Respawn Entertainment officially announced the launch of Apex Legends Season 8 last week with a cinematic trailer showcasing its upcoming character Fuse and the destruction of the Kings Canyon map. Numerous additions coming in the next season on February 2 have been shown off since, from new weapons to Gold Magazines, but according to one developer there are other changes in the works for Gibraltar that will arrive after that.
As with any live-service title, Apex Legends is no stranger to buffing or nerfing characters and weapons in order to create a sense of balance; ensuring no one strategy is truly "optimal" to the extent it overwhelms the meta. Respawn live balance designer John Larson previously indicated that Horizon, the Season 7 newcomer, will be nerfed because of her disproportionate win rate. However, recently he also said nerfs for Gibraltar "just missed the cutoff for next week's patch."
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A player who goes by Guy_Swavy created a post on the r/CompetitiveApex subreddit Sunday wondering why Gibraltar's gun shield has not been nerfed as much as Apex Legends' Wraith. Larson responded to let them know "meaningful tweaks" including damage bleed through and "damage counting towards stats/evo to mitigate some of the shield economy difference" are coming. He went into detail on an r/ApexLegends post saying the change was going to come in Version 8.0, but there was a bug in how damage was registered between different kinds of weapons.
While Gibraltar nerfs are apparently on the way to fix concerns with his gun shield ability, the defensive Legend is also receiving attention in other ways. An heirloom for Gibraltar was added during the Fight Night Collection Event, giving him an ultra-rare cosmetic to take into battle.
Gibraltar is not the only character whom Respawn Entertainment has its eyes on. The Apex Legends developer is also "exploring options" to make Lifeline's passive ability less powerful, Larson said in the r/ApexLegends post, but it does not want to "act too hastily" so nothing will be seen at the start of Season 8. He let fans know, "We are working on reducing that Lifeline frustration without discouraging people from using her."
Whether or not all of these planned balance changes coming in Season 8 and beyond appease players will have to be seen as they start to roll out. Long-time fans of the battle royale can likely expect more than just nerfs to come in the near future, as a recent Amazon listing suggests Apex Legends is coming to Switch alongside Season 8 next week.
Apex Legends is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a Switch version also in development.
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Sources: r/CompetitiveApex, r/ApexLegends
