Many Pathfinder mains were bitterly disappointed to see their favorite robot receive such a severe nerf in the Apex Legends Season 5 update, but top streamer Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek believes it was the correct move as it will balance out his abilities with similar characters.
Shroud was one of the select few content creators to help Respawn in the development of Apex, and has returned to it for each new season to check out the changes. His fans and fans of Apex alike are always eager to hear the former professional CS:GO player give his verdict on the updates.
This time, there is no change more controversial than the Pathfinder nerf, which saw his tactical, Grappling Hook, given a hefty cooldown increase, significantly hampering his mobility.
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With this nerf, Pathfinder must wait a whopping 35 seconds before using his grappling hook again, an increase of 20 seconds over the previous 15s cooldown.
The ability is similar to Wraith’s Into the Void or Loba’s Burglar’s best friend, which both allow for quick escapes from trouble when in a gunfight.
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Pathfinder now in-line with other Legends
Shroud explains that this is likely the reason Respawn chose to nerf Pathfinder’s grapple, as it brings him more in-line with the cooldowns of other Legends.
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“I think it’s mainly because Loba and Wraith’s [cooldowns] are pretty high. They’re supposed to act the same, like you probably only get one of these [abilities] in a fight, but with Pathfinder you could get away with like two,” shroud explained during his May 13 Mixer stream.
Shroud argues that each legend should only be able to use their ‘escape’ ability once per fight, and having only a 15 second cooldown was allowing Pathfinder to use his grapple much more than once per fight.
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Compared to the other Legends with similar abilities, this was much stronger, and led to Pathfinder becoming arguably the best character to use in the game overall. His advanced movement was not only unrivaled by other Legends, but also was available more frequently.
Revenant was another character intended to have incredibly advanced movement when he was added to the game, but players soon found he was no match for Pathfinder.
Of course, as Shroud’s teammate notes, it’s possible for Respawn to make adjustments to the cooldown if it really is too long, and bring Pathy back up to speed.
