NICKMERCS highlights major Apex Legends improvement since his return

Twitch and YouTube powerhouse Nick ‘NICKMERCS’ Kolcheff has pinpointed a major improvement with shields in Apex Legends, explaining how it rewards talented players. 

NICKMERCS has been front and center in Apex Legends’ incredible resurgence on Twitch, investing hours into Respawn’s battle royale as Warzone’s struggle with cheaters continues.

He has compared the game favorably to CoD’s BR in the past, even explaining why he currently enjoys Apex Legends more. While he played Apex back in 2019 during its early months, he has highlighted a major change with shields that he believes has benefitted the game immensely.

Body Shields were initially the dominant form of armor in Apex, but the System Override event saw them replaced temporarily with Evo Shields, which proved so popular they quickly became permanent.

The major difference between the two is that Evo Shields can be upgraded by dealing damage to enemies. Previously, the only way to go up levels was to find a better shield, either on the ground or from an eliminated enemy.

This is a change Nick highlighted as immensely positive, reducing the potential influence of RNG and rewarding more positive players.

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“Back when I played this game for the first time if you didn’t find a purple shield you weren’t getting one,” he said. “Now, if you’ve got a grey or a blue or whatever you’ve got you can level that up by doing damage. Easy way to do that is with the Longbow.”

While admitting the Kraber is “lit,” Nick picked the Longbow as the game’s best sniper because of how common it is and its ease of use.

“I really do like the shield system in this game,” he finished. “How you can kinda grow your shield by doing more damage. I think it eliminates a little bit of an RNG factor in the battle royale mode. [It] gives a little bit more control back to the good players.”

Nick’s former go-to title Fortnite received some backlash for removing a similar system in which players received shield boosts upon eliminations. Apex, though, has made it permanent, much to the delight of Nick – and many others.