New Apex Legends update makes big change to Heat Shields in Season 8

A new update for Apex Legends on March 23 has introduced a few changes to the heat shield as Respawn continues to tinker with the battle royale’s newest item.

First thing is first, Respawn have put the Heat Shields back into the regular loot pool in both regular and ranked playlists, so players can actually find the survival item back in the game.

But they’ve been slightly nerfed since the last time Apex Legends players got to use them, with the devs making changes to how players can heal within its radius.

Respawn have been pushing some of these micro patches more frequently to address some of Apex’s more pressing issues so catch up on what the latest update includes.

Heat Shield update

Respawn Entertainment

Heat Shields no longer grant fast heals while inside its perimeter.

There wasn’t any significant downtime for the latest patch to Apex Legends, but it’s going to unlock Heat Shields since they were disabled in ranked and private matches on March 12.

However, along with multiple fixes since being disabled, Heat Shields have been nerfed and will no longer have fast-heal while in the item’s dome of protection.

While the passive was given to the item to help players heal up while avoiding the dreaded damage ticks that came from being outside of the zone, there’s been other uses that Respawn might be responding to.

• Read more: Apex Legends should add this skin feature from Fortnite

Apex Legends players found that the Heat Shields’ passive were extremely helpful in the late game situations, but the devs have done away with it since bringing them back.

“Share clips of why turning this on in Ranked is a bad idea. Share clips of why turning this on in Ranked is a good idea. Curious to see how Heat Shield affects gameplay,” Associate Live Balance Designer, John ‘JayBiebs’ Larson said after the patch went live. “I got some theories. Keep in mind we have plenty of dials we can turn for balancing.”

• Read more: Apex Legends devs promise to fix infinite Heat Shield exploit

As one of the latest mechanics to be introduced in Apex, Respawn is going to be monitoring the situation more to understand where to make the best fixes.

Make sure to check out the full details on the Apex Legends March 23 patch update below.

• Heat Shields are returning to the regular loot pool in regular and ranked playlists.
• No entry sign Fast-heal has been removed from Heat Shields
• Wrench Minor map tweaks to prevent players from getting stuck in King’s Canyon