Deadlock's snazziest rich boy, Apollo, gets struck down by a bunch of nerfs after terrorising matches: 'Yoshi took him out back'

Apollo, the latest hero to come to the Cursed Apple of Deadlock—and the final in the sextuplet of the Old Gods, New Blood update—has been hit with a barrage of nerfs, per the game's official changelog forums.

For context, Apollo was a duelist character whose mobility and relative tankiness was a terror in most games—a major culprit was Flawless Advance, his third ability. This thing sees Apollo kip into the air, levitate for a moment, and then strike forward with his blade. When upgraded, it'd also heal you on connecting with a hero.

Not only did this make him hard to escape, it also made him hard as hell to hit, too. Especially since his other ability, Disengaging Sigil, wasn't being properly countered by Slowing Hex. You know, the one item you're meant to be able to build against hyper-mobile heroes.

I, myself, experienced quite a few matches where I was playing either a support or a ranged, squishy character (Valve really likes to give me Mina games, recently). A teamfight would happen, I'd try to pop off some shots from the safety of the backline, only to hear Apollo coming around the corner with his DBZ zips, utterly powerless to do anything as he ran me down.

Anyway, that's all been fixed, now, with Apollo getting nerfed firmly into the ground. His Flawless Advance's hit radius has been shrunk, its damage has been reduced, its spirit scaling has been slashed, and it heals you slightly less when it does connect. Disengaging Sigil now gets snubbed properly by Slowing Hex, making it an easy counter buy.

His ultimate, Itani Lo sahn, is now also slightly weaker. If you can interrupt it, it goes on cooldown, it shouldn't hit targets that are behind him anymore, its base damage is slightly low, and its spirit scaling has also been nudged down slightly.

Reactions on the game's subreddit have been appropriately jubilant: "Damn they beat his ass," writes one player. "Yoshi took him out back," adds another. You can read the specifics on how thoroughly Apollo's ass has been beat down below:

• Apollo: Fixed Slowing Hex not preventing Disengaging Sigil
• Apollo: Riposte On Pummel Hit changed from -15% Bullet Resist to -22% Melee Resist (affects T2 as well)
• Apollo: Flawless Advance hit radius reduced by ~10%
• Apollo: Flawless Advance Base Hold Damage reduced from 30 to 25
• Apollo: Flawless Advance Base Hold Damage spirit scaling reduced from 0.7 to 0.55
• Apollo: Flawless Advance Max Hold Damage reduced from 45 to 40
• Apollo: Flawless Advance Max Hold Damage spirit scaling reduced from 1.1 to 0.9
• Apollo: Flawless Advance Perfect Damage reduced from 75 to 65
• Apollo: Flawless Advance Perfect Damage spirit scaling reduced from 1.65 to 1.55
• Apollo: Flawless Advance T3 reduced from +75 Perfect Damage to +65
• Apollo: Flawless Advance T3 spirit scaling indirectly reduced (it is +15% Spirit Scaling)
• Apollo: Flawless Advance T1 heal on hit reduced from 35 to 30
• Apollo: Itani Lo Sahn now goes on cooldown when interrupted
• Apollo: Fixed Itani Lo Sahn hitting targets behind him
• Apollo: Itani Lo Sahn base damage reduced from 250 to 225
• Apollo: Itani Lo Sahn spirit scaling reduced from 1.75 to 1.6