An Apex Legends dev has revealed why Legend buffs & nerfs are so infrequent despite the community’s constant calls for rebalancing.
As of Apex Legends Season 14, there are 22 separate characters total that make up the game’s roster in the Outlands.
Each of these Legends has a unique kit and serves a different purpose to their squad, which makes balancing them extremely difficult for Respawn.
While the devs do roll out reworks, buffs, & nerfs during seasonal updates and Collection Events, they’re incredibly infrequent. This can frustrate players who believe specific characters need tuning immediately.
Well, one dev has addressed the question head-on in a Reddit AMA and revealed why buffs & nerfs take so long to roll out.
Why is Legend rebalancing so infrequent in Apex Legends?
During a recent Reddit AMA on Legends & weapons in Apex Legends, user TheBriskets took the time to ask why Legend rebalancing happens so infrequently.
In response, Lead Game Designer Devan McGuire revealed as Apex is a live service game, “developers have to prioritize their work efforts between feature development… and balance changes to the existing game”.
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Reworks and major kit changes can require “rewriting abilities or pulling in new animations, visual effects or audio” which all must be completed alongside upcoming seasonal content.
Finally, McGuire explained that before any balance changes are rolled out, they have to be tested for “bugs and to validate that the impact of that change actually works to solve the problem, and doesn’t create new ones.”
It’s clear that Respawn treats buffs & nerfs extremely seriously and avoids rushing out changes before they’ve evaluated the potential consequences.
While this answer will likely frustrate those who want to see more buffs & nerfs to Legends, it does give the community an insight into the problems developers face, and the deadlines they need to hit.
Fingers crossed we see more of these AMAs in the future, as they give players a chance to learn about the future of Apex and the thought process of a dev.
