Mayhem has finally arrived in Apex Legends with the launch of Season 8, and as with every season, the new start has also brought some balance changes and a brand new legend Fuse. Season 8 also brings with it some major changes to the beloved King's Canyon which further shakes up how certain Legends will perform on the map.
Note: Legends are first sorted into tiers, and then sorted alphabetically within the tiers. Ranking is based on additive team value, strength of abilities, and overall place in the meta.
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Bloodhound - Bloodhound is the technological tracker in Apex Legends, and no one does the tracking job quite as good as Bloodhound. After a series of powerful buffs over the course of a couple seasons, Bloodhound has managed to carve a place into the meta where they are almost unmatched in raw strength and team value. Eyes of the Allfather allows Bloodhound to scan a large area for traps and enemies, highlighting them briefly for their squad. While in their ultimate, Beast of the Hunt, Bloodhound can use Eyes of the Allfather more often, allowing for enhanced tracking while in their ultimate. Speaking of Beast of the Hunt, while this ability is active, Bloodhound has increased mobility and enemies are highlighted and easier to spot. Kills and knocks while Beast of the Hunt is active will increase the duration of the ultimate as well. Overall, Bloodhound is in an incredibly strong spot in the meta currently, and is easily one of the most reliable and solid picks on the entire roster.
Gibraltar - Nothing strikes fear into the heart of a man more than a Red Evo Shield Gibraltar with a Turbocharged Devotion. Gibraltar is an absolute beast of a man who is easily the tankiest Legend in the game. Thanks to his Gun Shield, Gibraltar is the only Legend who can take a Kraber headshot and live, and until that changes, Gibraltar will likely remain S-Tier. Gibraltar's Dome Shield is a safe haven in final circles where teammates can heal or be picked up quickly, while Gibraltar's Defensive Bombardment is perfect for dealing a ton of damage in a concentrated area out in the open. Gibraltar may have started at the bottom of the tier list when Apex Legends first launched two years ago, but now at Apex Legends' second anniversary, Gibraltar is easily one of the absolute strongest Legends in the game.
Crypto - Crypto has been the recipient of several buffs over the past couple seasons that has really made him a staple in high-tier play. Crypto's drone provides a ton of useful information to his team, while not having to be in the fray like Bloodhound. Crypto's drone can also set off an EMP that decimates traps, fences, and damages enemy shields. Crypto can now also collect the survey beacons with his drone, making him a perfect recon character - especially on enclosed maps like Olympus. Crypto, for the first time, is finally in a really solid spot in the meta and a great overall character for more competitive play.
Fuse - Fuse is Season 8's new Legend, and he's all about bringing the explosions. Fuse can carry more grenades, throw them farther and faster, fire a clustered explosion as his Tactical, and can create a ring of fire with his Ultimate. These abilities combine into what can only be described as pure chaos. Fuse can hit people with Arc Stars from over 200 meters away, and that alone should be reason enough to place him high in the tiers. Even if he doesn't have the powerful ult he was originally planned to have, his ring of fire has proven devastating in enclosed areas, making him a threat both when defending and when pushing offensively.
Horizon - Horizon flew under the radar when she first launched in Season 7, but once the player base got familiar with her kit, she took off. Horizon's Tactical allows her to create a jumpjet that launches whoever is inside it straight upward for a considerable height. Her Ultimate tosses a black hole machine that sucks anything nearby into it and holds them there for a short time. Players have started getting the hang of her abilities and have used them well.
Lifeline - Lifeline is Apex's only healer Legend, so just off the bat, she's valuable in that regard. Her Tactical allows for free healing for any player nearby, so players can save syringes and med kits for later engagements. Arguably the biggest perk of having Lifeline on a team is the revive shield. Lifeline can pick up teammates while still fighting, making her absolutely clutch on the battlefield. She's an absolutely amazing Legend, and only going to get better with more Apex Legends buffs.
Mirage - Apex Legends' resident trickster continues to climb the tier list thanks to some tweaks and bug fixes this his abilities. Mirage is all about confusion and chaos, causing enemies to second guess their shots when it comes to his decoys. As of Season 8, his decoys even make audible footsteps now that a bug is fixed to make them even more believable. While Mirage's abilities aren't strong enough to turn a fight by himself, they open up opportunities to poke holes in enemy defenses through distraction or to potentially reveal hidden enemy positions.
Revenant - Revenant used to be one of the worst Legends in the entire game, but thanks to some powerful buffs about two Apex Legends seasons ago, Revenant has climbed (in his own, weird way) to the top of the charts. Two charges of his Silence ability alone is enough to make him a powerful contender in the games, but now that his Death Totem has unlimited range, Revenant is a staple for teams looking to be aggressive and push while still maintaining a safe position to fall back to. Overall, Revenant is incredibly powerful and easily one of the strongest Legends in the game.
Bangalore - Bangalore has always been middle-of-the-pack when it comes to the Legends. She's the definitive "soldier class" Legend, perfect for those who are just looking to maximize gun-play over fancy abilities. Her smoke bombs are always helpful for disorienting enemies or covering a retreat, her Ultimate allows for great zoning control and stunning enemies who cannot get away, and her Double Time passive allows for quick retreats or fast engagements into a fight. Overall, Bangalore is just a solid, all-purpose pick that is never a bad choice. Plus, rumor has it Bangalore will be getting an heirloom soon in an upcoming collection event!
Caustic - Caustic is Apex's quintessential defensive Legend, excelling at using his gas traps to lock down an enclosed area. Despite the recent change to Caustic's traps that make them no longer slow down Legends inside the gas, the damage that the traps do is still considerable. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Caustic can still throw these traps out in the open, and even use his gas grenade Ultimate ability, Caustic can still struggle in open-field engagements. Despite this disadvantage, Respawn is looking for ways to nerf Caustic in a future update, so fans'll see how long the trap master himself remains in the upper tiers.
Octane - Apex's resident speed demon has steadily climbed the tier lists over the course of several seasons thanks to a series of reworks with Octane's jump pad and his Tactical. Octane excels at zipping around the map quickly, whether that's to loot quicker or to get an advantageous position in a fight. The only major change to Octane this season was a tweak to how his jump pad works when launching people. Now, when sliding into the jump pad, the trajectory is longer with a lower height, while running into it while not crouched grants a much higher jump with less distance. This change makes Octane even more valuable at both navigating the map and for getting a good position to strike at another team. Overall, despite being seen as a solo-focused Legend, this strange-faced Legend brings more and more to his team with every change.
Pathfinder - Few characters have been run through Respawn's ringer more than Pathfinder. Respawn has changed Pathfinder's Tactical cooldown so many times that it's almost unrecognizable from what it once was. Thankfully, Pathfinder is finally back in a decent spot with his Tactical, while his Zipline remains a great tool for maneuvering the maps. Pathfinder's grapple timer is tied to the distance traveled, so players aren't punished for doing quick jumps with it, while still maintaining balance for those who use it to travel longer distances. While it's nowhere near as powerful as it once was, it's certainly a lot better than it was the past few season. Plus, no other Legend can get away with posing as a MARVN to bamboozle players, so that's a plus.
Wattson - Wattson is one of the other main defensive Legends in the game, capable of using her electric fences to make crossing into an area especially deadly. While Wattson's Tactical struggles out in the open areas of King's Canyon and World's Edge, the interior sections of all three maps is where Wattson really shines. In higher-end play, Wattson is one of the go-to Legends for securing the final ring, and her Ultimate is perfect for stopping a barrage of ordinance. Additionally, she's the perfect counter to the new Legend Fuse who is reigning destruction with his grenade and explosion-focused kit.
Wraith - Apex Legends' golden child, Wraith, received yet another nerf this season with some changes to her hitbox making her easier to hit, but Wraith remains one of the most-used Legends in the game. Her Tactical allows her to escape combat or avoid deadly situations better than any other Legend, while her Ultimate allows her to move her squad a good distance without taking damage. It's also great for laying traps, as many players have learned by now. Wraith remains a solid pick on the roster, through players are still waiting for the day that Respawn stops nerfing her.
Loba - Despite several buffs in attempts to bring her into the meta a bit more, including some more upcoming buffs in the near future, Loba still falls behind other Legends in the game. This mostly due to her Tactical ability which is unreliable at best. Loba's teleporter has a long wind-up, a brutal landing animation which makes it ill-advised for mid-combat use, and it doesn't play well with the terrain on most of the maps. If Loba's teleporter lands on what it deems as an invalid landing location, it will simply fly back to Loba without teleporting her. Aside from that, Loba's ultimate is pretty useful for clearing out loot in an area, but it lets everyone in a city block from where it's set up know where the Loba's squad is, so it's sometimes a liability. Loba still needs some more fine-tuning before she can join the higher tiers.
Rampart - Rampart's kit is, in theory, incredibly powerful when it comes to locking down an area. However, in practice, Rampart's kit just doesn't mesh well with the fast-paced play of Apex Legends. When constantly moving to stay in the ring, it's hard to create a fortified position. Sure, Rampart may do well in the final circles, but she's more of a liability than an asset until then While her quick reloads with LMGs is really fun and powerful in its own right, it's not nearly enough to warrant her being used over other legends, especially now that Gold Magazine attachments exist.
Overall, not a lot has changed from Season 7. Some characters, like Rampart, have fallen due to how the meta has shifted. While other characters, like Horizon, have skyrocketed due to players mastering her kit. Not a lot of balance changes were made in Season 8, so it's mostly a meta shift. However, it seems that quite a few balance changes are in the works for a number of legends, so perhaps Season 9's tier list will be a lot different.
Apex Legends is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The Switch version will launch on March 9 and a mobile port is in development.