Improved Class System in Apex Legends for Season 16
Since the beginning of Apex Legends, there have been 4 classes: Offensive, Defensive, Recon and Support. Although being very suitable at the start of the game when there was the base 8 legends, it does not apply very well to the game's current state.
First of all, there are 9 offensive legends in comparison to the limited 2 support legends. Secondly, many of the classes have deviated from their class descriptions with pathfinder becoming a recon legend despite not having any scan abilities and instead having movement/scouting abilities which many offensive legends have. The offensive class, itself has legends like Fuse and Mad Maggie that are very disruptive and destructive in their abilities, whilst other offensive legends like Wraith and Octane reposition the squad and themselves in and out of fights. Having very different play styles in the same class becomes very confusing.
With the addition of starting to add more support legends, I think there should be a new class entirely to split up the offensive class into its two main playstyles.
Referring to the image attached, the previous offensive legends 'Fuse', 'Bangalore', 'Revenant' and 'Mad Maggie' have moved to a new class named the 'Ambush Class' that is indicated by a fire icon rather than the normal offence icon. These legends are based on disruptive and destructive abilities and play styles. My friend has also pointed out that these legends are often referred to as "Offensive/Defensive" or "Hybrid" legends, which further reinstates their need for their own class.
Additionally, the other offensive legends (using the old icon) are all legends that have some repositioning and/or movement ability and so are in the new Mobility Class. These include 'Wraith', 'Octane', 'Horizon' and 'Ash' as well as two previous recon legends 'Pathfinder' and 'Valkyrie'. With Pathfinder not having any recon abilities and so many movement abilities, it makes sense for him to be in the Mobility Class. Despite Valkyrie having a scan ability using her ultimate, she has a jetpack and can reposition her whole squad easily. I think the scans that come with Valkyrie's ultimate and Horizon's ultimate should be removed since these legends as shown in the ALGS are very useful and don't need additional scan abilities. Hopefully with the distribution of these legends into non-scan categories (with the removal/rework of the scans) it could slightly reduce the scan meta of the game too whilst keeping the offensive legends offensive instead of recon and the previous recon legends (Valkyrie and Pathfinder) that should have been in the offensive class, even more offensive. With this, Valkyrie and Pathfinder will no longer be able to scan survey beacons which sadly means Pathfinder's original survey beacon passive has not only been copied but now completely stolen from him ☹️ but not to worry as I'm assuming he would be given a powerful offence-based passive to reinstate his power. Now the recon class should represent the actual scan legends 'Seer', 'Bloodhound', 'Crypto' and 'Vantage' - despite having less scan utility she is a very useful surveillance character and hopefully with some buffs, she can provide more scan info.
The defensive class although no changes have been made may need looking at in the future since there are two separate defensive legend playstyles: Trap-based (Caustic, Wattson and Catalyst) and Cover-based (Gibraltar, Rampart and Newcastle) so the class could be separated to account for this though I think the defensive class is in a good spot right now. Common ideas include to move legends like Wattson and Gibraltar over to the support class due to their healing and revive potential. This is where people misunderstand the point of these supportive abilities. Wattson's ultimate although able to heal the squad, accompanied by destroying grenades, is meant to help the team defend in an area. Gibraltar with his dome tactical can revive easier too. But both of these supportive abilities are a result from a defensive playstyle and not supportive based abilities, which is what people commonly mix up. Additionally, Caustic is often seen as being very underwhelming in low skill games, however is heavily used in High skill games such as the ALGS. This could be a future motif the developers could explore with legends that are only viable in High skill play such as Seer, Mad Maggie, Newcastle, Caustic, Wattson etc. Though right now, I believe the defence class is currently in a very good state.
One last change I did make was with the one offensive legend not mentioned - Mirage. Being a very unique legend with the act of deceiving the enemy, he is very confusing and great against newer players but easily detectable against pro players, which has been a continuing issue for mirage. Therefore, he could go into his own class outright with Rhapsody from Apex Legends Mobile but instead, I think he could be reworked to be even more supportive than just his cloak revive. Examples include his ultimate temporarily cloaking nearby teammates for a few seconds or his tactical being controllable by teammates that mimic their legend. When the decoy is shot, it should heal the mimicked person or give them an ability buff similar to when Bloodhound activates his ultimate and gets a reduced tactical charge time. These few ideas are just some of many that the community have suggested making mirage more of a staple in the game to be a support legend alongside Loba and Lifeline and I think these changes should be added coinciding with the class changes.
With the balancing of the legends to be more accurate to the classes there cpuld be the introduction of class passives that have been conceptualised and teased for a while. Here is my take on the abilities:
• Recon: Scan survey beacons to reveal the next rings location. Pings all players on the map briefly
• Support: Open secret compartments in lootbins and carepacks. Spawn with ultimate
• Defense: Take 15% less damage from enemies. Immune to slow effects from weapon fire
• Mobility: Gather speed from climbing and sliding. Skydive further and faster.
• Ambush: Getting a kill rewards a tactical charge. Briefly scan enemies damaged by abilities
Last few notes, I hope Respawn and EA make the right choice in not making the class system too complicated for newer players by adding too many classes but also not descriptive enough as with the current system.
Here is a table showcasing the changes discussed:
