Apex Legends dev responds to requests for Pathfinder buffs in Season 12

Apex Legends’ Lead Balance Director John Larson has responded to the community’s plea for some big buffs to Pathfinder and also delivered an update on how the studio feels about the robot’s position heading into Season 12. 

Everyone’s favorite MRVN unit has been under the microscope as far back as Season 9 but so far Respawn has been adamant about keeping the grapple master’s abilities exactly the same as they are now.

When asked why there’s been no update, Larson shed some light on what goes into buffing and nerfing a character and how even small changes can have big implications for game balancing as a whole.

Respawn will not change Pathfinder in Season 12

In an interview with Dexerto’s own Kijanna Henry, the dev spoke a little about addressing the possibility of reworking the Forward Scout’s passive.

Larson explained that he disagrees with the popular sentiment that it needs to match the strength of other characters: “It’s important to evaluate the kit as a whole…I don’t think there should be a world where every legend has an equally enticing passive, tactical, and ultimate.”

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As it stands now, the droid’s passive ability is Insider Knowledge, which allows players to shorten the cooldown timer after using Zipline Gun by interacting with a Survey Beacon. Completing a scan of the beacon also fully charges the ultimate ability right away.

He went on to note that the team is open to making changes, but that there aren’t a lot of options that would keep Pathfinder in the pick rate sweet spot where he has been for the last few seasons.

Some of the more popular fan suggestions have been about increasing Path’s utility while on a zipline, but Larson dismissed those ideas and explained that they would make him far too powerful: “Does he have less of an accuracy penalty on ziplines, or can he heal on ziplines? That would just straight up buff him.”

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It’s clear that the Apex team has done a lot of thinking about a potential swap, but if one does eventually show up, it’s not likely to be in Season 12.