It may have been expected, but it’s still unfortunate nonetheless. With the release of Apex Legends Season 8, Respawn Entertainment has greatly nerfed the once popular Wraith. In fact, this decision is the reason why the legend is no longer as popular as she once was. The game’s eighth season was launched early in the month, which saw the addition of the new character Fuse, new weapons like the 30-30 Repeater, and a lot more.
While a new season and everything it has to offer is a cause for celebration, this latest update also brought in sad news. Specifically, Respawn Entertainment has also implemented a bunch of nerfs to different parts of the game, from the weapons to legends themselves.
As such, we wouldn’t be surprised if the EVA-8 shotgun drops in popularity in the following months, since the developer removed its Double Tap Trigger hop-up. When it comes to the legends, the character Wraith also received a decrease in power level. Ever since 2019, Wraith was an incredibly popular Apex Legends character, and it was all thanks to her abilities which allowed her to rip open dimensional rifts.
Not only that, Wraith also had a small hitbox and a Voices from the Void ability, which allowed her and her team members to know when an enemy is near. Given what an incredible fighter she is, it’s no surprise that non-Wraith users would want Respawn to change her.
Daniel Klein, Respawn Entertainment’s lead game designer, replied to a Reddit thread a few days ago. He said that after nerfing Wraith by increasing her hitbox size, her pick rates drastically changed. As a matter of fact, Wraith—who used to have the highest pick rate—is now at the fourth place in terms of popularity. Although Klein didn’t mention who took Wraith’s place in the first spot, he did say that she’s still more used and more popular than Caustic, who happens to be on the fifth spot.
Some time in mid-December of last year, Caustic has been steadily rising in popularity. In fact, the developer said that he’s “now arrived at super strong.” As such, Respawn Entertainment may nerf the legend “[to] see where that puts him.” This information doesn’t really come as a surprise, though. In a previous Reddit thread, Respawn Entertainment’s live balance designer John Larson also mentioned that the developer had plans to possibly nerf Caustic in a later update.
This information just goes to show that Caustic’s increasing pick rate makes sense now that other legends such as Wraith received significant changes in this newest season. Seeing as Respawn Entertainment may be making some changes to Caustic some time soon, fans are now wondering if Wraith will be receiving some kind of boost as well.
In any case, we’re quite curious to see how Apex Legends fans will react to the changes Respawn Entertainment has made to Season 8. While the nerfing of Wraith has been rumored about for a while now, we’re sure that many fans didn’t take this change lightly.
