Respawn locks in more Rampart buffs for early Apex Legends Season 8

Respawn has tipped Rampart for even more Apex Legends buffs in an early Season 8 update ⁠— as soon as patch 8.0, if the devs can bed down the changes ⁠— as the turret-loving defender continues to struggle in the battle royale’s fast-paced meta.

Rampart has struggled to find a home in Apex Legends since her Season 6 release, and has slipped towards the bottom of the meta heading into 2021.

This problem is partly to do with her “locked-in” style of play. The defensive Legend is based around deploying walls, cover, and her powerful mini-gun “Sheila” to control areas and dominate opponents through superior firepower.

In theory, that works well. In practice, however, Apex Legends is such a fast game that Rampart often gets left in the dust; an issue that has forced Respawn to take another look at their Season 6 builder, and her iconic amped walls.

Rampart gets more Amped Wall buffs

Respawn is mainly focusing on the struggling defender’s ability to “react quickly” in battles and firefights. They want to give her a platform to help her squad, no matter how long they have to prepare.

The buff will see 45 health added to Rampart’s walls while they’re being built.

This update to the defender’s tactical “should be in 8.0,” Klein confirmed on Reddit, but things may still be swapped as Respawn continues to test the buffs.

This change, while seemingly small, aims to bring her in line with other protective Legends like tanky Gibraltar, who can use his shields reactively. This means he can have a greater influence on skirmishes and moving firefights in the battle royale.

“I believe there’s still too much delay in the ability for her to use it reactively. I also think reactive vs setup isn’t a black and white question,” Klein admitted.

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There may be another buff packaged in patch 8.0 as well, the Apex dev conceded, though it’s far less set in stone: Rampart “could do with a little power closer to the reactive side of that spectrum,” but that change is still being worked on.

Respawn worried Amped Walls will be “trump card”

Rampart’s building walls will also be handed a quality of life update in the upcoming 8.0 update as well. This will relate to the “ally player paradigm” ⁠— how her walls interact with incoming fire midway through construction.

“[Her walls] will stop bullets, except sniper bullets, which will pass through, just like they do with ally players,” he explained. Once the wall is fully built, it will then behave normally.

This is to avoid the wall becoming a “trump card” against long-ranged snipers, and still allowing outplay potential for opponents that have taken the time to set up a strong vantage point, or have caught out mispositioned Rampart players. 

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“This is so, in case I am wrong and Rampart players can reactively plop down a wall when someone with a Kraber looks at them, the wall doesn’t [cancel that out].”

As mentioned by Klein, these Rampart buffs are expected to be shipped in the patch 8.0 update. Apex Legends Season 8 ⁠— and that new patch ⁠— are right around the corner; Dexerto expects the update to drop around February 4, to mark the title’s second anniversary.

These changes will come alongside a possible Wattson rework.

Wraith, Horizon, and Revenant nerfs have also been penciled in. Catch up on all the changes coming in the next Apex Legends update right here.