Apex Legends: Being buttslammed by a dozen perfect Gibraltars

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Apex Legends: Being buttslammed by a dozen perfect Gibraltars

Arianya: Nov 3, 2009

OP is a little out of date. A new one will be provided for season 8 in February. :siren:

Apex Goons Discord

Released in February 2019, Apex Legends is a hero based Battle Royale. Yes, I know, you're already tuning out, but this is made by Respawn Entertainment, who despite their lack of wide market appeal made the superb Titanfall 1 & Titanfall 2. While this game doesn't inherit everything from those games, it does inherit great gunplay, beautiful environments and smooth mobility.

The game is Free2Play. The two MTX is cosmetic based (skins, animations, etc) and hero character buying (unlocking the ability to play Mirage or Caustic, at time of writing) based. They've committed to it remaining cosmetic/character unlock only.

The Cast

Each character has 3 abilities, a Tactical, a Passive and a Ultimate. These are pretty self descriptive. Your Tacticals are frequently off cooldown, your Passives happen automatically, your Ultimate takes a while to charge but has big punch.

Bloodhound - Big Game Norse (?) Hunter
A mysterious tracker who keeps going on about Norse gods. They have the Tactical Eyes of the Allfather which alerts them to nearby hostiles, and gives them brief truesight through walls. Their passive, Tracker allows Bloodhound to see clues on the ground as to what happened nearby recently. Stuff like footsteps, rifle casings, mantle scuffs, etc. Their ultimate Beast of the Hunt speeds up Bloodhound and highlights enemies, allowing them to see through smoke/gas/etc. for an extended period.

They're a useful complement to most teams on the basis that you can keep track of where other teams are headed, and wallhacks are always useful.
Gibraltar - Maori Brick Shithouse
Can do the haka. His Tactical ability, Dome of Protection deploys a indestructible conical shield for 15 seconds. This shield blocks both incoming and outgoing fire, so if you want to threaten him you're gonna have to step into the shield, or he'll have to walk out. His Passive is the aptly named Gun Shield. While aiming down the sights, Gibraltar deploys a destructible shield that recharges after a while. His ultimate is Defensive Bombardment, Gibraltar throws out a marker and a mortar strike bombards the area for some time. You can hurt yourself (thought not team mates) with this, so the Dome of Protection can be useful here.

The closest thing the game has to a true tank. Gibraltar can walk face first into danger with more aplomb then most characters, and the dome makes him great at setting up a retreat point or escaping from a dangerous ultimate.
Lifeline - The Medic
Pretty self explanatory. Her Tactical ability is D.O.C. Heal Drone, a deployable drone that slowly heals nearby team mates. Her passive Combat Medic causes her to deploy a forward facing shield when she revives a team mate, as well as allowing her to revive and use medical items faster. Her ultimate is Care Package, which calls down a drop pod with 3 pieces of loot in it. There can be good, rare items in this, but everyone can see the pod coming down, so don't give away your location.

She's overall pretty drat useful. People who are getting healed by the Heal Drone have to worry about usage times on meds, and the revive shield is immensely helpful to get people back up even while under fire.
Pathfinder - Game Over. Thanks for playing!
A former MRVN turned scout. His Tactical ability, Grappling Hook, shoots out a grappling hook that then drags Pathfinder to it. You have some aerial control over this, and get a lot of velocity. His passive is Insider Knowledge, allowing him to interact with antennas located around the map (marked on it with white) to find out the location and size of the next ring. His ultimate is Zip Line Gun, allowing Pathfinder to set up a Zipline between two points for friends and foes to use. This zipline sticks around forever, and you can set it up in places you wouldn't expect, so experiment!

The mobility king. You are going to get grapple kicked by him atleast once. Accept it now and move on.
Wraith - That's So Raven
A somewhat crazy dimension hopper. Her tactical, Into The Void allows her to temporarily become ethereal, moving about without taking damage, at the cost of not being able to see enemies. Her passive Voices from the Void warns Wraith when she's in danger, for example telling you when someone is aiming at you or you're about to walk into a trap. Her ultimate is Dimensional Rift, allowing Wraith to map out a path which then creates a portal between two points for fast travel. This can be used by friends and foes, and last 60 seconds.

It's hard to argue with a kit that features mobility and damage immunity, and her warnings genuinely save lives sometimes, no one wants to get headshotted by a sniper.
Bangalore - Soldier of Fortune
Caustic - Fire burn and caldron bubble
Mirage - Aizawa-san Multiplies

Media

Cinematic Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQtHENM_GZU

The Map

Pathfinder's True Origin Story - The Little MRVN That Could

Interactive Map with Loot Crates, Weapon Spawns, etc.
http://apexlegendsmap.net/

# ¿ Feb 5, 2019 02:15

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# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 03:26

Arianya: Nov 3, 2009

Played a bunch of rounds this evening. Apart from some server hiccups at one point, it was immensely enjoyable, from the perspective of someone whose dipped their toe in pretty much every BR.

Gunplay is what you'd expect from Respawn, and the dynamic of the team, TTK and the ability to respawn makes it more palatable to me then PUBG or Fortnite were in a lot of ways.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2019 02:17

Arianya: Nov 3, 2009

Spacedad posted:

^^^^

It looks like this is going to be the main discord goon Apex players are using for the time being (unless this game gets so big with goons we need a whole discord dedicated just to it) so this link should probably be added to the OP.

Done and done.

e: MRVN tax to not have this be a completely worthless snipe

# ¿ Feb 6, 2019 02:24

Arianya: Nov 3, 2009

So Pathfinder can grapple shot people, but it doesn't automelee like it did in Titanfall 2. :gonk:

Still great for disorienting people though, and the grapple in general is great mobility. It's a shame that role is already claimed in my usual 3-man.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2019 11:53

Arianya: Nov 3, 2009

Worth noting that 45 packs is not the "forever and ever F2P limit"

quote:

What is the Battle Pass?

The Battle Pass is a seasonal system that rewards players with exclusive cosmetic items. These rewards are a mix of exclusive seasonal cosmetics and Apex Packs. Every player can unlock some of these items each season through normal play; those who choose to purchase the Battle Pass can earn everything available that season, around 100 different rewards.

Emphasis mine.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2019 12:53

Arianya: Nov 3, 2009

With how valuable higher level armour can be to your survivability, it's still definitely an issue in a loot-centric game to have a character who improves your looting, especially since ult accelerants are a bit of a waste on any one else, since most of the time they either have such a short cooldown it's not worth using the accelerant (pathfinder) or they're held on to for minutes at a time, waiting for the right time to engage with it (bangalore ult, gibraltar, etc)

# ¿ Feb 8, 2019 10:38

Arianya: Nov 3, 2009

I know the spectator cam desync/latency makes it look worse then it actually is, but watching my team mate and an enemy strafe left and right while potshotting at each other with a shotgun and both of them missing every shot is magical :allears:

I want to like Wattson more but it feels like her tactical is only useful in enclosed areas with very specific choke points or spammed out in a close quarters fight. Plus the fact that her ultimate eats friendly ordnance launched near it is a big oof.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2020 02:10

Arianya: Nov 3, 2009

Mr.Citrus posted:

They changed ult behavior a while ago. It only eats nades landing in the area. Anything the game calculates to land outside the ult zone is unaffected.

I could have sworn it was eating nades I threw far, but probably I'm just underestimating it's radius. Does make me feel a bit better about dropping it though.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2020 02:49

Arianya: Nov 3, 2009

So I tested the Wattson thing - it *does* let through friendly grenades that will land on the far side. With a few caveats:

a) the range is pretty wide
b) any grenade that starts outside of the range but crosses the boundary, even if it would completely overshoot the radius of the ult, will get intercepted.
c) the range markers dissappear a little after placing the pylon
d) the pylon takes into account the grenade radius - for example, thermite gets blocked a couple of meters further out, depending on if it's flames would cross into the radius.

Here, the grenade interception radius shouuld end just behind the dummy, but if you threw a grenade such that it's radius would hit the dummy, it'll be blocked.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2020 18:44

Arianya: Nov 3, 2009

It would look okay if not for the Monster Energy highlights.

I'm not sure why they're even there, given Twitch's signature colour is purple and a Gilded Rose should be like... golden?

# ¿ Feb 7, 2020 19:24

Arianya: Nov 3, 2009

It's been over a year and the OP is in horrendously unfinished state so I'm going to note here that someone should start a new thread so I can close this thread and not feel guilt about an unfinished OP for a game I don't play very often anymore.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2020 15:57

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# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 03:26

Arianya: Nov 3, 2009

Arianya posted:

It's been over a year and the OP is in horrendously unfinished state so I'm going to note here that someone should start a new thread so I can close this thread and not feel guilt about an unfinished OP for a game I don't play very often anymore.

Reposting this for visibility and noting that I'd like to close the thread on/before May 1st! Thanks to whichever goon takes up the mantle!

# ¿ Apr 22, 2020 11:14

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