The Real Reason Shroud Won't Play This Apex Legends Character

Valkyrie is the latest Legend to come to "Apex Legends," and most fans have been excited to get to play as the daughter of a Titan pilot. However, some people, including superstar streamer Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek, have no real interest in using the new character. 

Shroud opened a recent stream by flat-out saying the new character "seems bad." He explained that he was skeptical of her ability set, which includes her VTOL Jets that allow her to fly in limited amounts. Even so, Shroud took the firing range to test her out.

Almost immediately, Shroud attempted to jump. This resulted in Valkyrie's jets boosting her into the air a bit, which Shroud was annoyed by. He attempted to change his settings in hopes that he could map normal jumps to the mouse wheel and use the spacebar for the Jets instead, but found the two functions to be inseparable. 

He said that he would unable to play the new character, as he couldn't stand the thought of boosting when he only wanted to bunnyhop. Shroud ultimately called this design choice a "mistake" on the part of the developers.

Towards the start of the stream, Shroud also said that he doesn't think that Valkyrie will be "very useful," because he doesn't see the overall meta changing anytime soon. He much preferred the play-styles of other characters in the game, including Wattson, although he acknowledged that several characters have been "nerfed" in recent updates.

After briefly checking out the new bow weapon in the firing range, Shroud hopped into the new Arenas mode, which pits two teams of three against each other in a round-based death match. Shroud quickly won the first round and was surprised that he didn't keep his guns in between rounds. After completing his first match, Shroud said that the mode seems like it would be pretty fun if he were properly matched with players of equal skill level, but he did note that the mode was just added to the game. He also said he felt like the mode was missing an objective. As he pointed out, without another objective to complete, two really good teams might play more defensively, thereby resulting in much longer rounds.

Considering Shroud's professional "CS:GO" background, he can be considered a bit of an expert in balanced FPS games. Perhaps Respawn Entertainment will take his criticisms to heart. In the meantime, players who are still excited about Valkyrie can take to the skies now.