Biggest winners and losers of Apex Legends’ season 17 patch

A new Apex Legends season lies ahead of us. Over the last couple of weeks, Respawn Entertainment has released a slow drip of teasers showing what’s in store for the battle royale’s next major update. With just one day before the season goes live, the Apex developer posted a new set of patch notes, giving players a better idea of which legends and weapons will dominate the meta and which ones will be taking a backseat.

Today’s patch notes outlined a number of bug fixes, game mode rotations, and balance changes arriving with season 17’s release tomorrow. While some weapons and legends have come out on the other side of the patch notes as must-haves for players, others will likely be cast to the wayside as the season draws near.

Before players barrel head first into season 17 tomorrow, you’ll need to know the most important changes headed to the battle royale and what they mean for the game’s meta. Here are the biggest winners and losers of Apex’s season 17 patch.

Biggest winners of Apex’s season 17 patch

The Support class

A few changes arrived for the Support class with today’s patch notes, starting with Mirage joining the roster. The class’ unique Support Bins will also now guarantee at least one shield battery in hidden compartments, as well as a mobile respawn beacon if your ally is dead. But that’s not all. The biggest and most consequential change came to how the class’ perk actually works.

When it was first introduced, the Support class’ perk changed the way the game could be played. A Support legend had the ability to craft a fallen teammate’s respawn banner even after it had expired. So when you thought you were down and out, a teammate could bring you back into the fight. When season 17 launches, though, all players on the same team as a Support can craft a banner—even if they’re not playing a Support legend themselves.

It might seem like a small change, but it was enough to make one of Apex’s top pro players do a double-take.

“Woah! That is insane,” NRG’s Christopher “sweetdreams” Sexton said on a May 8 Twitch stream. “Wait, that is the most meta fucking change for ranked ever. … That’s really OP for competitive too, because we play Loba on World’s Edge, and now any of us can go craft banners.”

Sweetdreams’ reaction hit the nail on the head. With the power of the Support class now being applied to all teammates, which character you pick has a much bigger ripple effect on the rest of your team. If you don’t want a banner timer to be the end of you or your teammates, you’ll want to ensure your team has a Support legend in season 17.

L-STAR

Have you seen the patch notes on this thing? Because it looks like the Apex devs just said “Screw it, let’s add a Borderlands gun.” The new care package L-STAR now has Disruptor Rounds, which give it a 60-percent damage buff against body shields. But it also gets “damage passthrough,” meaning collateral kills won’t just be for big, beefy sniper rifles like the Kraber or Sentinel anymore. The L-STAR bullets will damage enemies when they pass through other enemies for 60 percent of its normal damage. Yep.

Related: Apex Legends pros and streamers think one gun will be terrifying in season 17

The L-STAR has always been kind of a weird and niche gun, with a few players over the years swearing by it and many more not bothering to pick it up. Now, it’s the big bad wolf of the Apex weapon pool, and with 324 base ammo in it, it’s a must-use weapon if you come across it in season 17.

Biggest losers of Apex’s season 17 patch

Seer

Everybody’s time comes, and that time for Seer is season 17. OK, he’s not dying. But he did get nerfed. Maybe only a little, but it’s enough to make a difference, at least, given how powerful his scans have been historically.

That’s right: Despite not making the patch notes list, the Ambush Artist is receiving an indirect nerf next season, and it’s one that finally addresses the controversial in-game interaction between him and Catalyst from last year.

When Catalyst arrived in the Apex Games in November 2022, the player base expected her wall to counter Seer’s scan abilities. And to the dismay of those same players, Seer’s ultimate ability still worked through the ferrofluid, revealing enemy locations despite Catalyst’s use of her ultimate. But that won’t be the case for much longer.

Season 17 is making it so Catalyst’s Dark Veil stops all scan highlights and diamonds, including on Seer’s ultimate ability. And while it doesn’t kneecap Seer too much in most firefights, it’s a change that could mean the difference between being booted back to the lobby and winning a match—especially at the pro levels, where both Seer and Catalyst have been making their rounds across team compositions.

R-99

We will admit, the R-99 is only a small loser here. It’s still going to be strong thanks to the weapon retaining the damage buff it received in season 16. But one less bullet per magazine does make it much more necessary to find a good extended magazine for the gun and make hitting your shots against full purple- or red-shielded enemies very important.

If you were one of the people just spraying and praying that the aim assist would eventually kick in, you might lose a few more of your fights next season.

The R-99 is still going to shred, but now, you just need to be a little bit more accurate to continue making it the one-clip king it was in season 16. It’s now a bit more in line with the other SMGs in the ground loot, where each has its own niche. The R-99 is still the fully automatic one-clipper, while the Prowler fully asserts itself as the SMG that can deal the most damage with one magazine, the CAR maintains its value via attachment and ammo flexibility, and the Volt… can hold attachments until you find a Nemesis.

Assault class loot goblins

Look, we get it: Season 16 happened, you got your fancy red loot bins that could significantly upgrade your weapon if you were playing your pocket Bangalore, Ash, or Fuse pick, and you sprinted ahead to make sure no one on your team could take that blue laser sight away from you, or something. The pull of the loot goblin is strong, and the Assault class perk made it stronger when the smart loot bins usually offered up weapon attachments primarily tailored to the person opening the loot bin.

Well, guess what? You’re a team player now, bub. In season 17, those loot bin attachments are going to be pulled from a pool of your entire team’s weapons, and not just your own. Sorry you didn’t get the upgrade from the purple extended heavy mag to gold, but thanks for the sniper stock.