Respawn apologize for confusing Apex Legends Pathfinder Grapple “buff”

Pathfinder mains thought they were going to be graced with a buff in the Apex Legends Aftermarket update. However, it proved to actually be a nerf. Respawn have apologized for this, and are looking at making things right with a new rework.

Pathfinder’s Grapple was updated during the Aftermarket update on October 6 to include a new cooldown timer that works based off the distance you traveled.

Instead of it being a flat 35 seconds anymore, it would scale from 10 seconds to 35 seconds. Respawn were aiming to encourage players to use shorter grapples to move around gunfights, instead of the flashier long-range ones.

“This both buffs Path a little less for the scariest robot players out there and it also opens up room for extra skill expression: can you find useful short-distance grapples that’ll give you a shorter CD but still do something good for you,” they said in the patch notes.

However, the changes fell flat big time. The max range grapple distance was too short in getting the timer up to 35 seconds. On top of that, changes to when the timer started ticking ⁠— from landing instead of from initial cast ⁠— meant the cooldown was theoretically longer.

• Read more: How Reddit inspired Apex Legends to finally rework Pathfinder

Respawn have acknowledged their faults though. The devs have stated that they weren’t expecting the changes to be solely buffs, saying he’s “just too powerful” to consider a wide-sweeping upgrade.

“This isn’t purely a buff. If we gave you that impression, that’s on us and I apologize. There wasn’t room to give Pathfinder a change that would be a buff in all contexts. He’s just too powerful,” Respawn designer Daniel Klein told players on Reddit.

Instead, the Apex Legends dev teams are looking towards a new rework to hopefully fit Pathfinder players’ needs. They are being conservative though, in case they make him a bit too powerful.

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“I’ve got follow-up changes already in playtesting. Because Path is so very powerful I wanted to be extremely conservative in my first swing at this and see how it affects his power on live.”

• Read more: All of the Apex Legends Aftermarket buffs and nerfs

Klein also encouraged Pathfinder players to experiment with their grapples. “I really hope that players will experiment a little bit with short distance grapples that actually help in combat. I understand that’s not the exciting thing you wanna do when you play Pathfinder though.”