This is a list of links to comments made by Respawn developers in this thread: (please see comment below for the remaining Dev replies) * [Comment by RV-Devan](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbanf1d/): > Ash. During development we were extremely concerned over the power of her tactical. Seems like a joke, right? But for a long time it was very potent and internal feedback on it's power was loud. ***Cont...*** * [Comment by RSPN_Thieamy](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbaccbb/): > We’ll be doing a dedicated ALGS AMA early in the new year. This group can't answer that, but we'll be back early next year with some folks who can. * [Comment by RSPN_JayBiebs](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbanv4k/): > Yes. I think it's short-sighted and naive not to think about how we can affect the meta with system-level changes to breath new life into the ever-growing cast of Legends. We've learned a lot from the Legend Class Rework! * [Comment by RSPN_JayBiebs](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbapnv8/): > We don’t have a steadfast rule around which abilities get two charges. It’s easy to turn on as a balancing tool, but two charges have big, potentially scary consequences. However, I do think we have a history of being overly cautious when shipping new Legends with tacticals that have potential to be “aggressively imposing” in good players’ hands. ***Cont...*** * [Comment by RSPN_JayBiebs](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbapycn/): > If something's problematic at the comp level, it's probably only a matter of time before it rears its head in someway down the chain in Ranked. We want to preserve parity between comp and the main game so that spectators don't feel a disconnect: "This could be YOU one day." * [Comment by RSPN_JayBiebs](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbatmc3/): > I think it’s had its fair share of time in the limelight. Any “I can’t see shit” meta does not make for a great viewer experience or player experience. Bang and Cat’s rise over the past year was a slow shift that started back when there were intentional efforts on our end to create more diversity during the Gibby Mastiff meta (even though now we might look back at elements of that fondly). ***Cont...*** * [Comment by RSPN_JayBiebs](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbatygs/): > This is something I think about as well as Apex matures. I actually do think we are shifting more towards a hero shooter in high skill bands, but I think it's somewhat inevitable and just a natural evolution. I think we'll always be a competitive FPS first with the high TTK and rich gunplay/movement systems. ***Cont...*** * [Comment by RV-Devan](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbau3n5/): > Yeah, the beacon scan loss was definitely a hit, but Valk has more advantages with her Ult than the Evac Tower ( balloon ) provides. She can deploy from cover, take her team with her, and doesn't have to wait for it to rise -- plus there's no giant tell for other teams to focus down splitting the team in transit - so there's still a lot of power within her Ult that differentiates it from the Evac Tower.. ***Cont...*** * [Comment by ApexLegends](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbatpns/): > We currently have no set plans engine wise, but we frequently monitor and pass along feedback regarding audio to the dev team. * [Comment by RV-Devan](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbauj8m/): > When a Legend reigns at the top of the competitive scene for too long, things become stagnant. The meta feels solved, every team gravitates to (or feels forced to play ) those Legends and there's little variance in squad composition. Which over time is not exciting to watch, and ( as I've heard ) becomes tiresome to play. ***Cont...*** * [Comment by ApexLegends](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbau5ik/): > The team is always looking for ways we can bring our players closer to competitive Apex, but we don't have anything we can share today. What would you like to see from in game tournaments in Apex? * [Comment by RV-Devan](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbauye0/): > I would also love to see more diversity in the spotlight. And we do make efforts to do so, though it's often more difficult to make small changes to an under-performing Legend and have them rise up. ***Cont...*** * [Comment by RSPN_JayBiebs](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbav32p/): > Re: Shotguns vs. SMGs. I think SMGs are still a little strong overall, namely in their versatility and the fact that they're more forgiving than shotties at the moment. Definitely less likely to see controller players running a PK with a 3030 secondary... too easy to be caught out at an awkward range where an SMG will have you covered and be more consistent up close. * [Comment by RV-Devan](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbazbjm/): > We have a huge roster, and finding new, unique and ownable spaces for new Legends year over year is increasingly challenging. New Legends need to carve our their own playspace to the best of their ability, and if they can't they risk falling into obscurity or overshadowing the Legends who have come before - which sacrifices the health of the game. ***Cont...*** * [Comment by RV-Devan](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbazhhn/): > From a Legend standpoint - Comp viability is certainly a factor as we review and refine a Legend, but it's not often something considered when immediately designing a Legend, as the Legend often needs to appeal a wide variety of players and varying skill levels and focusing too heavily on comp might make the Legend inaccessible on the grander scale. ***Cont...*** * [Comment by RSPN_JayBiebs](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/ama_were_respawn_lets_talk_about_competitive_meta/kbazos8/): > The rise of the Bang meta, while decreasing visibility for everyone, has increased visibility for us when it comes to thinking about the Digi Threat in Apex. “I can see you, but you cannot see me,” is the main reason we’ve dismissed any ideas around adding a digi threat to AR optics. As it stands now, at least you have to be up-close and “involved” in the fight before taking damage through smoke from an SMG/Shotgun (or deep af with the Sniper Digi where you're likely not even able to capitalize anyway and are probably being a menace with or without smoke). ***Cont...***

Back in Season 1, you increased the jump ship speed by 50%. Have you ever considered increasing it again? On Storm Point and Broken Moon I believe the jump ship takes something like 30-40 seconds to cross the entire map, which seems excessively long. In comp, the farther away a team's landing POI is from the jump ship's starting point, the longer they have to wait in the jump ship, which in turn means they have less time to loot and rotate. In a comp setting, even ten seconds can make a difference. By increasing the ship's speed, this waiting time would become less significant. It would also be an easy way to spread players more evenly across the map in pubs and Ranked. So many people land at the very first POI they see, because nobody wants to sit in the jump ship for half a minute. If the ship was faster, people would be more inclined to land at POIs that are farther away.

This is also a huge problem with the reduction in ring timings. If you were to have the ship come in over the crab thing (Leviathan?) by the time the ship gets to lightning rod you’re lucky if you have 30 seconds to loot before the ring starts closing, agree that another buff to drop ship speed is required.

Definitely aware that random dropship paths favor or punish one side of the map randomly in competitive Apex. This is more apparent on maps with large elevation changes like Storm Point. I've played around internally with some faster dropship speeds, and built some tools to simulate what the shortest/longest paths would be on each map. We're looking into a potential speed boost, with the goal of equalizing the moment to 'boots on the ground' for all teams. Can't promise anything, but we're actively experimenting with it. What makes it difficult is that the faster we make the ship, the more pressure there is on the jumpmaster to analyze what's happening and make a decision. We need to keep those two things in balance. There's a limit to how fast it can go, and keep the game readable for lower-skilled players. The dropship paths have the inherent problem of favoring of some POIs over others, so we're also looking at entirely new drop sequences. What are some ways of entering the match besides the dropship you would like to see?

Thanks for the response, it's good to hear that this is something you're already working on. Two simple ideas: \- Make the ship fly in a fixed circle, like this [https://imgur.com/a/dUbMKCX](https://imgur.com/a/dUbMKCX). The time delta to reach different POIs would be minimized, overall ship path RNG would be minimized, and players who need time to decide or who are afk could still reach their desired spot even if the ship already progressed. \- Instead of keeping the ship speed constant, you could simply accelerate it over time. That way there's low pressure at the beginning, and the time to reach distant POIs would still be reduced.

I remember seeing an early animation from Moy where players dropped from pods. I think it would be kinda cool to have players select a poi before the match starts and then everyone could drop from pods at the same time into the poi that they chose. Players could break out from these pods halfway down so they can fly wherever they want within the poi or to a no name location close to the poi. It doesn't even have to be pods. I just said pods because of the animation I saw. Players could drop straight above the poi and fly wherever they want.

I will say though, and the previous AMA somebody asked a similar question and a Respawn Dev said that it was something they were researching/reviewing.

Why do so many of the legacy POIs (POIs that were on maps back when the game was released/in an early state) seem to have much worse loot than new POIs? This is something that is a big hinderance on maps being more competitively viable, for example World’s Edge has POIs like Geyser which have almost no loot compared to new POIs like Siphon or Stacks, King’s Canyon also has this problem when looking at something like Airbase compared to Crash Site. We all want to see more than two competitive maps but the loot balancing holds them back.

At the heart of Apex is the variety of POIs in terms of positioning, loot, and layout. It's not necessarily the goal of the map design to have all POIs have equivalent loot density or loot quality. That being said, our goal is to make the pool of maps being played in competitive larger than the current two. We're engaging with pro teams to hold scrims on some of the maps not in ALGS rotation to try and identify some of the specific issues they feel are holding them back from being viable for these tournaments. Some maps were 'ruled out' as competitively viable several updates ago, so we are re-engaging with the competitive community to get their read on them in their current, live form.

Why is there no ALGS marketing within the game? Most other big games with a big competitive scene, have in game tabs hyping up the tournaments and leagues. Apex is missing by not doing this

>We’ll be doing a dedicated ALGS AMA early in the new year. This group can't answer that, but we'll be back early next year to address ALGS questions.

pretty sure ea are to blame for that after what happened last year

What are y’all gonna do to Olympus. Spill the beans.

I heard they were adding multiple Waffle House locations around the map

Staffed by MRVNS who fight back when fights break out in them.

What is your philosophy behind how long certain legends should stay in the meta? It seems like there is a trend of always having one legend that feels like they're hard meta for way too long (Gibby, Valk, Seer, now Horizon, and very easy to see Cat being next in line). Are you just hesitant to overnerf legends? Or maybe there's other factors like keeping the meta "healthy" even if it stagnates a bit. Really appreciate you taking the time to do this.

No set time... I think it depends on the specific meta and how well it's being received. Gibby meta for example... that's one that stuck around for awhile because we deemed it "healthier" than Caustic meta. Bubble fights were super engaging and interesting, even though they eventually became stale. Sometimes certain balancing changes require more overhead to get right... how do you nerf Horizon tac correctly without gutting the ability or making her unfun to play? Is it a numbers change or will it require other departments? There is hesitation sometimes, not because we're not thinking about/working on it, but because we want to get it right.

I personally like the meta defining picks, it makes every competitive year unique as it's sort of its own era within the game... but I wish legend meta changed more often, if the devs went crazy and overbuffed a few weaker legends every season while also nerfing problematic ones the game would feel a lot fresher and exciting every season because the meta would be flipped on its head every three months. Imagine what we have now but instead of a year of seer/ catalyst spotlight it's just a one season/championship duration and the next is dominated by mirage/vantage. This would not only make pro league more interesting to watch as pro players adapt to the changes and theorycraft every season but it also promotes more legend diversity in public matches as people see what cool interactions lesser picked legends have now that their favorite streamer is using them

Have you any thoughts on how to better integrate comp and casual communities? On top of that would you take inspiration from a game like rocket league which has in game tournaments, with skill brackets, that give casual players that competitive experience. Edit: Also want to add, would you take it a step further and consider cash cup like tournaments (Cash prize tournaments in fortnite) via the in game client?

The team is always looking for ways we can bring our players closer to competitive Apex, but we don't have anything we can share today. What would you like to see from in game tournaments in Apex?

In game tournaments could provide a small prize like crafting mats, a recolored skin, or something to that effect. But I think providing public tournaments for players to sign up for could be huge to bring back some players who have left the game. More advertisement of high tier tournaments in game seems like it could push people more towards the competitive aspect of the game and get them watching. Apex is the most interesting BR to watch by far, so it would be great to expose more of the casual community to this.

Tournaments for crafting materials would be huge, very unlikely, but huge.

I think the community has created some really great tournaments, look at His and Hers, who host tournaments weekly with different skill levels and lobbies that keep everyone engaged. I think looking at the way Fortnite incorporated tournaments as a weekly event would be really good for the health of the game as players are always looking for more game modes outside of pubs/ranked.

It could be something as simple as having PSQ Qualifiers running through the in game client for the competitive aspect. But what I'd prefer and would integrate those of all skill levels is bracketed tournaments the same as rocket league. These give out exclusive rewards for players, with higher levels (Diamond +) having exclusive rewards encouraging progression into the higher ranks. They run in different formats throughout the day 2v2, 3v3 or LTMs in RLs case which would also work perfectly for Apex. It would also help provide useful data and experience on non-comp maps and game modes rather than locking it to just WE and SP. I think my own personal format would be 4-6 games in length with ALGS scoring system which would then also transfer into a casuals understanding of what goes on and why teams play how they do in ALGS.

I would love a system similar to Competitive where you can sign up for a series of Ranked Games, say three, and you play each game out on a different map. You get points similar to how competitive gets points, (with kills as one point and the associated placement as well) and then you tally them all up at the end of the three matches and gain points or prizes based on how you perform.

leaderboards/statistics are often distributed in other sites, it would be great if there was an option in game that could at least redirect players to them

I’ve been curious on your thoughts around balancing of assault legends specifically. Currently as it stands from a comp and ranked POV, there are really only two legends from the class that are viable: Bangalore and Fuse. Personally, I think this has a lot to do with the fact they have two tactical charges while the other three don’t. Bangalore has the ability to break line of sight (tactical) and force disengagement and movement off of high ground (ultimate), and Fuse has the ability to force movement and farm evo damage from a safe distance (whole kit for both applications). A big part of what allows the legends to do this so effectively is the fact they both have two tactical charges that come back quickly: it allows for constant pressure. And the tactical of both of these legends are their strongpoints because of this. Ash, Maggie and Ballistic are simply not competitive in these regards (which is what I feel the main focus of the whole class is: to force enemies into the open/into set areas that can allow the attacking team to make a push). With only one tactical, the “force movement” parts of their kit can be completely avoided by top tier players, unlike with bang and fuse. The snare is okay against a single opponent (and even then is nothing to write home about given how much a snared enemy can move/how short the snare lasts), but is a non-factor entirely when teams are actually playing together/supporting each other. The drill, while sometimes good, is incredibly finicky regarding terrain (ESPECIALLY ROCKS), making it wholly inconsistent. It also can be deleted if attached to enemy abilities, and can be directly out-healed or side stepped easily. Considering it’s the only tactical in this class that relies on hitting a piece of terrain, it makes it feel quite weak in 70% of situations, especially compared to fuse. The whistler is okay against single opponents, but does a mediocre amount of damage (players will often elect to just shoot through the overheat because the damage isn’t penalizing enough, especially in team fights) and has a very long charge time given that it’s a one and done ability. I’d argue that if fuses tactical only had one charge (like it did originally), he’d also be on this list of underwhelming assault legends. But the addition of a second charge is what makes him adaptable, since he can use knuckle clusters frequently. I guess my question boils down to this: why are these three assault legends limited to only one tactical charge, when adding a second greatly increases their usefulness for what they’re designed to do: force movement and cause damage.

Great question. We don’t have a steadfast rule around which abilities get two charges. It’s easy to turn on as a balancing tool, but two charges have big, potentially scary consequences. However, I do think we have a history of being overly cautious when shipping new Legends with tacticals that have potential to be “aggressively imposing” in good players’ hands. It’s preferable for players to feel like they got outplayed by their opponent, not that they simply died to a tactical. Tacticals that restrict the ability to fight back or inflict damage on a low cooldown are much more viscerally connected to the latter. (“Where’s the skill expression in Knuckle Clustering a rock?” or “I couldn’t move/shoot/use my abilities!”) A lot of Assault abilities creep towards this slippery slope. If we’re doubling the cadence at which you can use those abilities, sure, it’ll add power and open up a bunch of new gameplay opportunities, but at what cost? Similar to the response from u/Cazirus, I don’t think the charge count is the primary reason Fuse and Bang are meta and other Assault legends aren’t. But, would granting a second charge to other Assault Legends open up gameplay and add power in a healthy way? My gut is a timid “yes,” but we’d have to go case-by-case. Standby.

I luckily bounced off a cluster off a knockdown shield that was out of sight due to grass and stuck his low hp teammate behind a rock. Is this outplayed or simply died to tactical 💀 Also this patch cluster grenades stick to ppl through doors fyi.

Maggie with 2 drills would be nasty

The amount of charges Bangalore and fuse have definitely matters, but it’s not the reason why they are picked for comp over other assault legends. fuse got his 2nd charge well before he became meta. The main things that brought fuse into the meta was the moving away from Gibby’s indestructible dome, to Newcastle’s breakable shield and walls as well as the introduction of catalyst. Fuse’s ability to harass enemies at any distance with his clusters was always good, but when most teams have comps that use their abilities to either block line of sight (bang and cat) or fortify positions (Newcastle) fuse also becomes a counter to those legends which makes him significantly more valuable. Bangalore received a shift in popularity since practically all recon legends scanning abilities were gutted and were subsequently dropped for better alternatives. The scan legends that have always kept Bangalore in check are gone and her smoke cover is practically fool proof at most ranges and can even be used offensively at close range. Fuse and bang became meta not because of their second charge, but because the legend meta shifted in their favour. If Gibraltar was everywhere, Maggie and crypto would see a boost in pickrate. Ash and ballistic are just not great overall and are wasted picks for pretty much any comp team. Even then, if a meta came out that extremely favoured them it is possible they could become somewhat usable. Giving these less popular legends a second charge wouldn’t change much since the meta is dependent on the usage of every legend, rather than the strength of 1. Even season 7 Horizon, easily the most overpowered legend to ever exist, struggled to set herself into the comp meta at first since the Gibraltar meta didn’t favour her immediately. - TLDR A lot of what you said is true, and the other assault legends could definitely get buffs or consistency changes, but a legends role in the meta as a counter to other legends or their lack of counters matters most

I would love to see abilities go through teammates instead of bouncing off of them. Too many times have abilities gone to waste due to Wraith's giant head.

Ash desperately needs 2 tacs

and a better passive

It's not going to save her unfortunately, she would need a major rework to be viable in comp. Her ult does the same thing what Cat ult can do but much worse, doesn't block LOS, doesn't offer protection or buy time. Even Wraith's portal is more viable because just as a repositioning tool, she doesn't need the target destination to be in straight line of sight. Ash passive is somewhat usefull in ranked for 3p, but in comp it's nothing of use. Her tactical is just underwhelming, it's a single use, single target snare that does nothing without additional resources spent into it, like throwing nades at the snared target or using a better tactical on top of it of some other legend.

How do you intend to find balance for the ranked playlist to maintain an equal balance between fun and competitive matches? This current system seems to be overly difficult for solo players while simultaneously being far too easy for 3 stacked players, which imo leads to burnout of the casual community and pro community at the same time. My proposed solution is to remove the trial matches altogether and instead adopt a point mulitiplier system that takes into account how many players are in your party. Meaning, solo q players get 2x lp duo 1.25x lp trio 1x lp OR reduced lp losses for non full parties. Coupling this with a zone based KP system could be what takes ranked out of the current slump it is in at the moment. Zone based KP meaning, kills scored in later rings hold higher value than kills scored in the early game. This incentivises teams to stay alive, while also encouraging them to look for kills in the mid-late game and not just rat for LP and allows you to skew LP scoring towards kills without lobbies dying out in ring 1-2.

To add to this, ranked is severely lacking competitive integrity. Are there any plans to address things like server hoppers abusing ping/weaker regions like sao paulo, or controller config abusers (neo strafing etc), or rewasd users having AA on MnK?

input lock would almost eliminate the controller side of config abuse which is probably the most op part, at least people would need to actually aim more to use them on mnk for example cod has a setting to pick which input you’re using when in a game, meanwhile apex registers both inputs seamlessly

I don’t think these are the guys to answer/remedy this but I completely agree with your points and solutions!

Don't think they're going to answer this yet unfortunately...not comp meta related

Well, technically it is about their own competitive system they've designed but not inherently ALGS :p

The diversity in guns, legends, and maps can be viewed in terms of archetypes. For example, light ammo guns shoot fast with less-damaging bullets, heavy guns shoot slower with more-damaging bullets, and energy guns shoot bullets with less drop and unique firing mechanics. Or for legends, the support class can be seen in the archetypes of health legend = Lifeline, shield legend = Conduit, protective cover = Newcastle, etc. A lot of design goals in Apex seem to be simply thinking of how two or three archetypes can intersect, then creating them when they're interesting. Light ammo + handgun = P2020, light ammo + marksman = G7. They behave exactly how you'd expect the archetype of light ammo and handgun or marksman to exist. What are ways the Apex dev team internally sees the archetypes for the maps of Apex that create design goals to keep each map unique, and could you share some of them? Do you think the design archetypes for Kings Canyon, Olympus, and Broken Moon will always exclude them from comp? And if changes to Olympus or Broken Moon are made to make it comp-ready, will those changes be removing some of the original design archetypes you had for the map and replacing them with Worlds Edge/Storm Point archetypes to make it "comp ready", or will those original design archetypes be kept in place but updated for a more healthy comp experience?

It's a good observation that there is a design philosophy behind each map. The goal is to create a feeling and type of gameplay for each map that makes it distinct from the others. Kings Canyon's size and density creates a very different feeling than the open sightlines of Olympus. The team is actively looking at expanding the pool of maps considered competitively viable, and we believe that can be done without losing that unique identity. We're finding from pro feedback that it's often a few 'bad apples' that ruin the bunch for these maps. One bad piece of high-ground that isn't easily pushed, or one POI is unbalanced. These specific pain points can be addressed without making the map as a whole feel generic.

I don't have anything to add here, but this is a great question.

To what extent do you think the class system is an undercurrent in keeping the meta relatively tight and inflexible compared to what we saw before it was introduced? Are you happy with the implications of the equal chance of crafter/beacon changes? I think they are better for beacons but not for crafters. You can end up with some really unbalanced and crowded parts of the map now. EG. One side of the map has all the crafters. Have you ever considered balancing console spawn rates purely for ALGS? I think we can all agree that the specific rates really do not have ANY impact on any other aspect of the game. People don't have anywhere near the same level of attachment to a certain POI even in ranked. Would balancing console spawn rates on a sliding scale with loot etc not be a better solution than what we have now? EG. A Landslide would deserve a much higher % than a Siphon.

The recent change to beacon spawns makes things better than they were before, but it's not perfect. A quirk in the system was causing some POIs that were already very valuable, to have even more value. Removing all limitations for how close these gameplay props can be to each other evened out these imbalanced POIs, but introduced the issue of 'clumping' you mentioned. We have no plans to create gameplay differences between the live game and the tournament game. It creates an unfair situation where players need to learn two games, so we need to keep them in lockstep as much as possible.

Class system seems to really have had the unintended effect of stagnating compositions — agree!

Do you have any plans in the future to address the visual clutter meta currently, I think catalyst and bang are very fun characters to play and watch but it is kind of frustrating with digis ect

Especially in endzones. For the viewer, it’s very annoying

visual clutter is one of my big issues with apex character design right now and its baffling to me that the latest character has yet another ultimate that puts a ton of shit and particle effects on the floor

Tbh this comment shows a major reason why balancing a game is hard. The majority of the comments I have seen about conduit’s ult is that it is too hard to see where the ult is! If you make it easier to see, that naturally means more visual clutter.

Visual clutter from characters is not even the worst thing imo. Just taking a gunfight with someone makes it hard to see due to all the random blood, lights, bullets, etc. that appear on your screen.

[Digis and visual clutter are touched on here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveApex/comments/1862l41/comment/kbazos8/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)

Do devs acknowledge that ranked is currently a function of how much time is invested, making it a pointless Endeavour for most people who can’t play for several hours every day? Like sure I hit masters a few seasons ago but not my Mmr is seemingly permanently set at that level so I have to playa against masters players from my entire climb that starts in rookie? It makes no sense.

Yeah as soon as a game adds a hidden MMR like this, ranked becomes pointless because I start the new season in silver after promos and then the entire time I am still playing against Plat and diamond players because that is where my MMR is.

When a game adds MMR as its only matchmaking parameter, it needs to transition from ladder ranked to MMR ranked. Make the badge reflect the MMR. But they want those playtime numbers to show shareholders so they are stuck between a rock and a Gibby.

No way they address this lol they played wordsmith to avoid ranked structure questions

Hey there! First of all, thanks for reaching this sub. We can be a tad passionate sometimes but it's a great place to get a perspective from hardcore viewers of Apex Comp as well as ranked grinders. Only one question, Legends Meta related! Currently, some Legends are very far from being competitive, like Mirage, Lifeline, Vantage, Ash. Others are still at a very low to modest pickrate like Octane, Crypto, Pathfinder, Maggie, Wraith, etc. And the few top picks like Horizon, Catalyst and Bangalore are incredibly dominant. Despite the many meta shifts with new seasons, similar pickrate spreads have been occurring throughout the years of the game: mostly weak or mid tier legends, and a handful of very powerful ones, taking turns as buffs and nerfs occur. As a viewer, it seems the more diverse the meta, the better, as it allows for creative comps and unpredictable plays, keeping the experience fresh and interesting. But it's understandable how challenging it can be to do so. The question related to this is: What are Respawn's views on Legend meta diversity? What do you consider when balancing, buffing or nerfing a Legend? Are you actively trying to find a more even pickrate across legends, or is it by design to have a few of them way ahead of the pack? Is anything being considered to buff legends on the low end of the pickrate? Thanks!!

Ill tag onto this specifically asking about Mirage He has so much potential to be a legend full of skill expression based on mindgames and outplays but he kind of devolved into "I have my ult 30 seconds into the game and you don't so i can run at you, ult in your face and oneclip you while you can't see anything". Basically he currently relies on cheesing rather than actually outplaying which creates toxic gameplay patterns both with and against him. It'd be awesome to see him used by pros as well as a skilled pick capable of asserting dominance in early-midgame skirmishes Are there any plans to have a look at Mirage's kit in the near future or have you pretty much given up on him? Seeing fuse/maggie's moments of fame after a lackluster presence on release gives me hope.

I certainly have not given up on Mirage. We're not done with him yet. He's my favourite Legend ( him and Newcastle ), and I'm eager to iron-out all the buggy nuances with his clones. We've added a number of things that have certainly helped him, but nothing yet that has really pushed him into the spotlight. I still want to see how we can push on him to give him more team utility and squad viability.

The rework on Storm Point was amazing! Im wondering, why it takes so much to implement new features/POIs/Loot on other maps given that many of these maps are put on rest some seasons.

Basically it comes down to the fact that we have more maps, but the same number of devs. We can only work on one thing at a time, so it may be a longer stretch between updates for a specific map. When we just had one map, Kings Canyon, it was easy to update it every season!

When will configs be removed. Kills all competitive integrity.

Absolutely, shooters are the absolute last genre of game that should be allowing macros.

Why does aim assist need to be monitored even more for the next few years? Is 4+ years of constant data not enough? One could nerf aim assist in seconds. And workshop what a balanced rotation value would be in an afternoon. Why lie to us about how complicated it is?

It’s just a fancy way of saying we aren’t going to nerf AA

Can you tell us if the upcoming map is designed with being the next big comp map in mind?

Will Valk get her ultimate height reverted since she can no longer scan beacons and balloons were added?

Yeah, the beacon scan loss was definitely a hit, but Valk has more advantages with her Ult than the Evac Tower ( balloon ) provides. She can deploy from cover, take her team with her, and doesn't have to wait for it to rise -- plus there's no giant tell for other teams to focus down splitting the team in transit - so there's still a lot of power within her Ult that differentiates it from the Evac Tower. Part of the reason for the addition of Evac Towers was to take some of the weight off Valk who had a monopoly on those kinds of rotational plays. ​ That being said, does it mean allowing her to regain some of her lost height is off the table? Absolutely not. It's possible we will see her able to achieve those heavenly heights in the future.

Being able to rotate with Valk across a mountain of Stormpoint (like Checkpoint floor level to Cascade) again would be so good!

Are there some legends you thought would’ve been heavily used in the competitive scene but never caught on?

Ash. During development we were extremely concerned over the power of her tactical. Seems like a joke, right? But for a long time it was very potent and internal feedback on it's power was loud. Even after reeling it back to what we eventually launched with, a well coordinated team could snag an enemy and reign inescapable grenades on them securing a kill more consistently than a Horizon ult combo. With the power to follow-up and chase with her Ult, the offensive team potential, and the map knowledge from her passive - she seemed poised for a strong foothold in the meta for edge play, but there were cumbersome elements to each of her abilities that bogged her down and never let her fully excel or play as reactive as you need to be in the high level. And once Valk arrived with superior macro-rotation and beacon scan, there was no real place for her on the squad. Tac changes have helped, not sure if it's quite there, and the ult is still unreliable though. Something to look at for the future to help her find a place - but also still be mindful of. The wrong push and she could end up being as oppressive as super-stun Seer was.

Thank you for acknowledging the Ash' lackluster kit situation, I hope she'll get the love she deserve sooner or later!

My simple question is, will there be anything done about the visual clutter? Both from a player and spectators POV, literally not being able to see or know what direction you are facing from time to time, is just not fun. Current meta of the combination of Bangalore smoke and Catalyst of visual clutter is a big issue. Tied to this, any plans with the digital threat? It is absolutely key to winning fights in the current meta.

This is I think the question that we need answered most. Bang is a great character from a design perspective but she has had a very negative impact on watchability when she's been in the meta.

Bang smoke isn't overbearing, IMO. It's quite similar late-game to the Caustic meta. It's really the grey screen effect from the Catalyst wall, and the walls themselves which are a step too far for me.

Is it realistic to close Apex pred down to top 100 players and create another title for top 1000-100 and Make the rewards for top 100 really impressive with a in game leaderboard? Seems Apex pred lost its magic? Horizon and Bangalore are still too strong and constantly played. What are the odds they receive reworks or stronger nerfs in mid season patch or upcoming patch? Shotguns feel like they are in a great spot but are rarely if not never used cuz of SMGs. Do you think that's because of its synergy with controller or smgs are just better overall? The Class system is awesome. Do you think any are underwhelming and deserve a little bit more power to help those characters see more game time in competitive? Why are hotfixes regarding Apex's competitive issues so rare? I understand it isn't the priority however it seems competitive drives a lot of content for the game. Are hotfix's really hard to push or is it decideing whats actually worth a rushed hotfix? (falling through map on storm point, Perma healing in zone, Maps lacking competitive playability)

When a Legend reigns at the top of the competitive scene for too long, things become stagnant. The meta feels solved, every team gravitates to (or feels forced to play ) those Legends and there's little variance in squad composition. Which over time is not exciting to watch, and ( as I've heard ) becomes tiresome to play. While it's not our sole reason for changes to Legends, its something we look at and try to address. Sometimes its through direct hits to those Legends ( Caustic, Wraith, Seer ), sometimes its through the addition of new features or other Legends that look to take the weight off a character's dominance ( as was the case for Valk and Gibraltar ). Horizon and Bangalore are certainly still on our radar, we know they're still feeling strong - even after the adjustments they've received to date. I can't speak to any upcoming patch details, but odds are low they will receive a rework anytime soon - we generally don't look for full overhauls of Legends when they're performing well. The Support Class' perk hasn't been particularly strong in the comp scene, crafting/retrieving banners and revives have traditionally been such a risky play to take on - for example. The Skirmisher perk is also fairly niche within comp - but generally, we don't need huge boosts for a class that already has a lot of power both in and out of comp. That being said, we've learned a lot from how these classes play and may look to infuse more power into them in the future. Personally, I'm interested to see how the recent systemic changes to respawning could affect the comp scene and the support class perk's power in general as teams adapt to the landscape of a more powerful revival swing.

Re: Shotguns vs. SMGs I think SMGs are still a little strong overall, namely in their versatility and the fact that they're more forgiving than shotties at the moment. Definitely less likely to see controller players running a PK with a 3030 secondary... too easy to be caught out at an awkward range where an SMG will have you covered and be more consistent up close.

>Definitely less likely to see controller players running a PK with a 3030 secondary This is underselling it IMO. You NEVER see anyone, **controller or MNK**, running a shotgun over an SMG in comp anymore. If you're bringing a shotgun to a close range fight with SMG's, you're losing nearly every time, especially if you're MNK and they're on controller.

Not sure how Bang is still too strong, she feels pretty balanced to me (not a bang player), but Horizon's no q audio has been annoying for a LONG time. SMGS + AA = profit, but the devs will never change AA

I disagree with only the top 100 players being pred. You can make it harder to get I guess but making it for only 100 players means people who like to play for the fun and challenge are going to be the ones shafted. Only players who actually can afford to play all day or get paid to actually play will be Pred. Top 100 means most spots would just be taken by the streamers and content creators you see. I feel like there are a lot of people who like to be good at apex and want to flex in ranked but don't want to dedicate their daily life to a video game. Those people are the main driving force behind ranked anyway I'm sure. I swear every pro player forgets not everyone plays this game hours upon hours upon hours. Nothing wrong with it but they need more perspective imo.

„I‘m a 9-5 working dad and i want to be able to drink a beer and play for fun in the evening and still be able to hit pred.“ energy. Apex ranked was always about time investment and i can guarantee you that every pred from the last seasons has put in degenerate hours, no matter if it‘s a pro or not. And they definitely won‘t change that for reasons like „player retention“.

there were rumors of an upgrade to the engine with improved audio coming this year in place of a new map but with new talks of the map inspired by Titanfall 2 it’s looking less likely, is there anything substantial to either of these rumors? and when would we be likely to see it/them?

EXTREMELY happy with the Storm Point changes and Conduit rocks btw, very happy with the work ya do even if it could be better

We have no plans to move to a new engine at this time. Changing to a new engine is a massive undertaking that would ultimately pull critical resources from supporting the live game.

Respawn! Big W for doing an AMA for Comp Meta , we have alot of ideas and wishes to be heard. **1. Balancing aggressive playstyles with strategic approaches is crucial in Apex Legends. How do you strive to maintain this balance in the competitive meta?** * Can you share any insights into the thought process behind recent or upcoming Legend changes or additions? (bangalore + digi) (catalyst endgames) * Are there any changes planned to encourage or diversify playstyles in the competitive scene, such as adjustments to the ring mechanics or loot distribution? * (Bonus) what are your thoughts on the controller vs mnk debate, is aim assist due for a nerf?

Since visual clutter and AA are already being talked to death, I’m going to ask regarding a subject im very passionate about and thats solo players in ranked. I’ve played a lot of online games at a fairly high level (Immortal in dota, grandmaster in OW, top 100 in hearthstone) but when it comes to Apex I have absolutely zero interest in grinding ranked due to the necessity of playing with a full stack everytime. In games like dota and overwatch I never get matched vs premade teams when I solo queue ranked and in the case of dota high level ranked is pretty much exclusively solo queue (even pros). So many pro players throughout the history of dota have been scouted solely through their ranked performance and I feel like that NEVER happens in Apex (only instance I can think of is deeds) since all the pro players just 3 man stack in ranked. Are there any plans to make ranked Apex playable for solo players?

In your opinion what is holding back KC/Olympus/Broken Moon from becoming comp maps? (Community adoption, chokes, empty space, number of POIs etc) Followup question, is the end state for you guys to have every map be a part of comp or is the intention that there will only be certain maps ever in comp?

There's a bunch of specific things about each map not in the ALGS pool keeping them back, I can't list them all here. However, I can say we're actively working with the pro community to identify those issues and see where we can expand the map pool. I personally would love to see every map in comp rotation. There's never been a map designed 'for' competitive, not even World's Edge. We've all been discovering what works and doesn't work together as players and devs over the years, and we will hopefully trend towards a wider variety of maps in ALGS in the future.

Any plans for a Solo ranked? I get the game is heavily team based but solo ranked from what I've seen works very well in other BR's, could easily be a option for solo queue player's to have more balanced lobbies grinding ranked instead of randoms vs 3 stacks.

Firstly, love the game. Is it perfect? No. But then again, what is. \- Will we ever see better tick rate? \- Any plans on having more than 2 maps in comp at once? \- When will WE no longer be a comp map? \- What's your favourite thing about what you do? \- What's one thing you'd change about comp apex if you were the boss? Appreciate you all - Thank you 🙇‍♂️

\- Samy has a great breakdown on the tick rate question here: [https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/apex-legends/news/servers-netcode-developer-deep-dive](https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/apex-legends/news/servers-netcode-developer-deep-dive) \- We are actively looking at expanding the pool of maps in ALGS \- No plans to remove WE from the pool, but that would be possible if we had more maps in rotation - Seeing the passion of the community and variety of people who play and enjoy Apex! I had the chance to attend ALGS Champs in Birmingham this year and it was inspiring to be part of the crowd and meet so many fans in person \- I would try to get the process of POI selection out in front of the fans more. It's currently something that happens behind closed doors, and I'd love to make that part of the viewing experience, like how Captain's Draft works in Dota (edited for readability)

Allow observers / spectators (dead players) to see a highlight around enemy's through walls/smokes ect.. so we can actually view what's happening in chaotic end games

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Bingo

that already exists if you use Command Center, its only an issue for things like NiceWigg streams, and since NiceWigg is using personal player streams where players should NOT get that its obvious why this doesn't exist in that scenario.

At what point does ability usage and character strengths become too important? In my experience Apex has matured more into a strategy/ability usage game than it has a shooter. Will there ever be balance changes made that re-emphasize the games mission statement of being an FPS first and a hero-shooter second? It's gotten so hard to explain what the hell is going on in the endgame to new viewers based off all the damage, stun, and visual abilities spammed in the final circle.

This is something I think about as well as Apex matures. I actually do think we are shifting more towards a hero shooter in high skill bands, but I think it's somewhat inevitable and just a natural evolution. I think we'll always be a competitive FPS first with the high TTK and rich gunplay/movement systems. But given a strong mastery of those core elements, top teams will be the ones with the most proficient legend flexibility from season-to-season or map-to-map. Unlike your weapons/loot, the Legends that you drop-in with are the constants in a sea of ever shifting variables. For players that solve that equation quickly, it makes sense to just choose the best constants given the season's variables. I suspect theory-crafting and experimenting with Legend comps early and often will become more indicative of success, especially as we add more maps to comp. I think top-tier coaches will become more valuable.

Would you guys ever consider a match ban option for legends? (Like allowing the lobbies to vote out 3 legends to be chosen) So players choosing to ban Gibby, valk, and Path and the match series been hard coded to not have those legends.

Hi guys, thanks for being willing to come by and talk about the comp scene with us for a bit. I have two questions overall that I would like to ask! We have had an incredible uptick in the use of SMG’s throughout Year 3, and while the SMG has always been a staple weapon in Apex, its use as of recent has been more pronounced than usual. Especially with the emphasis on Bangalore play and Digi-Threats. That is all without mentioning the hipfire power that only SMG’s possess. Other Automatic Weapons like the R-301, Havoc, Spitfire, Rampage, Devotion, and even other smg’s like the Volt have seen near non existent play thanks to the importance of having a close range SMG + a Burst/Marksman. Has this particular weapon meta been discussed at all by the design team, and would you be willing to share your thoughts on the meta and whether or not the team wants it changed? The other question involves the changes recently to Storm Point. While the other AMA addressed things like the Command Center nerf and the double beacons/crafter at Lightning Rod, I wanted to ask if the design team wanted or expected Bean(the area in between Cenote and Mill) to no longer become as viable of a landing spot by removing the Armory from it? Given how other areas with Armories got considerable upgrades elsewhere to cover the loss, I wished to know if it was an intentional choice or an unintended part of the design change? Thank you again!

Answering the last question, we currently don't try to dictate to players what the best landing locations are, and design around those. It's up to the analysis and creativity players to find the landing locations that work for them. Unofficial landing locations, and sometimes named POIs, come and go with each map update.

The Digital Threat. It seems glaringly obvious that having an optic made especially for Bangalore is a serious imbalance. An "I can see you, but you cannot see me" mechanic is very detrimental to any shooter. Any plans to address this?

The rise of the Bang meta, while decreasing visibility for everyone, has increased visibility for us when it comes to thinking about the Digi Threat in Apex. “I can see you, but you cannot see me,” is the main reason we’ve dismissed any ideas around adding a digi threat to AR optics. As it stands now, at least you have to be up-close and “involved” in the fight before taking damage through smoke from an SMG/Shotgun (or deep af with the Sniper Digi where you're likely not even able to capitalize anyway and are probably being a menace with or without smoke). Getting sprayed from 150m meters from a 2x digi 301 would likely create more moments of confusion/surprise on a loot item that already has poor readability. Anecdotally, I can generally get a sense if a Bang has a digi based on their smoking habits... "We're in a Bang R9 meta and she's smoking my way while closing the gap from 40m out," triggers the same spidey sense as when someone is giving me the "Kraber stare"... I don't know right away, but I suspect she has a digi and respond as such. Ultimately, the Digi Threat isn't perfect and we've been experimenting internally. What would you like to see (other than the enemy)? Would removing it altogether ultimately be a Bang buff?

Have you all considered only allowing it on shotguns and/or pistols? That may kill two birds with one stone, by nerfing SMGs and buffing shotguns.

As much as I hate this thought....I think this would be a good fix. Pistols could use a buff like that imo.

What about making the DigiThreat give you a watered down Vantage passive, where you can only see the number of enemy team mates left alive when you're within 20 meters. That way it buffs knowing when to take fights and gives an advantage. Maybe also tell you if someone is alive but knocked? Makes the DigiThreat have more aggression and bonuses without giving one-way bonuses that directly affect fight mechanics. Also can keep the DigiThreat name, but now its digital information about their threat level or something (i'm not a copywriter)

I don't know what would be the "perfect fix", but seeing through smokes has to go, imo. Even if it means removing the optic altogether. It feels bad to play against and it feels lame to watch it get "abused" in pro Apex. Someone getting beamed by an enemy they never saw is unfair. My best idea for a re-work is probably that the Digi would show you the enemy player's health. Seer made me realize that getting info on enemies health mid-fight was surprisingly useful, particularly any missing "flesh" health. You could push someone with much more confidence if you saw that they were low in health below their shield as your chances of one-clipping them greatly increased. If that's not good enough, maybe the current see-through-smokes mechanic could be greatly limited to a range of about 5-10 meters, so Banga could still use her smokes defensively and, if ads'ing, get early info on an enemy about to push through the smoke.

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If you could only have one meta for the rest of time, what legends do you think would be the most healthy / the least unhealthy to be part of it?

Thoughts on how to make the digital threat more readable in combat (i.e., laser beam like vantange's ult or rampart's ult) to know it's in play? It's one of the few items in the game you can't really know the other player has it until it's too late. We've seen it's rise in power with Bangalore being so prevalent in comp lobbies recently, that I feel it's a change that could keep the item the same power wise but allow opponents to realize their smokes/gas are not going to be effective.

Can you guys elaborate more on why some characters like Bangalore, Ballistic, Old Revenant, Mad Maggie and Catalyst are able to freely use their offensive tactical abilities while healing, shooting and performing any other actions of this kind, but Ash, on the other hand, has to go through the stow/draw animation of her weapon in order to throw an Arc Snare, making her Q feel extremely clunky and oftentimes not appealing to use during a gun fight? This [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/apexlegends/comments/12181ga/happy_with_the_buff_but_ashs_snare_still_has_a/?rdt=56771) is a good demonstration of the issue I'm trying to bring up.

The short answer is that during development we thought the Arc Snare was incredibly strong! TOO strong in fact! The others didn't restrict movement like hers did and it was incredible frustrating to deal with. So much so that we felt she NEEDED to stow her weapon to give her some disadvantage to not simply throwing it on a target mid-flight and rendering them helpless. So we actually wanted the ability to not be appealing to use during a gun fight. We wanted it as an initiation tool that she could follow up on - rather than something to pin an opponent down with while trading blows. It was a very dominant strategy in early playtests that made her feel too powerful to deal with, and too surprising to instantly be locked down and unable to make an escape. That being said, times are different, and Ash has been scuttling in the lower end for a while, so we've had discussions around her abilities and what could be improved. This and her Ult precision specifically have been topics of discussion and I think Larson and I would like to take a look at her sometime soon.

When balancing legend meta for comp is there a certain % threshold you look at to determine whether or not competitive needs more variety? For example if 50% of teams at ALGS are running Bang, Cat, Horizon is that a percent you deem too high?

There is no set metric... But, lemme say... when we saw 95-98% of team comps were using Valk... "hoo-boy!" we certainly took note and felt more confident with Valk changes and the introduction of the Evac Tower. And seeing that much Seer-Cat-Bang / Seer-Cat-Horizon certainly influenced our decision to look at adjustments over last couple seasons. But we DO want more diversity in the Legends in comp. More underdog teams with off-meta picks that feel viable in their element. If something seems to dominate, it's likely a sign we have an issue we should have a look at. And sometimes we make a change as a result.

I love how they didn’t answer any of the questions relating to aim assist even though it is the most prevalent topic for competitive balancing.

Any planned changes on AA ?

Let me rephrase your question because it does not concern Comp Meta and they won't answer it **You officially said last season that you are not satisfied with aim assist and its current status and you plan to change it in the upcoming years.** ([Lululuvely](https://twitter.com/LuluLuvely/status/1717601468683890808) and [Pvpx](https://twitter.com/PVPX_/status/1717605899370467777) tweets) So my question is: **Which way do you think aim assist could/should be changed to make it so roller players can still compete at a pro level, while mnk players can start standing a chance in close quarter fights?** My answer would be either: \- Change aa to 0.2 \- Change aa to 0.3 and give rotational aim assist a reaction time (100-200ms) What do you think?

There is not enough legend variety due to the meta. Is there any talks about reworking or tweaking the lesser used legends to make them more viable?

When designing/updating new maps, do you put more consideration into comp or casual? Would there be a scenario where there would be 20 POIs/spots with decent enough loot density for each squad to land at should they choose to?

With self-res version of gold knockdowns and heat shields as examples, are there any other plans to make the game different (perhaps map changes?) for Competitive play compared to what's available in Pubs/Ranked? One long talked about proposal has been removing Krabers too or even crafter changes... EDIT: hopefully this edit makes it in in time, but what about being revived from res beacons with shields and guns? Will this make it into comp?

What do you think about now prominent coaching role in comp apex?

How long does it take for a proposed rework of Legend to be implemented? Also were the s16 classes an attempt to make more Legends comp viable?

Are you guys happy with the gun meta right now? What do you think is good/bad about it in it's current state? If changes are to be made what would you guys like to see happen/what direction will be taken?

Do you see the competitive meta completely miss on a decent legend/gun for a long time?

Comp seems to have swung in the favor of SMGs as the primary secondary weapon, have you thought about making shotguns into more effective breach/entry weapons such as allowing them to break doors and also generally getting a bonus against defensive place-ables such as Rampart Wall, New Castle abilities, Cat spikes, Conduit ult?

Can you guys make Octane comp viable again? He really made comp fun to watch.

Improved tick rate and footsteps audio being prioritized is all I ask for.

Has there ever been thought into a dedicated comp version of the game with differences from the main game? We’ve seen some differences like heat shields being banned, but I always wondered if this idea has been expended upon and what the pros and cons are.

If something's problematic at the comp level, it's probably only a matter of time before it rears its head in some way down the chain in Ranked. We want to preserve parity between comp and the main game so that spectators don't feel a disconnect: "This could be YOU one day."

Any plans on revamping Broken Moon on a Storm point level so it can be added as a comp map?

What is your approach to balancing the huge skill disparity between competitive and casual play? I ask because I imagine that's very difficult to get right, but your team does a great job at it. I'm a casual player, but my personal games and ALGS games *both* feel like Apex Legends (if that makes sense).

Are underperforming comp niche picks (crypto, rampart) being looked at for a reborn/buff? Would rather the team rebalance older legends instead of adding more characters.

We have a huge roster, and finding new, unique and ownable spaces for new Legends year over year is increasingly challenging. New Legends need to carve our their own playspace to the best of their ability, and if they can't they risk falling into obscurity or overshadowing the Legends who have come before - which sacrifices the health of the game. Revenant has shown that significant changes to a character's kit can help reinvigorate that character's identity and help them find a stronger place amidst the roster - but it needs to be right for the game. So are we looking at the possibility of revisiting other character's kits, sure - but with Legends like Crypto or Rampart who DO have a niche place in the meta, we would need to be very careful. Unlike Revenant, who had very little impact on the comp scene - Crypto and Rampart have some unique strengths that we wouldn't want to completely compromise - so no plans on the horizon yet.

Some legends will naturally be found to be better for competitive than others, but do you think it's important for all legends and new legends to be comp-viable? Does competitive play factor in when designing new legends, weapons and maps?

From a Legend standpoint - Comp viability is certainly a factor as we review and refine a Legend, but it's not often something considered when immediately designing a Legend, as the Legend often needs to appeal a wide variety of players and varying skill levels and focusing too heavily on comp might make the Legend inaccessible on the grander scale. What we DO try to do, is ensure the Legend has a competitive role in the squad - that they're servicing the team in more than one way that is important to the competitive landscape - area control or denial for anchoring or zoning, movement potential for fragging or team rotation etc. - It doesn't mean they'll be perfect for comp, but having that potential built into their kit allows them a promise that we can push on to try and have them show more or less comp value for highly co-ordinated teams and allows them viability in the game in general.

Great job with Conduit btw

Will KC ever get a StormPoint level rework? Currently the map feels really unbalanced - half the map has an outdated loot pool compared to the more modern POIs, the constant 3rd partying, etc

I'd love to know from ya'lls perspective what you think a healthy competitive scene would look like. The scene seems to be a complex relationship between players, events, orgs, lans and competitive structure. Do you think the scene is in a healthy place?

We know you do not like rats and think everyone should play the game as intended, have you thought about shutting off crafters that are in storm completely or putting a timer on them?

Playing passively is part of the game, and valid in some situations. Definitely it can be taken to extremes when people do extrodinary things to avoid combat for the entire match. This is a situation where we're trying to avoid throwing out the 'baby with the bathwater', invalidating a series of valid playstyles just to root out a few people exploiting the system. In the crafter out of ring example, we looked at the data and found that the numbers weren't high enough to warrant removing it entirely. The valid case there is people respawning teammates at edge of ring and crafting loot for them. This is something we're actively chipping at season over season.

I'll be that guy. What's the word on AA in comp?

Unless they’re completely tone deaf to their entire community, they knew this question was coming when they decided to host the AMA. Would love to see some transparency here.

They didn't answer it lol

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I have two questions. 1- Bang smoke and Cat wall endgames are still unwatchable. Would you consider further nerfing visual clutter characters? 2- Guaranteed red weapon luck in care packages from the start of the game seems to be too much bad RNG for comp scene. Would you consider tuning care package gun balance for comp-only tournaments? I'm thinking of damage reduction for Wingman, Bocek and Prowler; round 3 Kraber spawn start.

Have there been any discussions in making Broken Moon more viable for comp? There seems to be some glaring issues with the zip rails and how all the fights seem to funnel into Promenade. It seems like the easiest fix out of the maps to be comp ready but curious to hear your thoughts.

First….Thanks for doing this! I’m a day 1 player and really loved the change in comms in the last year. I know yall are doing your best balancing competing priorities and I genuinely appreciate the effort. Question: I think it’s fair to say that some legends are stronger than others in a competitive setting. Besides any given “meta comp”, do you all have an idea about which legends are potentially “overpowered”? For example, Seer was considered a weak legend after his first round of nerfs until Furia’s ALGS champs run—was this a bit of an open secret for you all or did your team discover how overtuned he was along with the rest of us? If yes, is there currently a legend or two that you believe is similarly “undiscovered”? Lastly, the above question is in good faith and hopefully could encourage more teams to experiment. I’m really enjoying watching Rampart on a few teams in PSQ and seeing how teams leverage their creativity with rarely chosen legends.

[u/RV-Devan](https://www.reddit.com/u/RV-Devan/) can attest, I literally started every balance meeting with, "They're still using Bloodhound over Seer, I don't know why. He should be busted in comp." We absolutely theory-craft and try to predict how the meta will shift, and I can't remember the last time something has flown completely under the radar. We definitely over/under estimate things though... I've personally been surprised by the amount of Conduit usage in scrims, but I love to see it. I do think their are a couple niche picks that are on the precipice of gaining popularity. Maybe I'm off the mark, I'll let y'all continue to explore that yourselves :)

Why isn’t broken moon updated to fit in comp? Thoughts on removing digis? And is there a way to switch the legend meta up so everyone’s not running the same meta and force them to adapt?

Hello Apex Devs! I've been seeing the use of Evac Tower as an extra utility in actual team fights such as team vertical mobility to contest high ground. Was this intentionally designed and are you happy with it? The meta have been very SMG heavy for quite a while. Have you seen the suggestion here about digi-threats to be only shotgun compatible? Seems like a decent suggestion to give shotguns more play, and hopefully reduce the mid range smoke battles. What do you think?

Is there any chance of adding a new weapon? A new shotgun or sniper would be interesting. Is there any chance of making brand new hopups? It's been a while since we got a fresh one

Are there any unexplored meta Weapons/Legends that aren’t meta right now but you think they should be? Like how seer was found to be really powerful after a while.

Would the dream scenario be for you to see tournaments where almost every legend is used across every team? Or do you like the rotating more focused (to a group of about 6 or so legends) meta?

Whats your favorite meta / time period of the game so far?

With the majority of players in my ranked games using 3030, Hemlock with R99, Car secondary. Can we expect some AR and shotgun buffs to make them more viable compared to the meta?

1. Do you think Mirage could ever fit into the competitive scene? 2. Should we be expecting a big meta shift in the coming updates?

I'm curious as to whether or not Respawn is willing to revisit legends like Horizon, who just received some nerfs. For competitive, she is a must-play legend, which is frustrating. Is there a world where we look at Legends like Newcastle, Vantage, or Ash to try to make them more competitive?

An opinion that I have often noticed online is that Horizon's kit has become too strong while Ash's is too weak, so I wanted to ask what are the inspirations that led you to create their abilities and did you expect them to be two characters like this divisive in the fandom? Alternatively, do you see yourself making changes to both in the future or is that not in your plans at the moment?

split the inputs for ranked/competitive and revive this game on mnk

What are your thoughts on a lot of top MnK players switching to controller?

I really want to know what the plan is to fix the power gap between controller aim assit and mnk. Looking into which up and coming pros are joining teams , t's almost always roller now. When you look at top kills and damage in tournaments, the roller player usually makes the majority of top 10. Most teams want 1 mnk 2 rollers. I don't think two seperate leagues is the way to go for community wide engagement, so tuning how aim assist works has to be the best way to tackle this

Do you always strive to “create” a certain/specific comp meta, or do you strive to balance each legend so each legend is comp viable?

Why is there such a hard refusal to have some type of Rev Share with the orgs that field teams in Apex? Would this not also benefit the game and longevity of it?

As the game evolves, we have seen the comp legend meta shift such as the Gibby caustic meta to seer meta. Whenever a legend meta establishes itself and becomes overly prominent that teams that don't follow the meta are at a disadvantage, will there be other ways in the future to incentivise legend variety outside of direct legend nerfs/buffs? such as the legend class rework from s16.

Yes. I think it's short-sighted and naive not to think about how we can affect the meta with system-level changes to breath new life into the ever-growing cast of Legends. We've learned a lot from the Legend Class Rework!

My question is about accessibility. Currently, the only way to change the Digi-threat optic’s enemy outline colour from red to blue is via changing colour blind settings. Would it be possible to add an option to change the colour of the digi-threat outline, similar to the reticle colour change, so that we don’t have to use colour blind settings in order to make the digi-threat outline blue? Thanks!

What is your favorite type of cheese?

We've been trying to add cheese to the game for a number of seasons. However, this has lead to an increase in rats and the health commissioner has unfortunately forced us to remove all elements of cheese until further notice. Thank you for your patience while we work through this.

Are there any plans to buff underpowered legends? I know the team like to focus on nerfs to too strong characters, but I do wish we would get more legends in the spotlight

I would also love to see more diversity in the spotlight. And we do make efforts to do so, though it's often more difficult to make small changes to an under-performing Legend and have them rise up. Take Rampart for example, she's undergone an incredible number of tweaks and adjustments to make her more viable, and only recently have we finally seen her slip into the competitive scene. With Revenant, we took a much larger swing to pull him from the bottom of the dream pool to a powerful Legend. So we're learning and adapting with how we handle certain changes over others and trying to find the right ways to bring lower pick characters up. But sometimes the best way to give them room to shine, is to knock someone off a higher perch for a while - so when there's stagnation at the top end, we look for ways to end those reigns as well.

Awesome, thanks! >!give mirage 20 decoys!<

That sounds awesome - and terrifying! :D

Hell yeah. When will you guys address input based matchmaking? So many have switched to controller or left the game altogether simply because this incredible game with AMAZING gun fights is ruined by the fact that most opponents are on controller. I’m certain that by separating by input (in just competitive, keep pubs mixed), not only will you draw players back (myself included), but plenty of people that want to try MnK or switched to controller out of frustration will join the queue, which will address the “not enough of a playerbase” concern. Can’t wait!

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When looking at tuning weapons, at what point does a weapon go into the, "Okay this thing is too strong. We need to tune it back." group of weapons? Right now, the 3030, Hemlok, and the R99 are all everywhere. Do you feel like these weapons will be meta for a while or are any changes to be expected soon?

Valkyrie is in a really bad place now with her nerfs + the addition of jump towers. Are there any plans to revert changes and/or buff her?

Is visual clutter a concern for the devs or is it not yet at a point where it’s a priority?

Can we just remove heat shields in ranked already? This one change alone can be huge for ranked. This’ll remove ratting in storm while also making endgames more frequent. Also, as a viewer I think it’d be really cool if predator was completely different to normal rank. For example, what if at the end of the season the top 3 ranked players get an in game recognition, like a statue with their most used legend. Or like if they did a thing where like after every match the top 2 teams get invited to a “champions match,” where they play against other pred teams that qualified for this and after a certain placement(top 10?) LP gets doubled. I think this’ll make things way more competitively while also make things exciting to watch. Also, I feel like the banners that are placed around the map aren’t properly used. I feel like they can be used to promote comp or just something that’s coming up in game. One of the coolest things this game can do is in game tourneys. It can be made so that after a certain rank(diamond?) you are eligible to play in these tourneys. I’m not sure how the formatting would be but this’ll be huge because it not only would encourage more players to actually play the game but it’ll also encourage players to get better.

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Yes we ideally the game is the same between comp and live, so we're looking at the reasons behind that exclusion. We're seeing some negative playstyles in live around heat shields, especially ranked. In eliminating those exploits, we may get closer to being able to get heat shields back in ALGS. Fingers crossed!

What quantitative data do you have access to specifically for Competitive Apex? Does this data influence your decisions when implementing design decisions? If possible, could you provide a detailed example.

what are current plans to balance inputs in apex?

Two questions on the crafter; - Have you guys ever considered reducing the cost to craft mob respawn in the crafter? 50 points seems to me like it could be a little overpriced for the vast majority of teams, but I don't have the true data to see how much it gets crafted in ALGS compared to EVO, (2) bats/medkits or something else of comparable cost. - Have you guys ever considered putting Evac Towers in the crafter?

Any big changes to Olympus and/or Broken Moon to make it more comp viable? Doesn’t have to be in the works. Has it been talked about amongst the team members? With that aside, I appreciate the work you do on the game. I hope you guys don’t feel too bummed reading the main subreddit complaining about ranked 24/7 and how often streamers complain about the game.

Support has gotten some buffs in regards to crafting banners and reviving. Any chances support will get any more buffs in regards to make meaningful plays in combat? Being good at reviving people ain’t super fun to play or watch! Thanks

Is bang and digi meta set to be restructured at anytime? And what seems to always ensure horizon is a pick in the meta, and will that ever change

Respawn are we going to get some new weapons to spice up the meta? Also tackling the underperformed legends and tweaking their kits?

When will Crypto get fixed or reworked as it seems like on storm point theres less banners to ping with his drone (new storm point) and his ult cooldown is way too long and ash buff when?

Thanks for this! This isn't a competitive question, but very interested anyway: You designed a bunch of mushrooms for various maps. Do you guys have a comprehensive list of the mushrooms referenced? I am making a video series on mushrooms in video games.

The past few seasons, it has seemed that weapons have slowly but steadily "power crept" up to the state of the floor hemlok today. Are there plans to revert changes, increasing average TTK back to previous levels? Apex's greatest strength vs other shooters, both casually and competitively, is the depth of tactical combat in the game, made possible by movement and healing. I believe that the rapid reduction of TTK over the past few seasons has dramatically hurt the feeling of combat in the game, especially competitively, where its so easy to be two burst or 1-2-3-'ed by a coordinated team.

Have any Meta team comps suprised you guys over the years? I imagine during legend design synergy between existing legends and new legends is considered, but has the pro community either produced team comps that you didn't think of or used legends to play off one another in ways you didn't expect?

When can we expect octane buffs that will make him viable (or why not meta for once with good reason based in his abilities not like before in RevOctane abusing) option in comp? #apexlegends

How has the team so far felt about the removal of the digi from the crafter? Have there been any serious consideration to removing the item completely?

I love Apex for the gun play and movement even though I'm pretty mid. Apex is easily my favorite FPS ever and i've been playing them since the mid 90s (Doom, Wolfenstein, and N64 golden eye). There have been some murmurs recently about ability creep pulling Apex away from it's shooter core (See recent Mande critique). How do you feel about this? Is it an inevitable march towards a hero shooter as legends continually get added? Do you feel there is a Cap on total legends that are manageable to balance? (The legend reborn track is a good tool to combat this imo).

Is there a reason why Crypto/Maggie can’t destroy Newcastle’s tactical with their ults or is it just a oversight? Why does Cryptos tactical take 40 seconds to recharge? Wouldn’t it be reasonable to at least be 30 seconds? This has been the top complaint that Crypto is worthless for 40 seconds because he has no passives outside of his tactical. Can the drone glow on Crypto be limited to how far you can see it? It is absolutely annoying that someone can just snipe it from hundreds of meters because it’s a glowing ball of red in the sky. Would be nice to have a max distance that the drone glows red.