Respawn has announced aim assist tweaks further down the line in Apex Legends’ future. Will it be too little too late when aim assist is finally nerfed? The Apex community sure seems to think so.
In a recent showcase for Ignite Season 19, developers at Respawn announced their dissatisfaction with the current state of aim assist. Senior design director Evan Nikolich announced aim assist tweaks over “the next few years.” But will Apex Legends still be around in a few years time?
The debate over which is the better way to play Apex Legends has been ongoing for years, but many have settled on controller being the best input method. While a mouse and keyboard setup has a higher skill ceiling, there is ridiculous demand to keep up with the best of the best. Even mouse and keyboard pros like TSM ImperialHal and FURIA Albralelie made their inevitable switch to controllers to keep up with the demand of the comp scene.
The Apex community seems to think the game won’t survive the next few years in its current state, and unfortunately, I have to agree with their concerns. Apex Legends thrives on the competitive side of things. The developer isn’t implementing enough new content to keep casual players invested and pros satisfied. Even sweetdreams and DNO Lou discussed the changes that’d need to be made for Apex to dominate the battle royale scene.
Some players want input-based lobbies, separating players with controllers from those with a keyboard and mouse, while others believe that any tweaks to aim assist will kill the casual playerbase. Interestingly, the main problem with aim assist is the fact that you can use a controller on PC. Most want controller on PC nerfed over console aim assist.
Legends like Bangalore are currently meta due to the digi-threat and smoke combination. As one of the only ways to counter controller aim assist, many have succumbed to this new meta, including other controller users.
Mouse and keyboard is a dying input method for Apex Legends, with pros switching and casual players like myself sick of seeing the one-clipping gods of Apex sit at level 20 and below. While mouse and keyboard offers movement tech with Faide Slide, Tap Strafe, Super Glide, or the new Emote Slide, this only temporarily protects them from low-skilled console players who can easily one-clip.
The question remains: Will mouse and keyboard players be around to see the controller nerfed for a more balanced field of play? Probably not.
