The new Apex Legends event, titled "Wild Iron," introduces not only new cosmetic items but also numerous balance changes, quality of life improvements, a new map, and significant updates to game modes. We will try to cover only the most important changes as briefly as possible.
Event Items
Event Items are not the most interesting feature in this update so that we will reuse the screenshot of the event menu in the game, posted by EA News below, just for general understanding.
Ranked mode
The jump master in the ranked has been removed, and now everyone jumps by themselves. If you're not aware, ranked jump differs from public. In ranked jump, players are distributed across the map, and each squad has its designated jump spot, similar to the pro league (ALGS). This setup has led to many players complaining about having to disconnect from every single match, which can be pretty annoying.
Duos mode
Unfortunately, we won't have full-size duos mode in Apex Legends anymore. The developers have decided to make it smaller, reducing the number of squads from 30 to 15 and the number of ring closes to 4, which leads to a smaller map size.
As far as I understand, the reason for that is the popularity of Wildcard mode, which has attracted many players, causing longer matchmaking for non-ranked battle royal modes.
Seer character
It is arguably the worst character in Apex Legends, not due to his abilities/passives, but rather how he is written, his story, and his design. However, he will be slightly buffed with this update.
- Increased ultimate range from 15m to 50m;
- Tactical cooldown reduced from 30s to 20s;
- Enhanced double jump, and ADS hover while inside any Exhibit, but honestly, no idea what they mean under that;
Mad Maggie character
We will have some slight buffs, I would even say quality of life improvements.
- Ultimate throw animation speed is increased by 25%;
- Ultimate ball now has some intelligence and can go over obstacles, not returning to you as before;
- The pads dropped by ultimate now not only increase the speed, but give you a fortified buff that reduces damage to you by 15% (like in big characters);
- Ultimate's ball explosion won't generate pads with bufs, but magma ones that deal fire damage;
- Shield upgrade on level 2 removes "Shots Shots Shots" passive, and instead gives you an ability to select improved speed with SMGs and Pistols;
Summary
I think these are the most critical changes in the update, but for more details, you can check the patch note from the original EA News article here.