Apex Legends putting Legend buffs & nerfs on hold before ALGS Champs
Respawn EntertainmentAn Apex Legends dev has suggested that there will not be any major buffs & nerfs to characters before ALGS Championships to prevent the meta from changing too much ahead of the event.
With Apex Legends’ roster expanding to a total of 21 characters in Season 13, balancing everyone’s set of abilities is becoming harder and harder for Respawn.
As a result, the devs are extremely cautious when implementing buffs & nerfs to any of the Legends.
Although the community has called on Respawn to rework Lifeline, nerf Gibraltar, and more recently, nerf Valkyrie, there have been very few changes in response.
Well, a dev may have revealed why there have been so few meta-defining changes recently, and it seems to be linked to the upcoming ALGS Championship.
Respawn EntertainmentMajor buffs & nerfs postponed until after ALGS Champs
During a Twitter discussion on May 9 about the power of Valkyrie and potential ways to nerf her, Live Balance Designer John ‘JayBiebs’ Larson revealed that the team had been considering removing Valk from the Recon category.
This would disable Valk’s ability to scout the next ring and use her Ultimate to immediately place her squad in a powerful position.
After considering the idea, JayBiebs revealed that the devs were worried it would result in teams being forced to pick another Recon Legend like Bloodhound or Seer instead.
However, he also shared that they didn’t want to “rock the boat” before the ALGS Champs with all the teams practicing for the current meta.
Toyed with this for a bit, but ultimately thought it could force the third pick to be a recon where we'd actually have LESS legend diversity (i.e. Valk + Gibby + BH/Crypto/Seer).
Also didn't want to rock the boat too much before Champs with teams practicing with a specific meta
— JayBiebs (@RSPN_JayBiebs) May 9, 2022
While it makes sense that Respawn wouldn’t want to completely shift the meta before a major esports event, it indicates a lot of changes the devs consider making are influenced by the pro scene.
With ALGS Championships 2022 occurring in July, it’s safe to say that the community shouldn’t expect any significant buffs or nerfs to arrive before the competition.
Although this will be disappointing for a lot of players, Respawn cannot afford to make significant changes to Legends when pros are practicing for the biggest event of the year.