I use my intimate knowledge of Apex to help guide discussions on Legend meta. Responsibilities include:
- Leading weekly Legend balance meetings to update the team on Legend meta in casual, Ranked, and competitive play.
- Reviewing dashboards for Legend metrics, including pick rate, win rate, upgrade selection, etc.
- Identifying goals for meta adjustments and leading design discussion on how to accomplish them.
- Working with the Legend Design Lead and Legend Producer to task work out accordingly.
- Syncing with other design teams to create cohesive packages for major updates (i.e. planning shotgun buffs to coincide with buffs to Legends with affinities towards shotguns).
- Writing or reviewing patch notes, specifically Dev Notes, to give players insight into the design process.
Some specific changes I have worked on recently that have shaken up the meta in refreshing ways have included:
Valkyrie Buffs (Season 22.1, Sept. 2024)
The Problem: Valkyrie’s pick rate fell soon after Evac Towers were released. Prior to that, she was the most popular Legend in the game. The Evac Towers Survival Slot Item was a direct attempt at democratizing some of Valk’s macro-rotational strength so that she wasn’t a must pick in competitive play. In a post-Evac world, Valk’s pick rate plummeted to bottom five.
The Goal: Raise Valk’s pick rate from the gutter tier to middle of the pack. Jetpack’s are fun! Let’s get them back in players’ hands.
The Solution: Tuning numbers is boring, and wasn’t going to be enough to get players back on a Legend that was deemed redundant. Inspired by her Jet-Fighter HUD, her “eyes in the sky” quip, and the recent success of the Recon Class updates, I thought about leaning into the Recon side of her kit. It was also an opportunity to revisit how much feel affects player perception in Apex, considering her jetpack handling had been nerfed the year prior.
I had also come to appreciate the power of a compelling upgrades, considering how Lifeline climbed the charts with spicy options despite zero changes to her base kit. There’s a snippet from the patch notes outlining all changes in the following section.
The Result: Valk mains resurfaced and were excited about the changes. She continues to see use and experimentation in pro play. For the general populous, after her initial spike, her pick rate leveled out to a much healthier spot in the high-middle pack (although I think I should’ve swung even bigger).
Recon Class (Season 22, Aug. 2024)
The Problem: Legends in the Recon Class had a reputation of being the “wallhack and beacon scanning Legends” in higher levels of play. Frustratingly OP for high-skill players, too situational for casuals, lacking depth for both.
The Goal: Flush out the Recon fantasy to allow multiple Legends in that class to shine, without simply adding raw power to any specific Recon Legend.
The Solution: I saw value in shifting the strategic strength of something like the Survey Beacon scan into tactical power that’s felt more often. I pitched the Survey Beacon Rework:
- Faster to use: 3s (was 7.5s)
Standing still in Apex does not feel good. Removes friction and risk. - 100% spawn rate (was randomly distributed with 60% spawn rate)
Removes friction. A beacon is now “right there” instead of “all the way over there.” - Shortened reveal range: 500m (was scanning the entire map)
Revealing every player one the map was info overload for low-skilled players and OP for high-skill players. With an increased spawn rate, live updates, and reduced range, this map toy is now about determining your next move or imminent threat. - Scanning grants 75 EVO (was 200 EVO)
Spawn rate up, EVO gains should come down. - Now pulses 3 times over 15s, with each pulse taking a snapshot of enemies in range for 5s (instead of static)
We can provide more info on enemy directionality for all player types now that the top-end strategic strength has been nerfed. - Now releases a large in-world scan wave that players can spot to identify an activated beacon (instead of HUD alert)
In-world feedback is preferable to near-center screen notis, from a UI bloat and UX perspective.
Alongside the Survey Beacon Rework, we rolled out Threat Vision, which highlights enemies in line of sight while aiming down sights. This gives Recon Legends a unique advantage for spotting enemies, and is felt more frequently than the occasional beacon scan.
The Result: Positive player perception, from casual and competitive demographics. Bloodhound was the favored Recon pick by a long shot, but since the Recon changes, we continue to see sustained competition from Vantage and Crypto.
Source: Apex Legends Status
The “Can’t See Shit” Meta (Season 19 – ???)
The Problem: After Gibraltar’s fall from the pro scene, Bangalore rose to top with her ability to create soft cover with her tactical Smoke Launcher. Teams doubled down with Caustic. The only true counters to these vis blockers were a loot item, the Digital Threat optic, and Bloodhound. Catalyst came onto the scene and only added to the chaos with her Dark Veil ultimate.
This lack of vision created a rigid and chaotic meta, frustrating for competitors (who coined its namesake) and confusing for viewers. It also raised sensitivities around certain bullet impact effects and muzzle flash, making it hard to track threats on mouse and keyboard while aim assist helped keep gamepad users on target.
The Goal: Improve the player and observer experience by helping players see more shit, without gutting the characters who have vision blocking abilities as a core part of their kit.
The Solution: Well, the “solution” doesn’t really exist, or rather, it’s a never ending push and pull of player expectations, artistic decisions, and resource allocations for a constantly updating live game such as Apex. Outside of gameplay design’s wheelhouse, I raised awareness on the following and worked with the vfx team to address the following:
- Reduced 1P and 3P muzzle flash fx on high RoF weapons (the most noticeable offenders, especially in low light environments).
- Reduced firing smoke fx on bursty cqc weapons, namely the EVA-8 and shotguns.
- Reduced Hammerpoint and Amped Cover tracer fx. These fx were originally built for slower firing single shot weapons, and needed to be toned down to help tracking through Amped Cover or with the
- Reduced impact fx on certain surfaces, most notably snow.
- Reduced the intensity of the Heat Shield glare, so that players inside can more easily spot threats.
- Reduced the “flash” effects from things like Triple Take bullet impact and shields breaking.
From a gameplay design perspective, I either implemented or advised on the following:
- Removed the 1x Digital Threat from the loot pool, as well as prevented Bloodhound from seeing through smoke.
This was never going to solve the Bangalore pick rate problem in the pro scene. It does free up Bloodhound from being a must pick, as well as table some of the frustrations around being shot through smoke unexpectedly because the enemy happened to have a specific loot item. What would an optic rework look like? The Digi Threat is a good candidate. We made multiple changes to Bloodhound after Seer was released, and upgrades allowed us to flex into specialization even more. We want to keep Bloodhound beginner-friendly, but in high-level play, they simply too versatile and were always the go-to “wallhack” pick with this smoke synergy. - Removed aim flinch, a celebrated change that improves the feel of tracking with full auto weapons or heavy hitting snipers while taking damage.
- Bangalore smoke nerfs: Sped up the dissipation of Bangalore smoke vfx and nerfed the lifetime of Bangalore smokes, while still allowing her to have two charges to preserve versatile use cases that the vast majority of players appreciate.
- Strip some power from Catalyst’s base kit in favor of compelling upgrade choices.
- Simplified the damage profile and slowing characteristics of Caustic gas.
Slows are a death sentence in high level Apex… good players already know if they’re in Caustic gas for more than three seconds, they’re probably doing something wrong. Meanwhile, beginner players spend more time paralyzed in smoke, with ramping damage that will get them killed before they know it. With a flat damage profile and only a slow on initial gas entry, beginner players have a better chance at understanding how to play around gas while pros can’t abuse it’s damage ramping and fight stalling/slowing potential.
Bloodhound has stayed a popular pick in the game on-whole, but is no longer omnipresent as the sole Recon pick. Caustic and Catalyst see some competition from their fellow Controller types Rampart and Wattson as well.
Source: Apex Legends Status
John Larson 