Crypto Changes- Early Thoughts & Feedback

I almost entirely agree with this post.

If the goal was to keep Crypto out of the drone and in the fight, then the devs succeeded, but in the worst possible way. He’s in the fight now because there’s little else he can do. So why pick Crypto at all? Apex has plenty of Legends for different strategies and playstyles, but it’s unclear what Crypto is supposed to be now.

And who is this update for? Casual and new players? If so, he’s now even less appealing to them than before. To me, Crypto has always been hard to learn and hard to master, and now he’s clunky on top of that.

The buffs

1. Instant EMP with the drone stowed. What problem does this solve? I doubt it helps anyone who actually mains Crypto. Pressing two buttons is hardly the hardest combo in the game, let alone its hardest mechanic.
2. Enemy marking. At first glance this looks like a cool new mechanic, but Sparrow, Vantage and Mirage can already mark enemies. Why give it to Crypto as well? Still, this is the one change I’d call more or less useful.
3. Speed boost moved from Upgrade to Passive. This could have been a real buff if the boost hadn’t been made significantly weaker, and the new Upgrade doesn’t make up for it. As the author pointed out, this boost was crucial for a Crypto without his drone. It let him get back to his team after trips to scanners and EVO caches.
4. More EMP damage when the drone sees the enemy. Fine, this one has real weight. If the drone can see an enemy, the enemy can shoot it down, so there’s both risk and reward.

The nerfs

I think the author covered these thoroughly. I’d only add that I do understand the idea behind the battery. Crypto was very strong in macro play, with his drone constantly hanging in the sky or covering blind spots.

Upgrades

At the blue Upgrade level, we used to choose between a useless perk and an extremely important one, the movement speed boost. So why not replace the useless “+25% to who-knows-what” perk with the new one instead? Players would then get a real choice between movement and the new Upgrade, just like the devs did with the purple Upgrades.

Technical issues

• Unreliable drone entry. Entering the drone often feels unreliable, as if I can’t be sure it will work and won’t get cancelled by my other inputs.
• Control during recall. You can still control the drone during recall with a certain input combo, much like the old trick of healing while entering the drone.
• Windows. The drone can’t see through windows at all, not even open ones, which is frankly ridiculous. Either this is a bug or it’s an absolutely massive debuff.
  EMP self-damage. Crypto’s Ultimate still damages Crypto himself sometimes, even though the patch notes say it no longer should.

Overall

Any one of these nerfs from author would be enough to outweigh the questionable “buffs”, and here we get a whole pack of them at once.