Apex Legends Launches Season 13
Apex Legends Season 13 started on Tuesday, May 10, 2022. The latest season introduces one of Bangalore’s older brothers, Newcastle, as a playable legend. As always, we move to a different map for the competitive season – Storm Point, this time around – and Respawn made plenty of changes to the pre-existing legends.
Given the legend changes and the very open, vast nature of Storm Point, there are a few characters who have a different relative power in the meta. Check out our Apex Legends Season 13 Legend Tier List for the first ranked split!
Season 13 S-Tier Picks in Apex Legends
- Gibraltar: We’re still in a Gibby-dominated meta in Apex. The big boi isn’t leaving his throne any time soon. If you’re out in the open, especially in one of the last circles, Gibraltar is absolutely critical to ensuring your team isn’t immediately murdered. If your squad is Gibby-less, you can expect that all of your friends will be quickly killed by explosives and bullets from all sides. He’s still an absolute tank with his gun shield and his ultimate is one of the best for making an opposing team do something uncomfortable. Until Respawn gives Gibraltar the Pathfinder treatment, he will continue to be an S-tier pick.
- Bloodhound: Wall hacks. That’s honestly all you need to know. When you can see through the walls around you, the game becomes exponentially easier. Smart enemies will immediately run away. Smart, unlucky enemies will still try to run away but get destroyed because they run into your teammate. All other opponents get tragically annihilated as their highlighted bodies catch a hailstorm of bullets. Bloodhound stays at the top of the chart for recon legends in Season 13. Their passive is one of the best in the game for understanding if enemies are nearby and they become an actual monster when you initiate the ult. Use Bloodhound.
- Valkyrie: Valk can no longer spin around in the air after you pop her ult. You’d think this is a big deal and that her ultimate is no longer valuable, but consider these two things:
1) Most players don’t actually have good aim and they aren’t going to do much additional damage now that you aren’t spinning.
2) You can still literally fly away from an area within seconds.
Valkyrie has excellent mobility with her jump pack and her tactical ability is a great way to stun opponents. - Wraith: In season 12, I had Wraith at A tier. Given how large Storm Point is, movement legends become slightly more valuable in setting up their team. Wraith’s portal is one of the best tools for getting out of sticky situations. It’s really the only way to rotate your team when indoors and it is a two-way door that enables your squad to move between two places. Even with the slight delay in her tactical, Wraith still has a small hitbox and can inform her team when enemies are aiming at her. She makes the jump to S-tier in Season 13.
A-Tier Legends
- Newcastle: This man is the shield master. It’s unclear how often you’ll need to revive someone while also dragging their body somewhere, but it’s an interesting idea for a passive in Apex. Newcastle truly changes the way ranked Apex can be played. He is able to reposition his plasma shield and he can leap around the map with his ultimate à la Doomfist from Overwatch. He seems like a legend with a low skill floor and a high skill ceiling. Time will tell if he can push his way into the top tier of Apex based on what people learn about Newcastle in Season 13.
- Caustic: Caustic proved to be really strong in Season 12 given the changes to his traps, and he’s still strong in Season 13. He is one of the best legends for deterring enemy teams from pushing your squad. Caustic is great for holding down buildings and can throw down his traps behind your team rotation to be notified of any teams following you. He loses some value out in the open, but he can still use traps to manufacture cover.
- Loba: Loba’s Black Market has insane team utility, especially when you get to the late game. It provides an almost endless supply of ammo, you can loot after fights quickly, and it even lets you grab legendary weapons from drops. Unfortunately, Loba’s value decreases based on the number of enemy Lobas in the lobby. Use her bracelet to escape dangerous situations or to quickly grab the high ground.
- Ash: Ash is borderline S-Tier in Season 13, but Valk still has a slight advantage when it comes to mobility. Ash is considered an entry fragger, meaning she is good at initiating a fight, doing burst damage, and setting up her team to wipe an opposing team. Once you’ve learned how to effectively toss her tactical, you can secure a free kill on an enemy once the snare lands. Her ultimate is available fairly frequently and it is a great way to close the gap on the enemy once you’ve cracked their shield.
- Seer: Seer saw a surprising uptick in usage rate last season since his scans can give you assist points in ranked mode. While his active ability no longer stuns enemies, it can still cancel enemy revives and heals. This can be the difference between winning or losing a team fight. Additionally, his ultimate lets your entire team see exactly what opponents are doing within a decent-sized sphere. Even without any buffs this season, Seer should still be a strong pick in Season 13.
- Crypto: Crypto in A-tier? Yea, you read that correctly. I’ve bumped him up from the lowly depths of the Apex tier list to the same level as the likes of Ash and Caustic. Because Gibby and Caustic are so powerful, having a legend that counters them can be a good way to increase your chances of a win. Crypto’s Drone can provide consistent information, picks up teammate banners, scans beacons, and can even open doors remotely. If your team has good communication, Crypto can be a very strong pick in ranked.
B-Tier Legends
- Rampart: Rampart got some nice buffs in Season 13. Her walls have more health and her ultimate is deadlier than in prior seasons. Additionally, with the Spitfire coming out of the care package, Rampart continues to be one of the best legends to wield an LMG. She will likely continue to be a niche pick in ranked, but Rampart is definitely the most viable she’s ever been.
- Octane: I’m dropping Octane down a notch from last season. His jump pad is fantastic for pushing teams or exiting quickly, but he doesn’t provide team value without his ultimate. Additionally, at high-level play, you’ll see more teams camping in corners. This makes the jump pad less valuable since you won’t have as many teams to third-party versus quick play lobbies. He’s still a fun legend that works well in aggressive team comps, but there are better mobility legends available in Season 13.
- Mad Maggie: Mad Maggie can use her tactical to counter the Gibby bubble, but this opportunity only presents itself a couple of times a game. Otherwise, it can be used to apply pressure to opponents hiding behind natural cover, but most enemies will move out of its range fairly quickly. Shotguns are still very strong in Apex Legends, which makes Maggie’s passive very strong. Her ultimate is available frequently but makes a ton of noise. Overall, Maggie had a decent kit, but she’s not going to carry any squad to victory.
- Horizon: Horizon stays in the middle of the pack this season. Her ultimate is fairly easy to get value out of as long as you have grenades to follow up with. Even if you don’t have ‘nades, it’s likely that a third-party squad will be on the way to damage your targets. Her passive ability is fine, but you won’t have that many times in a game where the lack of a slow animation when dropping will let you win a fight. She provides nice team value with her active ability, which lets your squad quickly take the high ground. You can also use it to block doorways if you need to prevent a team from pushing into a building that you are holding.
- Wattson: Similar to Crypto, I’ve moved Wattson up the list mostly based on her ability to counter the Gibby ult. It’s also great for combatting grenade spam from opposing teams. Unfortunately, Storm Point is such an open map that Wattson’s fences lose some value in this ranked split. If you can make it to the endgame, Wattson becomes more useful, but she can’t do much for your team as you rotate around the map in the mid-game.
- Bangalore: Bangalore is still extraordinarily unextraordinary. Sure, her smokes can provide great cover if you are in a bad spot or completely blind an opposing legend, but very few people actually launch the smoke in ideal positions. Her ultimate ability is easy to avoid, and is really just a tool for zoning enemies away from a location. Her passive ability is still one of the strongest, but there isn’t a strong reason to select her in ranked mode.
C-Tier Legends
- Revenant: Revenant hasn’t gotten any recent changes and we’re a long way off from the days when totem pushes were overpowered. Ever since they nerfed the totem, it’s becoming increasingly rare for players to select Rev in ranked. In Season 13, there’s a lot of space to cover in Storm Point between POIs. This means you almost have to pair Rev with an Octane or Ash in order to get solid value out of his ultimate. The Silence Grenades are effective when you land them, but can be really tricky to actually hit enemies, especially with all the barrier abilities available. Rev requires too much team coordination in order to be effective against skilled enemies.
- Lifeline: She’s dropped a tier versus Season 12. It’s great that you can revive a downed teammate while staying in the fight, but most enemies will still push into you if they have a numbers advantage. Even if they don’t push, you’re likely to experience an array of explosives from thirsty enemies. Her passive ability provides a little more loot than you’d normally get from loot bins, but the loot isn’t game-changing. Lifeline’s care package has a long cooldown, plus it’s an invitation to the entire lobby to come to your location. Gibraltar, Newcastle, and Loba continue to be better options if you want to play a support role in Season 13.
- Fuse: No change in Fuse’s kit and he stays in the C-tier for Season 13. As before, his Knuckle Clusters provide most of the utility from his kit. Not only do they do decent damage, but they can also be used to blow doors off their hinges. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen an enemy Fuse use his ultimate in a way that is actually oppressive. It seems very gimmicky and has more room to become more powerful with a future buff. Just make sure to pick up a bunch of explosives if you are going to play as the “explosives expert”.
- Pathfinder: Pathy continues to fall down the ranks and sees his pick rate dropping. It’s really just difficult to justify using him as your mobility legend for ranked games given the other options. Experience Pathfinders are experts at maneuvering with the Grappling Hook, but his ultimate is less spectacular since Respawn nerfed ziplines a few seasons back. Players are fairly easy to damage while zipping so you need to be very cautious about where you place the ultimate. Pathfinder really needs a new passive ability to increase his overall strength versus the other legends.
D-Tier Legends in Season 13 of Apex Legends
- Mirage: If ranked was about having fun, Mirage would be your go-to pick. Unfortunately, ranked play isn’t about fun, and Mirage barely provides any team value. Bamboozles will rarely catch seasoned enemies off guard and will almost never win a fight for you. The passive ability to become invisible during revives is interesting, but Gibby and Lifeline are both better at picking up teammates. Mirage’s ultimate is an okay tool to get out of a sticky situation, but he’s just not a good pick in the ranked queues of Season 13.
Look out for an updated tier list when Apex hits the Season 13 ranked split!
TAG Apex Legends Tier List
What do you think of these Season 13 rankings for Apex Legends? Would you move any legends on the list? Join the conversation in the comments section!
