Seer’s fortunes took an unexpected turn during the Season 17 Dressed to Kill event. Changes made to his abilities during this event, rather than bringing him down, attracted a bigger player base than ever before.
Apex Legends Status reports show that Seer had once been ranked 16th out of 24 playable characters, with a low pick rate of 1.9%. However, only a week after the Dressed to Kill update, he has shot up to eighth place with an impressive 5.2% overall pick rate, his best performance since being introduced in Season 13.
The Dressed to Kill update introduced substantial changes to all three abilities in Seer’s arsenal. The range of his Heartbeat Sensor Passive was reduced from 75m to 50m. His ultimate ability, Exhibit, can now only be thrown 15m instead of 50 and only reveals enemies’ footprints in the zone. The diamond scan markers that used to be a major feature now only appear when enemies fire in the zone, thereby making tracking enemies a bit more challenging.
The most significant change, however, was to his Tactical, Focus of Attention, which underwent a series of buffs and nerfs.
Casting Focus of Attention is now 30% faster and includes a full body scan once more, albeit only for a duration of 2.5 seconds as opposed to the previous eight seconds. While it lost the capability to halt enemy healing and revivals, it acquired a slowing effect lasting 2.5 seconds and an increased silence duration from 1.75 seconds to 10 seconds. This update allows Seer, known as the Ambush Artist, to rival an assault legend’s offensive power, much like Revenant’s Silence which lasts for 15 seconds.
The 10-second silence from Seer proves to be a powerful tool in locating enemies out of position or securing victories by being the first to scan and incapacitate an enemy team’s entire ability set. This comes in handy when dealing with popular mobility characters like Horizon and Valkyrie who facilitate aggressive plays or rapid repositioning during precarious situations. The recent changes encourage a more aggressive approach as teams strive to exploit their superior abilities rather than simply resetting fights.
At the time of the Dressed to Kill patch notes release, many professionals agreed that despite Seer’s kit appearing to be severely impacted, the changes to his Tactical were sufficient to keep him in play, or even potentially enhance his performance.
Seer has consistently been the most favored recon legend in professional play over the past three seasons.
Despite being nerfed repeatedly, he has featured predominantly in the team compositions during the Split One Playoffs and the regular season of Split Two. With the ability to scan Recon Beacons and locate the next ring, as well as scout and engage in isolated fights with the new Recon map scan, Seer has proven to be a significant asset.
Initial announcements of the changes to Seer were met with approval by many professionals and content creators, though their opinions changed after testing the legend for themselves. TSM’s ImperialHal had immediate success with Seer in ranked ladder and international scrims and expressed concern over his impact in the forthcoming ALGS Split Two Playoffs.
