Apex Legends Dev Tracker

For the Assault Season, we targeted specific Assault Legends who were under-performing to breath new life into them - which is why we had a focus on Ash and Ballistic.

Others like Mad Maggie and Bangalore for example were performing well, so they needed little adjustments ( Assault perk alone was enough ) to feel good.

The Ult is a good note, and something the team has talked about a few times. It was always designed to have an element of chaos to it - that's Mad Maggie all over.

But there are definitely elements of the Ult we'd like to improve on at some point - and some simple quality of life changes we'd like to get rolling on sooner than later.

Okaaaaaay....

But only because you asked so nicely.

Jokes aside, we're looking at him - but if Larson has his way, the gas daddy will return with very snazzy leather chaps.

The addition of the Red Helmet as the only item in the game capable of pushing a Legend to have the extra health was an important shift for the game that we needed to evaluate on it's own merit.

If playing a particular class of character granted access to this extra tier - we would have muddied the data around how that change impacted the experience. So we opted to ensure all characters followed the new ruleset.

Additionally, in this version, shooting someone with red armor, and seeing those red effects speaks to a prize you can earn and obtain. If that player was red, but they're also a Controller Legend - do they just have the perk? Or are they carrying something you can take?

However, we're well into the season now, know how the Red Helmets play out across the field - so that may become an opportunity for Controller Legends in the future, and something we've been discussing.

Controller Legends are not marked for a meta-shakeup season. They had the...

We've been looking at Wraith.

The Skirmisher class update is fast approaching - so it's a good chance for us to look at Wraith and evaluate options. I think there's enough data from season 24 so far to do this evaluation with as well.

It's possible, and it has come up before internally.

It will be something to consider for the class after the dust settles on the Assault and Skirmisher class changes.

Pathfinder was an unfortunate victim of his own success.

Despite the massive change to the support Legends in s23, Pathfinder remained the second highest-picked Legend by a large margin, and given the plan to elevate Loba and Mirage at the split and Ash and the Assault Legends the season after, he was due for some time on the bench to allow other Legends to step up to the plate.

Skirmishers are set to receive the next class update - which Pathfinder will benefit from, and we have plans to give him back some love in the future.

Soon. Very soon.

And if you've been counting the classes to receive new perks over the last few seasons - Skirmisher Class is next up to bat.

The honest answer is that the release of new Legends has not carried the weight or impact that they once used to. And new Legends are a considerable effort to stand up across many departments of the game.

Not to mention, creating a new Legend that fits alongside the current roster without overshadowing or being overshadowed is no easy task.

With previous recent Legend releases, there has been a lot of early excitement around the Legend for the first two weeks - then once the honeymoon period ends, and everyone drops back to their mains again - they're back to playing the same legends and comps they played last season, and the season before that... and it was starting to feel stale for a lot of folk. Which is something we don't want.

We want the game to feel more alive, more responsive to the community, and more fresh when you come back each season - which is why we've shifted towards more frequent, impactful ( and sometimes overly spicy ) meta changes that a...

Skirmisher Class is next.

While each class is being focused on, and the perks that come online have been coming in fairly hot, we do want to ensure when all is said and done each class feels a little more balanced.

So, like we saw with the Support class, we should expect to see the assault class perks simmer down a little after the season.

There are currently no plans to add the Mobile Legends to Apex.

On your second question...

This is the double-edged sword of movement in our game. It's really fun, and really powerful. So why not give it to everyone? The players obviously want it!

Our job as designers is to separate what players want from what players need. Apex is a game with deep mastery, discovery, and interplay between Legends. Movement mechanics and map, loot, weapon, and Legend design are all interconnected... you can't touch one without affecting the other. What would happen if we gave Ash dash to everyone? It would feel fresh and fun for a week, but then some issues would bubble up. Caustic's whole kit isn't designed around that level of movement. He doesn't need to dash to conduct experiments on his enemies, and he doesn't want other people dashing because he's all about area denial and crowd control. Controller legends on whole would take a hit. Same with Recon. Grenades are less meaningful now because enemies can just dash away. Map design becomes l...

To answer your question directly: they were all made at once as the culmination of a couple design teams (namely weapons and Legends) working to shake-up the "survival-heavy" meta with the tools at their disposal. For weapons, that was widespread buffs and some loot massaging (inspired partly by how punchy weapon identities felt in Launch Royale and "loot creep" over the course of five years). For Legends, it was a new Class focus that excelled at intiating and closing out fights, with a goal to elevate a couple Legends that were always middle-to-bottom of the pack in terms of popularity and power fantasy. In early playtests, it just felt good to convert damage into kills more consistently... we knew there was something there worth pursuing.

To answer that second part: It's easier to find that middle ground by taking big (measured) swings and reacting. It also creates a more dynamic live experience season over season, and resets the skill floor in some ways, allowing player...

Yes. Personal bias aside, I'm excited to get Wraith back to her effective skirmishing state.

Ash does have "Skirmisher" elements, but similar to Valkyrie, she has some overlap with another class. Her tactical is still very Assault-y (all Skirmishers have movement tacs) and since nerfing the dash cd her squirrelliness it's not quite as omnipresecent. But, we've shifted Legends to other classes before and it's definitely something we evaluate when looking at the lineup patch to patch.

In regards to Q1, update just went live to address this and there are some additional details in linked thread.

The "third-party problem" is a fascinating one in Apex, something I've thought about deeply over the game's lifetime. The Support changes and prevalence of red armor were a very deliberate attempt to increase survivability and boost multiple Legends with abilities that help you reset, or simply have a moment to process what to do for your next move. But that also made fights more drawn out, increasing the risk for third-parties. But maybe because fights conclude sooner now, players have more time outside of combat and are more frequently looking to third-party? Looking at some dashboards, there doesn't appear to be any notable shift in "dead time" between this season and last, but lobbies are expectedly dying slightly faster than last season. Why do you think there have been more third-parties? Shouldn't there be less, if fights are concluding faster? Could it be the map rotation? These are some of the questions we ask ourselves when trying to understand player experience and motiv...

Update just went live to address this. Some additional details in linked thread.

Update just went live to address this. Some additional details in linked thread.

We heard your feedback regarding Relic Weapons Trios. This has now been moved over to an LTM slot instead of being a takeover mode. For transparency, we wanted to share a bit of the reasoning behind Relic Weapons Trios not being an LTM right out the gate.

• As a general rule, we want to limit the amount of modes available at the same time. Too many modes could in turn result in poor matchmaking, which is something we are actively trying to improve.
• The hope was that fully-kitted weapons wouldn't alter the core game mechanics too much and that players would use this takeover to get into action faster and easier. This is why we originally planned it as a takeover mode.
• We see now that maybe it was TOO fast and we needed to pace the experience better.

As always, please keep the feedback coming. Thank you!

i got you fam.

EDIT: sorry, forgot about the 14 day friend requirement - https://help.ea.com/en/help/apex-legends/apex-legends/apex-legends-gifting/

OCE server issues are being investigated and on the Trello.