Seer’s Heartseeker Passive has been hit with a secret nerf in Apex Legends, making the ability significantly louder which allows enemies to identify his exact location.
Apex Legends’ Spellbound Collection Event arrived on January 10 and while the patch notes included no character changes, a set of nerfs were still implemented in-game.
These primarily affected Horizon, with the Gravitational Manipulator’s Gravity Lift and Black Hole being nerfed. While Respawn reverted Horizon’s Tactical change and admitted it had been added too early, the Ultimate downgrade has not been addressed.
Well, nearly a week and a half after the update, players have discovered another secret nerf but this time it’s for Seer.
The Ambush Master’s Passive is now significantly louder, making it easy for enemies to track him down if he’s using the ability nearby.
Seer’s Passive secretly nerfed in Spellbound update
Over the past few seasons, the Apex Legends community has called on the devs to nerf Seer as in their opinion, his kit is overloaded and makes it too easy to track down opponents with his scans.
While Respawn assured players that nerfs were coming and expected to arrive in Season 16, it appears the devs have pushed one change out early.
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As showcased by NRG Sven, his Heartseeker Passive that scans the heartbeats of enemies is now significantly louder.
This means he can be heard utilizing the ability from a long distance, exposing his position ahead of a gunfight and potentially comprising his teammates.
They nerfed seer!When you use Heart Seeker, it makes noise!But this is not in the patch notes！ pic.twitter.com/UoACLLfuij
— LG Sven (@SvenAPEX) January 17, 2023
For now, it’s impossible to know whether the devs deliberately added this with the Collection Event, or if it will be removed in the near future.
Either way, it adds a level of counterplay to Seer’s scans and gives opponents in the nearby area an extra level of awareness that they’re being scanned.
One con is that the audio cue is so loud, it has the potential to cover up footsteps, but in close-quarters gunfights, that’s unlikely to be a problem in the majority of scenarios.