Apex Legends Season 16 Meta: Key Takeaways
- Season 16 brought a huge nerf to ‘scan meta’ by directly nerfing Seer and Bloodhound
- ARs got nerfed across the board with reduced hip-fire accuracy
- Newly introduced Nemesis is broken / overpowered
Despite not introducing a new Legend to the game (as is the tradition with previous seasonal releases), Apex Legends Season 16: Revelry was a massive update. While we don’t get to see Ballistic for a little while longer, we now have new Legends Classes rework, the Nemesis AR, as well as several rebalancing buffs and nerfs to legends and weapons.
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We break down these key changes below to bring you the latest meta for Apex Legends Season 16.
Table of Contents
Apex Legends Season 16 Guns Buffs and Nerfs
C.A.R SMG (Nerf)
- Reduced base ammo capacity to 19 (was 20)
R-99 (Buff)
- Increased damage to 12 (was 11)
Assault Rifles (Nerf)
- Significantly reduced hipfire accuracy
R-301 (Nerf)
- Reduced damage to 13 (was 14)
Hemlok Burst AR [Care Package] (Buff)
- Damage increased to 23 (was 20)
- Headshot Multiplier increased to 1.8 (was 1.75)
- Improved recoil
- Integrated Boosted Loader Hop-Up
- Boosted Loader: Faster reloads at low ammo that overload the magazine with 9 extra rounds
Mastiff (Buff)
- Spread pattern adjusted to be tighter
- Added Tactical Stocks attachment to improve reload speed and handling
- Increased projectile size at close range
Peacekeeper (Buff)
- Added Tactical Stocks attachment to improve reload speed and handling
- Increased projectile size at close range
EVA-8 (Buff)
- Increased projectile size at close range
Rampage LMG [Floor] (Nerf)
- Reverted to non-Care Package version
- Damage reduced to 26 (was 28 in Care Package)
- No longer auto-energizes when picking up
- Energy decays slower when not firing
What legends are currently dominating the meta?
To our surprise, these massive changes didn’t change the game itself. It still feels like the same glitchy Apex we all know and love. But most of the players really liked that the original legends are now back in the meta.
Yes, Wraith is back thanks to her buff, and she is now even dominating the meta sitting in first place with an 11.3% pick rate overall in the game.
Another fan-favorite is back, Pathfinder. He finally got some love and the developers decided to give him a real passive. Our funny robot is now taking over the game with a 19.7% pick rate in the Master/Predator lobbies.
But, are Wraith and Pathfinder better than Valkyrie when it comes to rotating?
We’re not really sure. Even though Path and Wraith are back in the meta, Valkyrie still has the superior ultimate when flying into the air and finding high ground.
But not everything is about flying in the air. Right now, Wraith’s ability is the most precise in terms of safely entering a building. And Path’s zipline got buffed, so not only will we see much longer ziplines, but his passive will allow him to spam ziplines all over the final circles.
To be honest, we’re very excited to see what will happen in the pro leagues when it comes to rotating. However, is this going to be the end of Valkyrie’s era?
Season 16 brought a huge nerf to ‘scan meta’ by directly nerfing Seer and Bloodhound
Dev’s claimed they preferred a meta with fewer scans but without killing these legends to the point they’re not fun enough to play. And guess what? They didn’t succeed quite as much and these legends are still very powerful…
Is Bloodhound back?
Bloodhound is definitely back. With the White Raven tech, Blood can get free scans every time a raven is scanned. And plus whenever Bloodhound scans one of these ravens while in Beast of the Hunt mode, the ultimate charge returns back to 50%. So, if you keep an ult accelerator and you use your scans properly, you should always have scans.
But what about Seer, is he dead?
Seer is definitely not dead. As a user who got his heirloom not too long ago, I’m happy to assure you that the nerf wasn’t strong enough to keep him out of the game.
Even though Seer does have fewer scans, his ultimate is still literally wallhacks for a few seconds, nothing else to add.
Seer is not that popular among pubs and casual players, but he is definitely a favorite among professional players. This is because most of them believe he is still going to dominate the meta.
Why is Catalyst creeping everywhere?
This is something that surprises us all. But every high-ranking circle has Catalyst walls everywhere.
Why? Well, now she is able to scan beacons as a defensive character, but is she better than Gibby, Newcastle, or Caustic? We’re not sure about that. But most professional players use her as a key legend for every comp in scrims.
Is she going to make it all the way over to the ALGS? We don’t know, but one thing is certain, she’s fun to play, and right now, she IS the most dominant defensive legend in the meta.
What guns dominate the meta?
This is easy. The Nemesis Burst AR is the most overpowered gun in the game right now.
But, despite that, this meta feels like a very balanced close-action game, with SMGs being at the top of the pyramid. But followed closely by Assault Rifles (which do not feel nerfed at all), and shotguns as always, obliterating everyone when they are used properly.
Apex Legends Season 16: Legends Buffs & Nerfs
Seer (Nerf)
- Passive – Heartbeat Sensor
- Audio from Seer’s passive is now more audible to enemy players
- Activation is now delayed to match raise animation of weapon or unarmed
- Lock-On indication will now only show on heartbeat cadence of target
- Tactical – Focus of Attention
- No longer shows full body scan on scanned targets
- Ultimate: Exhibit
- No longer reveals on initiation
- Duration reduced from 30s to 25s
- Cooldown increased from 120s to 180s
Bloodhound (Nerf)
- Passive – Tracker
- White Ravens
- Ethereal White Ravens will now occasionally spawn near Bloodhound when no enemies are around.
- White Ravens can be interacted with or scanned to trigger them to fly towards the nearest enemy player
- The White Raven will leave a misty trail behind for Bloodhound to follow, and will share this direction with their team on the map.
- Using a White Raven will recover 25% Tactical / Ultimate charge
- Scanning a White Raven will fully refund the Tactical Charge
- White Ravens
- Tactical – Eye of the Allfather
- Reduced full body scan time from 3s to 1s
- Diamond target on scanned enemy is unchanged
- Ultimate – Beast of the Hunt
- No longer recharges or speeds up the cooldown rate of Bloodhound’s Tactical
- Will launch a White Raven that flies towards the nearest enemy
- Killing an enemy while in Beast of the Hunt will also trigger a White Raven
Mirage (Buff)
- Passive – Now you see me…
- Mirage and his ally now remain cloaked after a revive for 3s
- Weapons remain stowed while cloaked
- Drawing your weapon will remove the cloaking effect early
- Mirage Clones
- Bamboozles are now only triggered by bullet fire and melee
- Enemies who are bamboozled now receive notification on their screen
- Bamboozle icon marker now tracks the Bamboozled player’s movement
- Bamboozle icon marker duration increased from 2.5s to 3.5s
Pathfinder (Buff)
- Passive – Insider Knowledge
- Pathfinder’s passive benefits are no longer gained by scanning Survey Beacons
- Pathfinder’s passive benefits (Ultimate charge and 10s Ultimate Cooldown reduction) are now gained by revealing Care Packages with the Skirmisher ability
- Ultimate – Zipline Gun
- Max Range increased by ~60%.
- Max Speed increased by 66%.
- Acceleration and exit speed adjustments.
- Targeting improvements, including updated visual and audio cues.
- Can no longer place the end station on OOB zones.
Wraith (Buff)
- Ultimate – Dimensional Rift
- Max Portal Distance has been doubled (~76m to 152m)
- Portal Duration reduced from 60s to 45s
- Wraith now increases speed over time when creating longer portals
Horizon (Nerf)
- Tactical – Gravity Lift
- Increased weapon spread in Gravity Lift
- Increased vertical speed of Gravity Lift by 10%
Lifeline (Buff)
- Passive – Combat Revive
- Reduced the slow penalty on Lifeline when initiating a revive
- Ultimate – Care Package
- Decreased the drop animation speed of Care Package from 14s to 8s
- Increased the deployment range of Care Package
