We now know what Apex Legends’ Legend Meta looks like in Season 14 as Valkyrie receives a gigantic nerf alongside other balance improvements
The patch notes for Apex Legends Season 14 are out and we're in for a spicy shake-up with the legend meta! The competitive scene in season 13 was full of Valkyries flying around, pulling off rotations whenever their teams found themselves in sticky situations. In fact, Valkyrie was at a 96% pick rate at the ALGS championship. She's so dominant in the meta right now that the competitive meta has seeped into the casual meta. Valkyrie is everywhere even in regular matchmaking with players trying to emulate the professional scene.
Meanwhile nobody really cared about Newcastle. You know, the new Legend that was added to the game in season 13. The poor guy's been languishing off the grid with Crypto at a 1.6% pick rate. The player base on reddit has been predicting a nerf for Valkyrie for a while now. And boy have Respawn Entertainment delivered. One fly-swatter sledgehammer nerf coming right up in season 14! Meanwhile, Newcastle will essentially receive buffs across the board, making him much more viable, along with Maggie. Horizon is down bad, too, with her ultimate receiving nerfs across the board.
Everybody asks Why is Valkyrie but nobody asks How is Valkyrie
Valkyrie mains are going to be really disappointed with Season 14 because she's been bonked by the nerf hammer quite hard. Worse than Caustic's hammer, in fact. Her ability to simply leave messy fights is no longer as seamless as it was. Her missile swarm is no longer as oppressive as it used to be and she's much easier to shoot out of her skyward drive.
Here's a post-mortem from the season 14 patch notes.
- Jetpack Stressride
- Acceleration decreased by 8% upon activation.
- Her jetpacks consume 33% more fuel.
- Slowing effects are 20% more effective when she's airborne.
- Missiles? More like paintballs
- Enemies struck by her missiles no longer have a stun/slow applied to their ability to turn.
- The movement slow lasts 2 seconds as opposed to 2.5 seconds.
- The AOE for her missiles has been reduced from 175 to 125.
- Mobile jump tower, but worse
- She flies 25% lower than she used to.
- Her launch time has been reduced from 5.5s to 5.0s. Valkyrie squads in a Skyward Dive are going to be easier to hit because they're slower.
Horizon's Blackhole has been newtered
Horizon, another legend that enjoyed immense popularity in season 13 is going to be much weaker in season 14. Her ultimate ability has been weakened quite a bit and is much easier for opponents to escape. Essentially, her blackhole bot, Newt is now made of paper machete and goes down quick, even to Horizon's own squadmates.
Black hole sun, won't you come?
- Newt's hitbox is larger, making it easier to shoot and destroy.
- Toss some nades in there and watch Newt evaporate because ordinances deal 50% more damage to Newt.
- Oh, and Respawn casually tweeted out that Newt is susceptible to friendly fire.
Is Newcastle finally going to see some popularity?
Newcastle has had an underwhelming launch season, to say the least. By the end of season 13, he's sitting at a 1.6% pick rate alongside Crypto, who's supposed to be off the grid. Respawn has taken notice of this and is showing him some love with a whole range of buffs across the board. Here's what they entail.
- Found a gold knockdown shield? Just give it to Newcastle
- He moves 25% faster when he's reviving someone
- His turn slow while reviving has been reduced by 50%
- The revive shield has 50 more hitpoints at White and Blue tiers, now at 200and 300 health.
- Mobile Shield, Not the one on his back:
- Is much more durable, with its HP increased from 350 to 500.
- Moves twice as fast at max movement speed
- Castle Wall, further fortified
- Added turn slow to electrical barrier effects and increased the severity of the slow effect to movement.
Mad Maggie is madder now
Maggie was already a great legend but she isn't too popular because of her high skill-ceiling. She's sitting at 1.9% in terms of pick rate, just above Crypto and Newcastle. There is a case to be made, however, that she's actually really strong against defensive legends. She's going to be much stronger in season 14, because Respawn Entertainment is showing her some love with their latest buffs.
- Drillbit Taylor
- Riot Drill now travels twice as fast, thanks to the projectile speed getting doubled.
- Cousin, let's go bowling
- The
bowlingwrecking ball will now travel twice as far, essentially leaving more magnets. - The wrecking ball lasts twice as much as it did in season 13, with its duration increasing from 5s to 10s.
- The Magnets will spawn a bit later, allowing players to time their movement speed boost better.
- The Wrecking Ball now deals damage to objects placed by other legends like Amped Cover, Death Totem, Black Hole, Mobile Shield, and Gas Barrels.
- She's now a hard counter to Gibby, with her ultimate completely destroying his dome shield. The competitive meta is going to be quite shaken by this buff.
- The
Mirage is now the anti-scan king in Apex Legends Season 14
He's now a certified anti-recon legend, in that all his abilities will now bamboozle scanners (Not you, Pathfinder). His decoys can now be picked up by Valkyrie's Skyward Dive and Seer's Passive. They'll have to think twice before they just rush to engage any team they catch unaware (if Mirage is picked enough, that is).
Is Apex Legends Season 14 a whole new meta
Looks like we're going to see a whole new meta in Apex Legends Season 14, with lots of weapon changes and balance updates. Hopefully, we see more fun legends like Maggie, Newcastle, and Mirage in the competitive scene, and thankfully, less of Valkyrie and Gibby the pick rates get more diversified. There are a few tiny adjustments to other legends which you can read in the full patch notes by Respawn Entertainment.