[GameSpot] - Apex Legends Tier List: Best Legends For Battle Royale

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Apex Legends’ thrilling battle royale showdowns are made most exciting by its myriad of unique legends who each bring their own skills and assets to team compositions. With a solid collection of defensive, offensive, support, and recon characters available to choose from, however, there’s always going to be a few that sit atop the game’s meta and a few that fall short of greatness. Here's our tier list of the best legends in Apex Legends.

S-Tier

These legends are invaluable additions to any team composition and have few, if any, major weaknesses. In this tier, we have four legends.

Offensive legend Wraith

Bloodhound

Bloodhound consistently ranks among the most used characters and boasts an incredible win rate. This is due to their staggeringly good kit of abilities, the best of which is a tactical that scans enemies through walls to reveal their location to all teammates. Additionally, they can track the location of enemies on the ground to find engagements, and their ultimate speeds them up and grants them quicker recharge time on their tactical ability. There simply isn’t a better recon character to have on your team.

Wraith

Wraith is synonymous with streamers and “sweaty” players, but there’s a good reason for that. Her passive, which reveals when she’s being aimed at, is a useful but unexciting boon. But it’s her tactical and ultimate abilities that offer some serious mobility and utility. The former is easily one of the game’s best abilities, granting her invulnerability and a 30% speed boost to help her reset fights that haven’t gone her way. The latter is a portal that can be used to reposition herself and her teammates when they find themselves pinned in a bad situation. When you put all of this together, it’s hard to nail down and kill a good Wraith.

Valkyrie

Valkyrie’s movement is unmatched thanks to her jetpack which allows her to reposition frequently and reach heights with a consistency that no other character could dream of. Being able to use her ultimate to redeploy to a new area is immensely helpful for rotations, and it has the added bonus of showing you where enemies are out in the open. Her tactical, meanwhile, offers a large AOE that stuns and damages enemies, making her great for getting someone out from behind cover. In other words, this jetpack master is the whole package and one of the most meta characters in the game right now.

Gibraltar

Defensive powerhouse Gibraltar is a force to be reckoned with. His gun shield allows him to block some enemy gunfire, which effectively adds an extra 50 points to his health pool. Meanwhile, his deployable bubble is one of the best abilities in the game, shielding teammates for rezzes, healing, or repositioning for 12 seconds. That’s before we talk about how his ultimate reigns down hell on enemy teams for big damage and area denial. Once you add in the fact that he takes 15% less damage from all gunfire, it’s clear that Gibraltar is a monster on the battlefield.

A-Tier

These legends fill their respective roles exceptionally well but may have one or two downsides that keep them from being the best of the best. In this tier, we have three legends.

Recon legend Pathfinder

Octane

Good Octane players can be a wonderful asset to their teams, as his tactical ability allows him near-constant extra speed to help him reach fights or reposition rapidly. Of course, it comes at the cost of a good chunk of his health each time, which he then very slowly replenishes with his passive ability. His ultimate tosses out a jump pad that the team can bounce on to gain height or cross large gaps, and it can be used very often since it recharges quickly. With that kind of speed and utility, Octane is one of the best picks for fast and twitchy players.

Pathfinder

Lovable and chatty robot Pathfinder has always been a favorite among mobility-focused players. His grapple is one of the game’s most versatile movement abilities that rewards high-skill plays with phenomenal payoffs. Meanwhile, his ultimate can be used to get him and his teammates to new areas pretty often, and it’s especially helpful for crossing horizontal gaps. His passive, which merely recharges his ultimate when using recon beacons, is pretty pointless overall, but that doesn’t stop Pathfinder from being a superstar.

Ash

Ash is still new among the Apex Legends roster, but she’s already proven herself a mighty contender. Her tactical ability can be tremendously helpful at blocking doors and slowing people down, though aiming it at any range can prove difficult. Her ultimate requires a bit of thought to place correctly, but being able to warp to new locations so quickly makes her an outstanding option for those who enjoy flanking. Lastly, being able to track player deaths across the map can help teams make better rotations. Ash is simply deadly in the right hands.

B-Tier

These legends are great picks that can be very useful in specific scenarios, especially in the hands of skilled players, but they lack the level of utility needed to be highly recommended. In this tier we have six legends.

Defensive legend Caustic

Horizon

Horizon is another effective movement legend that benefits players who can make the most of her awesome passive and handy tactical ability. The former allows her to ignore the impact animation caused by high falls, which means she can start shooting immediately after landing. The latter’s vertical boost to high spots is an incredibly powerful option for reaching new heights, though its one downside is that enemies can use it, too. Her ultimate ability is solid for area denial in close quarters, but it’s easy to destroy or ignore in most situations. For those okay with sacrificing a mediocre ultimate in favor of fantastic mobility, though, Horizon is a solid pick.

Bangalore

Bangalore has consistently been one of Apex Legends’ most balanced legends. Her passive ability allows her to move very quickly when being shot at, and her ultimate is great for outdoor area denial. And while her smokes can be exceptional for covering a rez or escape, they can also be a major hindrance to your team if used in or around gunfights, clouding their vision and creating an absolute mess. Because of this, she requires a high level of awareness to be used to her full potential.

Rampart

After receiving a buff in Season 10, Rampart went from being a bottom-tier character to a solid pick for defensive-minded players. Her amped walls provide extra cover and some improved damage when firing through them, while her passive makes her extra lethal when running LMGs – a class of gun already known for being very powerful. Her ultimate, a giant gatling gun named Sheila, can now be used while mobile. It slows her down significantly, however, so good opponents can easily outflank her. Rampart doesn’t quite have the mobility needed to be meta, but those looking for a unique challenge will find that she packs a punch.

Caustic

Known for his stinky green gas, Caustic is one of Apex Legends’ more balanced defensive legends. His gas traps are amazing for area denial, especially when he has time to prepare a whole slew of them in a building or other cramped space. His ultimate can be great for pushing teams out of cover or giving cover for heals and rezzes, too. Unfortunately, his downside is that he requires close quarters to reach his full potential, and his large hitbox makes him a liability in open spaces. If you come across one inside, though, a Caustic makes for a scary opponent.

Loba

As the queen of loot, Loba is a valuable asset for any team looking to stay stocked up. Her passive lets her see purple items through walls and inside bins, and her ultimate ability lays down a shop that allows her and her teammates to sift through all nearby loot for up to two items each and as much ammo as they can carry. Her tactical ability – a bracelet that can be thrown and warped to – feels a little underwhelming and awkward in practice, but it can be used to great effect when trying to escape. She’s not a top-tier legend since she doesn’t bring much to a fight, but there’s something to be said about easy loot.

Wattson

After her Season 11 buff, Wattson has gone from a C-tier legend to a decent B-tier pick for those who enjoy locking down areas. Her electrified fences can be used to create havoc for aggressive teams trying to push in on her, while her ultimate is a pylon that recharges shields and destroys incoming ordinance, reducing the ability for other squads to repel her team from their location. Still, despite her usefulness, Wattson requires a lot of setup time to create a meaningful stronghold and doesn’t offer much in the way of offense, and thus she doesn’t land in the must-have category for most teams.

C-Tier

These legends can certainly serve a purpose and help bring teams to victory in the right situations, but they could use some serious buffs to bring them in line with much better legends. In this tier we have five legends.

Support legend Lifeline

Seer

Seer started off strong upon release, but a series of nerfs has landed this recon-focused character closer to the bottom. Seer’s ability to see the heartbeats of nearby enemies can be useful to him in some situations, and his tactical can be used to disrupt enemies who are healing or rezzing. Sadly, his ultimate is too situational, and many teams know to crouch to avoid detection within it – or easily destroy it at the center of the sphere. As it stands, Bloodhound is simply too much better to make Seer a worthwhile pick for most players.

Fuse

Fuse can bring some seriously obnoxious area denial with his cluster bombs, especially considering how quickly they recharge. Unfortunately, the remainder of his kit is pretty dull, especially his passive which simply allows him to carry an extra grenade in each spot and fire them faster. His ultimate fares slightly better by trapping enemies in a circle of fire, but it’s pretty easy to escape for many legends and therefore only occasionally provides much more than a minor hurdle. Those cluster bombs definitely hurt, but they don’t do much to save this legend from being mediocre in most settings.

Revenant

Revenant is a mixed bag of good and bad ideas. His double-speed crouching is excellent for sneaking up on teams, his ability to quietly climb structures can be used to make some great plays, and his tactical ability is a great silence that keeps enemies from using their own abilities. Sadly, his ultimate – a totem which teleports you back to it upon taking some damage – feels weaker than it really should and regularly results in little more than revealing to everyone precisely where you are and where you’ll be once they deal a bit of damage to you.

Lifeline

Lifeline was once one of the most sought-after characters in the game due to her ultimate, spawns a care package filled with high-tier loot like purple shields and attachments. However, as other characters have brought much more to the table, Lifeline has lost much of her appeal. Her healing bot can be nice in a pinch, and her hands-off rez can get teammates up while you keep fighting, but neither make her a necessary addition to a team.

Mirage

Trickster Mirage has a fun kit that allows him to send a decoy out and control it, and his ultimate ability spawns a lot of these decoys in an area around him while granting him a very brief period of invisibility. But as incredibly enjoyable as it is to bamboozle enemy squads, Mirage simply lacks much team utility, and his deceptive practices don’t really make up for his lack of mobility. Some players can overcome his weaknesses with sheer skill, but the majority of teams will find that he’s better used for some well-earned laughs than for maxing out the potential of the composition.

D-Tier

These legends are in a poor state that makes them extremely difficult to recommend to anyone but the most diehard fans of the characters and their respective kits. In this tier we have one legend.

Recon legend Crypto

Crypto

Crypto has been in a rough state since launch, and it’s only gotten worse for this drone-flying legend. While his drone can be immensely helpful at reconnaissance, piloting it leaves him vulnerable to enemy gunfire. Additionally, his ultimate ability, which causes an EMP blast that does 50 damage to enemy shields and stuns them, also affects him. Because of this, he has to stay out of the range of the EMP and therefore ends up missing out on the initial push on enemies. All in all, Crypto is an underwhelming and underperforming legend that is overshadowed by virtually every other character.

For more on Apex Legends, check out the best spots to land on the game’s newest map, Storm Point.

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