Apex Legends dev explains reasoning for controversial Caustic buff Respawn EntertainmentAfter backlash from the Apex Legends community over a new Caustic buff coming in the Fight Night Collection Event, Daniel Klein \u2014 Senior Game Designer at Respawn \u2014 explained his thought process for the changes via Twitter. The Fight Night Collection Event in Apex Legends is scheduled to kick off on January 5. In addition to adding limited-time modes and cosmetics, the update will also introduce several balancing changes, bug fixes and quality-of-life updates. While the community praised many of these changes \u2014 like updates to Ultimate Accelerant functionality and inventory management \u2014 they have taken issue with some of the balancing tweaks Respawn planned for the game\u2019s next patch. The patch notes confirmed two Legend changes: a Rampart amped cover buff and a decrease to Caustic\u2019s gas trap cooldown. After seeing the changes Respawn have in line, the Apex community voiced concerns and Klein took to Twitter in order to address them. While Klein\u2019s original Twitter discussion was based around a proposed change to Gibraltar\u2019s gun shield, it quickly shifted gears. One player tweeted at the designer questioning the additional Caustic buff: \u201cNobody asked for a caustic buff. At what point did the office decide this?\u201d Read More: Apex Legends Fight Night Event Patch Notes – Before the developer had a chance to respond, another user pointed out that making a five-second change to a character\u2019s cooldown was probably easier than changing the entire mechanic of Gibby\u2019s arm shield. The Respawn developer was quick to confirm this with an official response. \u201cYup! That one was super easy to do,\u201d Klein confirmed. He went on to explain that changing a cooldown only takes a short amount of time and a few playtests. Further, he clarified that while players are concerned about the buff, Caustic required work as he remains \u201cone of the weakest characters in the game.\u201d https:\/\/twitter.com\/danielzklein\/status\/1345510024651497478 Some community members were a bit skeptical of this. Comments referencing the Legend\u2019s ability to play both aggressively and defensively, his strength in ranked versus unranked play and the general power of his abilities were all mentioned in responses to Klein\u2019s tweet. When asked why Caustic continues to receive buffs, Klein disclosed that the character\u2019s viability had been a topic at Respawn as far back as March 2020. The developer still thinks Caustic might need even more work, responding to one user with \u201cyou don\u2019t seem willing to accept my core message here: Caustic is weak.\u201d Several content creators and pro players responded to the game designer with their own concerns. Pro player Eric \u2018Snip3down\u2019 Wrona issued his own verdict, once again noting the differences between Caustic\u2019s performance in regular matches versus ranked or competitive play. I think we need to differentiate here. Caustic is weak (in pubs) because people don\u2019t sit in buildings caring about the win, Caustic is weak in open fields and on unorganized teams. How about we take away his ult gas after he\u2019s killed so all end games aren\u2019t 4 caustic ults \u2014 FaZe Snip3down (@Snip3down) January 3, 2021 Despite the doubts, Klein remained firm in his explanation for the changes. Respawn has frequently cited their internal metrics \u2014 like win rate and pick rate \u2014 when balancing each Legend, and the game designer stands by the information his team is working off of. While the developers typically stick to their guns and keep balancing changes after they are released, there have been instances where feedback convinced them to revert a change or update an unbalanced mechanic after it was added to the game (as was the case with Evo Shield adjustments back in Season 6). Klein is very active on Reddit and Twitter, and often engages in open discourse about community concerns such as the upcoming Caustic buff. Players should keep their eyes peeled for any additional comments or changes as the arguments over Caustic\u2019s balancing continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Apex Legends dev explains reasoning for controversial Caustic buff Respawn EntertainmentAfter backlash from the Apex Legends community over a new Caustic buff coming in the Fight Night Collection Event, Daniel Klein \u2014 Senior Game Designer at Respawn \u2014 explained his thought process for the changes via Twitter. The Fight Night Collection Event in Apex Legends […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}