---
title: 'New Update Completely Changes the Meta'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=0D2m-dV6lek'
video_id: '0D2m-dV6lek'
date: 2026-08-04
duration_sec: 1014
---

# New Update Completely Changes the Meta

> Source: [New Update Completely Changes the Meta](https://youtube.com/watch?v=0D2m-dV6lek)

## Summary

This video discusses the upcoming changes in Apex Legends season 29 split 2, including legend buffs and nerfs, a new shotgun hop-up, and anti-cheat updates. The creator provides detailed analysis and predictions for the new meta.

### Key Points

- **Overview of Update** [00:02] — The update includes nerfs to Axle, Ballistic, Pathfinder, Seer buffs, Maggie, Valk, Conduit nerfs, shotgun hop-up changes, and regional differences.
- **Anti-Cheat Success** [00:30] — New anti-cheat update removed 1,000 accounts in one week, targeting top 100 leaderboard spots. Banned 79 of top 100 Apex Predator players on consoles and 7 on PC.
- **Axle Nerfs** [01:42] — Axle's movement is too free, so they are nerfing how easy it is to get tactical Qs and the kickstart. Also, her ultimate now launches players in the direction they are moving, making it less of a death sentence.
- **Ballistic Rework** [03:46] — Ballistic gets a quality of life change: respawn with sling weapon. Overheat mechanic changed so swapping weapons removes overheat. Ultimate speed boost only applies when sprinting. New upgrades include extra bullet, longer trap mode, and 'quiet time' silence.
- **Pathfinder Buffs** [06:13] — Pathfinder gets a second passive: harder to hit on ziplines. Tactical now has two charges with flat 20-second cooldown. Ultimate cooldown reduced and deploy time faster. Recon/control perks now give all class perks. New upgrade 'landing gear' gives Horizon-like air control and soft landing.
- **Seer Buffs** [09:09] — Passive heartbeat sensor more consistent. Tactical deploys faster and slows momentum more. Ultimate now includes a short scan when zone is created, shows new enemies entering, and leaves tracked footprints for locked enemies, revealing invisible players.
- **Maggie Nerfs** [11:21] — Tactical cooldown increased. Ultimate speed boost only applies when sprinting, similar to Ballistic.
- **Valkyrie Nerf** [12:28] — Reverting the faster recovery after skydiving, making it harder to instantly engage after landing.
- **Conduit Nerf** [13:05] — Increased cooldown on tactical, reducing how often she can heal teammates.
- **Shotgun Hop-Up 'Executioner'** [13:19] — New hop-up for Peacekeeper and Mastiff: securing a knock starts shield regeneration over a few seconds, stacking with Skirmisher perk. Replaces Disruptor Rounds and other hop-ups.
- **Regional Differences** [14:58] — EA is monitoring regional weapon usage differences, e.g., Alternator used more in APAC, but no immediate changes.
- **Meta Predictions** [15:40] — Seer and Pathfinder will be used more. Seer counters movement legends. Pathfinder becomes more consistent and strong. Shotgun meta may favor skirmishers and close-quarters fights.

### Conclusion

The update brings significant changes to the meta, with Seer and Pathfinder likely becoming top picks. The new shotgun hop-up adds survivability, and anti-cheat improvements are a positive step.

## Transcript

getting nerfed. Seer and Pathfinder are getting buffed, and shotguns are getting reworked heading into the next split of season 29. Guys, this is such a massive update. It is going to be really game-changing to the meta, and you are
going to have to change your approach to how you play the second split of season in ranked. Today, we're going to be going over all the updates, what they mean, and my prediction as to how the game is going to be getting played.
So, first things first, we're going to hop on into some of the anti-cheat they're actually doing something good for once. Now, they have successfully identified and removed 1,000 accounts in 1 week of deploying a brand new type of
anti-cheat, or a brand new update to their anti-cheat, that has been focused on targeting the top 100 spots on the leaderboards across all platforms. In their Twitter post, they said that they are identifying and targeting Zen,
Cronus, and Titan users in specifically, and everybody who's using some type of cheating device, software, or exploit, or just third-party application. Across three consoles, Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation, they banned 79
of the top 100 players in Apex Predator, and then on PC, they banned seven of the top 100 players in Apex Predator. And I can say firsthand that I actually know one of the people who got banned. This is someone who I never once thought was
going to be cheater. I just thought he was a genuine, normal, above-average he'd been cheating. Uganda, what are you doing, man? Wh- Why, man? You really got to get caught like that? Now, hopping into some of the updates, TLDR, Axle got
nerfed, Ballistic is getting a refresh, Pathfinder, Seer are getting buffed, Maggie, Valk, Conduit are getting nerfed, shotguns are getting a brand new hop-up and a hop-up shuffle, whatever that means. 6 7. Um, and then they're
adding regional differences in play. No idea what that means. The TLDR about Axel, Apex has identified a pretty key part about what is making her so broken. up until now, about a month and a half after release, is purely because they're
trying to figure out what was making her broken, what people like, what people don't like, which is what's being changed right now, is that her movement is too free. It is too easy to get Axel Qs constantly to the point where they
are completely flooding the map, and people are just constantly flying all going to be nerfing how easy it is to get them, and they're going to be tweaking slightly how you're going to go and get those Axel Qs. The second thing
is the kickstart. They are nerfing the kickstart, and they're adding a cool Axel a little bit easier to counter, a not so broken to play. So, let's start off with the tactical. They're replacing
her level two upgrade super slider with a new upgrade that reduces her tactical cool down and increases the number of nitro gates. That doesn't sound like a I don't know what they're talking about when they say that they're going to
you're making her that much better. What the heck? The second thing is going to whenever it would hit you, it would throw you up into the air, straight up, making it really easy to one mag you as you fall back down. Now, what they're
making it so that whatever direction you're moving while the ultimate hits you, it's going to launch you like an octane pad. Now, it's probably not going but it's that same concept where it's going to launch you in an arch across
forwards and you get hit by it, it's going to launch you forward. If you're going to launch you back. So, now you kind of have some influence over how the just a guaranteed death sentence anymore. This is a very very nice change
for Axel. Ballistic is also getting a refresh or a rework. Now, I don't really much detail, but basically they're making it so that whenever you respawn in all game modes, you're going to have
your same sling weapon equipped. So, that's not really a buff, it's just more kind of like a minor quality of life change. The tactical, the overheat mechanic, "I to Ballistics tactical is frustrating as a play pattern for a lot
this is they're changing it, obviously, it's an update. Before whenever you got got overheated by Ballistic, that whistle would hit you, you would shoot deal damage to you, and on top of that you couldn't use your weapons. Now, you
still can't use your weapon unless you swap weapon. Basically, what they're doing is whenever you overheat, if you swap weapons, your secondary, the weapon that you're swapping to, will no longer be overheated, which means as you're
you can swap to your R-9. So, instead of being silenced for two or three seconds, and a half, which isn't the biggest difference, but it is helpful and it's a the other side of that tactical. Ballistic is going to be a lot easier to
be changing Ballistic's ultimate, and they're actually buffing it slightly. Now, they're changing how the speed boost on Ballistic works. Now, whenever get a speed boost, but the speed boost is only going to be applied to when
you're sprinting. So, unlike an Octane stim where it affects you in everything affect you as you're sprinting forwards. So, whenever you go to reposition, move back, move around, try to take new
most useful. You're not going to be able to pop an ultimate in hopes that the extra speed is going to make you harder to hit, and thus it's going to give you So, he is getting a little bit of a buff, but not a massive one. Now,
Ballistic's upgrades, he's getting an extra bullet in one of his perks, so instead of just two. His trap mode upgrade is going to last a little bit longer on the ground, and it's going to do 35 damage when it hits you, and he's
getting a new upgrade, quiet time, where instead of a overheat upgrade, where you can't use it, it's actually going to silence you now. Very similar to a seer scan or the original rev tactical, where you would throw a Kobe on somebody and
abilities. Except this has a homing missile that auto locks on you. So, nerfs, he's getting some small upgrades. He's just going to be a little bit more going to be a little bit more useful, but not overpowered at the same time.
but not overpowered at the same time. Now, Pathfinder is getting some insane actually going to go back to maining him. I know Caustic, for a fact, is OG path mains, like me, when I was on Xbox, I had 50K kills before I switched
to PC and lost all of my progress on him. He's making a comeback. So, first things first, they are giving him a second passive ability. The addition to his passive now is whenever he takes horizontal zip lines, his hit box is
going in a full stand while he's riding his zip line, he's now going to be whoops, a lot harder to hit. Pathfinder's tactical is also getting tacticals instead of just one. And instead of having a dynamic cool down,
cool down is smaller, if you have a long grapple, the cool down is longer, now it's going to be two tacticals with a flat cool down, 20 seconds. This is wait for 10 seconds, grapple, wait for 10 seconds, grapple, wait for 10
seconds, and you always have a backup grapple in your pocket. So, that is you can also pair that with power booster, where whenever you get a knock, ultimate is also going to be getting a buff. It's not major, but it is a nice
to be reducing the cool down on his ultimate, so you're going to be able to to be really awesome for rotations or even just pushing fights with your team. reduce how long it takes to deploy the zip line. So, pulling it out of your
line is also going to be a reduced amount of time. They're also making some changes to his recon / control perk upgrade. Before you could either pick give you the ability to scan survey beacons or ring consoles. Survey beacons
around you and ring consoles being the device that scans where the next zone is one or the other, you actually get all the perks that come from that class. So scan survey beacons and see where everyone is but you but you also get to
see enemies highlighted in red across the map which is super super strong. If don't just get to see where the next zone is going to be but you also get an extra 25 HP in zone and while you're in zone, it also heals your shields. And on
top of that as well, if you pick control class, you will also be able to reinforce hard light which is the new glass that they've added in this recent season. That alone is just like already some pretty major upgrades to
Pathfinder. That is going to make him one of the top picks in my opinion going to this new split but there's one more upgrade that is going to guarantee you he's the new movement legend for Apex. The new upgrade, they say, are replacing
grapple god with landing gear. This will give Pathfinder better air control like Horizon and soft landing passive like Horizon allowing for quick recoveries basically means that when you grapple now, if you pick this new landing gear
have more control over your body meaning you can air strafe while flying around not going to get fall stunned. You're going to be able to push and slide out of it which is super super strong for being aggressive or trying to reposition
pretty OP Well, I don't even know if it's OP but he's getting some pretty substantial buffs that's going to make him pretty meta going into pro league as well as ranked, maybe even pubs. So, check this out. Starting off with his
passive heartbeat sensor, you're going to be getting more consistent and more you're basically just going to be a little bit more up-to-date as to where be a lot more reliable because you're not going to be waiting as long for that
next update. And as for the tactical, they are adding two buffs to the tactical. One being they are reducing how long it takes to deploy and then actually hit the tactical. So, it's going to be a lot faster. You're going
out and activates. The second thing is going to be there's going to be a much bigger slow down your momentum when you get hit by that tactical. They're aiming momentum while using high-speed abilities like actual slide and Ash
dashes for example. So, basically, as you're running around, you see that scan pop up, you're probably getting hit by it. Like you're not able as easily to get out of the way and when it does hit you, it is really going to slow you
down. Now, the ultimate is also getting a pretty cool and very unique buff that we haven't really seen before in an ultimate before, let alone just any we're adding a short scan that will occur when the zone is created. This
before you need to start looking for footsteps. This scan will also show any new enemies that enter the zone after it's been activated. Additionally, locked enemies in the zone will now leave tracked footprints. Now, this is
really, really cool because it's going to give you more information as you give you more information throughout the duration of the ultimate. On top of that, anyone who is invisible will not be able to get away with being inside of
that ultimate anymore. So, if you ever have a Mirage that gets a revive off, ultimate. Overall, I think Seer is going to be a lot more useful, especially in play Mirage or in ranked where some
scan ability is just going to be super OP as you're taking gunfights, won't really be able to get out of the way anymore. Those scans will really come into play, especially when other legends like Axe are going to be getting
used within the first couple rounds of pro league. Now, onto Maggie. Maggie is getting nerfed. Thank god. She has been so strong for so long. It's awesome to swinging with her tactical, they're going to be increasing the cool down of
her tactical. This is going to make it so that you're not going to see as many going to be getting drilled as often, as hard, and because of that, it's just going to be a little bit more feasible to play certain areas cuz well, you're
all the time. The second nerf is going to be to her ultimate speed boost. Whenever you throw her ultimate wrecking ball, it leaves these pucks behind or them, it makes you run a lot faster. The change that's going to be coming this
going to be applied to your overall speed, rather only to your sprinting speed. Very similar to Ballistic's change to his ultimate speed boost. When you throw your ultimate down as Mad
Maggie, you're only going to run faster if you are sprinting. So, moving side to overall just trying to maneuver isn't going to be as impactful unless you're sprinting. Valkyrie is going to be getting a little bit of a nerf. In a
recent buff that she got, whenever she skydives down into the ground, she has a lot faster of a recovery on her landing. She's able to pull her weapons out doing is they're just going to be reverting that because it was a little
bit too overpowered cuz she could swarm up team or a player, land, and then wouldn't give enough time for players react. So, that is getting reverted. It's gone. You can no longer skydive and just insta-fuck somebody cuz it's out of
the game. On to his also getting nerfed as well. Though, it is not a big nerf, it's just a little bit of a small one. They're going to be increasing the cool she has two, it's a little bit too overpowered how quickly you can get that
tactical back and just constantly be healing teammates. So, they decided that They're increasing the cool down. She's going to be a little less useful in consistency in terms of her gun fights. Now, shotguns are getting a crazy
word for word cuz this is going to be this is going to make the most sense, honestly. Let's dive on into it. New shotgun hop-up and hop-up shuffle. Particularly, we are seeing the sting the most in our finisher style shotguns,
the Mastiff and Peacekeeper. Looking deeper into the data, we see that on average, shotguns are the weapons that players die while holding the most. Our hypothesis is these weapons are securing knocks, but the close-range encounters
where shotguns thrive lead to extremely low health and result in quick follow-up avenging from enemy teammates. Instead of doing raw damage buffs to this class of finisher shotguns, we have opted to give them a new survivability style
hop-up, aptly called Executioner. Once the hop-up has been unlocked, securing a knock will begin a shield regeneration over a few seconds, similar to that Skirmisher knock expert perk, and yes, they will stack. Our goal is to provide
shotguns with more utility and less raw firepower. But this gives these weapons a little more juice to stay in the fight afterwards. Executioner will be available on the Peacekeeper and Mastiff, replacing Disruptor Rounds and
is while you're fighting with Peacekeeper and Mastiff, every time you get a knock, it's going to give you an extra 25 to 50 HP. They don't say exactly what it is inside the patch notes just yet, but they said it's going
to stack on top of the Skirmisher perks, which if you know Skirmishers, whenever HP to their flesh or their shield. So, very well what this could be is if you're playing a Skirmisher legend like Ash, Wraith, Pathfinder, Octane, Alter
pick up a knock with a Peacekeeper, and then while you back off, you regain 100 possibly plus HP. Now, lastly is the regional differences in play. Honestly,
concerned about. EA's really just saying that the Alternator is being used, or used a lot more in different regions as example, the Alternator is being used a lot more in APAC, and I think that's
Japan. I've no idea what that is. I'm I'm going to assume that's Japan, but anyways. Being used a lot more in comparison to NA, EU, OCE, and South but they're saying that they're keeping an eye on it. They're going to see what
they're going to keep in mind that, you know, whenever they make an update, it's not going to be just because a certain region prefers those types of things in general. Now, my overall conclusion going to this new split, season 29, the
last split of the season, is going to be is that Seer and Pathfinder are going to be used a lot more. Seer is going to be the new way to counter movement legends like Pathfinder, Axel, Valkyrie even. Just because you can get that scan off a
lot sooner, and as well, it slows people down a lot harder. Because of that, it's very aggressive plays coming from skirmish players. Pathfinder, because much more, I honestly think that a lot of people are going to start picking him
up because, in general, he is a very strong legend. He's just not as easy to use consistently because of the lack of consistency from his ability usage. that any of the other nerfs are going to be that game-changing to this new split.
nerfed. Valk is ever so slightly nerfed. Maggie's been nerfed a little bit. I still think that, in general, those legends are very strong. You just can't to. It'll be really interesting to see how shotguns are going to be used going
a little bit of a change in gameplay style. I think with the shotgun meta, skirmishers get played, and as well, close-quarter fights get played out. We'll see exactly what boils down in
this new split in a couple days, but until then, if you guys enjoyed this and subscribe. I'll see you guys in the next one.