June 2021 - last edited June 2021
I wanted to leave a formal complaint on Daniel Zenon Klein. He's the Lead Game Designer and I'm absolutely disappointed in his recent remarks about wanting to nerf Watson just based off of her winrate. It makes no sense to nerf a character just based on winrate, he even makes the claim that Watson's the strongest character in Apex just because she has the highest win rate despite the fact that Watson's pick rate is among the top 3 lowest legends being picked. Her winrate isn't due to being strong, but instead it's because the only players who are using Watson are the players who know how to use her. And since less players are using her compared to the other legends, her win rate remains high since less players are using Watson to lose. Many players, including myself, have been asking for a buff for her since she's not viable in game due to her abilities not being useful for the fast paced combat of the current meta. All of Daniel Klein's claims can be seen on his Twitter account @danielzklein
Is there any way I can contact Respawn directly or EA so I can forward this complaint to the development team? I don't think Daniel Klein is well suited to be in charge of a legends nerfs or buffs, since he himself does not play Apex Legends.
Solved! Go to Solution.
August 2021
June 2021 - last edited June 2021 by EA_David
@str8outtahood
They do have plans for Wattson in Season 10 with a Buff/Nerf according to a video I watched but they didn’t really specify anything besides adding more power but also removing some of her ‘’invisible power’’
I know Daniel refers to ‘’invisible power’’ as a team seeing Wattson’s fences from a distance and being scared away, I think he may be hinting at the fence toggle that they were talking about a few seasons ago that was supposed to come in season 9 where you can turn her fences on/off for a buff but its also a nerf if you turn them off at the wrong time and it adds more ‘’fun’’ without anymore power
Wattson’s ‘’Major Buff’’ to be able to place up to 20 Nessies is also an attempt to add more ‘’fun’’ factor to her kit without adding anymore power but imo she still needs a few small buffs/changes particularly around her fences because her ultimate seems pretty solid
A few other Ideas I have and have heard other users wanting are...
A lower cooldown for her fence because currently she can place one node every 30 seconds but she needs 2 nodes to create a single fence so basically she has a 1 minute cooldown on her fence while caustic can place 3 gas traps a minute that are also hidden...
A few people like Backoffmyjankz want her passive shield regen buffed to be similiar to Octane’s health regen but I think that could be too strong if combined with her ultimate but you could always increase her shield regen but not let it stack with her ultimate so her teammates would be the only ones to benefit from the ults’s shield regen
I also have noticed Wattson has a different revive animation so I thought it would be neat if you revived someone on Wattson they would temporarily be given Wattson's shield regen passive to recharge like half of their shields or a bar of shields
I also heard people wanting her to carry 6 shield cells and 3 batteries per stack but thats optional, personally I want her fences to be ‘’usable’’ so basically a fence toggle and a 10 second cooldown so she can place a fence every 20 seconds like Caustic or a 15 second cooldown so she can place a fence every 30 seconds... you also got to remember wattson has to physically risk setting up her fence while caustic can just mindlessly spam them every direction if he wants
June 2021
June 2021 - last edited June 2021
@TheApexLegendNubYall are aware that there is not 1 lead dev of apex but there are 3 who hold the title he does. The game operates off a team effort not 1 person. Why blame is always put on him is baffling to me. There are reasons things are changed and quite frankly the guys who created this game will know more then casual players. Its designed in their visions not the players visions.
June 2021
@E9ine_AC As much as I'm inclined to agree with you here, I'm going to have to say no.
Whether it's one lead designer or many lead designers, it just spreads up the package that is being delivered, but doesn't change the original problem. That just means that three people are having their hands on a game they're currently putting on a verge of driving it against a wall or saving it.
The statement that a game developer, lead designer or CEO has more clue about game creation than players is a genuine lack of understanding on how game development has aged in the last years. A lot of games in the recent times have proven that often enough players have more of an understanding about game development then actual trained people. Because players have the one thing the developer doesn't have. Comparisons. Hand-on experience. An outside perspective. I can tell you right here and right now that Lifeline is simply overpowered and ruins the game experience for squads who don't run her vs squads who run her. The lead designers clearly don't see this.
And while it's true that it's their imagination of a game, it's still the players who play it. If no one played Apex Legends, what do they really gain out of it? Aside from the accomplishment of creating a game. But ultimately you create a game to share it in some way.
The game has issues and a lot of them. The enjoyment deteriorates with every season because something, somewhere, has changed to the worse. And it likely will boil down to it that people will abuse the upcoming Longbow buff because the perception that the DMR Longbow isn't powerful just shows how little people use this weapon correctly. It's a suppression sniper. Which it currently does pretty well. It will require just 5 damage for people to use it more. I call it right here, right now. Arenas will be filled with this weapon. Just like how one damage was enough to drive people to use the Spitfire, even though now it's worse than before the original buff.
June 2021
June 2021
June 2021
June 2021
@str8outtahood We don't have a method for submitting a complaint like this via the forums
We do of course pass on feedback, and we will take any pertinent feedback on changes as they're made or revealed.
We also take personal attacks seriously here, so be sure to keep things civil.
June 2021 - last edited June 2021
@E9ine_ACHe is literally the only one anyone ever talks about regarding game balances (probably because he is the only one who responds on Reddit), I have to disagree about their visions being more important than the player’s visions because when you have millions of players (at least hundreds thousands) saying the exact same things that certain legends like Lifeline are too strong because of her auto revive and other legends need to be buffed/rework but the game designers are too busy staring at their ‘’data’’ and disregard any of the player’s complaints about a certain legend like Wattson for example and refuse to buff her you can understand why so many players are frustrated because the players have more experience playing these legends and know what needs to be changed
I have even heard multiple content creators talking about Wattson specifically (because of the wattson buff troll so they gave their opinions) but other legends in general in their recent videos like Thordan Smash and Jmeyals, The game designers may think that they know what is best for the game but at the end of the day the playerbase are the ones who are stuck playing those legends every single day... and when they have a really low pickrate you can tell they are missing more than the ‘’fun factor’’ otherwise their pick rates would be higher regardless of their current win rates
Im just going to use Wattson as an Example, I have tons of kills on Wattson but a very low overall game win rate... like Gibralter has half the kills and more overall game wins and then Octane is simliar to the same ammount of kills but 25% more wins... I don’t understand how her win rate can be high unless he is only talking about encounter win rates because her overall win rate is pretty tough to do with randoms because they never want to defend at a certain location wether you are on Caustic, Wattson, or Rampart... stationary legends are not good for a movement based game but of these 3 Caustic and Rampart have the advantage because they can be used for both offence and defense while Wattson can be used for offense in very situational circumstances like at the top of ziplines or making a fence through a closed door but it requires you to have already placed a node before hand and plan it out
(A fence toggle may allow her to be more offensive but at a major risk)
note: I was planning on simply copy/pasting the videos but I have watched so many youtube videos I have no idea which ones they are :/