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The three best characters to play for Apex Legends noobs
Apex Legends dropped in glorious fashion less than three weeks ago and within eight hours recorded more than 1 million players. We've been stuck in ever since...
EA’s Battle Royale competitor is incredibly well made and, no doubt, the large player base is courtesy of Respawn’s impeccable and polished game design. Titanfall 2 is arguably one of the best FPS games of its time (regardless if so many players, sadly, didn’t realise it). Set in the same universe as Titanfall, Apex Legends sees you play in teams of 3. The premise is still the same: you launch from a drop ship, land, loot and survive. The last team standing wins.
While the Battle Royale formula is tried and tested, where Respawn shook things up was in character selection. You’ll need to choose from eight Legends before you get into game. Each Legend has a set of abilities that you can utilise. These include passive abilities, tactical abilities and their ultimate. Consider Apex the Battle Royale game that got made if Fortnite and Overwatch had a baby and that baby had some COD speed thrown in for good measure. Only better… because this is Respawn.
If you’ve fumbled through the Apex Legends tutorial and are now ready to jump into game, you might not be sure which Legend is best to play with. The eight Legends are all interesting in their own way but some are a bit more difficult to master than others. After a good few rounds with zero damage and embarrassingly short time on the map we’ve got our three Legends that are best suited to noobs:
Bangalore
At 35-years-old, Anita Williams is bad ass. She’s also a relatively straight forward shoot ‘em up Legend. Her passive ability is “Double Time”, which gives you a speed boost when you’re shot at while sprinting. This is useful for your first few Apex games where you might spend more time running away from the gun fights than actually being in the gun fights. On that whole run away and hide as you get your bearings point - drop your Q key and you’ll be able to use your Smoke Launcher. It’s a smoke grenade that will help if you need to confuse enemies, get the drop on them, take cover while reviving or it can be randomly popped in moments of panic to confuse everyone (we might be speaking from experience). Bangalore’s ultimate is another winner for noobs. Rolling Thunder calls in an artillery strike that creeps across the landscape and is best utilised while watching fellow noobs attempted to race inside the circle as it closes.
Gibraltar
If you’re a fan of lore than Gibraltar’s back story is soft and squishy. He’s meant to be a gentle giant when what he really is is a great big defensive tank that is perfect for noobs who want to charge around and get straight in on the action. You can’t help but spot Overwatch hero similarities pop up. The Reinhardt comparison can be made when you look at Gibraltar’s Gun Shield. When you aim down sights of your weapon the shield automatically deploys to block incoming fire. Winston similarities pop up when you see Gibraltar’s Dome of Protection. Much like a Winston shield bubble - the dome blocks projectiles if you need to revive and protect teammates. Much like Bangalore’s ulti, Gibraltar’s Defensive Bombardment offers a concentrated mortar strike. If you drop into the game with this Legend hunt down some armor. You already have high base shields and health. With extra armor, other noobs will struggle to take you down.
Lifeline
There’s a bit of debate about whether Lifeline or Pathfinder should feature on this noob guide. But Lifeline wins out because of her cheeky banter voice lines. A child of wealthy war profiteers who grew a social conscious, this support legend is a great starting character if your aim is more random bullets at the enemy’s feet versus headshots. Lifeline’s passive ability, Combat Medic, helps to revive teammates faster with shield protection. Healing items are also used 25% faster. Her D.O.C Health Drone it useful to help heal teammates nearby. And by nearby we mean right next to you because it has useless range. Her ulti is a pretty sweet Care Package that can be dropped right next to your team. By pretty sweet we also mean completely random and potentially useless if you get a bunch of loot you don’t need. But cheeky banter voice lines FTW!
These three Legends should get you started. Once you’ve notched up a few kills you’ll be ready to try out some of their interesting friends. Now, to the drop zone!
