Respawn Entertainment’s Season 8 update for Apex Legends significantly nerfed Wraith, a move that has since seen her popularity on the decline. The crew at Respawn deployed Apex Legends Season 8 earlier this month, adding in new weapons such as the 30-30 Repeater. Interestingly, the recent update also ushered in a number of items changes, effectively nerfing certain aspects of the game.

As a result, the popularity of the EVA-8 shotgun is bound to wane, given the removal of the Double Tap Trigger hop-up. Items weren’t all that took a hit in terms of power reduction in the Season 8 roll out, either. Respawn also made sure to reduce the power level of Wraith, who’s remained the most popular character since around the time of Apex Legends‘ early 2019 launch. Wraith quickly became top Legend thanks to her dimensional rift-opening abilities, small hitbox, and Voices from the Void ability, the latter of which warns her and teammates of approaching enemies. It’s no wonder there were some players who wanted Wraith to undergo drastic changes.

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According to a Reddit post from lead game designer Daniel Klein, the Wraith nerf, which increased the size of her hitbox, shook up her pick rates. In response to fan questions, Klein explained that Wraith went from having the highest pick rate, a mantle she’s held throughout much of Apex’s existence, to now being the fourth most popular character. The developer didn’t divulge who’s taken Wraith’s place on the top spot, but he revealed she’s still ahead of Caustic – who now counts as the fifth most popular Legend. Caustic’s popularity has steadily grown since mid-December, Klein noted, since he’s “now arrived at super strong.” Apparently, Respawn plans on “nerfing him next patch [to] see where that puts him.”

The comment from Klein indicates that Caustic’s increasing pick rate coincides with the nerfing of other characters like Wraith in Season 8. With Caustic set to receive some fine-tuning of his own sometime soon, it begs the question of whether or not Wraith may, in turn, receive a bit of a boost.

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Regardless of what’s on the horizon, though, it’ll be interesting to see how players have responded to the changes in Season 8. Who has the highest pick rate now? Which characters are losing their luster because of nerfs? Fans will have answers to all of this and more whenever Respawn Entertainment shares Season 8-related stats.

Apex Legends is playable for free across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S platforms; the free-to-play title will hit Nintendo Switch on March 9.

Source: Daniel Klein

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Brianna Reeves
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A Senior Writer on Screen Rant’s Game News team, Brianna Reeves graduated from Sam Houston Statue University in 2018 with a Master of Arts in English Literature. Brianna’s enthusiasm for games dates back to Mortal Kombat Trilogy on PlayStation 1, along with classics like MediEvil, Syphon Filter, and THPS2. However, Red Dead Redemption reinvigorated her love for the medium; hopefully, that passion reflects in the work she has contributed to Comic Book Resources, PlayStation LifeStyle, GVMERS, and Screen Rant.

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