Oh no, the next Apex Legends patch wants to "bring Seer back into the meta"

Apex Legends just can't sit still. Like all live-service games, the developers at Respawn love to tinker with the game's balance to keep players engaged and matches fun. The Apex Legends Season 26 mid-season patch introduces the explosive Wild Iron event, as well as shifting the meta considerably. Ash, Caustic, and Sparrow are due to be nerfed, while Mad Maggie and Seer are on the receiving end of considerable buffs as the devs say they want to "bring Seer back into the meta." Anyone who remembers the Season 10 launch will be having flashbacks right now.

The Wild Iron event is the headline addition to Apex Legends Season 26, as it gives the humble Flatline explosive bullets that occasionally detonate on impact and place bombs on knocked enemies, which can only be defused by reviving them. Players can also find more explosive gear in loot crates, including a chance to pick up an EPG grenade launcher. Eight Wild Cards are also available in Replicators.

But it's not LTMs that made Apex Legends into one of the best battle royale games around. For me at least, it's the varied Legend roster of playable characters that turns every 3v3 into a game of chess as well as a test of your trigger discipline. As such, balance is important. Some Legends are always going to be more viable than others, and Respawn is keen to keep switching who's in the spotlight.

It's clear that Ash has been hogging said spotlight so far in Season 26, but Respawn is taking her down a peg. Her dash cooldown has been increased from eight seconds to 12 seconds, and gives less of a boost if you dash in a different direction than you're already moving. Her Arc Snare also breaks more easily, has less pulling strength, and doesn't deal extra damage to shields. However, her Phase Breach can be buffed with her new Level 2 upgrades, which increase its range by 25m or reduce its cooldown by 30 seconds.

Caustic's gas also takes a hit in this update, as the damage ramps up more slowly and aim punch has been removed while taking damage from it. I'm a little surprised to see Sparrow hit with a nerf, as he seems to be in a good place from my perspective, but his Tracker Dart duration has been reduced to 12 seconds, and his Stinger Bolt has reduced health and now slows Sparrow and his allies the same way it does enemies. Be more careful with those hyper-aggressive pushes, folks.

As for buffs, Mad Maggie's Riot Drill is now faster, as is the animation for her Wrecking Ball. The latter also reliably moves over and around obstacles, deals more damage, and lasts for ten seconds rather than seven. There have also been changes to the technicalities of speed pads, and her Level 2 upgrades.

Seer. How the mighty have fallen. But is it time for a resurrection? His passive Heartbeat Scanner has been reworked, now boasting an increased range but only showing one constant heartbeat, rather than a beat for each enemy. The visibility of the UI has also been improved, showing you directional waveforms to reflect an opponent's distance from you.

His oh-so-annoying Focus of Attention tactical ability thankfully doesn't cancel heals like it did at launch, but it gives Seer a speed boost and reduces weapon holster time significantly. Scan duration has been nearly doubled, slow duration actually doubled, but the silence effect has been slashed to just 2.5 seconds. The cooldown has also been reduced to 20 seconds.

When it comes to his ultimate, Seer can now throw his Exhibit up to 50m, and the sphere radius has been slightly increased, too. With many of his old upgrades rolled into his base kit, Seer now has three new options as he levels up.

As for weapons, the amount of locked hop-up points required to unlock a hop-up has been increased across the board, and the Turbocharger has been added to this system instead of charging when purple attachments were attached. Players will also be relieved to hear that the Peacekeeper has been nerfed, with the blast pattern size increasing when choked. No more shotgun sniping.

Apex Legends Season 26 mid-season update will go live on Tuesday, September 16. 

You can expect to find E-District, Kings Canyon, and Olympus in the map rotation for pubs and ranked for the rest of the season, and performance on PC should be improved thanks to reducing the game's shader count by nearly 50%.

If this isn't enough to get you back into Apex Legends, check out our list of the best FPS games and best multiplayer games for a good time with friends.

What do you make of the changes in this mid-season update? Will Seer really be meta again? Let us know in our community Discord channel, where readers and staff discuss all the latest counter-meta picks and gaming news.