Apex Legends Season 11 Patch Notes Released, Shows Much-Needed Love To Wattson

2 years 6 months ago
Link
Gamespot

Respawn has released the patch notes for Apex Legends Season 11: Escape. Wattson mains can finally rejoice, as the new season will make substantial buffs to the defender legend's tactical and ultimate abilities.

"Move aside Ash, this is Wattson's season," Respawn writes in the Apex Legends Season 11 patch notes. "Her win rate and encounter win rate have always been above average. This could be for a multitude of reasons; her defensive playstyle correlates to higher average placements, Wattson mains are diehard loyalists, and her hitbox has been the smallest in the game ever since Lifeline's adjustment.

Regardless, much of the high-level data that we've shared doesn't match perception. Play a few games as Wattson and you'll often find yourself wanting more out of her kit. The goal of these changes is to redistribute her invisible power into the parts of her kit that shape the battlefield in a unique way. We wanted to see what changes could spark more consistency and efficacy in her kit, and ideally ground some of the difficulties surrounding the way her abilities work."

Those adjustments make Wattson into a more efficient deterrent. Her tactical ability, Perimeter Defense, has been buffed to increase how quickly Wattson can erect her fences, as well as how much damage they do. Plus, her ultimate ability, Interception Pylon, has been buffed so that it more regularly intercepts incoming ordinance and it recharges body shields at a faster rate. So now, when Wattson bunkers in, she can more easily protect her squad, encouraging enemies to think twice before aggressively pushing.

At the very least, these buffs will help Wattson close off rotation lanes on Storm Point, the new map coming to Apex Legends in Season 11. These buffs also help Wattson become a potentially very effective counter to Season 11's new playable character Ash, as well as her power couple combo with Revenant.

For the full list of changes coming to Apex Legends in Season 11, check out the patch notes, which are detailed below.

Apex Legends Escape Patch Notes

Balance Changes: Legends

Wattson

  • General
    • Improved the reliability and responsiveness of placing Wattson's Tactical and Ultimate in-world objects.
    • Wattson can place her Tactical and Ultimate objects on valid surfaces above Wattson's eye level (to a reasonable extent).
    • General hitbox size increase, to compensate for the removal of low profile in the Legacy update.
  • Tactical - Perimeter Defense
    • Increased damage on crossing a Fence by 33%. (15 to 20)
    • Increased debuff duration on crossing a Fence by 100%. (1.5 to 3 seconds)
    • Increased the time allowance to be hit again by a subsequent Fence effect by 100%. (0.5 to 1 second).
    • Decreased recharge time by 50% (30 to 15 seconds).
    • Increased placement range by 50%.
    • Decreased the delay between Fences shutting off and reactivating after an ally passes through them by 60%. (1.0 -> 0.4 seconds)
    • Wattson now moves at Unarmed-speed while readying/placing Fence nodes.
    • Fence nodes can now be placed as soon as the weapon is readied, instead of waiting for the animation to finish.
  • Ultimate - Interception Pylon
    • The Pylon output has been significantly reworked.
      • Reduced the number of active Pylons Wattson can place from 3 to 1.
      • The Pylon now lasts forever (instead of timing out after 90 seconds).
      • The Pylon now has a pool of 250 Shields that can be distributed to nearby players, instead of effectively infinite Shields.
      • Increased the Pylon shield recharge rate by 150%, and smoothed regen rate. (2/second -> 5/second, or more accurately: 1/0.5 seconds -> 1/0.2 seconds)
      • When a Pylon is out of Shields, it no longer recharges players' Shields, but can still zap incoming ordnance.
      • Taking damage while regenerating Shields via the Pylon delays continued regeneration by 1 second.
    • The UI on the ground and HUD elements now displays the amount of Shields that remain in the Pylon.
    • Pinging a friendly Pylon will now display the percentage of Shields remaining in the Pylon.
    • Pylon ordnance-zapping has been moderately reworked.
      • Ordnance is now zapped when the Pylon detects that it would hit any surface within range and line of sight of the Pylon, instead of being zapped as soon as it comes within range.
      • As a part of the changes, current issues where the Pylon doesn't reliably zap ordnance (particularly concerning airstrike abilities, and ordnance that bounced off surfaces near the Pylon) should now be addressed.

Balance Changes: Weapons/Gear

Supply Drop Rotation

  • This season the Triple-Take returns to floor loot and taking its place is the G7 Scout. The Scout enters the Supply Drop with its old friend the Double-Tap Trigger equipped.
    • Triple Take - now an energy-consuming marksman * Charge time from 0.8 -> 1.1 (pre-crate value)
      • Mag increase at all tiers (Base: 18, White: 21, Blue: 24, Purple: 27)
      • Ammo consumed per shot increased to 3
      • Ammo required per shot increased to 3

Hop Ups

  • Dual Shell - Each round loaded into the Mastiff or the 30-30 Repeater is doubled.

Fully Kitted Rotation

  • Added: Mastiff 30-30 Repeater, R-301, CAR, Longbow
  • Removed: Peacekeeper, Rampage, RE-45, Flatline, and Charge Rifle

EVA-8

  • Fire rate reduced from 2.1 to 2.0

Peacekeeper

  • Slightly increased pellet size
  • Choke up time reduced from 1.5s to 1.25s
  • Choked up shots remain tight for slightly longer when exiting ADS

Longbow

  • Damage reduced from 60 to 55

L-STAR

  • Reduced barrel effectiveness at all rarity tiers
  • Significantly reduced projectile collision size
  • Damage reduced from 18 to 17

G7 Scout

  • Damage increased from 34 to 36
  • Double Tap added to Supply Drop G7 Scout

Supply Drop Weapon Rates

  • Early game crate weapon rate increased from 25% to 50%
  • Mid game crate weapon rate increased from 50% to 75%
  • Late game crate weapon rate increased from 75% to 100%

Hot Zone Gold Loot Rates

  • Increased amount of gold loot that spawns in hot zones

Crafting

  • Increased ammo from crafting
    • Light Ammo 20 → 60
    • Heavy Ammo 20 → 60
    • Energy Ammo 20 → 60
    • Shotgun Ammo 8 → 24
    • Arrows 16 → 48
    • Sniper 12 → 36
  • Crafting Ammo price increased from 5 to 10 per weapon
  • Evo Armor Points from crafting increased from 100 to 150
  • Evo Armor Points cost increased from 45 to 50
  • Replaced a sniper bundle with a shotgun bundle featuring the Dual Shell
  • Enemy NPC Updates
    • Prowler health across the game has gone up from 90 to 114 (Storm Point and World’s Edge)
    • Prowlers on World’s Edge and Flyers on Kings Canyon now reward EVO points (25%) ... all damage done to AI now rewards progress to your EVO armor

Arenas

Supply Drop

  • Supply drop will now land outside the first ring, if possible, and land 10 seconds earlier.
  • Purple weapons now spawn more in earlier rounds
    • Round 1 - 3x blue -> 1x purple + 2x blue
    • Round 2 - 1x purple + 2x blue -> 2x purple 1x blue
    • Round 3 - 2x purple 1x blue -> 3x purple
  • Supply drop no longer spawns blue Havoc or Devotion or gold RE-45

Weapon Price Updates

Author
Jordan Ramée

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