apex, but I think that also makes it a lot more FUN because when you’re good at it, it really means something. This is just making it that much harder.
The issue of course is everyone’s running around with the Wingman, specifically on PC, and headshotting people like mad because of mouse aim at range. It’s a totally different thing on the PS4 and I assume the One as well.
Detailed damage numbers for stuff:
The Mozambique, with hammerpoint rounds, now has the potential to do 90 damage in one shot if you land the full 3 pellet burst.
Damn.
Best part of Season 2: Watson
Worst part of Season 2: All the new and returning gamers playing to see what it’s about who don’t use mic, communicate and just run off and leave their team.
Looks like they are testing a solo mode next week.
I will try it, but I definitely prefer the three player teams. I think it’s the perfect grouping. Ranked has made people a lot more conducive toward working together too.
Maybe I need to play more ranked games. Lately I have had some real ass hats.
Last night I had a team that dropped and posted up for the entire game. Not only is that not fun, but your also setting yourself up for a quick death. If anyone here is playing on xbox hit me up.
Ranked games, especially once you reach Platinum tier, become dramatically different.
So about that Iron Crown event…
Umm what the heck is going on over at EA/Respawn?
When they’re right, they’re right.
Seriously. It’s tactless, no doubt, but are they wrong?