Developer Respawn seems to have plans in store for Wattson, one of the more dominant playable characters in Apex Legends. It looks like the studio wants to change how it feels to play as the static defender.
"[Wattson] outperforms Wraith and Lifeline in winrate (and they have very similar hitboxes to her)," Respawn lead game designer Daniel Klein tweeted in response to a comment that Wattson's abilities are easy to counter. "What is true, I feel, is that her abilities aren't fun to use, and their power isn't felt. We can measure the power in games won; we cannot measure how it feels."
Wattson fits into Apex Legends' meta in a similar capacity to Crypto and Rampart, in that her abilities are geared towards preparation, not reaction. Wattson, Crypto, and Rampart excel at using their abilities to prepare for the fight to come, not jumping into the fray like the other 14 characters.
Crypto and Rampart break the mold a little bit with their offensive ultimate abilities, which can be used in the midst of a fight to deal damage. But not Wattson. She is the game's only pure defender, with abilities entirely geared towards bunkering down and letting an enemy squad waste their resources before finishing them off.
In comparison to the other legends in the game, this means Wattson can be seen as a selfless legend who's only there to help her team win, not rack up kills. So it can feel like she's a weak link despite actually being a dominant force, and for folks who like joining their teammates on pushing on fights and getting lots of kills, playing as Wattson can feel not as fun.
Respawn tried to amend this in Season 8's Chaos Theory event, introducing a new "selfish" passive ability for Wattson that allows her to recharge her shields outside of combat. However, it sounds like Respawn wants to go a little bit further in the future.
"So obviously we've got work scheduled on [Wattson], but no ETA yet," Klein tweeted. "That work won't be a buff though; it'll likely need to include a nerf so we can ship it without warping the game."
We'll have to wait and see how this plays out, but this sounds like Respawn is planning on transforming Wattson into a somewhat different character, nerfing her existing abilities to then give her something new to do that feels more fun.
I hope I'm wrong. Though it is easier to have a good time in Apex Legends with the other characters--they're abilities make it easier to get kills, pull off incredible escapes, and finish off wounded targets--there's a deep sense of satisfaction in learning a map's layout and then using that knowledge to erect makeshift bunkers with Wattson's Perimeter Security and Interception Pylon, relying on pre-planning to win the match. It's a sense of fun that's harder to achieve, but a welcome chance to enjoy Apex Legends in a different way.
Wattson is Apex Legends' best character for players who want to win via brain, not brawn--Apex Legends' meta deserves to have at least one character that really embodies that playstyle. As Wattson says, "Sometimes, careful planning wins out over might." Her character will lose something if Respawn amplifies the feeling of might that she has.
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