Apex Legends’ new Spellbound Collection Event has finally started and Respawn Entertainment’s latest title update has changed more than the recent set of Apex Legends patch notes let on; it looks like a Horizon nerf has finally arrived. For hardcore battle royale players, this has been a long time coming. However, this will feel like being blindsided for Horizon mains; the popular legend wasn’t mentioned at all in Respawn Entertainment’s blog post.
But, we all know that doesn’t mean anything when it comes to supposed balancing changes. Respawn Entertainment has made some alterations to Horizon’s kit and they’re undeniably nerfs.
The first – and likely the most impactful – change made was to Horizon’s Gravity Lift tactical ability. When using the Gravity Lift to get a vertical advantage in a firefight, as shown by Apex Legends content creator Jacob ‘HisWattson‘ McMillin, Horizon now suffers from exponentially decreased accuracy. If you check out his tweet (linked above), you’ll see that the ADS bullet spread from an R-301 gets progressively worse the higher the Gravity Lift takes him.
Apex Legends content creator ‘Mokey‘ has also corroborated this with a different optic attachment, seemingly confirming that this is a universal alteration to Horizon’s tactical ability.
Interestingly, this isn’t the only part of Apex Legends’ hidden Horizon nerf. Reddit user ‘Miloshkii‘ has been playing around with the legend’s ultimate ability, Black Hole, and discovered that the device itself will be weaker through walls and obstacles going forwards.
So it turns out horizon’s q wasn’t the only thing that got shadow nerfed. Ult no longer appears to suck through walls (at least in the range) from apexlegends
While this isn’t the most impactful alteration, it does still weaken Horizon’s kit and affects how effective she is at pushing enemies inside interiors and enclosed spaces. Is this going to affect Horizon’s place on our Apex Legends tier list? We think it might – but it’s too early to tell.
However, interestingly, the Apex Legends community online isn’t wholly against these changes. On this Reddit thread, several players have made very valid points that sitting in Horizon’s Gravity Lift and firing your weapon isn’t actually the most effective way touse this ability in the first place; so, nerfing it doesn’t actually weaken Horizon too much.
This ability’s advantages come from mobility, whether you’re pushing someone, getting you and your squad to a higher position of attack, or escaping assault. So, we’re certainly interested to see how impactful this hidden Apex Legends Horizon nerf will actually be in the coming weeks.
Apex Legends is, without a doubt, one of the best battle royale games out there right now – and one of the best competitive FPS titles available. These minor balancing changes, whether they’re buffs or nerfs, are undeniably an important part of maintaining this. We just think it would just be nice if Respawn Entertainment was a little clearer next time.