Apex players question lack of Seer nerfs amidst sweeping meta changes in season 14

If you’ve played Apex Legends in the last month or so, you’ve probably noticed a sizable uptick in Seer players in your lobbies. It’s not just you. Seer went from one of the least-played legends in the game in April and May to a steady top-10 pick for players in July, according to Apex Legends Status. This is especially true in ranked the higher rank you are. Seer players are Platinum III on average in the game. In the cast of Apex, only Horizon enjoys a higher average rank amongst her players than Seer.

It came as a surprise to many players who have had their heals and revives canceled ad nauseam over the past several weeks that amongst the sweeping changes to legends and weapons coming in season 14, Seer made it through the patch notes completely untouched.

Seer’s presence has been felt most heavily in the game’s pro scene as of late. Since FURIA used him to such great effect at the ALGS Championship, most teams have experimented with dropping Gibraltar from their team compositions and picking up Seer.

The change from a defensive shield character to a recon character that can provide flawless information on the enemy’s whereabouts and cancel heals and revives has led to a much more attack-heavy meta—and also plenty of visual clutter.

While it’s puzzling to see Gibraltar get an indirect nerf while he’s actively falling out of favor, with Mad Maggie’s Wrecking Ball now destroying the Dome of Protection, and Seer not receiving any nerfs at all, it’s most likely due to the time constraints for shipping patches like these. FURIA’s HisWattson, the player perhaps most responsible for the current Seer craze, explained this process on stream after reading through the patch notes.

Seer not receiving a nerf in this patch doesn’t necessarily mean that no one at Respawn thinks he needs a nerf. It just means that the sudden surge in popularity came too close to the beginning of the new season for the devs to adequately address it and balance him accordingly. A similar situation has happened with other legends whose pick rates surge, in part thanks to them entering the pro meta, right as Respawn was about to buff the legend due to a previously low usage rate.

While this isn’t a guarantee that Seer will get a nerf, it seems fairly likely given how many different things his abilities can do and how popular he has become. It’ll just take more time as the devs sift through how the new legend meta shakes out in season 14 and figure out how to balance him without sending his pick rate plummeting, which is what happened soon after his original big nerf in season 10.

That means players will just need to be patient. That’s difficult at the best of times, but with season 14 beginning tomorrow, it shouldn’t be too long of a wait.