Wall Hack Meta - thoughts and discussion

The Respawn balancing/gameplay team needs to take a long look at how they’ve gotten the game to the point it is at and determine where they want the game to go in the future. If they want this game to become Wall Hack Legends, that is a fair thing for them to do, but I reckon they will lose a substantial portion of their player base right when Apex seems to be popping off compared to other BRs. Honestly, I’m not sure if the game is already too far gone in the direction of wallhacks to reverse anything, but I’d like to think they can still fix this game and move things in a more healthy direction.

Having legend abilities that give real-time wall hacks is such a detriment to this game. It’s my opinion that all scanning abilities with real-time wall hacks should be removed from the game, with one exception. My reasoning is that real-time wall hacks are inherently broken - there is a reason that cheaters use wallhacks. If you are wall hacked, you are not able to peek any angles without being shot, the enemy will always have the first shot on you as you round a corner, and you are not able to reposition during a fight. The best things you can do are 1) sit tight, allowing the enemy team to reposition to gain a greater positional advantage on your squad, or 2) run away, giving up your position and potentially running into another squad that also has wallhacks. As of this point in time in Apex, I believe we have 4 legends that give real-time wall hacks - Bloodhound, Seer, Crypto, and Fuse.

Below are my takes on legend balancing. They may not all be perfect, but I think real-time wall hacks need to be removed from this game with the exception of Crypto.

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Bloodhound

Let’s start with bloodhound since they’re the legend that started this whole mess.

Tactical

1. Remove real-time wallhacks and instead provide a snapshot of enemy locations like it was previously.

2. Reduce cooldown by 5 seconds.

Notes - Knowing where all three players are on an enemy squad is more than enough information for how you should approach the fight. Giving wallhacks to Bloodhound’s tactical is OP. It should be used for informational purposes only to see where enemies are located at a certain point in time without being stifling to enemy movement.

Ultimate

1. Increase time between scans to 8 seconds.

2. If bloodhound runs across certain enemy markers such as the “enemy passes through here” marker, the duration of the ultimate is increased by 1 second for each marker.

Notes - These changes give bloodhound the ability to track down that last person in a squad that is running away from a fight (sort of like how a real-life bloodhound dog can track down prey), but only if they are using the ult. It does not give them the ability to run away from a fight any better than they currently can.

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Seer

Next up is Seer, the character who actually exposed the issues with wallhacks to a majority of the player base.

Passive

1. When activated, a snapshot of Seer is available for all enemies to see. Alternatively, provide an audio cue or some sort of visual cue so that you know the general direction of where Seer is using the ability from.

2. The heartbeat sensor can only be active for 5 seconds before being shut off.

3. His passive is no longer available when aiming down sights, and is instead only activated while he is using his tactical.

4. If the tactical is canceled by drawing your weapon, it goes into a cool down that is half as long as when he actually uses his tactical.

5. Enemies who are crouched and not moving do not show up on the heartbeat sensor. Enemies who are crouched and popping meds/shields are still revealed.

Notes - These changes should prevent Seer players from constantly spamming the heartbeat sensor to check an area for players since their location is also exposed. The passive ability will be used more in conjunction with his tactical instead of a stand-alone ability that lets you know where enemies are at any given time. Additionally, seeing/hearing when Seer activated his passive will allow enemy players a choice on how they want to handle his incoming tactical since they know it’s coming (see below for tactical ability adjustments). Lastly, being immune from the heartbeat sensor while crouched and unmoving does two things - 1) If Seer or a teammate gets a crack on an enemy shield, and the enemy crouches and stays still to avoid being detected by his tactical, this increases the skill ceiling for Seer players to actually land the tactical to give out the de-buff while also giving the enemy player a risk vs. reward option of not healing but also not being de-buffed, and 2) ratting once again becomes viable if your teammates die.

Tactical

1. Remove damage.

2. Provide a snapshot of enemies and their health rather than real-time wallhacks.

3. Increase “cast” time by 0.5 seconds.

4. Prevent running while using the tactical.

5. Instead of canceling all heals/revives, make it a temporary 5-10 second de-buff where all heals/revives take 2x longer to execute.

Notes - These changes, along with the changes to the passive, should make the tactical more of a tool to use against enemies that are low on health rather than an all-powerful wall hack and heal-stopping ability while still maintaining a large portion of the design intent behind the legend. The 0.5 extra seconds should allow enemies that are not healing or reviving the time needed to dodge the micro drone tunnel to prevent themselves from being scanned and de-buffed.

Ultimate

1. Allow walking without having your position revealed.

2. Instead of real-time tracks, instead, provide a snapshot of a footprint that refreshes every 5 seconds if the enemy sprints.

Notes - these changes should again maintain a large portion of the design intent of the legend without completely stifling enemy movement and allowing you to get the first shot off on an enemy that rounds a corner.

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Fuse

Next up is Fuse. All around not the greatest legend in Apex even with the ring of fire wallhacks, but the wallhacks need to go. It seems like Respawn gave him wallhacks on his ult as an easy buff to him because he is so underwhelming. That in itself is a red flag for balancing - legend not performing well? Let’s give him wallhacks. I’m not sure what to do with Fuse since I don’t really play him, but definitely remove wall hacks from his ult while revamping his kit to be more useful. Just don’t be lazy and give underperforming characters wallhacks, Respawn.

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Crypto

The last legend with wallhacks is Crypto, and I think he is perfectly balanced as is even with the real-time wallhacks. The reasoning behind this is that, if you are being scanned, you know the drone has a line of sight on you and therefore you have a line of sight on the drone. You can destroy the drone, which leaves Crypto as a legend without any abilities whatsoever until his drone is back online.

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What are your thoughts on all of this?