The new, highly anticipated season of Apex Legends brings the new legend, map reworks and details on the battle pass as it goes live today.
The latest update, Apex Legends Defiance, drops today (Tuesday, February 8, 2022)! The twelfth season will be bringing the revamped Olympus map, the new legend Mad Maggie, the new Control game mode and details on the new battle pass—along with more balance changes. The update will be free to download around these times: 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm GMT. Do not be caught slacking today before dropping with the other folks today!
Mad Maggie—The Warlord and Freedom Fighter
The new assault legend was announced five days ago, and players have already been learning how she will be worked into the upcoming meta in Apex Legends. Here is a list of Mad Maggie’s abilities:
- Passive: Warlord’s Ire
- Temporarily highlight enemies you’ve damaged and move faster with a shotgun.
- Tactical: Riot Drill
- Fire a drill that burns enemies through obstacles. Once active, the drill lasts roughly 10 seconds and does four damage per tick (up to 160 damage in total). The ability has around a 22 second cooldown.
- Ultimate: Wrecking Ball
- Throw a ball that releases speed-boosting pads and detonates near enemies. Capable of dealing up to 20 damage and temporarily concusses enemies it hits.
Mad Maggie’s passive is great for those that want to run around with a shotgun, like the Peacekeeper, EVA-8, Mastiff and Mozambique because of the speed buff. Combining this passive with her ultimate can see her gaining a speed buff that can pit her against Octane’s speed buff. Additionally, it means that staying in the fight is more rewarded for her as she provides a lot of intel based on the damage she dishes out.
The Riot Drill is great for either pushing out known enemies or clearing out spots where enemies could potentially be. It is also great against Gibraltar players and their shield dome since it is one of the only abilities able to penetrate it. However, using this ability can cause damage to yourself, so be careful not to push too early while it is still active.
Mad Maggie’s ultimate, Wrecking Ball, appears to be great for enclosed fights since it can clear hallways quite effectively while granting the movement speed buff. This is very helpful to keep Mad Maggie in the fight and also synergizes well with her passive ability. It only does 20 damage on detonation but can still be a good gap-closer as it also applies a concussion effect similar to Bangalore’s ultimate.
New Game Type—Control
The newest limited-time game mode, Control, brings some new spicy gameplay to the battle royale with 9v9 matches. Sadly, it will only be available in Apex Legends for the first three weeks of season 12. This is why you need to be prepared to maximize your dubs. To win in Control, the team has to capture the majority of zones and hold them to score more points. This is like Halo Infinite’s multiplayer game type, King of the Hill.
Olympus—A Revamped Look
The map was previously a lovely floating map but has gone through major changes due to Mad Maggie’s who sabotaged the map. This new look to the map was brought about primarily since a lot of players complained about the lack of Points of Interests (POIs) and it was the smallest map in the rotation when introduced in season seven.
Players can expect terrain changes and redesigned entry points in areas like Phase Driver and Terminal. The new zone is called Shifted Grounds (located on the South side of the map) that has essentially pushed areas like Solar Array, Icarus and Bonzai away from the centre.
The Latest Battle Pass
The upcoming battle pass will feature rewards mainly for Seer, Loba, Crypto, Ash, and Lifeline. Also, players can expect new reactive weapon skins for the Hemlock, holosprays and more. As per usual, there will be both a free and paid tier to the battle pass with the cost being 950 Apex Coins (about $10). Either way, the free tier offers the option to unlock a skin for Octane, loading screens, weapon skins, Apex Coins, a season badge and more.
Get ready to defy the odds this season in Apex Legends Defiance.
