Were Caustic and Horizon actually over-nerfed?
In the patch that came with the Chaos Theory Collection Event back in Season 8, Caustic got a game changing nerf to his gas damage to counter act his obnoxious in all levels of play. Before the change, Caustic's gas would deal 6 damage per tick, escalating to 12 damage per tick if the enemy/enemies stayed in the gas for long enough. After the change, Caustic Gas would only deal a flat 5 damage per tick. This was obviously a massive change and many Caustic players believed the change was too much. But was it really too much?
Similarly, with the Season 9 update, Horizon received some major changes to her gravity lift tactical ability. During seasons 7 and 8 Horizon was incredibly powerful mainly because of her gravity lift. She had overtaken most of the Legends in win-rate statistics upon release and managed to take the spot of highest win-rate because she was just too versatile and powerful. She had incredible mid fight mobility that helped her disengage unfavourable positions, engage into team-fights and dodge bullets while simultaneously mowing enemies down, all with the use of her gravity lift. In Season 9, a lot of her mobility was nerfed, the side to side strafing acceleration was slowed moderately, the speed at which players travelled up the gravity lift was slowed and players now had a maximum of 2 seconds to stay at the top of the ability. Horizon instantly fell out of the meta and was no longer as disgustingly powerful as she was in her prime. Many players thought the nerfs were good but a little too much, similar to Caustic. But were they?
Let's look at the effects of Caustic's nerf. According to Daniel Klein, lead game designer for Apex Legends, Caustic's win rate statistics were minutely affected and this proves that players were still finding his abilities very effective, although his pick rate was dramatically reduced. Since the nerf I've been playing and studying Caustic closely and my analysis is that although Caustic is no longer a killing machine and his gas is no longer very lethal at all, it still performs its main purpose of zoning enemies, forcing enemies out of tight spaces and helping his team control enclosed areas very effectively. Although it's not as noticeable, Caustic still has a major advantage in gunfights with gassed opponents, because of that vision obscuring and because of the movement de-buff, so he can still obtain kills with his gas, it's just slightly more fair for the opponents. With all this in mind, was Caustic's nerf really too much and does he really need some buffs? In my opinion, no, although he is rarely played any more his abilities are still really effective and balanced. Is he still a viable Legend choice? Absolutely, although the changes have come with a moderate playstyle adjustment. If there are any Caustic mains out there reading this post, what is your analysis of Caustic after the changes? Does he really need a change in your opinion?
Lastly let's look at Horizon. Now I am a Revenant main, but Horizon is definitely my second go to Legend, both before the changes and after, and although I don't play her very frequently, I do have a 3K damage badge, Level 2 Assassin badge and a record of 15 kills as my highest kill game with her, so I do know much more about how she feels gameplay wise than I do with Caustic. Statistic wise, Horizon fell from having the highest win rate to about 6th or 7th. With the fact that there are currently 17 Legends in the game this placement automatically puts her in the top half of the pack. I have been playing Horizon a lot this season and comparing her to before, there's really not much of a difference. Her gravity lift is definitely more clunky than before and will take a while to get used to but once you do and understand a new playstyle adjustment for her she's really similar to her previous state. The only big difference being she's not an absolute damage and kill farm like she was before. Personally I got multiple high damage and high kill games with pre nerf Horizon simply due to her high mobility during fights and her strong Ultimate, and a lot of content creators including some that don't even play very often hit personal records with the Legend. Now that's obviously not the case but take that away from the equation, Horizon still has great mobility. The gravity lift still grants 100% weapon accuracy while you're being lifted so you still have a decent advantage in 1v1 gunfights with it, and she can quickly reposition her entire squad to high ground or out of sticky situations. You still can also get a free shield battery off while getting shot at with her gravity lift, it's just much harder to pull off because you have to time your exit from the gravity lift perfectly so you don't get lasered. All of this and the fact that Black Hole is one of the strongest Ultimates in the game, I strongly think that Horizon does not need a change, but I would like to hear the opinions of any Horizon mains out there. Does she really need changes to her gravity lift?
