Massive changes are coming with Season 16 of Apex Legends.
Apex Legends is celebrating four years since its release and the devs are bringing in some anniversary cheer at the best time with Season 16: Revelry, which launches on Valentine's Day, February 14. And with the launch, the devs at Respawn have decided that instead of introducing a new legend into the mix, they will bring about many changes to the game.
While we did cover the changes briefly, both EA and Respawn have since released the patch notes that will be coming for Season 16: Revelry. With there being no expected time of release, based on Respawn's history of deploying patch updates, it usually happens at 10.00 am PST/1.00 PM EST.
Apex Legends Class System
Revelry will bring about an overhaul of the current legends class system as players know it. With 23 legends in its roster, they were then split into four different class systems, mainly Offensive, Defensive, Recon, and Support. Respawn has since decided to change it all up again, further dividing the legends into five different class systems, all with their exclusive perks now.
These new class systems are Assault, Skirmisher, Recon, Controller, and Support. Each reflects set in this way to reflect core playstyles for certain legends while having its strategic gameplay ability. And that's not the only change; Respawn has also brought in a new Legends Screen to reflect their new class system.
The new changes will showcase each legend in their respective class with their perks on top of their abilities. By reorganising it, Respawn is hoping that it will help players further identify with legends that they need for the team. This will also help new players adjust easier to the game and its new class system.
As for the new perks that come with the class system, each class will now have special abilities that will determine how their team composition will play out.
Assaults will live up to their name with special weapon supply bins as well as being able to carry more ammo. Skirmishers will be able able to spot incoming care packages and can even tell how long ago it was looted as well as what weapon it was.
Recon legends will be able to use the modified survey beacons to scan and reveal all enemy positions for a short period. Controller characters will now be able to use ring consoles to find out the next location. And Support will now be able to craft ally banners even after being timed out.
ASSAULT - COMBAT UTILITY & INITIATION
Legends:
- Bangalore, Ash, Fuse, Mad Maggie, Revenant
Perk:
- Access the Secret Compartment of Weapon Supply Bins
- Contains 4 "smart loot" attachments for you or your team's current loadout
- One loot slot is reserved for optics
- Chances for a magazine & hop ups are lower than for other gear
- If the secret compartment is opened while no one on your team has a weapon, a weapon will drop with 2 attachments for it
- Min. tier for all attachments is RARE
SKIRMISHER - COMBAT MOBILITY & ESCAPE
Legends:
- Wraith, Valkyrie, Octane, Horizon, Mirage, Pathfinder
Perk:
- Can spot incoming Care Packages to see the highest value contents in them
- Care Packages are revealed by looking at them for a few seconds
- They can be spotted in the air as they fall OR
- At their landing location, if within range
- Can also see when the item has been taken by another team (turns grey)
- Can ping map icons or in-world icons for team
- Care Packages are revealed by looking at them for a few seconds
RECON - ENEMY INTEL & TRACKING
Legends:
- Bloodhound, Crypto, Seer, Vantage
Perk:
- Can Use Modified Survey Beacons
- Reveal all enemy positions on the Map/Mini-Map for 30 seconds
- Enemies in pulse range are alerted to beacon use
CONTROLLER - AREA SETUP & CONTROL
Legends:
- Caustic, Wattson, Rampart, Catalyst
Perk:
- Use Ring Consoles to find the next Ring Location
SUPPORT - TEAM SURVIVAL & SUPPLY
Legends:
- Lifeline, Loba, Gibraltar, Newcastle
Perk:
- Craft ally banners (even if expired)
- Current Cost = 30 Crafting Materials
- Banner(s) can be recovered from the Crafter once crafting is complete
- A crafted Banner will contain all recoverable teammates
- Specific Blue Bins visibly located on the map will provide additional medical and survival items
Respawn also introduced plenty of nerfs and buffs to various legends. This includes some current meta favourites like Seer and Horizon while bringing some former top picks back into the fold.
As for the upcoming ranked split for season 16, the new ranked queue system will now rotate through all maps instead of one singular map. These maps will now rotate 24 hours per map with the maps being split between World's Edge, Storm Point, and Broken Moon.
Legend Patch Notes
Seer
- Passive - Heartbeat Sensor
- Audio from Seer’s passive is now more audible to enemy players
- Activation is now delayed to match raised animation of a weapon or unarmed
- Lock-On indication will now only show on the heartbeat cadence of the target
- Tactical - Focus of Attention
- No longer shows full body scan on scanned targets
- Ultimate: Exhibit
- No longer reveals on initiation
- Duration reduced from 30s to 25s
- Cooldown increased from 120s to 180s
Bloodhound
- Passive - Tracker
- White Ravens
- Ethereal White Ravens will now occasionally spawn near Bloodhound when no enemies are around.
- White Ravens can be interacted with or scanned to trigger them to fly towards the nearest enemy player
- The White Raven will leave a misty trail behind for Bloodhound to follow and will share this direction with their team on the map.
- Using a White Raven will recover 25% of the Tactical / Ultimate charge
- Scanning a White Raven will fully refund the Tactical Charge
- White Ravens
- Tactical - Eye of the Allfather
- Reduced full body scan time from 3s to 1s
- Diamond target on a scanned enemy is unchanged
- Ultimate - Beast of the Hunt
- No longer recharges or speeds up the cooldown rate of Bloodhound’s Tactical
- Will launch a White Raven that flies towards the nearest enemy
- Killing an enemy while in Beast of the Hunt will also trigger a White Raven
Mirage
- Passive - Now you see me…
- Mirage and his ally now remain cloaked after a revive for 3s
- Weapons remain stowed while cloaked
- Drawing your weapon will remove the cloaking effect early
- Mirage Clones
- Bamboozles are now only triggered by bullet fire and melee
- Enemies who are bamboozled now receive a notification on their screen
- Bamboozle icon marker now tracks the Bamboozled player’s movement
- Bamboozle icon marker duration increased from 2.5s to 3.5s
Pathfinder
- Passive - Insider Knowledge
- Pathfinder’s passive benefits are no longer gained by scanning Survey Beacons
- Pathfinder’s passive benefits (Ultimate charge and 10s Ultimate Cooldown reduction) are now gained by revealing Care Packages with the Skirmisher ability
- Ultimate - Zipline Gun
- Max Range increased by ~60%.
- Max Speed increased by 66%.
- Acceleration and exit speed adjustments.
- Targeting improvements, including updated visual and audio cues.
- Can no longer place the end station on OOB zones.
Wraith
- Ultimate - Dimensional Rift
- Max Portal Distance has been doubled (~76m to 152m)
- Portal Duration reduced from 60s to 45s
- Wraith now increases speed over time when creating longer portals
Horizon
- Tactical - Gravity Lift
- Increased weapon spread in Gravity Lift
- Increased vertical speed of Gravity Lift by 10%
Lifeline
- Passive - Combat Revive
- Reduced the slow penalty on Lifeline when initiating a revive
- Ultimate - Care Package
- Decreased the drop animation speed of Care Package from 14s to 8s
- Increased the deployment range of the Care Package
Weapon - Nemesis Assault Rifle
The new energy ammo class assault rifle is called The Nemesis. It's capable of firing four rounds per burst, and here's the neat part - with every consecutive burst, the rifle decreases in time to further increased its firing rate. This is due to its ramping burst delay that decreases the time between bursts to simulate a fully-automatic weapon.
Other guns have also been given some updates along with a new attachment for shotguns to bring them back into the meta. The care package, weapon crafter, and gold item rotations are also back with some interesting choices.
Patch Notes
Legendary Shotgun Bolt
- A new shotgun bolt rarity tier added to floor loot and crafters
- Gold Perk: Automatically reloads rounds while sliding. Activates while equipped or stowed.
Care Package Rotation
- Hemlok Burst AR enters the Care Package
- Rampage LMG returns to the floor
Weapon Crafting Rotation
- Longbow DMR enters the crafter
- Volt SMG enters the crafter
- G7 Scout returns to the floor
- C.A.R. SMG returns to the floor
Gold Weapon Rotation
- Nemesis, Rampage, PK, Wingman, R99
Anvil Receiver Hop-Up [R-301, Flatline]
- Removed from floor loot and crafting
Hammerpoint Rounds Hop-Up [Mozambique, P2020]
- Added to floor loot and crafting
- The rarity tier increased to Legendary
C.A.R. SMG
- Reduced base ammo capacity to 19 (was 20)
R-99
- Increased damage to 12 (was 11)
Assault Rifles
- Significantly reduced hipfire accuracy
R-301
- Reduced damage to 13 (was 14)
Hemlock Burst AR [Care Package]
- Damage increased to 23 (was 20)
- Headshot Multiplier increased to 1.8 (was 1.75)
- Improved recoil
- Integrated Boosted Loader Hop-Up
- Boosted Loader: Faster reloads at low ammo that overload the magazine with 9 extra rounds
Mastiff
- The spread pattern was adjusted to be tighter
- Added Tactical Stocks attachment to improve reload speed and handling
- Increased projectile size at close range
Peacekeeper
- Added Tactical Stocks attachment to improve reload speed and handling
- Increased projectile size at close range
EVA-8
- Increased projectile size at close range
Rampage LMG [Floor]
- Reverted to non-Care Package version
- Damage reduced to 26 (was 28 in Care Package)
- No longer auto-energizes when picking up
- Energy decays slower when not firing
Team Deathmatch
When Season 16: Revelry drops is also when Respawn will be introducing Team Deathmatch to Apex Legends. A much-requested mode amongst the community, the devs have finally answered a long-awaited call from the fans.
Team Deathmatch will put two teams of six against one another in a race to 30 kills first to win the round with two rounds winning the match. Players will be able to pick their legends and weapon loadouts, much like Control, and respawns will occur automatically after death.
Loadouts will shuffle in-between rounds while also being able to swap them around and your selected legend while waiting to respawn after death. Periodic airdrops will also be making an appearance throughout the map, which come loaded with a care package and gold-kitted weapons.
Mixtape
Following the first three weeks of the team deathmatch release, Respawn will be introducing Mixtape (Titanfall 2 fans will get it), a revolving playlist with permanent rotations of some of Apex Legends' most popular limited-time modes. This includes the fan-favourite Gun Run as well as Control and eventually, TDM.
Anniversary Collection Event
With this month also the fourth year of Apex Legends, Respawn is introducing the Anniversary Collection event with an all-new community content reward track and lots of celebrations happening in the game.
This also includes login rewards during the first two weeks of the season with the first week featuring Crypto unlocked with one Crypto thematic pack and the second week featuring an Ash unlocked with its own thematic pack. And with the introduction of Season 16: Revelry, every map rotation will have special decorations while also featuring a return of a fan favourite that the devs have said will be revealed closer to launch.
Firing Range
- Added options to customize your firing range experience
- Dummies can now strafe left and right! You control how fast they move, whether they should crouch, and their shield level.
- Dynamic stats appear any time you deal damage, letting you track your performance.
- Hit indicators help you keep track of spray patterns.
- Unlimited ammo means no more trips back to the gun racks to reload.
- This is the first of several rounds of updates to the firing range, so we will keep an eye on how the community uses the new tools.
Orientation Matches
New to the Outlands? Try the new Orientation Match system, meant to create an easy introduction where new players can get their bearings and learn the core mechanics of Apex Legends. To participate in Orientation matches you have to be a brand new player or party up with a new player to take out some bots before joining the regular matchmaking queue.
Quality of Life
- Added map rotation previews to the game mode selector in the lobby.
- Players can now be any team in Gun Run.
- Increased the odds of becoming Team Nessie in Gun Run.
- Team Nessie is now viewable for all teams.
- Added new indicator on HUD unit frames for the Ratings Leader in Control.
- Consumables now show a progress bar for teammates next to their unit frame on the HUD. Similar to reviving.
- Added damage to the scoreboard in Control.
- Increased the minimum distance between airdropped replicators and other airdrops.
- Map Features when accessing the Full Map now reflect currently selected Class Perk info. Additionally, the Hot Zone map feature description is removed from the Full Map while the Hot Zone is hidden from the map.
- When in Firing Range, players now regain full health and shields when they reselect their legend in the legend select menu.
- Added ability to ping for an optic even if the optic attachment slot is filled.
- Slightly increased audio for enemies attaching, riding, and detaching from Ziprails.
- Adding Credits to Items inspired and designed by Creators.
Bug Fixes
- Fix for Crypto’s drone reticle not being centred when on 16:10 resolutions.
- Fix for players not being able to emote if they were dead during the champion sequence.
- [Control] Fixed an issue where the MRB disappears if the player holding it leaves the match.
- Various UI bugs and improvements to the private match flow.
- Various bug fixes to some cosmetic items.
- Fix the weapon camera in the Loadouts tab not resetting to the correct position when exiting a weapon from the Charms subtab.
- Fix for footer buttons in the seasonal quest not being clickable.
- Fix for the players' crosshairs being present sometimes during the champion sequence.
- The hide hints option no longer hides the waving person icon on items your teammates can use.
- Fixed a bug where if a team was empty in Gun Run the HUD would display incorrect information.
- [Emotes] fix for emotes camera sometimes passing through walls.
- Removed exploit that allowed players to remain out of bounds longer than intended.
- [Seer]Fixed an issue where Seer’s ultimate could be crushed by swinging doors.
- [Seer]Fixed an issue where Seer’s ultimate and Crypto’s drones would block large sliding doors.
- [Seer] Fix for cases where Seer would have issues scanning Crypto.
- [Seer] Fix for when Seer's passive heartbeat sensor works through Catalyst's ult when placed on uneven surfaces.
- [Seer] Fix for cases here Seer’s tactical can get users stuck if used when they are crafting.
- [Valkyrie] Fixed bug where her animation warps in the in-flight meal emote.
- [Newcastle] Fixed bug where the Ultimate is not refunded/is not placed if a user is getting hit with Seer Tactical right when using it.
- [Crypto] Fixed an issue where Crypto’s drone would be destroyed when he’s knocked but not eliminated.
- [Crypto] Fix for bug where Crypto’s Drone scanning can block Catalyst from reinforcing doors.
- [Crypto] Fix for cases where his Ultimate stops from deploying if Crypto gets downed
- [Catalyst] Fixed bug where their Tactical makes it difficult to interact with ziplines, death boxes, and loot bins.
- Fixed bug where the player is unable to use melee attacks through Catalyst's Ultimate.
- Fixed an issue where players could be stuck after being hit by Seer’s tactical while using a crafting station.
- Fixed an issue where Seer’s movement speed would be higher when in ADS while unarmed with the heartbeat sensor disabled.
- Fixed an issue where Crypto would not be scanned by Seer’s tactical while he was piloting his drone and the drone was not also hit by the tactical.
- [Vantage] Reduce the number of accidental tactical activations on controller when pulling out or putting away the ultimate with both bumpers.
- [Vantage] Increase visibility of Sniper's mark by adding an on-screen prompt, similar to scans.
- [Vantage] Using tactical in areas blocked by geo, can result in the player getting launched into the air
- Fixed an issue where when Newcastle’s Ultimate was interrupted it would not correctly refund his Ultimate.
- Fixed an issue where Newcastle would continue to target allies while phased with his Ultimate.
- Fixed a rare issue where Newcastle’s tactical could get hung in the air and not deploy
- Fixed an issue with the Black Hole that allowed it to pull players through walls and around corners incorrectly.
- Fixed an issue where swapping legends in Firing Range would crash if bleeding out as Revenant.
- Fixed an issue where swapping legends in Firing Range while in Crypto’s drone would crash.
- Fixed an issue where Newcastle’s ultimate could fail to deploy on landing.
- Fixed an issue where a spectator swapping between two players being healed by DOC would crash the spectator.
- [Lifeline] Fixed ultimate cooldown that appears to need a 101% charge.
- Fixed an issue where the Ultimate is ready-prompt could appear while the player is still skydiving.
- Fixed bug where the previous Season rank is being shown on enemy gladiator cards.
- Reduced accidental launches on controller.
- [DX12] Fixed missing error popup on launch for unsupported hardware.
- [DX12] Fixed an issue where some emissive textures would not appear in third-person.
