Hi! Welcome to the first (of many) discussion threads on patch notes for Apex Legends. The goal of these threads is to discuss patches, such as the most recent update, from a competitive viewpoint.

Now that that's out of the way, here are the important parts of the update:

# NEW LEGEND: OCTANE

***High-Speed Daredevil***

*If it doesn't involve diving, leaping, plummeting, or racing, then Octane wants nothing to do with it. Always the life of the party, Octane truly believes winning the Championship isn't enough... not if you didn't cheat death at least twice to get there.*


**Passive: Swift Mend**

* While not taking damage, Octane restores 1 health every 2 seconds.

**Tactical: Stim**

* Move 30% faster for 6 seconds. Costs health to use. While active, Octane is affected less by attacks that cause slowdown. 2 second recharge.

**Ultimate: Launch Pad**

* Deployable jump pad that catapults players through the air. Takes 90 seconds to recharge.

# Other notable changes

* Improved mantling from a grapple point.

* Pathfinder can now grapple ziplines.

* Adjusted hitboxes for Gibraltar, Caustic, and Pathfinder to better align with their shapes.
​

**Caustic:**

* Reduced cooldown of Traps 30 -> 25 seconds.
Increased radius and proximity radius by about 10%.
Removed a 1 second delay on the smoke dealing damage to players.
Reduced cooldown of Gas Grenade 2:30 -> 2:00 seconds.
​

**Pathfinder:**

* Insider Knowledge
Increased the number of beacons in the world 10-> 12.
​

**Bangalore:**

* Double Time
Reduced move speed bonus to 40% -> 30%.
​

**Gibraltar:**

* Defensive Bombardment
Fixed a bug where your teammates wouldn't be affected by Shell Shock. This was meant to be the same as Bangalore's ultimate.

# Discussion questions
1. Will Octane be viable?
       * How does he compare to similar legends, i.e Wraith?
       * What is better? his on demand movement speed, Wraiths
          phase ability, or Bangalore's now 20% speed boost?
       * Will he become part of the main three legends we see
          used? (Bangalore, Wraith, Lifeline)

2. Will the buffs of the less used legends make them more viable in comparison the aforementioned main three?
       * Will we see an uptick in the use of Pathfinder, Gibraltar or
          Caustic? In a competitive tournament where surviving is
          more important than getting kills, would we see more of
          these underdog legends?
       * What would need to be done to make less used legends,
          such as Mirage, Gibraltar, etc. as viable or as used as the
          big three? Or do they stand no chance without large
          reworks?
       * What do you believe is the best legend lineup right now?
          Does it differ between pub stomping (Twitch Rivals) or a
          Pro v Pro tournament?

3. Future pro tournaments
       * Most battle royale competitive matches play very slowly,
          where surviving and placement is always more important
          than killing, leading to very passive play by players. Do
          you think we will see the same in competitive Apex
          Legends?
       * What do you think should be done to avoid passive
          competitive play? Or do you enjoy that type of gameplay?

Look forward to reading everybody's responses! :)