Popularity, buffs haven’t changed that pros are still refusing to play this one Apex character

In most games, when a character gets buffed or nerfed, their pick rate is affected, and this was the case for Pathfinder in Apex Legends. At the start of season 16, Pathfinder received several changes to his Passive and his Ultimate.

Scanning Survey Beacons no longer offers a cooldown for Pathfinder, and Pathfinder’s passive benefits are now gained from revealing Care Packages. And his Ultimate, Zipline Gun, has an increased range of roughly 60 percent, the max speed has increased by 66 percent, and there are now acceleration and exit speed adjustments.

Since the start of the season, Pathfinder has become one of the most picked Legends, with a pick rate of 11.3 percent across all ranks, second only to Wraith, who has a pick rate of 12.1 percent. And he’s the most picked Legend for Master/Predator players.

Despite his buffs and popularity among ranked Apex matches, he is among the least-picked Legends in pro play. In the ALGS Split 2, he has only been picked three times and hasn’t been picked at all in North America.

There appear to be clear Legend favorites for pro players, with the most picked team composition for the ALGS Split 2 comprising Catalyst, Seer, and Valkyrie. The reason is that many people believe these champions are simply too powerful and their abilities too great not to take advantage of. And they synergize well with one another.

So, while Pathfinder may be a popular choice in ranked Apex, the pros still stick with Legends like Catalyst and Seer, despite Pathfinder’s Passive and Ultimate buffs.

Whether Respawn does more to push the simulacrum back into pro play or not remains to be seen, but so far the Apex devs have not unveiled any plans to buff Pathfinder further following his scan and ultimate changes.

If he does, maybe his time in the pro leagues will come again.