Valkyrie's "Tac Hover" Ability is Getting Nerfed
By Jack O'Dwyer
Apex Legends developers have confirmed a bit of bad news for Valkyrie mains: her jetpack hover is taking a hit from the nerf gun.
Recently, it's come to developer attention that some players have been using Valkyrie's "tac hover" ability to wait out major fights from above. While Valkyrie can't use weapons while she's air bone, that doesn't seem to be enough to stop experienced individuals from exploiting the ability's lowered fuel intake rate. John Larson, associate Live Balance Designer for Respawn Entertainment, took to Twitter on Tuesday, May 25 to announce the upcoming change.
"With ALGS ramping up, we figured we should remove this exception (we found Valks would often take coffee breaks above the final fight in scrims)." He wrote, "This will go live on Thursday."
Valkyrie's "Tac Hover" Ability is Getting Nerfed
Players' reaction to the news has been mixed. Some are happy about the change as it will rid matches of a potential exploit regarding the new legend. Most, however, have been calling the response unnecessary, noting that this strategy appears to only be employed by major or professional players—making the nerf more of a punishment to the rest of the community.
Twitter user @Michael30931445 wrote, "It shouldn’t be removed, just nerfed...This is an extreme reaction for 0.01% of the player base with much more reasonable solutions."
Larson replied that while they tried experimenting with different rates, "it didn't feel meaningfully different" and still had the potential to affect "any game that went to final ring, not just scrims."
This didn't seem to placate complaints, unfortunately for him. The responses continued with the same sentiment. A few accused Respawn of not caring about the majority of their players and only wanting to cater to those who made them money.
"Soon I'm going to quit this game. Why do we always have to put pros who play your game for the profit of it before the players who actually play your game because they LIKE it?" @qtValkyrie asked.
@Phishyys responded to them, writing "Almost every [casual] player (which is 90% of their player base) says the opposite of what the streamers/pros say but they still go through with it. Respawn cares about :money with wings x3:"
There is no concrete information on exactly how the ability will be changed in the upcoming May 27 update.