Apex Legends Season 8 is about at its halfway point now and the reception to the season overall has been largely mixed. Recently, many players in the Apex Legends community were not pleased with the changes made with the Chaos Theory collection event update, specifically in regards to the new ring flares and announcer voice change.
Additionally, the overall meta for the game has shifted to favor fast-paced combinations of Legends, such as Octane, Revenant, and Horizon. Now, Respawn has talked openly about plans to introduce some nerfs to Apex Legends' fast-paced adrenaline junkie, Octane, after his streak of dominance in the first half of Season 8 competitive play.
The information comes by way of the Apex Legends subreddit, where players were discussing some of the changes introduced in the Chaos Theory collection event update. When discussing the thought process behind the recent nerf to Bangalore's tactical smoke ability, Respawn's lead game designer Daniel Klein responded saying it was unintentional. Shortly after, the comment thread shifted to various Legend's winrate and encounter rate. This is where Klein mentions that Octane and Horizon are currently sitting very high in that area, with Respawning already planning potential nerfs for Octane specifically.
Klein starts off by explaining that Legends with meaningful mobility options built in, like with Octane and Horizon, usually start off very strong when introduced. Unfortunately, due to the nature of how Apex Legends plays, Legend abilities that allow players advanced mobility options usually continue to dominate the meta long after their introduction. Regardless, Respawn seems to be planning out changes to Octane's stim tactical ability. Specifically, it seems Klein is leaning towards increasing the health cost of Octane's stim, but shortening the cooldown for each new stim.
Klein mentions that some players might see this as a potential buff, but the increased health cost is meant to keep players from using Octane's stims in rapid succession. For example, if players eat away at too much of their health without realizing by overusing Octane's stim, it could make them easy to pick off during a fight. It could certainly prove to make Octane a bit easier to kill, especially if most players aren't overly focused on the health cost of Octane's tactical ability. Unfortunately, Octane's tactical ability isn't the only strong element of his overall kit.
Octane's Jump Pad ultimate ability is a major reason why he has been so dominant during Season 8. Similar to Horizon's Gravity Lift tactical ability, Octane's Jump Pad allows players to reposition or gain height very quickly. To really manage Octane's current dominance in the Season 8 meta, changes to more than just his tactical ability may be necessary. Hopefully, Respawn manages to find a nice balance for Octane to try and reign him in going into Season 9.
Apex Legends is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.