I hate that I couldn’t stop myself from thinking up a Wraith/Loba shipfic from this.
Turns out they run into each other in the teleportey dimension a lot.
That or Wraith throws in the towel after learning someone can do half her entire shtick with just a bracelet.
The website says that Loba’s bracelet uses Jump Drive tech, which is different from the Phase Shift tech Titanfall Pilots have. (At least in Titanfall 2, the Phase Shift Pilot is a simulacrum, though other Pilots can also use the Phase Rewind ability and the Phase Embark perk.)
The Jump Drive is something we only see used by spacecraft. The drop ships that retrieve survivors at the end of multiplayer maps use the Jump Drive once they get clear of the evac zone. The drops ships also seem to allow Pilots to use Phase Embark even without the perk. Perhaps that’s a short-range use of the Jump Drive, and the intervening post-war years resulted in that particular tech being miniaturized down to the size of Loba’s staff and bracelet.
So I just got around to watching and does the passive apply to people holding high tier loot? Because that sounds incredibly strong
Edit: NVM it was pointed out on Reddit that it’s a Bloodhound scan that’s highlighting the enemies
This character reminds me very much of Sombra from Overwatch. They both look aesthetically similar, they’re both hacker types, and the ability to throw an item and then teleport to it is similar between the two characters.
Some standouts to me:
These are some huge changes!
Really excited about the gold armor change. I think that’s a serious buff to lifeline now that her passive is actually unique.
Caustic is a much better team player now and he can really lock down a building considering traps no longer trigger through doors.
Mirage sounds competitively viable now which will be interesting to see in tournaments.
Really hope we get these octane buffs mid season 
Pathfinder grapple being nerfed is amazing 
The shotgun swap was something I did not see coming at all.
I’m glad to see the removal of location challenges because I feel like doing those without a premade team is next to impossible without being a jerk. Not to mention some places just do not see the level of action to complete.
Favorite option for weapons is a great QoL change. I have skins I like that I wouldn’t mind occasionally seeing.
Looking forward to playing more!
i’m finding the story bits i’ve come across so far to be pretty funny. all of the apex legends meet up for a chat in a bar bathroom, eh?
I am SO happy about the location challenges being gone. Those were the WORST! I’m never going through another battle pass but I still have to be happy those location challenges are gone. Can’t tell you how many times I would try to get kills or downs in a place and either die immediately or nobody would be there.
As someone who plays with randos that I mute at the beginning of the match I am so thankful Crypto can ping banners to call out if there are other parties in the area.
The Mirage buffs seem to be what the community has been asking for a while. I’ve always been concerned about the suggestion of invisible reviving being too strong but we’ll see how that goes. Not like you stay invisible once you’re up.
I also didn’t get the utility of having the decoys in his original ult move as some people wanted. Since he would be invisible you don’t bother shooting the decoys. But looks like with ‘Life of the Party’ he doesn’t cloak? Which will probably make things more chaotic and interesting.
Best Mirage change imo.
Broadly, I am really into them creating more ‘team utility’ for the characters like Caustic and Octane. Hope they continue to expand in that direction.
I won my first game I played in season 5. Glad that’s over with, when does season 6 drop?
i won my second! and i typically don’t win very often. picked up the mastiff (which i have very rarely even seen) and took out 7 people.
This picture from reddit pretty much says it best when it comes to the Pathfinder nerf:
Really going to miss playing him.
Well I also won my second game of Season 5. really shoudl quit when i’m ahead.
It was a really baffling nerf. I haven’t played in a long time, granted, but I never felt like Path’s grapple was even remotely overpowered.
it was a pretty drastic nerfing. that said i still think pathfinder is fun to play. i’m not carrying them off in a casket.
So the problem with Pathfinder was that he was too agile especially in upper level play along with a really good hitbox.
He was a character who could engage and disengage really easily. If they had gold armor they could swing out of view and the next time you saw them they would be fully healed.
They were a fun character to play but a really unfun character to play against because the team needs to essentially make sure they go down first or else they will slip off and heal and come right back in. Or they easily maneuver around the building(s) and always have height advantage.
Also their ult is incredibly strong for them and their team. There are places in both maps that only they can get to that are considered valid.
I once won a round because on World’s Edge outside the tunnel south of train yard there’s a rather flat rock you can only get on top of that has a dip in back that you can hide in to heal but the rest has a clear shot of all three choke points.
We had a Watson setup shop and the zip up was out in the middle of the open so anyone trying to get up would have to completely expose themselves. Won the match easily because no one could dislodge us with grenades or ults thanks to Watson and we just took pot shots until they ran out of meds or were forced to push up and lose all cover because of circle.
You could say that’s just smart play but it’s also a thing that only works with Pathfinder and there’s multiple spots on both maps that let you do things like this. It reached a point where if you were not taking Pathfinder in ranked you were considered not really trying.
Something that I think helpful to take into consideration with the Pathfinder change is how his grapple compares to Loba’s teleport which has a windup and settle that locks you down for a bit. I imagine there was some thought in her balance that could be applied to Pathfinder’s grapple now. Also noting how it relates to Octane’s shortened ult cooldown.
Also the dev comments in the patch notes are incredibly helpful to get a feel of where their mind is at with individual changes. In this case, kinda reflecting what Wazanator is talking about, the power of a constantly repositioning Pathfinder was interpreted as too strong. Now, Pathfinder requires more consideration with the grapple which feels more on par with the small amount of time I’ve had with Loba’s teleport.
All to say there are a lot of moving parts to take into consideration here.
(Though fewer moving parts now with the increased cooldown.)
Played a bit today. Loba feels… like she might be top tier already. While what DKshoji said (and by extension what the devs said) is true regarding the pathfinder nerfs being necessary and how his movement was too good and instantaneous, but Loba’s teleport is (even with the start-up, telegraphing, and recovery) way too good. I feel there is a good middle ground for both characters where both can feel like their identity and what makes them fun doesn’t have to be removed (playing pathfinder today just felt like playing Wraith where you only use her tactical in an emergency and that sucked) but they don’t dominate the competitive meta.
Speaking of which it’s interesting that neither Wraith nor Wattson got hit with a nerf considering they are the heroes that actually dominate high level competitive play.
Gonna take me a long time to figure out how I feel about the King’s Canyon changes. My short term feelings on it are that some of these changes feel like it would have been better just to put it in a new map entirely rather than rework it into King’s Canyon…
Also my gut says that taking away the big dinos is going to ruin the river areas of the map as they were all balanced with them blocking line of sight… We’ll see I guess.
But the thing I’m actually really disappointed in is the Season 5 battle pass itself. Season 1 and 2 were not surprisingly underwhelming because of the small distance from launch, but Respawn was really hitting out of the park in Season 3 and 4 with some of the best gun and character skins in the game, cool dive emotes, and charms that I actually wanted on my guns.
Season 5 has… Mirage vaguely dressed like a pirate? Kinda? Okay, it has more stuff than ever, but none of it speaks to me at all… Honestly I’ll probably end up caring more about the Season Quest rewards even if, comparatively, it gives so little…
Loba is straight off some Queen Shit.
Had an incredible first game with her where I had a good Revenant player on my team who loves to ping. I’d ping back, and there was unique dialogue between Loba and Revenant that is honestly some great lore building. Like, these two hate each other and hitting “Thanks” is hilarious for all the venom they spit back and forth. Oh, and we managed to score a third place just because we were so much better kitted than anyone else thanks to Loba’s abilities. I think I might have found a new main.
So I played my first few matches last night and mastiff feels too good? I don’t think there’s a reason right now to not grab one if you need a close up weapon. It’s really easy to land shots, it takes almost no attachments, and it’s fire rate is faster than Peacekeeper.
Why give a weapon two distinct fire modes without needing a hop up attachment? Something like needing choke for the ADS spread I think would help so you can’t just completely wipe someone in 2 shots.
I think having Peacekeeper be gold is interesting but maybe introduce a new shotgun like a double barrel or something instead of rotating mastiff into normal loot.
The Mastiff is super good. But the Peacekeeper was also incredible. I dunno if it’s too good yet, but it’s neat to actually use
