Re: Improved Class System in Apex Legends for Season 16

by RedstoneMaker14
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Improved Class System in Apex Legends for Season 16

[ Edited ]
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Since the beginning of Apex Legends, there have been 4 classes: Offensive, Defensive, Recon and Support. Although being very suitable at the start of the game when there was the base 8 legends, it does not apply very well to the game's current state.

 

First of all, there are 9 offensive legends in comparison to the limited 2 support legends. Secondly, many of the classes have deviated from their class descriptions with pathfinder becoming a recon legend despite not having any scan abilities and instead having movement/scouting abilities which many offensive legends have. The offensive class, itself has legends like Fuse and Mad Maggie that are very disruptive and destructive in their abilities, whilst other offensive legends like Wraith and Octane reposition the squad and themselves in and out of fights. Having very different play styles in the same class becomes very confusing.

 

With the addition of starting to add more support legends, I think there should be a new class entirely to split up the offensive class into its two main playstyles.

 

S15 Screen (1).jpg

 

Referring to the image attached, the previous offensive legends 'Fuse', 'Bangalore', 'Revenant' and 'Mad Maggie' have moved to a new class named the 'Ambush Class' that is indicated by a fire icon rather than the normal offence icon. These legends are based on disruptive and destructive abilities and play styles. My friend has also pointed out that these legends are often referred to as "Offensive/Defensive" or "Hybrid" legends, which further reinstates their need for their own class.

 

Additionally, the other offensive legends (using the old icon) are all legends that have some repositioning and/or movement ability and so are in the new Mobility Class. These include 'Wraith', 'Octane', 'Horizon' and 'Ash' as well as two previous recon legends 'Pathfinder' and 'Valkyrie'. With Pathfinder not having any recon abilities and so many movement abilities, it makes sense for him to be in the Mobility Class. Despite Valkyrie having a scan ability using her ultimate, she has a jetpack and can reposition her whole squad easily. I think the scans that come with Valkyrie's ultimate and Horizon's ultimate should be removed since these legends as shown in the ALGS are very useful and don't need additional scan abilities. Hopefully with the distribution of these legends into non-scan categories (with the removal/rework of the scans) it could slightly reduce the scan meta of the game too whilst keeping the offensive legends offensive instead of recon and the previous recon legends (Valkyrie and Pathfinder) that should have been in the offensive class, even more offensive. With this, Valkyrie and Pathfinder will no longer be able to scan survey beacons which sadly means Pathfinder's original survey beacon passive has not only been copied but now completely stolen from him Frown but not to worry as I'm assuming he would be given a powerful offence-based passive to reinstate his power. Now the recon class should represent the actual scan legends 'Seer', 'Bloodhound', 'Crypto' and 'Vantage' - despite having less scan utility she is a very useful surveillance character and hopefully with some buffs, she can provide more scan info.

 

The defensive class although no changes have been made may need looking at in the future since there are two separate defensive legend playstyles: Trap-based (Caustic, Wattson and Catalyst) and Cover-based (Gibraltar, Rampart and Newcastle) so the class could be separated to account for this though I think the defensive class is in a good spot right now. Common ideas include to move legends like Wattson and Gibraltar over to the support class due to their healing and revive potential. This is where people misunderstand the point of these supportive abilities. Wattson's ultimate although able to heal the squad, accompanied by destroying grenades, is meant to help the team defend in an area. Gibraltar with his dome tactical can revive easier too. But both of these supportive abilities are a result from a defensive playstyle and not supportive based abilities, which is what people commonly mix up. Additionally, Caustic is often seen as being very underwhelming in low skill games, however is heavily used in High skill games such as the ALGS. This could be a future motif the developers could explore with legends that are only viable in High skill play such as Seer, Mad Maggie, Newcastle, Caustic, Wattson etc. Though right now, I believe the defence class is currently in a very good state.

 

One last change I did make was with the one offensive legend not mentioned - Mirage. Being a very unique legend with the act of deceiving the enemy, he is very confusing and great against newer players but easily detectable against pro players, which has been a continuing issue for mirage. Therefore, he could go into his own class outright with Rhapsody from Apex Legends Mobile but instead, I think he could be reworked to be even more supportive than just his cloak revive. Examples include his ultimate temporarily cloaking nearby teammates for a few seconds or his tactical being controllable by teammates that mimic their legend. When the decoy is shot, it should heal the mimicked person or give them an ability buff similar to when Bloodhound activates his ultimate and gets a reduced tactical charge time. These few ideas are just some of many that the community have suggested making mirage more of a staple in the game to be a support legend alongside Loba and Lifeline and I think these changes should be added coinciding with the class changes.

 

With the balancing of the legends to be more accurate to the classes there cpuld be the introduction of class passives that have been conceptualised and teased for a while. Here is my take on the abilities:

• Recon: Scan survey beacons to reveal the next rings location. Pings all players on the map briefly

• Support: Open secret compartments in lootbins and carepacks. Spawn with ultimate

• Defense: Take 15% less damage from enemies. Immune to slow effects from weapon fire

• Mobility: Gather speed from climbing and sliding. Skydive further and faster.

• Ambush: Getting a kill rewards a tactical charge. Briefly scan enemies damaged by abilities

 

Last few notes, I hope Respawn and EA make the right choice in not making the class system too complicated for newer players by adding too many classes but also not descriptive enough as with the current system.

 

Here is a table showcasing the changes discussed:

 

Screenshot_20221216_011929_Excel.jpg

Message 1 of 11 (4,569 Views)

Re: Improved Class System in Apex Legends for Season 14

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@RedstoneMaker14 The only part of this I have an opinion on is the idea of Mirage being a support class. I like this and agree. Mirage can presently stealthy pickup allies and some other things that could really make him a bit more of a wild support, not because he is lacking in power, but because the idea of support is very much missing from apex.

Some idea's for that could be:
- Mirage clones could be toggled to an ally on his team, IE send out a lifeline clone teammate to screw with enemy
- Mirage ultimate could stealth his allies when activated in close proximity
- Mirage could share his tech with allies and create a clone of an ally BESIDE them with a specific prompt when aiming at them in some fashion
- Mirage could share is tech with allies and activate his ultimate ON an ALLY, making them stealth and cloned. Creating new unique ambush and escape situations

He really has the makings of an amazingly powerful support role instead of "assault". Creating sheer chaos to cover his team with.
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Re: Improved Class System in Apex Legends for Season 14

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There are a lot of things Respawn could do to Mirage. I used to main him at one point and he has had many reworks in the past but in his current state, he is not in the meta mainly because of the idea of deception. Pro players who know how to find the real mirage can do so with ease, making their abilities almost useless. I think some small fixes additional to them you have mentioned are to simply make him have two tactical uses or reduce the cooldown of the tactical. Simply: more chances of bamboozling the better.

 

He definitely does need a big overhaul and that is why I suggest making him a support character as he doesn't align with any other legend in the offensive class which is why in the future with other deception-based legends (like Rhapsody of apex mobile) we could see an entirely new class of deception legends. But having him be a support legend honestly fits his personality and playstyle pretty well and we do need more support legends. This adds to the overarching issue of there being too many offensive legends and having a diverse selection on the legend screen would be very nice.

 

Whatever respawn does I know they will do it well but it has been an issue for a while so I hope they realise that the class system needs to be reworked well and mirage needs a sizable rework to make him actually useful.

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Re: Improved Class System in Apex Legends for Season 14

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@RedstoneMaker14 Wattson and rampart are not defensive currently, and also I think that they would fit better in the support and assault classes. (Wattson for support, Rampart for assault, as her gun is now mobile.)
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Re: Improved Class System in Apex Legends for Season 14

[ Edited ]
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I disagree. I would consider them to be some of the most defensive legends in the game.

 

I personally have been maining rampart this season and have gotten 3k kills on her total, and just like most defensive legends currently, yes she has a minigun that is offensive, but she is still a defence-based legend. Gibraltar's and Caustic's ultimate's are very offensive too but having them be put in the offensive class for that doesn't make sense. It isn't just the abilities that constitutes a legends class, its their playstyle.

 

Wattson I can see being supportive but the same as Gibraltar and Newcastle, just because these legends have abilities that heal or revive teammates easier in a supportive way doesn't mean they are in the support class. The generator for wattson although healing teammates overtime, the purpose of it is to defend an area for longer by destroying granades and healing teammates who were shot so they can continue to defend in that area. So it all comes back to playstyle. And if you watch the ALGs all these defensive legends are able to lock areas down (which is the purpose of them).

 

I do see where you are coming from as the ability categories overlap but it's weighing up whether the legends actually belong in them categories based on their playstyle

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Re: Improved Class System in Apex Legends for Season 14

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@RedstoneMaker14 Caustic doesn’t really belong anywhere currently tho, his gas traps being destructible, makes him a bad defensive and offensive, he can’t be support, because he doesn’t help anyone, and putting him in recon would be silly. He’s just trash as of now, which is sad.
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Re: Improved Class System in Apex Legends for Season 14

★★★★ Novice

I see where you're coming from as I agree. I don't think caustic is very good at defending for me personally since his traps are so counterable by simply shooting them.

 

Though, if you've watched the ALGS or High level players, Caustic is one of the most picked legends as he provides a very safe environment for the team to defend. I think he is a hard defence legend to master and doesn't hold much value in low skill games since you often don't need to fully defend like in the ALGS. However, with that being said, with caustic being good in High level but underwhelming in low level play, it would be difficult for respawn to give sizable buffs and nerfs for him. But guaranteed he will continue to be a defence legend and there is no need for switching him to another category as you've said he doesn't fit in any of them.

 

I think respawn is taking a new approach (similar to seer being a High level scan legend and bloodhound a low level scan legend) with that some legends although appearing useless of underpowered, are very powerful in specific setting such as the ALGS and so they may not get much play by the majority of players (Mad Maggie and Newcastle) but are used frequently by High level players.

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Re: Improved Class System in Apex Legends for Season 16

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This is another concept for a simpler class system breaking the classes into Movement, Hybrid and Support

 

S15 Screen Less.jpg

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Re: Improved Class System in Apex Legends for Season 16

[ Edited ]
★★★★ Novice

So Happy New Year everyone!

 

As you can tell this concept has grown throughout 2022 and there is now no need to update this concept any further as a very similar version has recently been leaked to be coming next season (Season 16)

 

I first want to say that I don't agree with leaks. I do agree with the hype and build-up it brings to the community however I do feel very sorry for the developers who want to suprise us with features that inevitably get leaked anyways.

 

With that being said, I also want to say thank you to everyone who helped spread my concept. I am not taking full responsibility for the class update as I know there were a lot of similar concepts as well but undoubtedly the development team must have taken a few ideas when considering this rework from my post.

 

I have been consistent about wanting the class system to actually mean something and I can guarantee this new system is going to be very beneficial for the game.

 

Here is a summary of the changes that are presumed to come (may change as it is a leak):

• Gibraltar and Newcastle moved to support class (now consisting of Gibraltar, Lifeline, Loba and Newcastle)

• Defense class renamed to Control (now consisting of Caustic, Wattson, Rampart and Catalyst)

• Offense class renamed to Assault (now consisting of Bangalore, Revenant, Fuse, Ash, Mad Maggie and Ballistic - a presumed new character coming in S17)

• New Skirmisher class consists of Pathfinder, Wraith, Mirage, Octane, Horizon and Valkyrie

• Each class is presumed to have class passives like how recon characters have the survey beacon passive

 

In summary, I really hope these changes do happen next seaosn as they reflect the common roles in the game better than the current system we have. With the classes now being visually sepereated similar to Overwatch in their distinct groups it will also allow for players to subconsciously think whether playing a defense character whilst the team already has one is a good idea, for example.

 

Let me know what you guys think about these changes

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Re: Improved Class System in Apex Legends for Season 16

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Nice one, it seems like you helped to inspire this concept and it is a very good change. All the class distinctions & abilities make sense. When I look at the new default class names that the devs have just implemented, in particular the way they are displayed on the character selection screen UI, I can't help wondering if maybe a couple of the class labels should be re-named (or rather slightly re-worded).. 'Skirmisher' could become simply 'Skirmish' class and 'Controller' could be named just 'Control'.

 

It would give the 5 classes displayed more concise/consistent names.. Assault/Skirmish/Recon/Support/Control..

 

I know this is a bit of a nit picky minor point, it just feels like there is something slightly inconsistent about the current in-game labels for each class, like you wouldn't call 'assault' class 'assaulters' or 'support' class 'supporters' but they have labelled skirmish & control classes as skirmishers & controllers (I know there is likely some kind of grammatical reason as to why they have opted to call them that, it just looks a little inconsistent at first glance).

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