The Best & Worst of the new Apex Legends Class System
Everyone has had plenty of time to dig their teeth into the newest season of Apex Legends and it seems everyone is eating well. Despite there being no new Legend for the first time since Battle Passes began, Apex Legends hit an all-new high for concurrent players on Steam. Instead of a new Legend, the team at Respawn did a complete overhaul of the class system, which could barely be called a 'class system' before by any video games standard. Now that players have had a few weeks to play around with the new passives, here are where they fall in terms of the good, the bad and the why?
The Best: Assault
You'll find few people willing to argue that the Assault class has the best perk, hands down. Back in Season 9 in 2021, Respawn added Blue Support Bins that only Lifeline could access, giving extra meds and shields. In season 16 of Apex Legends, Red Assault Bins were added for Bangalore, Revenant, Fuse, Ash and Mad Maggie. When these Legends open the bin, they get access to a special compartment of weapons and attachments.
What makes this perk so powerful is that it uses the smart loot system. It will take into account the weapons you and your squad have and what attachment rarity they have and will always give upgrades. This allows your team to get better equipped than enemy teams and do it faster. They also get to carry more ammo per stack, which ends up being an indirect buff to Fuse allowing him to carry even more grenades.
Some Assault players will wait to open their Red Assault bins because they don't want to waste the smart loot getting white attachments. But if you open the bin before you even have a weapon, it'll give you weapons instead. This is perfect for taking fights right off drop when you don't always find access to a weapon. Red Assault bins are game changers and will always be worth opening.
The Good: Support
Lifeline and Loba use to be the only support classes in the game, but Gibraltar and Newcastle now join them. All four of these Legends get access to the extra compartment in the Blue Supply Bins, which is good, but it's not usually going to be a make or break for your team.
The big change for Support classes is the ability to respawn your teammates even after they've been killed and timed out. Loba in particular is very good at this because she can craft the banners at a replicator, then run out to someplace safe while they craft and pick them up with her black market.
Being able to get your teammates back into the game when historically, a timeout means you're done for the rest of the game is huge. While late game respawns don't always go in your favor, it's another chance to get back in the game that no one without a support class will get.
The Good (ish): Controller
Your mileage here is going to vary based on your playstyle, but the biggest change-up this season is in the Controller class. It includes Caustic, Wattson, Rampart and Catalyst. Being able to scan for the next ring is a huge advantage in the professional apex world. It's not given as much thought in the casual games, or the sweaty games unless you're in the final circle but having that information can be a big help to players.
Every Legend who used to be able to scan no longer can. And those who have the ability are considered pretty niche even though most of them (sorry Rampart) don't see mainstream meta use.
Catalyst, especially, should see quite a bit more playtime in compositions that favor knowing where the ring is before all of their opponents.
The Okay: Recon
The Recon Legends include Bloodhound, Seer, Crypto and Vantage. They use to be able to scan for the ring location but lost that ability to the Control Legends. Now they can scan their own special beacon and locate other players on the map.
Let's be very clear here: this is a useful ability, but it's a bit lacking in its current state. When you scan a beacon to show you all nearby enemies, those enemies also get alerted to where you are. So it's a double edge sword in that regard as it could bring some teams directly to you.
On top of that, once you've scanned a beacon, you cannot use that beacon again for the rest of the game. That means you have to be very selective about when you hit that beacon because if no one is around you and you don't get very good intel, you're out of luck.
Legends should be able to hit this at least once per round. But I'd even argue for letting them hit it multiple times with an internal cooldown of 60 seconds or more. There's enough of a risk of other teams coming to bully you if you're spamming it, so let players run that risk. Although Bloodhound and Seer are already very powerful, adding more to their kits may not be the best idea.
Finally, for the pros and streamers who run lobbies and farm kills, this perk is only going to help. Good thing those sweaty, bald Wraiths are in the Skirmisher class.
The Why: Skirmishers
Skirmishers are some of the most played Legends in the game. They include Wraith, Pathfinder, Horizon, Octane, Valkyrie, and Mirage. These are Legends that pros and top streamers use to absolutely decimate their lobbies. Giving them any kind of major or useful buff is only going to further cement their pick rate and win rate.
All that said, it really does feel like Skirmishers got the left over idea for class perks. When a neutral care package is dropping, Skirmishers can scan its contents before it even hits the ground to know what's in it and know if it's worth checking out or not. Since care packages hold some of the best weapons in the game (hello RE-45 and Kraber), they're almost always worth checking out.
The only Legend who really gets something extra out of this is Pathfinder as it instantly charges his ultimate ability. With two care packages dropping at once each circle, Pathfinders can use their ultimate, scan a care package, use their ultimate, scan the second care package and do it again. Three ultimate uses with his increased range allows Pathfinder and his team to traverse long distances in a matter of seconds.
