Rampart is a legend that was introduced during “Season 6: Boosted” as a brand new character. If you are unfamiliar with her, she has the ability to put down “Amped Walls” which allow you to deal out amplified damage by shooting through its shield while protecting you from incoming fire; think of it as Reinhardt’s barrier in OVERWATCH meets Baptise’s Field Matrix Ultimate. Her passive ability deals with Light Machine Guns, allowing her to reload them faster than anyone else while also holding more ammo per clip than other players. However, this is worthless if you do not find either a Devotion, Spit Fire, or an L-Star. Rampart’s Ultimate ability lets her deploy a stationary turret named “Shiela”, which holds can be reloaded infinitely.
Despite what seems like to be a solid kit, Respawn has stated in Rampart’s patch notes for Season 8 that she was one of the least picked character’s with a poor winrate. This breaks my heart as she is my favorite Legend. I love Rampart’s personality, her look, and that she highly favors my favorite weapon type and focuses on dealing oppressive fire to dismantle, deter, and defend. Though, I’m not blind to her faults and can understand why she’s considered weak when you analyze exactly what her game plan is and how it fairs in a game as fast paced as Apex Legends.
THE PROBLEMOne of the things you will notice is that her Ultimate is only useful when deployed behind an Amped Wall since it leaves you stationary without the ability to cover your own back or protect from snipers, which can be hard to get out most of the time because of issues with her tactical ability. Amped Walls take 3 seconds to fully deploy to gain access to its full HP and damage altering capabilities, but it can be destroyed by only dealing 45 damage (up from the 1 damage in previous seasons) while setting up and can be pierced by sniper fire. This is a problem considering the Amped Wall can only be deployed in places that have enough space and you need to be able to shoot at your opponents from wherever you chose to put it on the field. When you compare its utility to something like Caustic gas traps, you realize where she is coming up short.
Caustic gas traps must be hit at the bottom to be destroyed, so something like a grenade will set them off, even purposely shooting them if your opponent doesn’t first. They are effective around cover, and can seal off entrances or exits while you’re in another place; they also double great as an alarm trap to give you an early heads up on surprise enemy attacks. However, Rampart’s Amped Wall is only useful if someone is shooting behind it, so it needs to be in an area that has a wide view. However, Rampart’s Amped Wall is easily countered by things like grenades, concentrated fire, or simply running around it (Fuse’s tactical ability destroys it easily). The vulnerabilities of her Amped Wall means that you do not get to use her Ultimate nearly as much as you should.
THE SOLUTIONSo, what would my buffs to Rampart be? First off, I would love it if her Turret was something akin to the Legion’s Core Ability in Titanfall 2. Redesign Rampart’s Shiela as a portable minigun with a gun-shield on the front of it, make it non-reloadable and limit her movement to only walking. These buffs to her ultimate would allow it to be a standalone ability that isn’t crippled by her reliance on setting up an Amped Wall in advance, also it wouldn’t be hindered by a 180 degree restriction on motion. I would make her Amped Walls more useful by giving Rampart a “Push” feature, where she can shift an Amped Wall she set up behind cover into a position that she can use; such as pushing it from the side of a door to in front of it for a teammate or pushing it from the middle of a building’s roof to its edge to shoot at people without risking it being destroyed as soon as it is setup. I feel her passive is fine, but unless they plan to add in more LMGs so that it doesn’t only work on Spitfire, Devotion, and L-Star (which I feel is more like an energy shotgun), then please give her a damage boost as well.
To sum it all up, I think Rampart is a great character personality wise and has made me love Apex Legends even more. However, I have to stress that she needs some kit changes to be viable in a game where movement is king. I think the changes I suggested to her abilities would keep the intended use of Rampart while simultaneously giving her more maneuverability and adaptability while promoting teamwork around her Amped Walls. What do you think? Leave a comment below.
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