Apex is aiming + movement and nothing more
The above is a quote from someone in a fairly recent thread, and it definitely got me thinking. I disagreed on the spot and said so, although I certainly can understand what the poster was trying to ...
Forum Discussion
This graph makes it easy to see where Respawn messed up the game.
Over the last 4 years, the balance of this game has never been more messed up than it is now. The dominance of one character (and in the meta three that we know well) is crushing.
Until Ash gets a major nerf to his dash (I still think this rework is the biggest mistake they've made and the previous form of this character, which was already very good, should be brought back) this problem will NEVER go away.
Ash/Ballistic/Alter combined together (especially Ash+Ballistic) gives such firepower and a huge advantage over other teams that it looks a bit like you're playing against cheaters (if you're playing a legend outside the meta). Is the game really supposed to make you have a new main every 3 months? There's been NO counter to these three legends for 3-4 months, and now Sparrow has joined, who is a wallhacker and has a powerful ult.
The most healthy balance of this game was 2023 and partly 2022/2024. I would just like to remind you that back then we had a much larger player base before the growing problem with cheaters (since Destroyer2009 took over ALGS). Since then, despite propaganda information from Respawn, it's only gotten worse. A wallhack forced into the game is not a solution for many legends. It's clear that they themselves don't know how to counteract it, not to mention devices that reduce weapon recoil on controllers and various types of cfg files for MnK players.
Not to mention how broken crossplay is and console players entering PC lobbies while maintaining AA. With all that, this is the least of my problems. I share the opinion of many people that "You don't have skill, you just have aim assist".
I don't mind adding something fresh to the game, but maintaining the overall balance.
Here the developers either don't care or don't know what they're doing, because they've been destroying the game for over a year.
Why can't we fix/enhance what's bad/too weak to improve the overall balance? Why did Respawn choose to make 5-10% powerful legends, 20% good/just playable and 70% useless? What the hell is that supposed to be?
I wonder what Respawn will give us in the second split of this season. If the balance problem is not solved - it will be "interesting". There have been a lot of great people who have left this game and there will be more to come. I am very sad about the direction Respawn has taken with this game. The game is great but the management team is terrible.
I would agree to the part about most legends becoming redundant with those few exceptions of people playing their mains / aiming to have top1 stats per certain legend in the world.
But I do understand that this is caused because majority asks for "more content" and eventually you just can't balance 27 different type of legends in one game. I guess they are planning to go "superhero" mode eventually on all of them - probably in Apex 2 - which might actually work.
Also don't forget that people are lazy, they actually might want to grind same legend over and over again vs learning 27 different ones WHILE others would not do the same - but with meta they actually do which creates this issue of kinda meta change = more content -> things going stale because everyone does the same.
For me only really broken meta was support 3 stack - you were just unable to do enough damage most of the time as not-3stack vs such teams.
Also Seer was just impossible to counter in its first release version where you screen just light up, shook like crazy and there were so many animations that fps dropped and you could not see where enemies are.
Rest is actually doable. E.g. now I don't have issues countering current meta, yes it is annoying when people whom you knock take Alter portal and reset or when someone just bluntly runs into your face with devotion or G7 and hipefire you to death. But as said above I would say that is more of AA / hipfire being too accurate issue + people unable to coordinate well.
Otherwise I can easily counter those pushes most of the time. Biggest issue is coordination and damage output when I soloq. What I mean:
- it is much easier for enemy team to coordinate a push e.g. Ballistic ULT, everyone is empowered to "w" into enemies, Ash player automatically uses dash(es) = automatically team is better coordinated, works toward the same goal
- more often than not team that is "defending" is out of position (that motivates Ballistic to ult and push), not coordinated, panics, creates 2v3 or worse 1v2/3 situations where it goes down hill fast
- most people don't get it / can't pull off "focusing" one of the enemies during the game that would lead to insta-knocking the person on the enemy team which in turn 99% of a time introduces doubt factor for enemy team and in many cases stops their push
- you can easily "avoid" fights e.g. you see Ballistic ult -> take your alter portal to safety or use any other form of retreat to limit time you fight vs Ballistic ult. But most do not do that, they want "fame" and try to fight vs enemies in their strongest position (under ult / better positioning / better coordinated)
And the list goes on.
Plus people are quite dumb in this game (sorry but I really mean that):
1. they think that playing meta gives them superpower just by picking legends while ignoring aspect of "can you actually play meta well"
2. they will pick based on "what works best for me" vs "what is more beneficial for the team". Typical example of latter is that most in soloq pick movement legends as they know that fights sooner or later will go bad fast and you will have to run away from the enemy chasing you
I e.g. always pay attention to:
- what players have picked or about to pick (icons around legends with player numbers highlighted during pick phase)
- I try to pick legends that create synergy e.g. at least one support per team, one movement legends, one scanner etc.
- play accordingly in the game - if I see that my teammates are just super aggressive, I just play on defensive / support side knowing that they will get most KP / damage and brag about but I still take it and overall better result vs just dying together pushing everything
But I can do above said because I have IQ over average in Apex for sure + I have played all legends for significant amount of time to be able to know how to use them all to at least average degree.
To sum up: meta = easiest way to win IF you know the basics / execute them well.
For the rest "meta" is just a buzz word same as "toxic, cringe, lol etc." = words that has no place or meaning or clear definition in this game but people keep using just to "look cool".
Most players in soloq / ranked are just bad and them not picking meta / playing vs meta just makes them worse, make better coordinated enemy teams with meta legends, weapons to win games more easily.
But as I said before - if current D4 players would just use comms and switch to "team first" mentality, most would easily reach D2/Masters just because of that not because of meta. Meta is like using doping in elite level where you battle for top 1% not like in Apex where D4+ take now like top 10% of the pool :) you don't need doping for top 10% :)
In short I'll just say this - the support meta was awful, but the Ash meta killed this game. There is no counter to this character.
Best regards.
