The Reality Behind Apex Legends’ Revenant Rework

Apex Legends, like all live-service titles, is not any stranger to balancing updates. Weapons and playable characters alike endure acute surges and declines based mostly on a number of elements, with essentially the most prevalent being participant conduct. Years in the past, Pathfinder reigned supreme throughout informal and aggressive matches; his grapple hook-centric mobility and inconsistent hitbox made him an unequalled duelist till his capacity cooldowns and physique have been tweaked. Equally, the Prowler SMG as soon as rivaled its gentle ammo counterparts earlier than the Selectfire Receiver – a legendary hop-up that transformed the weapon’s burstfire to automated – was faraway from the loot pool. These modifications, along with many others, morphed the meta in important methods, however one explicit replace trumped the remainder: Revenant’s rework.

The nefarious simulacrum (robots based mostly on people) was first launched in Season 4: Assimilation, and regardless of capturing the fascination of lore lovers and aggression-focused gamers, his unremarkable decide fee left quite a bit to be desired. Revenant’s unique package made him a stealthy murderer: a “Stalker” passive that accelerated crouch stroll pace/prolonged climbing peak all whereas silencing his toes, a “Silence” tactical capacity that, when flung at unsuspecting adversaries, dealt injury and disabled enemies for a number of seconds, and a “Dying Totem” final which prevented dying or incapacitation by sending injured customers again to the Totem’s location with 50HP as a substitute. Regardless of these attention-grabbing expertise, Revenant by no means reached the identical recognition heights as different Skirmisher legends.

Apex Legends Season 18 Trailer:

Apex Legends design director Devan McGuire advised me Revenant’s second coming (or “Rebirth,” as some name it) that launched within the aptly named Season 18: Resurrection was applied to fulfill the core fantasy of the character and carve an area within the meta for him. Merely put, he wanted stronger, extra viable skills.

“You performed Revenant, sat again, and lobbed shadow balls [or Silence] at folks and hoped you hit somebody across the nook to possibly make a push on them,” McGuire started. “However even should you did, you had no concept what sort of individual received affected by it, what the Silence did, and whether or not or not it was nonetheless protected to push. And should you wished to make use of your final, you needed to coordinate along with your workforce and ensure everybody grouped as much as make an efficient push. It wasn’t the healthiest factor for the sport; we had an Octane-Revenant meta that confirmed us the risks of that. So, we checked out it from the bottom up and went after a hyper-aggressive/very egocentric playstyle and tried to make Revenant match the sport in the way in which he was meant to. Having that payoff is so rewarding/encouraging after we look again at older legends who’ve fallen behind or possibly by no means hit the mark. Not saying that we’ll be doing numerous that sooner or later, however we’ll search for these sorts of alternatives once more as a result of they will breathe new life into a personality who has sat by the wayside.”

In response to Esports Illustrated, after the rework, Revenant grew to become essentially the most chosen legend within the sport, his decide fee rising by a whopping 98 %! After all, the enjoyable narrative beats that accompanied S18 helped the character attraction to a broader viewers. However his new skills have been nothing to scoff at both. Nowadays, the Revenant we all know and love can “Shadow Pounce,” or leap a most of 50m, to ambush low-health enemies highlighted with the “Murderer’s Intuition” passive. And his new final, “Solid Shadows,” creates a 75HP shroud that blocks injury and slowly regenerates over time. Fortunately (or dreadfully?), Revenant resides as much as his namesake; the man’s a bonafide predator who can provoke and win fights in addition to any legend within the frontier.