Enjoy Horizon while you can, because it looks like she’s getting nerfed when Apex Legends‘ Season 8 rolls around. A keen-eyed fan noted on Reddit that the Scot has now passed Wraith in win rate, and queried if that means she will get the “Wraith / Pathfinder treatment”. The short answer is yes. Apex Legends live balance designer John Larson showed up to explain that “it’s safe to say she’ll be getting nerfed”, though the team recognise how it does that is important.
“I’m adamant about not gutting her kit; the synergy between her passive and tactical is awesome,” Larson explains. “Looking at her tactical alone there are all sorts of dials we can turn including vertical lift speed, horizontal speed / acceleration, ejection speed / time, cool down, weapon accuracy, and the list goes on. You name it we got it, but some changes are easier to tweak, test, and iterate on than others. It’s a work in progress but staying true to her design intent and how it feels to play as her is something at the forefront of our balancing conversations.”
Larson explains that while Horizon and Wraith are “neck and neck” in regards to encounter win rate, they’re still well ahead of the other Apex Legends characters. It’s essential for the game’s health that the balance team “bring the outliers in as long as we aren’t gutting them”. Larson recognises that people create strong bonds to certain legends or play styles, so it’s important to make sure Legends still feel viable after being adjusted.
Horizon isn’t the only one up for nerfs in Season 8, it seems. Developer Daniel Klein previously spoke about bringing Wraith “under control” in Season 8. We’ve not been given an official start date for Season 8 of Apex Legends just yet, but the Battle Pass is set to finish on February 1, so it’ll probably be around then.
In the meantime, if you’re curious what other Legends are worth looking into, you can check out our Apex Legends tier list to see what’s what.