Why Apex Legends players want character reworks instead of new additions and what it means for gameplay balance
The Community’s Growing Concern
As Apex Legends approaches its thirteenth seasonal update, the gaming community is voicing a significant shift in priorities regarding character development and game balance improvements.
The player base has consistently requested that Respawn Entertainment redirect development resources toward comprehensive Legend reworks rather than introducing additional characters each season.
With Newcastle scheduled to debut in the Outlands on May 10 as part of the Saviors seasonal content, anticipation remains high among the competitive community.
Despite the excitement surrounding new content introductions, numerous community members advocate for strategic redirection in forthcoming major patches and updates.
Many experienced players suggest the development team should allocate time to revamp underutilized or outdated Legends instead of maintaining the pattern of seasonal character introductions.
Legends Needing Attention
Community discussions frequently highlight Mirage, Lifeline, Revenant, and Gibraltar as characters requiring substantial gameplay modifications and ability adjustments.
These identified Legends present Respawn with clear opportunities to address persistent balance concerns and improve overall meta diversity.
Practical Tip: When evaluating which Legends need reworks, consider both pick rates in competitive play and win-rate data across different skill brackets. Characters consistently underperforming in high-level ranked matches often indicate fundamental design issues rather than simple number adjustments.
Common Mistake: Many players assume minor cooldown reductions or damage tweaks will solve underlying Legend problems. However, characters like Mirage suffer from core identity issues where their deception mechanics become less effective as player game sense improves.
Gibraltar’s case exemplifies the rework challenge – while powerful in professional play, he struggles in public matches where team coordination is less consistent, creating a balancing paradox that minor adjustments cannot resolve.
Developer Perspective
During a development question-and-answer session preceding the Season 13 launch, Dexerto questioned Senior Character Designer Devan McGuire about potential character pool saturation and possible future adjustments to Legend release patterns.
McGuire clarified that while immediate modifications to character introduction schedules aren’t planned, the team recognizes the risk of oversaturating the Legend selection and may reconsider this approach moving forward.
Optimization Tip: For players adapting to the growing roster, focus on mastering 2-3 Legends that cover different roles (assault, support, recon) rather than trying to learn every new character. This approach maintains flexibility while reducing the cognitive load of constant adaptation to new abilities and metas.
Community Solutions Proposed
This developer insight ignited substantial conversation across Twitter and Reddit platforms, with numerous participants endorsing the concept and recommending Respawn dedicate resources to character revisions rather than new Legend deployments.
One prominent community member expressed: “We don’t require additional legends; we need existing older legends reworked into viable options… eliminate insignificant modifications that produce minimal impact, provide substantial passive abilities and meaningful tactical capabilities.”
We don’t need new legends we need some of the older legends to be reworked into ones worth using. No more 10 second cooldown tweaks, decreased time to detonation(i.e. Bang), no more tiny changes that don’t change anything. Give them meaningful passives and abilities.
— BlazinAzn (@BlazinAzn7) May 3, 2022
Popular Apex Legends content creator Thordan Smash proposed an “Operation Health” style update concentrating exclusively on bug resolution and gameplay enhancement, a recommendation previously rejected by developers.
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Such an approach would enable Respawn to implement multiple character revisions within one season, though it would probably result in substantially reduced fresh content compared to typical updates.
Maybe even some sort of like idk operation health…
— GG ThordanSmash (@Thordansmash) May 3, 2022
The Future of Apex Legends Roster
Regardless of approach, with the Apex Legends character roster expanding to 21 total Legends including Newcastle in Season 13, developers will likely need to decelerate new character introductions in the foreseeable future.
Comprehensive character revisions present potential solutions, but they also introduce significant design complexities, including the challenge of redesigning a Legend while maintaining their fundamental character identity and playstyle essence.
Advanced Strategy: When anticipating Legend reworks, monitor developer comments about “design pillars” for each character. Respawn typically maintains 2-3 core identity elements for each Legend during reworks, so understanding these can help predict what changes might preserve the character’s soul while improving viability.
The balancing act between introducing innovative new gameplay through fresh Legends and refining existing characters represents one of the most significant long-term challenges for Apex Legends’ continued success and meta health.
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