The launch of Bloodhound’s Old Ways Event in Apex Legends also came with an update that implemented balancing changes to several of the game’s weapons and characters.
The highly-anticipated Old Ways event kicked off in Apex Legends on April 7, and not only did it add a lot of new content into the battle royale but also some major changes as well.
Respawn implemented balancing adjustments three different weapons and sniper ammo, as well as three Legends, including Revenant, who a majority of the play-base wanted to see buffed.
Weapon changes
The guns that were targeted by Respawn in this balancing update were the G7 Scout, L-STAR, and Kraber. The G7 Scout’s headshot and leg shot scales were bot reduced, along with its projectile speed, while the L-STAR was given both a buff and a nerf – better view-kick pattern and reduced time before it overheats, respectively.
- Read More: Apex Legends Old Ways event patch notes
The Kraber was the only one of the three that was totally buffed, as its headshot multiplier was increased so that players will now be able to knock down any enemy with a headshot, regardless of how high-tiered their armor and helmet is.
The final weapon-related change was to sniper ammo, which saw reductions to both ammo per pickup and inventory stack size.
- G7 Scout
- Reduced headshot scale from 2.0 -> 1.75.
- Reduced leg shot scale from 0.9 -> 0.75.
- Slightly reduced projectile speed.
- L-STAR
- LSTAR will reset its viewkick pattern much more quickly to avoid horizontal recoil feeling like it goes in an unpredictable direction while feathering the trigger.
- Reduced time before overheat 2.4 -> 2.2 (25 shots -> 23 shots)
- Kraber
- Increased headshot damage multiplier from 2.05 -> 3.0. Now it should always down a target with a headshot, even if they are a fortified character with a level 3 helmet and a full evo shield.
- Sniper Ammo
- Reduced ammo per pickup from 10 -> 8
- Reduced inventory stack size from 20 -> 16
Legend changes
The three Legends that Respawn focused on with this patch were Revenant, Lifeline, and Wraith. Since its addition at the start of Season 4, Revenant has generally been considered to be a lower-tier character, with many calling for his abilities to get boosted.
“Player feedback that Revenant wasn’t feeling viable enough has been loud and clear and game data showed the same,” the developers said in the patch notes. “Our goal is to bring his effectiveness up to parity with other Legends.”
His Silence ability received four buffs in total, while the Death Totem Ultimate ability now respawns players back with 50 health instead of one.
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- Silence
- Increased duration of status effect from 10s -> 20s
- Silence now disables Gibraltar’s Gun Shield.
- Increased the duration of area of effect from 5s -> 10s
- Silence has 2 charges now
- Death Totem
- Characters are now respawned with 50 health (or whatever health they had when they activated it, if lower) instead of 1
- Removed Low Profile
Lifeline was also buffed, as she now features a secondary passive ability that allows her to access secret compartments that contain more loot in brand new Blue Bins, which randomly replace their red counterparts on the map.
Blue Bins are similar to the regular ones except they have extra items that only the Combat Medic can access, and they will always contain a mix of health items, attachments, and knockdown shields.
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Wraith was the only Legend to be given a nerf with this patch. Her portal now goes away after four seconds if both ends are outside of the Circle, putting an end to an exploit that players were abusing to avoid taking damage.
Other buffs and nerfs
There were to other balancing changes of note implemented – a buff to Evo Armor and nerf to Low Profile.
Added recently in Apex Legends, Evo Armor is a special type of body shield that gets upgraded as the player wearing it inflicts damage upon enemies. As a way to help speed that process up, Respawn have lowered the damage requirements for all three upgrades.
The other adjustment was to Low Profile, a new Passive ability given to several Legends that makes them more difficult to hit but increases the damage they take by 5%. Now limb shots on characters with Low Profile will deal the same damage as body shots, with this applying to Lifeline, Pathfinder, Wattson, and Wraith.
That’s pretty much everything in terms of balancing changes to Legends and weapons. For more information about the update as whole, make sure to check out our April 7 Old Ways event patch notes.