For quite some time now, Wattson mains have called upon Respawn to buff her in Apex Legends alongside some bug fixes that have plagued her. It’s probably been one of the most demanded aspects of gameplay for quite some time, aside from major technical issues, and Apex Legends season 11 appears to be delivering on this.

Not only is Wattson being buffed in Apex Legends, but the noted changes are likely to make her shoot up in the meta. While it remains to be seen how much better it does make her rise, it should make her a much stronger defensive legend and a top-tier character in the Apex Legends meta. Game Rant recently took part in a preview event, in which these buffs were discussed.

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Apex Legends Season 11 Wattson Buffs

Perhaps the most effective change is that the cooldown on her tactical is cut in half, allowing her to generate more fence posts at a quicker rate than before. This is a big deal because she was also at a disadvantage to comparable legends, like Caustic. Whereas once his popped, he could throw down a gas tank, Wattson would either be able to extend a nearby fence or have to wait for a second one to pop before she could set up a new, simple fence. There are some obvious contingencies there, but she’ll be doing everything she did before at twice the rate, effectively.

apex legends wattson heirloom

Secondly, the size of the area in which she can place fences is being lengthened, hopefully allowing more complex fence constructions and better trappings from Wattson. It’s a nice addition, though how much it changes does remain to be seen.

Furthermore, Respawn Entertainment described crossing her fence as more “punishing,” which is a pretty big deal. Anyone who has played Wattson or plays with a Wattson knows that the slow from her fence is more than enough to shed the opponent, making it sound more guaranteed to be a Death Knell if timed/utilized right.

Complete Wattson Patch Notes

  • Improved the reliability and responsiveness of placing Wattson's Tactical and Ultimate in-world objects.
  • Wattson can place her Tactical and Ultimate objects on valid surfaces above Wattson's eye level (to a reasonable extent).
  • General hitbox size increase to compensate for the removal of low profile in the Legacy update.

Tactical

  • Increased damage on crossing a Fence by 33%. (15 to 20)
  • Increased debuff duration on crossing a Fence by 100%. (1.5 to 3 seconds)
  • Increased the time allowance to be hit again by a subsequent Fence effect by 100%. (0.5 to 1 second).
  • Decreased recharge time by 50% (30 to 15 seconds).
  • Increased placement range by 50%.
  • Decreased the delay between Fences shutting off and reactivating after an ally passes through them by 60%. (1.0 -> 0.4 seconds)
  • Wattson now moves at Unarmed-speed while readying/placing Fence nodes.
  • Fence nodes can now be placed as soon as the weapon is readied, instead of waiting for the animation to finish.

Ultimate

  • The Pylon output has been significantly reworked.
    • Reduced the number of active Pylons Wattson can place from 3 to 1.
    • The Pylon now lasts forever (instead of timing out after 90 seconds).
    • The Pylon now has a pool of 250 Shields that can be distributed to nearby players, instead of effectively infinite Shields.
    • Increased the Pylon shield recharge rate by 150%, and smoothed regen rate. (2/second -> 5/second, or more accurately: 1/0.5 seconds -> 1/0.2 seconds)
    • When a Pylon is out of Shields, it no longer recharges players' Shields, but can still zap incoming ordnance.
    • Taking damage while regenerating Shields via the Pylon delays continued regeneration by 1 second.
  • The UI on the ground and HUD elements now displays the amount of Shields that remain in the Pylon.
  • Pinging a friendly Pylon will now display the percentage of Shields remaining in the Pylon.
  • Pylon ordnance-zapping has been moderately reworked.
    • Ordnance is now zapped when the Pylon detects that it would hit any surface within range and line of sight of the Pylon, instead of being zapped as soon as it comes within range.
    • As a part of the changes, current issues where the Pylon doesn't reliably zap ordnance (particularly concerning airstrike abilities, and ordnance that bounced off surfaces near the Pylon) should now be addressed.

Apex Legends is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.

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