Before you think that the title is click bait, I mean it, because to me, cursed has a specific meaning.
What do I mean by he's cursed?
Well, he feels like a net negative most of the time, as in, both as team mate and as an enemy, sure leaving bread crumbs is nice, but most it does is let a team with Mirage know where you are.
The real problem is how gas works, it mostly only benefits Caustic himself, and does more harm to team mates than good, so playing against a caustic is annoying because of the DoT, vision blur, slowdown and etc., having a caustic in the team is annoying because of Mirage tricks, vision blur and slow down.
So he's annoying, but that's not enough to call him cursed.
Yeah, sure but, his gas feels mechanically broken too.
Take the following in to account:
- Gas doesn't feel consistent: Sometimes it feels like it triggers very late while other times it triggers trough walls (not shot) or too early to actually do damage to the enemy.
- The wind up animation feels broken because shooting the base during the animation doesn't really do anything, thus even if it's intended to be that way, feels unfair, because judging the exact moment when it's done with the animation is neigh on impossible, so it's a 50/50 if it will trigger or you get to defuse it.
- it's freaky around uneven surfaces. I am generalizing this because it's a bunch of little things, like the gas sliding down hills way too much to being trigger from under stairs a on a stairway.
- This ties in to the animation, but trying to trigger your own gas is hard sometimes too, shooting it thinking it's done w/ the animation and moving on, only for it to ignore being shot and sit there, allowing someone to see your location.
- This one is similar to Bangalore and Gibralatar ultimates, you can't tell who's gas is who's during a CQC situation leading to confusion and lack of clarity.
I general I think he is actually a bit too strong atm only because how annoying the gas is, it's too good as it is now, it's too much blur, too much slow down, too much range, and it won't be such a problem if at least one of those was taken away, such as only slow, don't impair vision, or impair vision as a deterrent to enter it but don't slow people down for trying to retreat, or make the area smaller to discourage late-game smoke-house fights.
What would be best imho, would be to just make it consistent, either everyone (friend or foe) has to suffer the same or gas gets color coded so we can tell who is who, because as it is right now, what was a good defensive gas could really make people feel bitter towards Caustic players if the fight doesn't go well, not being able to move or see anything feels like your ability to play was taken away from you by no fault of your own, but instead by that of a team mate.
I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas on Caustic, so let's discuss.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/apexlegends/comments/f412sc/caustic_is_literally_cursed/