While it won’t be bringing a new character, Apex Legends Season 16: Revelry is set to debut a Team Deathmatch mode, an additional Energy weapon, and an assortment of adjustments to existing characters. While the full list of Legend changes makes it clear weakening the scanning meta has been on developer Respawn Entertainment’s mind, many in the battle royale’s community believe not enough has been done to nerf heartbeat-sensing Legend Seer.
On Friday, Respawn Entertainment finally dove into what specific Legend adjustments are coming next season through a lengthy list of patch notes. Among the changes, it notes Seer’s Passive, which allows him to hear and see the heartbeats of nearby enemies, will now become louder to opponents and only lock on to their heartbeat cadence. Additionally, another of his scanning skills, Exhibit, will have a reduced duration and increased cooldown time.
Although these nerfs will surely result in opponents being located less often, fans quickly criticized the changes upon their reveal, with several suggesting they still act as unfair advantages. Reddit user Mellow_2JZ also shared this sentiment, writing: “Seer didn’t get nerfed hard, he still has free wall hacks and they didn’t change anything that made him an actual problem.” Others have since expanded on this belief, reasoning that the patch will only hurt beginners. “The changes take away his training wheels…while still letting sweats have good fighting potential,” Redditor Agoodfaithposter asserted.
Respawn has since not said whether it is exploring more nerfs for the Legend in the future, but it is clear Seer’s abilities have become a longstanding problem. First, it was believed Catalyst’s power to block scans would stop the Legend in its tracks, though the Season 15 Legend is said to have a pick rate of just 2.6%. It also does not help that Seer will soon have an extra ability. Thanks to the upcoming Legend class rework, the Recon character will be able to use beacons to scan for enemy locations for up to 30 seconds.
Despite the uproar, those jumping into Season 16 on February 14 will see firsthand whether these nerfs were enough — and they will likely do so in a myriad of modes. Shortly after Season 16 debuts, a Mixtape playlist is said to arrive permanently, giving players a constant rotation of beloved LTMs and Team Deathmatch.
