February marks the one year anniversary of the launch of Apex Legends and the game has grown quite tremendously and gained a massive following in its first year live. Respawn's popular character-driven battle royale is getting ready to enter a brand new season which is sure to come with sweeping balance changes, new items, the new hero Forge, and more. While the game has drastically improved over the course of the year, there are still some major issues that the community has with the game that they are hoping will be fixed when Season 4 officially launches on February 4.

On the Subject of Matchmaking

To address the elephant in the room first, easily the biggest complaint a large part of the Apex Legends community has is in regards to Skill-Based Matchmaking. The premise of it is that the game's matchmaking system puts players of similar skill into the same lobby. However, many players believe that it is a flawed system as average players are getting matched up regularly with players who have the most difficult badges (2,000+ damage in a single match, 20+ kills in a single match badges) meaning that they are much stronger players.

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This also leads high-tier players to create "smurf" accounts so they can play against weaker players for easy badges and kills. Many players are asking for its removal, at least from the casual playlist, so players will be matched randomly with players as opposed to equal or higher players. At the very least, the system needs to be evaluated and something needs to be done about players who create smurf accounts.

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Ranked Integrity

Apex Legends' Ranked mode is intended to be a true test of skill and teamwork where squads work together to earn RP to progress upward in and potentially earn rewards. The core idea behind this mode is that every match has an RP buy-in cost and doing well in the match (placing high, getting kills and assists) can earn RP. However, some players have exploited the system by "dashboarding" and force-closing their game if they see they are about to lose. Doing this negates any RP lost from the buy-in.

However, Respawn has stated that they have been tracking this exploit and will punish players who used this exploit to climb ranks with no risk. While there has been talks of bans and losing rewards, nothing official has been announced at the time of writing. For Respawn to preserve the integrity of the Ranked game mode, there need to be strict anti-cheat/exploit systems in place that deliver a punishment fitting of the crime.

Lots of great changes are coming to Ranked in Season 4, making it one of the many things players can get excited for in 2020, but the exploits need to be fixed. A player's rank is supposed to be a sign of how skilled they are at the game, not how quickly they can force-close the game.

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Buffing Legends (other than Gibraltar)

Being a character-driven shooter, Apex Legends has a large focus on the "legend meta" and which characters are performing well or not at any given time. Since Apex Legends does sweeping balance changes at key moments (usually at the start of a season or event), the legend meta is likely going to be shaken up when Season 4 launches. There are several legends that are in dire need of a buff to be viable in high-tier play.

Currently, Gibraltar, Wraith, Lifeline, and Pathfinder are currently some of the most-picked legends, with the others falling to the wayside. Wattson and Caustic struggle on World's Edge due to the open nature of many parts of the map, while Octane is in dire need of a speed buff so he can keep up with Pathfinder and his slingshot grapple. Bloodhound is in an especially rough spot due to his lack of stealth despite being a master tracker, and Bangalore and Mirage both do decently well as middle-tier legends but could use some TLC to make them as good as they can be. This will also be shaken up since there will be a new legend introduced at the start of Season 4 as well (the question is: will it actually be Forge, or will it be Revenant?).

Hopefully, the struggling legends can get some sort of buff to make them more viable since World's Edge seems to be sticking around for at least part of Season 4. King's Canyon is making a return for the latter half of Season 4, so Wattson and Caustic will be indirectly buffed thanks to the layout of the beloved map. However, other legends are in dire need of some buffs to really put them on level with the powerhouses like Gibraltar.

World's Edge Gripes

World's Edge was the brand-new map introduced in Season 3 alongside Crypto, and it's had its ups and downs for sure. There are a lot of cool areas in World's Edge and the varying layouts in each different sector make for a lot of varied combat encounters. However, between those cool areas lies a bunch of empty space that make it hard for teams to navigate without being sniped (from across the map with a Charge Rifle). There are some big changes that need to happen when World's Edge gets remodeled at the start of Season 4, and at the top of that list is the removal of some of the open areas on the map. While some of them might be on hold for "town takeover" events like the Mirage Voy-age, there needs to be more cover in the areas until then.

As mentioned before, the lack of many enclosed areas (outside of Capital City and Skyhook) means that Caustic and Wattson, who specialize on locking down buildings or corridors, are left floundering. Since Wattson's fences can be broken, the open areas make it easy for enemies to shoot her fences. At least Causic's traps can be manually triggered for a painful smokescreen - and his ult can still lock down a large area. Season 4's World's Edge needs to have more close-quarters fighting to really shake up the Apex Legends tier list.

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Weapon Tuning and Variety

Character abilities are obviously a big deal in Apex Legends, but at the end of the day, it is still a shooter, and the gun-play is also crucial to player enjoyment. Some weapons in the game are performing ridiculously well while others are still better left on the ground. The Peacekeeper is one of the first to come to mind as it's still extremely deadly at close and medium range even after the many nerfs it got this season. It could do with more of a nerf to bring it in line with the other shotguns. The G7 Scout is also performing extremely well, but not quite as strong as the Peacekeeper so it may also receive a nerf. The R-99 continues to dominate the SMG category by far.

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Other weapons like the Mozambique are still painful to use. The Mozambique even has a hop up that makes it stronger, but the weapon needs a larger magazine size to make it more viable. The L-Star is still in a rough spot even after its rework and could definitely use a buff to put it on-par with the other care package weapons. The Triple Take got an indirect nerf due to the removal of energy magazines this season, and without a precision choke it can struggle at longer ranges, making it also in need of some love from Respawn. Season 4 is also introducing a new sniper into the weapon pool so the Triple Take will have yet another competitor.

Overall, Apex Legends is in a great spot to start its second year live but there are still some major issues that need to be corrected to make the game as good as it can be. From poor matchmaking design to legend balancing, there are some things that fans are hoping will be changed when Season 4 launches on February 4. However, the patch notes will not be live until the Season launches so players will have to wait and see what is changing whenever they log in to claim their anniversary gifts on February 4.

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

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