Top 7 Guns in Apex Legends (Opinion)
The thing about live service multiplayer games is that, especially with the successful ones, the developers often George Lucas the game to no end. Constant changes and “bug fixes” in addition to actual new content is something that happens frequently. Constantly modifying the stats on weapons is something Apex Legends fans definitely see alot. It is one thing to add ever more cosmetics and more characters; that helps keep a game fresh; however, one thing I don’t enjoy as much is constant, never the same, balance changes. While some buff changes to characters are welcome when they make lesser characters feel more useful. Season 5 saw buffs to Gibralter, Revenant, and Lifeline that all made them more fun to use. However my least favorite changes in Apex Legends are often gun changes. How a gun plays is so vitality important to success in the game that constant changes can affect reflexes and feel. Over the past year and a half that Apex has been out, in my opinion, it has felt like guns have skewed towards nerfs, making our favorite guns worse, without making lesser guns better. This has caused a general feeling of smaller pool of desirable weapons for myself. Guns I loved season 1 have seemed to be nerfed to hell now. Two of the best season 1 weapons, the Peacekeeper and Wingman are just not what they once were. The biggest example of over nerfing in Apex are the energy weapons. First, they lost their energy mags, and in Season 4 they lost the turbo charger that made the Havok useable. It has the slowest spin up time of any gun, and they removed the one thing that actually caused it to fire when players pull the trigger.
My biggest fear is the remaining few weapons I like getting nerfed in season 5. However, there are several remaining Titanfall weapons I’d love to see get added in Season 5: the Volt SMG and the Sidewinder. One thing that would be really fun for an LTE mode in Apex would be bringing the Smart Pistol from Titanfall. The gun is pretty broken and controversial, but as an LTE would be fun!
Because these guns are constantly tweaked and rebalanced, this list is more just my “favorite weapons” that I like to run with now, but I do believe them to be the best guns; however, tomorrow or the next day they may be nerfed into awful weapons. These guns can change in a heart beat. April Fools after all turned the Mozambique into a demon-slaying super weapon.
Spitfire
The Spitfire is my go to weapon in Apex Legends as of Season 4. I love it. I would mount it on my wall if I could. It is a great all range weapon. Whether in cramped close quarters or semi-long range it can be a formidable weapon, especially when fully kitted. Pairing the gun with a 2 or 3x Hcog scope is key for this balance. I also love it because it has the potential for a large ammo capacity, high (but not too high) rate of fire, and damage output that makes it great for early game or end game scenarios. Few weapons in Apex can take on fully kitted, late game, gold shield enemies like the Spitefire can. Usually when I’m kill leader or Apex Champions, I owe it to this magnificent beast. It also ranks number one because of its beautiful sound it makes as it’s pouring death at one’s enemies. I could pop in some AirPods and just listen to this thing purr all day long.
Devotion
Another weapon that has an amazingly satisfying sound as it rains down death upon enemy squads is the Devotion. Now, in Season 3 this gun was another running favorite. When fully kitted it was quite a force to be reckoned with. In fact, it was such powerful gun that instead of being nerfed way down, in Season 4, Respawn re-classified the gun as a Legendary. This mean that when you are lucky enough to come across it, you don’t have to worry about the previously much needed attachments. In Season 2 and 3, it really needed an energy mag, barrel mod, and turbo charger to make it end game ready. Now, it comes fully ready to go. Plus being a Legendary it now uses experimental ammo, leaving plenty of room to fill up for your second gun and have room for extra grenades or health items. This is a huge tactical advatage considering the nerfing that grenades and shields got in Season 4 from an inventory standpoint. LMG's take a lot of ammo usually, so getting it's ammo for free leaves plenty of room for other items.
R-99
In early seasons, when it came to light ammo weapons, I felt the R-301 was the best. However, as the seasons progressed and I became bored with the assault rifles in the game, the gun began to feel too balanced. Ok at everything but not excellent at much. Then I fell in love with its polar opposite. Where the R-301 is this balanced reliable weapon for all engagements, the R-99 is the wild free spirit. The R-301 may be the partner you marry, but the R-99 is the partner you date in college. It is crazy, unbalanced, and pretty much awful at everything except close range engagements. It burns through ammo like a trust fund CW show kid spends money. You will suddenly find yourself empty of ammo and you won’t know why. You will need to prioritize a level 3 mag in order to minimize reloads against high level enemies. But unlike all the other light ammo weapons in the game, it just feels bad ass. It has some of the highest rate of fire in the game. You feel like you have a Legend shredder. It makes the Alternator look very boring in comparison as an SMG. I really hope future seasons give us the Volt as an energy SMG so that the R-99 can have a wild friend to play with at parties.
RE-45
Titanfall is the first game I have ever played that made me want to keep a pistol handy instead of dropping it the first chance I got. Every video game, the pistol class is just always overshadowed by other types of weapons. Even if they have cool designs, high damage, they often just don’t have to over all stopping power of assault rifles, SMG’s, or LMG’s. Pistols are meant to be starter weapons, weapons you get in level one and eventually discard when you find something better. The Titanfall games were the first ones to make be ok keeping a pistol. The infamous MK5 Smart Pistol was the pistol that I felt could hold its own against assault rifles. If you learned the timing and the stealth elements of it could be super fun. Now, the Smart Pistol worked in multiplayer and single player modes but wouldn’t really fit well into Battle Royale. I think it would make for a hilarious and fun LTE mode. Now with Apex Legends, Respawn continues to prove they know how to make pistols that can compete in late game battle royales. In Season 1 and 2 the Wingman probably would have replaced it on this list. It was a variable hand cannon that could really pack a punch. Where as other guns need high ammo capacity or rates of fire to compete, the Wingman knocked legends on their ass in a swift “phwmmmp”. Now unfortunately it feels like the nerf gun that it sounds like. As of Season 4, the best pistol in the game is the RE-45. It is one of the best early game weapons, better than any pistol or low level gun. It has an incredible rate of fire that can chew through un-shielded enemies post drop. Definitely pick this over other early game weapons like the P2020 or the infamously awful Mozambique. As an amazing of a pistol as this is I feel like I would still drop it for a R-99. I feel like in Season 5 it needs just a little something to bring it up to late-game statues. Perhaps, if they brought the Disrupter rounds back it would make the RE-45 back into late game status. I just really want a pistol that is better than any other weapon class.
L-Star
My favorite weapon in TitanFall 2 was the L-Star. This amazing compact LMG has a unique power. Instead of reloads it overheats. Which means if you practice on tapping the trigger and letting the gun cool down you can really save yourself from that awful “caught reloading” moment in a fire fight. In season 3, the L-star was introduce as a Legendary weapon, and I have to say my excitement level was sky high. My favorite gun from TF2 was coming to Apex! However, I was extremely disappointed because it was hard to come across, unable to have any scope, and over all unbalanced. Being that it used experimental ammo, it barely had enough to take out 2 or 3 shielded enemies. Even with practice, and pinpoint accuracy (something near impossible due to its insane rate of fire, weapon drift, and lens flare) it just couldn’t do enough damage before being empty. You would have to discard it mid game and find something else, being at a attachment disadvantage in late game or just avoid people until the very end. It couldn’t carry all the way through.
However, in Season 4 the rebalance gods actually buffed a gun in our favor for once. It could accept scopes. It now took energy ammo so you can carry enough for an entire match, and it retained its high rate of fire and cool down perk. The gun is incredibly useless at long range, so you must treat it as a fully automatic “shotgun” of sorts; however, in close engagements, this gun shreds.
Peacekeeper
The story of the peacekeeper is a sad one. It was my absolute go to favorite weapon in the game. I couldn’t leave it off the list. I feel many games sometimes leave shotguns out of the spot light to assault rifles. They sometimes feel slow, outmatched and not good in all engagements. The peacekeeper has a hop up that can actually give it decent range, almost like a rifle. It has decent rate of fire for a shotgun. It also was great for chaotic close range fights where you had to panic fire a bit. All in all the gun is amazing, but it has been nerfed so much it doesn’t have the same punch feel it used to. I still love the weapon, because there is just something special about this gun. I think this is the coolest gun in Apex Legends, the most satisfying to get kills with, and hopefully season 5 or 6 will return it to its former glory.
Charge Rifle
The Charge Rifle is by far my favorite Sniper Rifle in the game. It is actually useable on console also, as the snipers in the game are heavily bent towards PC users. It was a super fun anti-titan weapon back in Titanfall 2, but repurposed as a Sniper in Apex Legends it is super fun to take out an enemy with it. The sound it makes is so distinct, and the feel of the gun is super entertaining. In Season 3, it was really powerful at launch. It could actually be a powerful force to be reckoned with. It did get nerfed down with the loss of its magazine option, and the damage output. Still, it is quite fun to use.
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