All You Need to Know About Apex Legends Season 13
Apex Legends is rising in popularity and rightly so. Its high-octane gameplay and competitiveness have drawn many FPS players into it. And to top it off, the developers have always pampered us with juicy updates when a brand new season starts.
Today, we will be looking at the major changes and all you need to know about Apex Legend’s Season 13 update.
New Legend Announced: Newcastle
With a brand new season comes a brand new Legend. Season 13 introduces Newcastle, a defensive character that wields a shield.
So let us take a little look at his abilities and skill set and how we can best use Newcastle.
Mobile Shield
This is Newcastle’s Tactical skill that throws a drone—controllable—that creates a mobile energy shield along the way.
Retrieve the Wounded
Allows Newcastle to drag fallen allies when reviving them. The action is protected with Revive Shield as well.
Castle Wall
The Ultimate for Newcastle. Newcastle leaps to either an ally or a target area which Newcastle will slam down, causing a fortified stronghold
From Newcastle’s kit, you can easily tell that Newcastle is designed as a fortified tanker whose job is mainly to protect and soak up damage.
Honestly, it’s nice that Apex Legends is finally showing some love to Tankers as the previous updates were more focused on offensive-based Legends and the defensive ones abandoned.
Changes to the Storm Point Map
One of the biggest changes introduced in Season 13 is the alteration of the Storm Point map. Currently, the entire Storm Point map will be based on the carcass of a fallen enemy crab where players can battle it out on top of its body.
Aside from having a sea-live aesthetic added, the body of the crab will also be centre stage for various loots, although there is a catch to it.
To acquire the loots, players will need to overcome a challenge which they will need to survive for a specific time against multiple AI-controlled Spectres in a trapped condition.
Therefore, be sure you are ready and in good condition when you attempt to grab the loots. After obtaining the loots and completing the challenge, you will be free to leave the place or even eject up into the air as an escape.
Major Changes to the Ranked System
Perhaps the greatest gripe in competitive matchmaking is its unfairness. Sometimes you are placed in a rank that might be too high, making the overall experience enjoyable.
Before the update, players are protected from deranking to below their current tier, meaning they will be stuck in that bracket forever. That is now not the case.
Right now, players can derank to a lower tier if they lose games, giving matchmaking a much fairer environment. No worries for the better players as there will be a 3-game protection period when you achieve a new tier—an optimal way to assess whether you are suitable for the skill bracket you are in or not.
As for gameplay changes, it seems that Apex Legends wants to encourage team-based execution as all team members will be rewarded with RP when one of them scores a kill. This change is a prompt for players to work together to get kills rather than a single Rambo-like player going in and scoring the kills for themselves.
The assist timer is also increased from 10 seconds to 15 seconds and the timer will also be refreshed after a player is revived by their ally.
Overall, these are good changes to the matchmaking system as it balances out the skill brackets of each tier. We also love the fact that they are making the game more well-rounded with the emphasis on teamwork as the core to victory.
Nerfs and Buffs to Weapons and Legends
Like most patches and updates to competitive games, buffs and nerfs are imperative to balance the game. Most of the time, these changes might also help define the metagame and here are some of the changes that might be significant to the meta shift.
For instance, the Kraber weapon has been hit hard with the nerf hammer where it got its damage and headshot multiplier reduced.
Other weapons that were victims of the nerf hammer are Devotion, Spitfire and LSTAR where most of their damage is also reduced and draw times increased.
On the other hand, the Mastiff weapon received generous buffs with increased damage per pellet and blast pattern tightened for better aim.
As for Legends, Fortified Legends will no longer have their headshot reduction perk. This makes Fortified Legends less pesky to deal with as you can now attempt to take them down by aiming for their heads.
Legends-specific changes include Valkyrie which can no longer spin while using Skyward Dive. Rampart will also receive buffs through increased health with Sheila spinning faster and having a low deployment time.
Are you all excited for this brand new season of Apex Legends? We’re sure you’ll do wonders with this new update and if you are looking to purchase this season’s Battle Pass, be sure to check out our Steam Wallet Codes here!
