Apex Legends' Lost Treasures collection started yesterday, sparking Crypto's Town Takeover, the introduction of mobile respawn beacons, and the return of the Armed and Dangerous limited time mode. Alongside these additions, Respawn also announced a long list of adjustments to the majority of the legends. Everyone apart from Bloodhound, Bangalore and Pathfinder faced adjustments this time around, from minor tweaks to healing times, to entirely new tactical and ultimate abilities.
Lifeline and Octane are among the group of legends that saw the most dramatic changes, which have made them both even more fun to play. Octane's stim receives a significant buff, and now removes movement impairing effects when activated. This means that getting caught in one of Caustic's gas clouds is no longer anywhere near as dangerous as it was previously. It's also be much easier to speed towards, or away from enemy squads as Octane's stim sprinting speed has been increased by ten percent.
These buffs are already enough to encourage me to switch back to Octane full-time, but Respawn's adjustments to his ultimate also tip the meta scales in his favour as they strengthen an ability that was already useful. Players are now be able to double jump while mid-air after using his launch pad, making it easier to change direction while airborne, too.
While Octane's ultimate has proven to be helpful in the past—particularly when launching into an unsuspecting squad, or evading the circle—increased mobility and control in the air should make for more interesting firefights. This update may encourage players to use Octane's ultimate slightly more tactically, rather than just placing it just to use the charge. It feels as though there's more time to react to enemy squad movements while mid-jump. Previously, I found it was easy to misjudge jumps which sometimes launched me too far over enemies. Having more control during airtime makes it easier to land more precise shots on enemies, and land in the desired spot. Simple map traversal, like reaching high ledges and roofs, and just covering more ground in general has significantly improved as a result of the new launch pad adjustments.
The legend undergoing the most notable changes is Lifeline, and the community already seems torn on how to feel about the patch notes. Lifeline's fast heal passive has been scrapped entirely, making way for her D.O.C bot to play a more important role. When deployed, D.O.C sets up a shield and revives a teammate, similar to how Lifeline would have previously. This frees Lifeline up to defend the area while her teammate gets back on their feet, revive another player, or take care of nearby threats. The cooldown on Lifeline's tactical has also been reduced from 60 to 45 seconds, and her care package now contains more healing items and attachments, when they spawn.
Lifeline's fast heal passive will undoubtedly be missed, and I understand the concerns of her feeling much weaker in 2v1 or 3v1 situations without it. It seems as though every other legend has an ability that keeps them on even footing with the rest of the roster in clutch scenarios, and Lifeline is at a disadvantage now. However, as someone who's spent more time with her recently, I'm excited to see how these changes pan out. We caught a glimpse of D.O.C's new revival powers in action in the Lost Treasures reveal trailer at EA Play Live 2020 last week, which looked really powerful. Having used it in a few times in matches, it feels very useful, providing that the enemy team isn't directly on top of you.
We're seeing Lifeline lean even harder into the healer role now, which cements her as a far more valuable support than before. Sure, those queuing solo may find it more challenging when the team doesn't coordinate effectively, and they're left on their own. But, this is a team-based game after all and those willing to work as a proper team will benefit from her new ability, which in turn, should keep her away from solo fights. Admittedly, the adjustments to Lifeline's care packages are only minor, but a wider choice of attachments and healing items is still better than before.
Some of the remaining legends have received buffs and nerfs that appear to be angled more towards Ranked mode. Respawn describes the changes to Wraith's Phase Walk to be less of a "get out of jail free card" and "more of a repositioning and scouting ability". She can now see others in the Void. While phase walking she also gets a 30 percent move speed boost, a shorter cooldown, and the ability lasts a second longer. The downside is that it takes significantly longer to start up, and slows her movement.
Respawn has outlined that they want to create more opportunities for players to breach Wattson's pylons. Ranked matches often descend into teams constructing their own little walled-off areas in later rounds, using Wattson's abilities to sit uncontested. While this is still possible, it'll depend more heavily on consuming Ultimate Accelerants. Ziplines now also have a cooldown to stop players continuously grabbing them to avoid touching the floor, which previously formed part of a late-game strategy to stay alive as the circle fully closed.
There are many more changes to discuss in the Lost Treasures patch notes, including changes to other legends, weapons, bug fixes, and what's new in the collection event.
