Heading into Season 7, Apex Legends went through some substantial changes with a new map added, a new legend, vehicles, and various gameplay changes. Seven of the legends received buffs and nerfs, including Loba, Octane, Rampart, and Wattson. Now nearly a month into Season 7, Apex Legends Developer Daniel Klein has shared the most-played legends of the season.
In an interview with The Third Party, Klein shares that Wraith has maintained her spot as the most picked legend. Wraith has been a fan-favorite since the release of Apex Legends due to her impressive abilities, skins, and lore. Apex Legends developers have shared that Wraith's abilities put her above most competition and she serves as a blueprint for how gameplay should mesh with legend abilities.
Klein shares that the top five most-played legends in Season 7 have been Wraith, Bloodhound, Horizon, Octane, then Lifeline. Surprisingly, Klein shares that the technological tracker Bloodhound is the second most-played legend, but has a low win rate and also has the lowest encounter win rate of any legend. Klein breaks down the algorithm for encounter win rate, which is simply the number of knockdowns scored divided by the number of times downed plus the knockdowns scored. This produces a ratio that can explain a legend's individual strength.
Klein also shares that a large reason for the Loba buff heading into Season 7 was due to her encounter win rate. Loba's encounter win rate was not balanced with her trio win rate. The buff to her ultimate allowed players to grab unlimited ammo from the Black Market Boutique, which has resulted in her trio win rate to spike.
Much like Bloodhound, Octane is also a highly-played character, but has a very low win rate. Klein shares that Octane's passive and tactical is not as helpful in team play, but is picked often because he is a fun legend to play. The Apex Legends developer also makes comparisons between pick rates in normal play compared to the professional ALGS, citing that many legends are picked very differently in the pro league. For example, Bangalore and Wattson are among the lowest picked legends among normal matches, but in the pro league, Bangalore is the second highest pick and Wattson is in the top five.
During the interview, Klein not only shares the most played legends, but the reasons why developers believe those legends are picked so often. Throughout the interview, Klein references many stats gathered from Season 7 gameplay and also notes that the stats are used to determine buffs and nerfs, which may occur for a number of legends during the midseason patch.
Apex Legends is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a Switch version coming in 2021.
Source: The Third Party Podcast