So, Wattson finally got her huge buff. In fact, she was the only Legend that was touched at all in the balance changes made for Apex Legends Season 11: Escape. There are some nerfs in there two, but only one of the nerfs is major. All around, this is one of the biggest buffs a character in Apex Legends has seen in a long time, and wow, did she need it. Wattson had been struggling with her kit, bad glitches, and poor play for awhile now, but no more. Let’s take a look at the new and improved Wattson.
Hitbox Changes
Let’s rip the band-aid off and get the bad part out of the way. The only major nerf in Wattson’s overall buff is the changes to her hitbox. Ever since the removal of the Low Profile perk in Season 9: Legacy, Wattson’s small size gave her quite a bit of an advantage in some kinds of combat. Wraith, Pathfinder, Revenant, and Lifeline all had hitbox changes since the removal, and Wattson was the only former Low Profile Legend to not have one. So, while it is a nerf, it is a fair one that was well overdue.
Tactical: Perimeter Defense
- [Buff ↑] Fences now deal 20 damage to crossing enemies (formerly 15)
- [Buff ↑] Enemies are now debuffed for 3 seconds on fence cross (formerly 1.5)
- [Nerf ↓] Enemies now have 1 second to escape a fence before being hit again (formerly 1.5)
- [Buff ↑] Cooldown is now only 15 seconds (formerly 30)
- [Buff ↑] Placement range has been increased by 50%
- [Buff ↑] Fences shut off due to being crossed by you or an ally will now reactivate after 0.4 seconds (formerly 1 second)
- [Buff ↑] Wattson now moves at the same speed she would if not holding anything while holding or placing her fence nodes
- [Buff ↑] Fence nodes now can be placed immediately (formerly had to wait for an animation to finish)
- [Buff ↑] Fence nodes now can be placed above eye level
- [Buff ↑] Better reliability when placing fence nodes on geometry
Related: All of Ash’s abilities in Apex Legends
Ultimate: Interception Pylon
- [Nerf ↓] Only 1 Pylon can be placed at a time (formerly 3)
- [Buff ↑] Wattson’s Pylon now lasts forever unless it is destroyed (formerly lasted 90 seconds)
- [Nerf ↓] Wattson’s Pylon can now only heal 250 damage worth of shields total
- The Pylon’s UI now displays how much more shield HP a Pylon can still heal
- Pinging a Pylon will show the percentage of shields a Pylon can still heal, but only if it is yours or an ally’s
- Once the 250 HP threshold has been reached, the Pylon will no longer heal players, however, the pylon will continue to block incoming ordnances
- [Buff ↑] Shields now regenerate from the Pylon at a rate of 5 HP per second (formerly 2)
- [Change ↔] Players who take damage while regenerating will have to wait 1 second after the damage seizes to begin healing again
- [Buff ↑] The Pylon’s Ordnance zapping now has increased blocking ability
- Ordnances are now zapped if they are going to be in range, even while out of range, as long as the Pylon has line-of-sight to the ordnance
- The zap is now more reliable, especially in the case of counterattacking Bangalore and Gibraltar’s ultimate abilities
- [Buff ↑] Pylons now can be placed above eye level
- [Buff ↑] Better reliability when placing a Pylon on geometry
No changes were made to Wattson’s Spark of Genius Passive ability.
For more Apex Legends content, check out Storm Point map – All Points of Interest (POIs) in Apex Legends on Pro Game Guides.
