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Apex Legends players have had a full season to let the Kraber nerf sink in after it went live last season. The gun’s Headshot multiplier went down from 3.0 to 2.0 while its damage was reduced from 145 to 140 during Apex Legends Season 13. Since then some players have been unhappy with the Kraber nerfs.
The Kraber is one of the deadliest sniper rifles and has been a staple of the Apex Legends weapon roster. The Kraber has always been a special find, only restricted to care packages. However, according to Reddit user GhostxFiller, “It's useless. There's no point in taking it. The only thing that's changed is the damage”. The gun’s downsides of limited ammo, slow reload rate and an extremely loud gunshot were compensated for by its ability to take down enemies with one shot. According to GhostxFiller, “Previously, if you were killed by a Kraber, it meant the person using it was good, and you were killed by a skilled player."
Apart from the nerfs to the sniper rifle, both the Blue and Purple Helmets had their damage reduction increased in season 13, meaning players with these helmets are now taking less damage. Given the damage reduction and the Kraber nerf, it now takes two shots across most body shield and helmet combinations to down enemies. This sentiment is echoed in GhostxFiller’s post when they say, “Now if you get killed by a Kraber, it's entirely on you for being an easy target. If you get hit twice consecutively, you need to reassess because you managed to be slower than someone racking another bullet and firing at you a second time”.
While some responses agreed with GhostxFiller, others defended the nerfs. User WattsonIsQueen responded by saying, “in a shooter any gun that is a 1 shot kill is a bad gun. I don’t think it’s healthy and balanced. The Kraber still does a ton of damage”.
The Kraber has always been a rather controversial sniper rifle. Given its previous one shot, one kill nature, there was very little counterplay to the gun, especially at a pro level. However, it seems like a welcome change to some casual players as the nerfs mean teams have time to shield or heal up and strategize against it. As ComprehensiveBeach45 put it,“it sucks to play a 10-15 minute game to lose to 1 bullet, sometimes from a third party. So the benefit of not dying a frustrating death outweighs the satisfaction of 1 hit killing someone."
