All Apex Legends Season 9 Legend buffs & nerfs: Loba, Horizon, Lifeline, more
Thefull patch notesfor Apex Legends Season 9: Legacy are here, and as expected, several of the game’s characters have been adjusted to either improve or reduce their effectiveness: Lifeline, Octane, Loba, Horizon, Fuse, Bangalore, Bloodhound, and Crypto.
There’s tons of anticipation among Apex Legends players for the launch of Legacy on May 4, as it’s set to include tons of new content and several major changes to various aspects of the game. As is usually the case with the first major update of a new season, there are going to be numerous buffs and nerfs implemented to several Legends – eight to be exact. All of the details of these Legend changes can be found below.
All Legend buffs & nerfs in Apex Legends Season 9 update
Octane: Changes to Stim & Launch Pad
The developers have noted that Octane might be performing “too well” since the latest series of changes the character received, so this update will be making changes to both the Stim and Launch Pad with hopes of balancing those abilities.
Lifeline: Changes to Combat Revive, Heal Drone, & Care Package
The Season 9 update will be making major changes to all three of Lifeline’s main set of abilities:
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Loba: Changes to Bracelet & Ultimate
mains had been begging for some improvements to her kit since she was first released, and, Season 9 will finally be that time.Respawn had already confirmed that Loba would move at full speed“while it’s in the air” and “no slow down when you arrive.” On top of this, the bracelet will now be much more reliable. The bad news, though, is that Respawn have also nerfed Loba’s ultimate slightly, adding another 30 seconds to the cooldown. Here are the exact changes:
Horizon: Gravity Lift nerfed
Thanks to Game Designer Daniel Klein, we already knew that Horizon was in line to receive a pretty substantial nerf in Season 9, and now that’s been confirmed in theofficial patch notes.
has been getting cut back constantly after she released very strong. Nerfs in almost every subsequent update, to both her tactical and her ultimate, haven’t been enough to drop her out of the top spot as a Legend. However, according to the developers’ note in the patch notes, this nerf isn’t because of her popularity or powerful nature, but rather to make Horizon’s mistakes more punishable. These changes make it “much more possible” for enemies to shoot at the Legend as she sits in her Gravity Lift, and make the ability “less of an impromptu sniper tower.”
Fuse: Knucle Cluster buffed
It was pretty obvious that Fuse would be getting some sort of buff after the developers revealed that he has the lowest win rate across all skill levels.
Themain change is to his tactical, Knuckle Cluster, which has two charges now, and the cooldown for one charge is only 18 seconds (reduced from 25 seconds). The damage is the same, but with two charges, you could say it’s been doubled. Respawn noted that they “want to be very careful with how we buff him,” while also confirming that further buffs would be on the way once they can assess the impact this specific change has on the Legend.
Bloodhound: Eye of the Allfather nerfed
The Bloodhound change in this update is relatively minor in terms of the Legend’s in-game impact; players will no longer receiver assists from using the Eye of the Allfather ability. This adjustment is more so to balance out the implications that assists have in Ranked play – since Bloodhound’s scan is already so strong, it may have become too much for the ability to also provide valuable assists for Ranked Points.
Crypto: Changes to Drone
With the nerf to Bloodhound’s scan, Crypto will now remain the only Legend who can get assists for non-damaging abilities. That said, however, the Season 9 update is making changes to his drone:
Bangalore: Smoke thickened
Bangalore’s Smoke Launcher is receiving a change that will make the smoke thicker. However, this isn’t really a buff or nerf, per se, since Respawn are simply trying to get the smoke back to the original visuals after a recent update accidentally thinned out the particles while trying to optimize them.
Low Profile removed in Apex Legends Season 9
Since we’re on the topic of changes to Legends in Season 9, it’s important to note that the Low Profile ability is being removed from Wraith, Lifeline, and Wattson in the Legacy update. “After our successful experiment with Wraith’s hitboxes, we are now confident that we can solve balance issues between smaller and larger Legends through changes to their kits and hitboxes,” the devs wrote in the patch notes.
There you have it, all of the Legend buffs and nerfs coming in the Season 9 update. For more information about everything else that’s changing, make sure to check out ourApex Legends Legacy patch notes here.
