When Apex Legends received a major update on Monday, it included a bunch of new content such as a new collection event, crossplay support, as well as the launch of the Flashpoint limited-time game mode.
Sadly, the update also downgraded something of Wraith’s, who is Apex Legends’ top-tier assassin legend. The battle royale genre has been saturated as of late, but what makes Apex Legends stand out from the rest is its ability to let players take on the roles of legends.
These legends are basically similar to the player-characters you’ll find in other shooter titles like Valorant and Overwatch. Apex Legends is set in the same world as Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall series, and given how well the title is doing right now, it’s safe to say that it’s a worthy competitor to highly-acclaimed games such as Fortnite and PUBG.
What’s more, the free-to-play title has been consistently growing and improving itself thanks to its frequent updates and LTMs.
That being said, developers sometimes have to make difficult choices and necessary sacrifices to balance out the characters and consequently make the gameplay experience even better.
This is exactly the case with Wraith, as her running animation had to be changed. The running animation in question is an apparent reference to the way ninjas run in anime series’ such as Naruto.
The distinctive running style was made even more popular when a newscast was able to catch a participant during 2019’s ‘Storm Area 51 Movement’ Naruto-running in the back.
https://twitter.com/TitanfallBlog/status/1313227462415876098?s=20
Most players had a few laughs out of the iconic Naruto-run animation, but sadly, fans have noticed that she has an unfair advantage compared to the other legends. More specifically, Wraith’s Naruto-run causes her to hunch her back, which makes her a significantly harder target than those legends who run in an upright manner.
Besides, Wraith already has a pretty high win rate and this run animation simply makes her even more overpowered than she already is. As such, the ninja run had to go. It’s a sad yet fair decision on Respawn’s part, especially since Wraith is already considered to be one of the best legends to use in Apex Legends Season 6.
In the most recent patch notes, the studio acknowledged that Wraith’s running animation was indeed “iconic” and that the team didn’t want to let go of it. However, it was ultimately the best way to nerf Wraith without having to make any other changes to her kit.
That said, Respawn might even consider making Wraith’s abilities more powerful, but it all depends on how she performs post-nerf.
On another note, players can expect the meta to make some changes as well in the upcoming months. This is because by November, Apex Legends is expected to have a bunch of new content and changes coming to the competitive season.
In addition to that, dataminers recently reported that the newest legend in the game will be Horizon, even though there have been rumors floating around suggesting that Valk would be coming to Apex Legends.
We’re definitely going to miss Wraith’s Naruto-run, but Apex Legends’ new update has all kinds of new features as well, which will surely ease the pain.
