Prowler, L-Star Nerfed in Apex Legends Patch

The Prowler and the L-Star both received nerfs in an Apex Legends update applied Tuesday.

The Prowler, once a weapon exclusive to care packages, was moved to the general loot pool recently, and developer Respawn Entertainment appears to have decided it retained too much of its care package-level strength. Tuesday's patch dropped its per-bullet damage from 15 to 14, which amounts to five less damage per five-round burst.

That change is enough to prevent a single burst from cracking a level two body shield. It also means a player with level five armor will take more than three full Prowler bursts to knock down.

Associate live balance designer John "JayBiebs" Larson said the team chose a conservative nerf rather than risk overdoing it.

"We considered hitting the hipfire a bit, but after over-correcting with the Hemlok, we'll take the conservative approach here," he tweeted Tuesday. "Prowler has the same hipfire properties as the R9, and SMGs should be reliable close range. I think there are smarter ways to further adjust if it still proves to be the de facto [close quarters combat] option."

The patch reduced movement speed when aiming down the sights of the L-Star.

"There are inevitable growing pains of adjusting to a weapon that isn't typically picked up much, but I think many would agree that it's not as overbearing as the [Spitfire] in its heyday," Larson wrote. "Perhaps it scales too aggressively with blue/purp attachments. I think it's too early to tell, and any significant change to handling/recoil would [be] best suited for a bigger patch after soaking in more data and feedback."

More balance changes hit Arenas, where both the Prowler and the L-Star had their prices raised. Respawn also fixed a map hole near Climatizer, on World's Edge. A balance update for Seer is planned for next week.