Respawn Entertainment has shared updates to the Ranked game mode of Apex Legends. In the recent dev blog, the developers recognized that the player base has grown and matured significantly since Ranked queue began Season 2. And with the launch of Saviors, they are going to introduce the first of several steps to improving the ranked experience for everyone.
the central pillars of the change will focus on two main aspects: Teamplay for Victory and Accurate Skill & Better Competition. To make this possible, Respawn has made several changes that will promote team play and playing for the win as well as better tracking of RP that’s more in line with a player’s actual skill in the game.
Teamplay For Victory
Play for the Team
At its core, Apex Legends is a team-based game, so players should be rewarded at the team level. Now everyone on a team will receive some RP when one of them gets a kill.
Play for the Win
Apex Legends is a battle royale. Survival is the primary objective, and kills are what gets you there. Placing any limits on kills rewards puts an unintended emphasis on hitting these limits So Respawn is taking a different approach.
They are Removing the Kill RP Cap. And in its place is a new system wherein the base value of each kill is worth increasingly less for each kill, down to a minimum.
Assist Rules
Respawn noted that the current assist timer of 10 seconds was too short, and this allowed for actions like retreats to break the timer. This creates unnecessary tension and is counterproductive to survival and winning the game.
So the assist timer has been increased. From 10 seconds to 15 seconds.
“Following up on the revive assist marker change in Defiance, we are also adding a ‘refresh’ to assist timer when a player is revived. With this change, if an enemy you helped knock is revived and immediately downed again by one of your allies, you’ll still be eligible for an assist credit”
In short, assist timers are refreshed upon a player’s revival.
Accurate Skill & Better Competition
Tier Demotions
For the next season, Respawn is introducing tier demotions with the goal of addressing the current struggle some players experience when they get promoted to a new tier but cannot climb in the ranks.
Demotions will create a better true distribution of skills across the ladder. Players will get demotion protection for three games. Once demotion protection is exhausted, dropping below the tier threshold will trigger a new demotion penalty, dropping the player halfway down the previous division.
Like in Ranked Arenas, rewards will be granted based on the highest RP threshold achieved.
To summarize, tier demotion protection is available for up to 3 games lost after promotion into a higher tier. Players can demote out of a tier, halfway down from the previous division. An example they provided is if you drop out of Masters, your new rank will be 50% of Diamond 1. And lastly, players get a 100 RP Tier Promotion Bonus after ranking up.
Entry Cost Adjustments
Respawn has adjusted entry costs across all divisions. There is going to be an entry cost increase on promotion into a new division now. Masters+ entry costs further increase with total RP (5 RP every 1000 RP beyond Master Threshold up to 175 RP).
Kill RP
Respawn has simplified and adjusted the Per Kill RP mechanics, and is now directly presenting the base kill values by placements.
“In a battle royale,” says Respawn. “placing worse than the bottom of the lobby is losing. Placements and kills are both important metrics in Ranked. Having kills without the placement should not constitute success. In response, we have pulled down Kill RP gains for placing worse than 10th. Players placed in this region are likely to lose RP. At the same time, having good placements with little to no kills will cause players to miss out on a majority of their RP rewards coming from the previously mentioned Kill RP changes.”
Kill Tier Diffences
In Season 13, killing a lower tier player grants slightly less reduced RP. This is in conjunction with the introduction of scaling entry costs and kill participation.
Introductory Tier
Respawn has made it so that Bronze has an entry cost now. It has also introduced a new tier: Rookie. This tier will sit below Bronze to act as a proper one-time only, introductory tier to Ranked, and will not have any Ranked rewards associated with it. Existing player are unaffected by the introduction of the Rookie Tier, and cannot be demoted into it, and likewise will not be reset into it on new splits or seasons.
RP Thresholds
The RP thresholds for all tiers and divisions have been adjusted. The length of each division has been increased by 200 RP. This is to account for the increased influx of RP. It will not change the amount of effort needed to raise oneself out of a rank.
3rd Party Kill Stealing Fix
Respawn has fixed a long-standing issue where kill credits were unintentionally transferred from the eliminated teams.
“Previously, when Team A downs players from Team B, and Team A is subsequently eliminated, players from any team can misappropriate these downed players on Team B for kill credits by executing them, regardless of their involvement in the initial conflict. This issue has been fixed and these kills are now properly voided.”
Kills are earned, not given.
This is but the first step in an ongoing effort to evolve and evolve the Ranked experience. the changes addressed here will be implemented when the update goes live on May 10th, 2022.
Apex Legends is now available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Saviors launches on May 10, 2022.
Source: Apex Legends