Respawn Entertainment is preparing to launch a special event in Apex Legends later today, but has made some changes to the patch notes as of this morning. The Fight Night Collection Event will feature a Pathfinder Town Takeover, a new LTM, and a few balance changes and bug fixes. Before today, the balance changes included a buff for Caustic that would reduce his Gas Trap tactical ability cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds. Many Apex Legends professional players voiced their frustrations with the buff, with many saying the changes make Apex Legends more ability-centric, much like Overwatch.
It seems that Apex Legends developers have heard the community, because merely a few hours before the release of the Fight Night Collection Event, Caustic’s buff has been removed and replaced with a Horizon nerf that increases her Grav Lift cooldown from 16 seconds to 21 seconds. While many players may be relieved about the removal of Caustic’s buff, Horizon players may not be pleased with the nerf, although Horizon is considered a little overpowered.
Along with the sudden change, Apex Legends live balance designer John Larson gives a lengthy explanation for why the buff has been removed. First, Larson explains the reason for implementing the buff, saying, “By buffing the tactical cooldown and guaranteeing barrels to combat third parties or give visual cover in open areas, this could possibly increase his utility outside of his niche.” Larson explains that Caustic is mostly used as a defensive legend, but the minimal change would allow players to explore more playstyles besides hunkering down in a building.
Larson then explains that the buff was thought of a month ago, and between that time and now, Caustic has been used more competitively, and his pick and win rate rose quite a bit. After considering how the buff has been perceived and the competitive spot Caustic is in currently, the balancing team decided to remove the buff from the Fight Night Collection Event.
Apex Legends developer Daniel Klein recently took to Twitter to explain the buff and referred to Caustic as a weak character. Klein faced backlash for the comment, with many players saying Caustic is very powerful in certain situations like close-range fights and endgame, and is only weak when players do not know how to use him. Klein recently commented that the removal of the buff was due to looking at data and referencing Caustic’s rise in pick and win rates in the last three weeks.
Another controversial change in the patch notes is a bug fix for Mirage that seems a little more like a buff. After the patch is implemented, Mirage’s decoys will have audible footsteps, which will benefit his abilities greatly. Although many consider the change to be a buff, Apex Legends developers have explained that audible footsteps for decoys were always intended to be included. Although developers have received backlash for the patch, the amount of transparency and attention to the community by developers has kept the game fairly balanced and open to changes.
Apex Legends is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a Switch version also in development.
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