Season 9 - My personal thoughts on it
Well, I have played all day. Almost all day. 1pm I started, it's now 2 am... What do I have to say about Season 9? Quite a bit. It's a bit longer so I hope you brew a cuppa, got your Newt cleaning because you're in for some reading.
Season 9 - With a stuttery start
Needless to say, Season 9 started... questionably. At first I couldn't finish my download, then I thought I lost all my progress, then I had some weird bugs going on in-game... It was a very unprepared start. Not too much of a big deal but frankly it shouldn't have happened.
3 vs 3 Arena - A nice but flawed addition
Truth be told, I have been somewhat neutral about the Arena. I wasn't really excited for it, nor did I dislike the idea. Now that Arena has made it's way into the game, I do have to say it's a neat concept with a flawed execution. I have been doing a couple of rounds today and aside from occasionally finding myself in matches in which one side has missing team members, it has been less action filled than what I expected.
A big downside of this mode is how much time you actually spend playing it versus the time you take to select a character, buy your weapons, wait for a round to start and finding your enemies. And the time waiting and searching is overpowering the time actually fighting. And since it's a typical Deathmatch based on rounds paired with the given mobility we have noways, and the TTK of most weapons, the game mode loses quite a big appeal.
In my opinion, the mode would have been better off if we instead used a point-based game mode. So instead of having rounds, we would have a goal to reach as example 25 kills before the round is won. Paired with 'immediate' respawns, proper anti-camp methods and Crafting material gain on a passive basis, this mode could actually be super fun. Those are just my thoughts though.
Bocek - Great style, terrible balance
The Bocek is a great addition to the weapon pool of Apex Legends. I have always enjoyed Bows in games, especially in games in which they combine future tech with old styles. And even if there is the popular opinion that this weapon doesn't fit into the game, I still believe it earned it's place. It however comes with balancing issues.
The weapon has a lot of damage. Pairing good aiming with perfectly timed shots and a bit of good positioning, I was able to solo 3-man squads without an issue, multiple times a match, delivering headshot after headshot. That actually comes from - based on testing - a rather large projectile hitbox. Yes, I'm serious. Weapons that would have usually missed in a scenario because the bullet would have flown past the head, the bow has made a critical headshot. I wanted to reproduce it on the firing range, but the results were rather different.
It also fires very fast. It deals a lot of damage, fires rather fast, is a quiet weapon and has a lot of projectile speed. I would at least nerf one of these factors. And in my opinion, I would like to reference to my own posted idea for that matter.
Valkyrie - Another addition to the meta
So, I didn't want to be negative about this legend. But I have to be honest and put my thoughts on the table: Valkyrie is yet another top-choice.
Don't get me wrong. She's a wonderful legend with a cool style, a nice ability set and actually nice backstory. What has kinda diminished my view on the legend is that she's part of what I would call the hidden meta. She is very mobile and very versatile, which makes her a great getaway legend while also being a great chaser legend. But that's exactly the problem. More and more legends who rely on either a more stationary theme or being not as mobile as Octane/Bangalore/Pathfinder/Valkyrie/Wraith/Horizon are falling behind for lacking what nowadays legends need: Mobility.
You can clearly feel a difference. Using Valkyrie or any fast legend will yield better results when chasing/running away than other legends. In a game about survival, this is a critical advantage. I used Crypto for a while in BR mode, and saw myself shredded a lot of times without a chance to get away because I had a flying girl behind me. Using Valkyrie, I made some escapes that would have been impossible without her. Hell, I even saved myself one time because I flew on a roof. I had time to pop a phoenix kit and once the people arrived, I gunned them down with full shield and health.
My thoughts: Mobility seriously needs to be nerfed, or other legends need a buff. Almost all squads I encountered had the 5 legends named 2 paragraphs above. (Octane/Bangalore/Pathfinder/Valkyrie/Wraith/Horizon)
Balancing - What balance?
Needless to say, this season is going to be yet another cluster of meta-hell. PK is out of the Care Package, we now have a new bow that shreds, we still have the NeverStop™ Spitfire which feels like it has infinite ammo... And weapons like the 30-30 Repeater, the Mozambique, the P2020 or RE-45... Yeah... No one uses them. And truth be told: I actually love the RE-45. It's a neat weapon and a lovely feeling pistol. Sadly, it's viability is lacking severely, and you won't stand a chance against NeverStop™ Spitfire.
I feel like every season has an intentional meta shift. And this season isn't going to look great either.
The Legends I cannot speak much about. The Lifeline change seems nice though, you can get gold equipment which is really great. Loba actually can move now and isn't psionically limited by her bracelet's terrible curse. So that's nice.
Overall - Yeah, it's alright
Not the best season, not the worst either. I wish they would have adjusted Olympus a bit more, like removing the unnecessary and distracting particle effects and stuff like that. But I guess we can't have everything.
Regards - Me
