Season 6 of Apex Legends brought about major changes to the game. Aside from the addition of Rampart and the massive overhaul of the World's Edge map, the way armor functioned was retooled significantly. Now all armor that isn't gold is automatically Evo Armor and its value is reduced by 25 HP.
It's a decision that's been viewed as too drastic by numerous Apex players. Many felt that by lowering the health of armor while also putting powerful guns like the Devotion, Volt, and Triple Take with the Precision Choke attachment out in the world made TTK (time to kill) far too short. People were either dying too quickly or killing too quickly.
After initially dismissing these claims, Respawn seems to have listened. Which is why armor was restored back to its pre-Season 6 value with yesterday's patch.
In a post written on Apex Legends' EA page, design director Jason McCord explained why the controversial change was rolled back with this latest patch. According to McCord, armor was reduced because of players gaining Red Evo Armor too often. This left them with 225 health in total, making them much harder to kill. Thus, armor was scaled back to remove that advantage and make things a little easier for less-skilled players.
Although this idea was thoroughly tested, fans were less than pleased. It became common for someone to roll into a fight with a Spitfire and demolish everyone in sight. If an expert player happened to get a hold of a care package-exclusive weapon like the Kraber, the fight could be over in mere seconds.
It made for an interesting diversion from the usual method of playing Apex, but it seems like the game's populace has convinced Respawn to go back to basics. However, while armor values have been restored, the choice to turn everyone's armor into Evo Armor remains untouched. So you can still shoot your way to that precious Red Evo, only now it has even more health to keep you standing after taking a Mozambique shot to the head.
The patch also featured a variety of bug fixes and other modifications. This includes fixing issues like audio not playing when firing certain energy weapons, Rampart being able to fire her minigun through Gibraltar's shield, and the removal of a problematic line of dialogue from Caustic towards Crypto.
While every adjustment to the game may not work as planned, it's still pretty impressive how dedicated Respawn is to freshening up Apex Legends' gameplay. Let's hope that the team has some even better game-changing tweaks set for future seasons. Like perhaps a new map for Season 7, hmm?
Source: EA