All Legend changes in Apex Legends Season 14: Newly improved Newcastle, Valkyrie nerfed, and more

Apex Legends Season 14 arrived on August 9, bringing a brand-new character, a revamped King’s Canyon map, and tons of balances to legends and weapons alike.

The 14th season of Apex Legends, codenamed Hunted, aims to improve the Legends' pick rate with much-needed balances to the likes of Newcastle and Valkyrie.

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Apex Legends developers balance out pick rates with Season 14 update

Apex Legends has a large gallery of playable characters, each with its own set of three abilities: passive, tactical, and ultimate. There are 22 Legends in the game as of Season 14. Each one brings something new to the battlefield.

Players generally pick Legends that provide more tactical advantage and mobility. To balance out these pick rates, the Apex Legends developers made the following changes in Season 14.

Valkyrie

Valkyrie was introduced to Apex Legends in Season 9, which was called Legacy. She is the daughter of former Apex Predator and pilot, Viper.

Valkyrie has emerged as one of the most popular picks among both casual players and professionals. In fact, Valkyrie, Caustic, and Gibraltar formed one of the most played trios at the Global Series: 2022 Championship.

Many players and professionals have complained about Valkyrie's overpowered nature and her ability to play multiple roles in a team. For this reason, Season 14 has brought multiple nerfs to her abilities to keep her usage in check.

Here are the balance changes made to Valkyrie in Season 14:

VTOL Jets

Acceleration on activation decreased by about 8%.
Fuel consumption on activation increased by 33%.
Aerial boosting & strafing take a 20% debuff when hit by slowing effects.
Added a third orange state to the fuel meter UI between green (>60%) and red (<30%).

Missile Swarm

Aim/turn slow removed.
Move slow duration decreased from 2.5s -> 2.0s.
Reducing the explosion radius from 175 -> 125.

Skyward Dive

Height reduction of 25%.
Launch time reduced from 5.5s -> 5.0s. Coupled with the height reduction, players in Valk ult now travel upward at a slightly slower speed.

Newcastle

Newcastle came to Apex Legends in Season 13, which was called Saviors. Despite being a new addition, his pick rate was abysmally low. He was even behind Legends like Rampart and Crypto.

While defensive Legends are not the most popular class, their ability to provide cover and counter aggressive plays can help win matches.

Here are the balance changes made to Newcastle in Season 14:

Retrieve the Wounded

Increased move speed during revive by 25%.
Reduced turn slow while reviving by 50%.
Increased White Knockdown shield health from 150 -> 200.
Increase Blue Knockdown shield health from 250 -> 300.

Mobile Shield

Increased hp from 350 -> 500
Doubled max movement speed.

Castle Wall

Added turn slow to electrical barrier effects and increased the severity of the slow effect to movement.

Mad Maggie

Mad Maggie is another Legend who is relatively new to Apex Legends. She arrived in Season 12, which was called Defiance.

Unlike Newcastle, Mad Maggie is an offensive Legend, countering defensive play with her Riot Drill and providing mobility with her ultimate, Wrecking Ball.

Despite these abilities, Mad Maggie was falling behind in terms of pick rate. This was because her abilities provided very little advantage to her team and more or less favored only herself.

The new Season 14 changes aim to improve her kit by increasing the duration of her abilities. This will help her team keep up with her aggressive pace.

Here are the balance changes made to Mad Maggie in Season 14:

Riot Drill

Projectile Launch Speed doubled.

Wrecking Ball

Will travel twice as far while dropping the same amount of magnets.
Duration increased from 5 sec → 10 sec.
Magnet Spawn delay increased from 0.4 sec → 0.8 sec.
Wrecking Ball will deal damage to enemy placeable objects: Black Market, Castle Walls, Exhibit, Death Totem, Mobile Shield, Black Hole, Amped Cover, and Gas Barrels. It will also destroy Gibraltar's Dome of Protection.
Fixed Wrecking Ball not blinding and slowing enemies.

Horizon

Horizon was an overpowered Legend upon her release in Season 7. Using her ultimate ability, Black Hole, she was able to pull enemies to a concentrated area, making her an inescapable force.

Horizon was able to spam her abilities due to her relatively smaller cooldown compared to other legends.

Horizon has been nerfed multiple times in the past. She has now received more nerfs in Season 14, particularly to her ultimate.

Here are the balance changes made to Horizon in Season 14:

Black Hole

Adjustments to N.E.W.T’s hitbox to make destroying it more reliable.
N.E.W.T. takes 50% more damage from explosives.

Other changes following the release of Season 14 of Apex Legends

Caustic, Wattson, Mirage, and Rampart (From left to right) (Image via EA)

Apex Legends Season 14 has also made minor tweaks to other Legends such as Mirage, Wattson, Rampart, Caustic, and Revenant.

The changes made to them are as follows:

Mirage

Mirage Decoys will now be scanned by Valk when skydiving.
Mirage Decoys will now be picked up by Seer’s Heart Seeker.
Fixed a bug where Mirage Decoys were picked up by Seer’s Exhibit as AI and not players.

Caustic

Fixed gas ramping bug where transitioning from friendly to enemy gas would initially damage for more than intended.

Wattson

Improvements to Perimeter Security placement system.

Rampart

Now ignores friendly collision on Amped Cover placement (i.e., placing walls around teammates will feel more smooth).

Revenant

Death Totem will now show a placement preview when activated instead of placing immediately.

Apex Legends Season 14 Hunted is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Nintendo Switch.

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Edited by Rachel Syiemlieh