The Season 14 change to the Wingman saw it jump from Heavy Ammo to Sniper Ammo, and now at the halfway point, the developers have offered up some insight into how it has affected the weapon.
There are few weapons that have matched the Wingman’s longevity in Apex Legends. It has always been an elite force in the hands of capable players, and when a gun succeeds that consistently, it usually means it’s in prime position for a nerf.
However, considering the single shot hand cannon is one of the harder weapons to use effectively, when it came to make a change the devs didn’t want to completely ruin the high-risk, high-reward that comes with picking it up in the first place.
This has led them to change its ammo type, with the hope of making teams either risk running out of bullets or be forced to give up a lot of utility they would otherwise be free to carry. Now that this strategy has been in effect for most of a season, here’s what one dev had to say about it.
Apex Legends dev speaks on the decision to change Wingman to Sniper Ammo
Senior Game Designer Eric Canavese took part in a Reddit AMA in which he and another dev answered questions from the community. When one fan asked if the team was pleased with the end result of making a change to the beloved weapon, the dev declared it a complete success.
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“The Wingman is incredibly lethal in the right hands and the sniper ammo changes have allowed it to keep its lethality but tamp down how easy it can be run,” he said. “We’re really happy with the ammo economy this season and the Wingman feels like it’s in a healthy spot.”
He also touched on how the Respawn team believes these changes steepened the risk of using the weapon without effecting the reward, which is an idea that the team has stressed in other balancing updates before.
Between keeping the high damage of this game’s iconic Desert Eagle-esque pistol and their philosophy around promoting new movement techniques that pop up from time to time, it’s clear that the devs want Apex Legends to be a game that rewards skill – and they believe that this change is a good example of that.
