Apex Legends designer discusses the changes to Ash, Ballistic, and Assault Legends

Last week, Respawn unveiled the next season of ongoing battle royale hit Apex Legends. The Takeover season will usher in a slew of changes, which includes some changes to the game's weapons and its Assault classes.

Shacknews recently traveled to Sapporo, Japan to check out the conclusion of the Apex Legends Global Series season. There, I had a chance to speak with Game Designer John Larson. We discussed some of the changes coming to Apex Legends with the Takeover season, including some of the Legends receiving changes and which characters could potentially see some in the future.

(Editor's note: The following interview was conducted on Friday, January 31, prior to the ALGS Year 4 Championship Match Point finals.)

Shacknews: There's a lot that's coming to the new Takeover season in Apex legends. What are the team's primary goals with the next season?

John Larson, Game Designer: Season 23 was all about Support. Season 24, the start of it, is all about Assault. We've got a big shakeup with the class upgrades. We have a shield-breaker perk called Battle Surge, which grants a speed boost on shield crack, so you can capitalize if you keep pushing the tempo in fights. We have a stowed reload, which similar to the gold mag perk, you'll get passive reload on stowed weapons just after a couple of seconds.

Then we have Combat Reserve. This is where, in addition to your access to Assault Bins and extra ammo stacks, Assault characters will also be able to get two inventory slots for ordinance. It's all about pushing as everyone fights, finding entry points, displacing people from cover. We're really moving into that more aggressive playstyle than in 2024.

Shacknews: Are there any other changes that we can expect to see out of the Assault classes?

Larson: Similar to what we did with Support, there are a couple of Legends in particular that are getting some spicy changes.

I'm excited for Ash. I've always loved her kit, but she's getting some compelling upgrades in addition to a new passive that will allow her to dash across the battlefield in skirmishes. Her tethers have improved and then her Ultimate has an increased range and better targeting, too. Plus, her upgrade tree is pretty exciting.

Ballistic is another one that gave some meaty upgrades to. We're getting more charges for the Tactical and you can even opt in to an upgrade that will allow him to silence abilities from his Tactical.

Those are the two. I think we're also going to be reevaluating some of the interactions that Maggie used to have against things like Gibraltar Dome and Crypto AOP. So we're fading out Support and we'll see Assault stocks rise.

Shacknews: Ash's chaanges, citing Predator's Pursuit as an example, seem pretty drastic. What led to these changes?

Larson: She's always been a good [redesign] candidate because the fantasy is so strong. We already have a murder robot in Revenant, but Ash has been around for longer, since the Titanfall days.

She has a compelling Tactical and an Ultimate that kind of makes sense for her playstyle, but the Passive felt a little out of place. In terms of finding Death Boxes, we wanted something that provided more combat utility to synergize well with the tether, dashing to an off angle toget a better tether shot or combo into an Ult. We just wanted to make her more snappy on the on the battlefield.

Shacknews: Do you anticipate any changes to the way people approach Ballistic with these changes?

Larson: Yeah, I think Ballistic has been interesting. When I talk to Ballistic fans, they recognize the potential in the kit, but it can be hard to find success with the Tactical. So, we wanted to focus a lot of our energy around that. I think you'll be using that Smart Pistol a lot more. When you do land a hit, I think you'll be able to capitalize on a successful hit more often.

Shacknews: Where do you feel the Legend meta is right now? Are there other Legends that the team is potentially monitoring for possible adjustments?

Larson: As evidenced by our intentions with Support, we want to lean into heavier shakeups. We never want something to be too frustrating or blatantly overpowered. We want to be better about tapping into the community and responding with hotfixes. Expect to see that, expect to see bigger changes, and more frequent readjustments.

Shacknews: I'm talking to you on Day 3 of ALGS Championship week. We've seen a lot of different characters over the course of the tournament. How have you felt about Legend diversity to this point? Are there any Legends that you're surprised are being picked as much as they are this week?

Larson: ALGS is tricky because it's kind of this copycat league where a lot of things will boil up to the surface and that becomes more hardened as the week goes on. I'm not surprised by Newcastle. I'm not really surprised by Gibby.

I've been pleasantly surprised by the uptick in Rampart. There's usually a strong controller that we see in ALGS, but it's cool to see Rampart get her time in the sun. I think she was a beneficiary of the Accelerant Hop-Up, where converting knocks and kills with strong weapons like the Scout and the Nemesis, you can instantly get Ult recharge back. So, for something like Sheila, where you're trying to take down all those covers that are being put up by Newcastle, you just get more uptime with Sheila and your team gets knocks with this Ultimate and the Accelerant Hop-Up. It's cool to see those stocks kind of rise through scrims, leading up to ALGS, and stay high through the competition.

Shacknews: How does ALGS and pro player performance help you determine sort of which characters may maybe need to be adjusted next?

Larson: ALGS will put a unique spotlight on certain play patterns of different characters.

One example would be Caustic. A lot of times, Caustic is not as popular in pubs matches. You do have people that gravitate towards his kit and his playstyle and we want to respect that, but when you talk about a Caustic meta in ALGS, you get these hectic games with a lot of confusion and frustration. When something like that gets highlighted, it inspires us to reevaluate our design or maybe think about how we can be tweaking abilities that might not be highlighted otherwise, just for the health of the game as a whole.

Apex Legends: Takeover will begin on Tuesday, February 11. To learn more, check out our recent preview.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?