Apex LegendsSeason 5 is finally here, and normally this would be cause for celebration. Unfortunately forfans of Pathfinder, that will not be the case this time. The legend was hit with a massive nerf that undermines the character’s main focus to the point where many are saying he may as well have been removed from the game.
For those unaware,Apex Legends' Pathfinder has a grappling hook ability that allows him to cover long distances quickly. While it used to have a cooldown of 15 seconds, as of Season 5 that cooldown has been raised to a whopping 35 seconds. Understandably, fans are confused about the drastic change.
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Balance changes are a necessary evilin competitive multiplayer games, as even though it always sucks to hear if one’s character has been nerfed, there is no way for the developers to know ahead of time just how players will use certain abilities. As such, most gamers have come to expect minor adjustments to characters, but this is beyond that.
Pathfinder’s grappling hook ability can be used for mobility when escaping the ring, offensively in combat with other players, or defensively to get away when things are getting too hot. Because of this, despite being one of the characters available to all players in the base game,Pathfinder is incredibly versatileand can be extremely powerful in the right hands. That said, it seems the developers felt that he could be too powerful, as the patch notes indicate Pathfinder’s ability to reposition himself with ease and so frequently is “too powerful and muddies combat legibility.”
While this may have been true for some pro Pathfinder players, many don’t understand how to use the legend to his full effect. Even ignoring that fact, a 20-second increase on cooldown seems a tad overboard, as it more than doubles the cooldown of his main ability. This doesn’t necessarily make Pathfinder any less deadly, as skilled players likely only needone grapple per combat to get into an ideal position, but it certainly makes the character more difficult to play, as whiffing a grapple is now a very unforgiving mistake which leaves the player vulnerable for over half a minute.
Fans are shocked by this change, with many thinking that theharsh nerfwill be taken back or reduced a good deal with the next patch. Until then, though, Pathfinder players should take extra care when aiming their grapple attacks.
Apex Legendsis available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
