Best Legends To Use In Apex Legends in Season 16

Whether you are a beginner just starting out with Apex Legends or a professional player, picking out a Legend can be a challenging task with tons of options to choose from. Depending on the player’s playstyle or the teammates, one might want to get good with some of the characters.

Respawn overhauled the class system in Apex Legends Season 16, with Legends now set into one of the five new classes. Players will want to pay extra attention to this when picking out their Legend as well.

It is important to keep in mind that any Legend can be powerful when continuously practiced, and even ‘lower-tier’ Legends can turn out to be epic in the right hands. Also the choice of the right weapons also plays a huge role in this.

However, in this article, we have put together the overall ranking for the Legends that players would want on their squad in any given game of Apex Legends Season 16.

Apex Legends Tier List

Before we go any deeper into our picks, here is a table that consists of the complete tier list at a single glance.

Continue reading this article to know why we have picked this order for the Legends, and which of them might be perfect for you depending on your playstyle.

Which Apex Legends Character Is The Best?

S Tier

Bloodhound

Generally, Bloodhound is still considered the best Legend in Apex Legends for most players. This is thanks to the invaluable information they provide to their team members with the help of their powerful and easy-to-use kit.

Even though their abilities are not capable of doing huge damage, the tracking abilities are one-of-a-kind, and if you do not have a Bloodhound as part of your team, then you are at a disadvantage.

For a few seasons now, Bloodhound has not received any major changes, and they remain very well-balanced, regardless of being on the top of the ladder. They are still as powerful as they used to be when it comes to counting out enemies and team composition.

Bloochound’s scan is the primary tool of their kit, which allows not only players, but their team members, too, to see opponents in the area highlighted through the walls. The only con of the scan is that your opponents will know that they have been scanned.

This will ultimately lead to them knowing that you are nearby, but the advantage still favours the player. The Ultimate ability, known as the Beast of the Hunt, turns Bloodhound into a killing machine for some time.

It also highlights the enemies in red like a digital threat and now sends out white ravens to help guide players to their opponents. This is aided by the passive, which shows where the enemies have been recent.

Horizon

Ever since her introduction in Season 7, Horizon has been among some of the most well-known and distinguished Legends. However, around the time of Season 9’s launch, her dominance in the meta was getting a little too much, and nerfs became a necessity.

Her Gravity Lift became a target at first since it was too easy for players to get immediate high ground and beam down on enemies from above. Now, players will strafe much slower on the lift as compared to pre-nerf, which will make you an easier target.

Players will also be kicked off the top after two seconds, so they won’t be able to sit up the top beaming down. Fortunately, since the release of Season 10, players are now much more mobile on Horizon’s lift, which makes her much more manageable.

In Season 16, her accuracy on the lift was nerfed, however, this is not a deal breaker. Horizon is still considered one of the best characters in Apex Legends and is one of the most famous among higher-ranked players too.

If you can practice her enough and get used to her abilities as well as use them at the perfect time, you can easily wreak havoc with Horizon. This is why she has been placed on the S Tier list.

Seer

Seer was released in Season 10 and immediately went into an S-Tier position at the start of the season, owing to all three of his abilities. These abilities of his hold immense power to track down enemies and can turn out to be a great nuisance to them in a fight.

However, much-needed nerfs to Seer took away a great amount of his original power. His passive shows players the direction of their opponents with a heartbeat sensor. Apart from that, his tactical can also scan, interrupt abilities, interrupt healing, interrupt revives, shows enemies’ health bars, and track for 8 seconds.

Similarly, Seer’s Ultimate can track all opponents within a very huge dome, given that they are running or shooting (which is most of the time). While he has been nerfed once again in Season 16, he is still a very strong choice.

Seer is a great rival to Bloodhound’s crown as the best ‘scan’ and recon legend, so if you are a fan of Bloodhound and enjoy playing him, then you might want to give Seer a try, too, as he can definitely surprise you!

Valkyrie

Regardless of some huge nerfs in Season 14, Valkyrie’s special set of abilities still makes her an amazing choice. This means that the nerfs were not enough to knock the Legend out of the S Tier quite yet.

Her Ultimate Ability, known as the Skyward Dive, enable players and their team members to launch to the sky and redeploy. You will also be able to see your teammates in your line of sight highlighted as you are present in the air.

Her main passive, the Jetpacks, give Valkyrie the ability to reach nearly any location on the map and immediately get the high ground. However, they are very loud, which can be considered a huge disadvantage.

Moreover, players will not be able to fire weapons when using the jetpack, which will make you a sitting duck. The tactical shoots a swarm of mini rockets, which do not deal a lot of damage, but they will stun enemies, making them an easy clean-up kill.

Valkyrie is comfortably an S-Tier Legend, regardless of whether you are playing solo or with a tactical trio because she has the ability to rotate with your entire squad and easily getting high ground quickly in almost any situation.

A Tier

Ash

Ash became a part of Apex Legends in Season 11 and is the first pilot to enter the game (Valkyrie is not a pilot). Immediately, it was apparent that Ash would be a famous pick with her kit at launch.

Her Ultimate is somewhat similar to Wraith’s, except it is not only one way and has a shorter maximum range. However, it is much quicker to use, and the cooldown is also much shorter. Maybe Ash’s most powerful asset, though, is her passive.

It gives her the ability to identify death boxes, and then being able to use her data knife to immediately get locations on the enemy squad is more recon information than most recon legends get (such as Crypto).

Her tactical, known as the arc snare, is probably the weakest part of her kit, but that does not necessarily mean that it is bad. Regardless, it is still a useful tool that can both help players in a close-range gunfight or soften up your opponent for an easier push. Lastly, players also get an awesome sword with Ash, too!

Catalyst

The Season 15 Legend, Catalyst bears very few similarities to other legends as her abilities all make use of ferrofluid, of which she has amazing control. Catalyst is not really a meta Legend, but her Ultimate has the ability to counter scans most of the time.

This is definitely a big plus, with Bloodhound and Seer being so famous. Her Passive, the ability to reinforce doors, is a pretty good ability when combined with other defensive legends on your team.

However, if you are playing with an Octane and a Pathfinder, you might find it a bit more situational. Lastly, there is her Tactical, which slows down enemies caught in the ferrofluid trap and is an awesome evasive ability, but it is not very useful in attacking a team.

For now, Catalyst is definitely a very useful Legend in Apex Legends, but whether she moves up or down the list will be determined as more players learn to make the most of her skills.

Caustic

Caustic has frequently moved up and down the tier list more than any other Legend. As a result of buffs, followed by nerfs, and then followed by buffs again, Caustic has finally found his way back into the meta at the top level of Apex Legends.

Respawn made his traps destructible in Season 12, even after they have been triggered. Nevertheless, with 150HP per barrel, it is not really a nerf as one might think. In fact, it might even be considered a buff, with enemies often directing their ammo at the barrel or simply evacuating.

When part of a team, Caustic can turn out to be quite powerful when in the right hands. Moreover, with his Gas now much more threatening, an experienced Caustic player on your team can be the difference between winning and losing.

Gibraltar

Support characters are the backbone of a team, and Gibraltar has taken a new role within teams owing to the tons of buffs the developers have made him go through. Regardless of not using him in lower-level games a lot, Gibraltar has become a must-have in high-level ranked.

His Ultimate ability has plenty of potential damage to zone the opponent away, and the Done Shield can turn out to be a lifesaver for your entire team, and not only you. However, players will have to watch out for opponents using it since there is not much stopping them from getting inside.

Gibby's gun shield has been nerfed a bit to allow damage to pass through, but it's still a big help when first engaging opponents. Gibraltar has been placed in the support class in Season 16, allowing him to receive extra loot from blue bins as well as craft banners for fallen teammates.

Conclusively, Gibraltar is among the best Legends in the game, but he is still a huge, tanky character who is difficult to miss. Some players will surely find a more nimble character beneficial. With that being said, he is a solid asset on any team.

Lifeline

It can be quite beneficial for a team to have Lifeline on their squad, and she can literally be a lifesaver, as she shines in supportive abilities. However, in Season 9, her res shield was removed, which means that her teammates are now exposed when being revived by the Drone.

Nevertheless, Lifeline still has the ability to revive two players simultaneously while she herself continues to fight. Moreover, her drone now heals quicker than before, at 8HP per second. The new support class Lifeline can also craft banners of fallen team members, which means you will never have to be a player down.

In Season 9, her Lifeline was also greatly improved since it now guarantees to drop an upgrade to your gear. Given the opportunity to capture a Legendary or Epic piece of equipment can be the deciding factor in most of the Apex matches, and Lifeline is still among some of the best characters to have on your team.

Loba

While Loba used to be a low pick at a time, a few changes to her tactical have given her a chance to thrive once more. Respawn has fixed her Burglar’s Best Friend ability, which allows players to slide/move and shoot at maximum speed when the bracelet is equipped.

This was a significant change that made players run back to her, as well as it is being much less buggy. However, on the positive side, they did increase the cooldown for her Black Market Boutique from 90 seconds to 120 seconds.

But this is not that huge of a deal, especially considering that it is still a short cooldown as compared to most of the other Ultimate abilities. The changes to her bracelet are the primary reason why she moved up to A Tier, and is now one of the strongest characters.

Furthermore, in the support class, Loba gets the ability to craft banners as well.

Octane

The speedy trickster Octane is surely one of the most fun Legends to play with in Apex Legends. He runs extremely fast with his stim, soars over his opponents with the jump pad, and heals on the move. These abilities make him a joy to play.

Now, his stims will easily damage his enemies by 20HP, so they will have to be a little more careful, as opposed to the previous 12HP. The cooldown is also reduced now, which means that players can pretty much instantly spam the stim again.

However, you will be down to extremely low health quickly in case you attempt to do so. The jump pad is one of the best movement abilities in the game, and the entire team can use it, but so can your enemies.

He is not really as good as the S-Tier characters, and his abilities might now help you win a lot of gunfights, but if it is speed that you want, then Octane is the perfect Legend for you to play with.

Wraith

Ever since the release of Apex Legends, Wraith has no doubt been one of the best Legends every season. Mostly this is because of her ability to create chaos on the battlefield with the help of her abilities.

Moreover, she is consistently still one of the most-picked Legends at every skill level. Whenever you and your teammates are engaging in team battles, you will often find Wraith busy sneaking into the backlines or trying to flank her enemies with her Tactical Ability, ‘Into the Void’.

This ability allows Wraith to seemingly avoid all damage while also getting a better position on the enemies she is fighting. Wraith continues to occupy the top spot in Apex Legends and has improved even more in Season 9 since her Low Profile was removed, meaning she will no longer take 5% more bullet damage.

In Season 16, her portal was doubled in distance, and players move quicker while using it too which is an amazing addition to her already powerful kit.

B Tier

Bangalore

One might think that a Legend who has the ability to cover the battlefield with smoke grenades would normally be at the top of any Apex Legends Tier list. However, in Bangalore’s case, she has been flying under the radar ever since the release of the game.

Her smoke is essentially useful, but more often than not it is used for trying to escape from a tight spot, and there are other characters that are better for this (Loba, Wraith, Octane).

The issue now is that there are way too many scanning abilities (Maggie, Bloodhound, Seer, Fuse, Crypto etc) that will completely counter Bangalore’s smoke, not to mention digital threat scopes.

Regardless of being relegated to B-tier, Bangalore is still a pretty good choice. Players who play her regularly will become proficient at the best time in order to use her abilities. Double Time is also among some of the best scopes.

Her Ultimate ability, known as the Rolling Thunder, is a mixed bag since is does not do as much damage as Gibraltar’s missiles. However, you can use it to cover your back or soften up enemies before going in for the kill.

Enemies will be slowed and stunned, if they do not get out of the way in time. Unluckily, players will often find it is just as annoying for them and their team members as it is for the opponents.

Fuse

Fuse was added to the game in Season 8, and has some very powerful abilities on paper. Having the ability to stack two grenades per slot, and then slingshot them out, meaning he can deal a huge amount of explosive damage and very fast.

His Ultimate is okay, but it is extremely easy for opponents to escape the ring of fire that he puts down. Gratefully, Season 10 added the ability to track enemies caught in it, which gives Fuse some much-needed power.

Fuse’s Knuckle Cluster now has two charges as well as a reduced cooldown period for each charge of 20 seconds, and Respawn have made it twice as long in Season 16. For these reasons, he finally escapes the C-Tier, and can easily move up to B.

Mirage

In Apex Legends, Mirage started off as an extremely underpowered character. His Ultimate ability was quite useless, and his Tactical felt a little gimmicky as compared to many of the others.

Fortunately, he went through some changes, and masters of Mirage will argue that he should be placed in A tier. Surely, with enough practice, and when placed in the right hands, he can prove to be a force to be reckoned with.

However, his abilities are still pretty one-dimensional, and he does not offer a lot to a squad when it comes to team play outside of his ability to cloak when reviving.

Mirage’s Ultimate will surely get one out of a tight spot, especially if you are playing against less-skilled players who are more easily ‘bamboozled’. We still think Mirage could do quite well with more power.

Maggie

Maggie used to be a scary sight when she was first released before Season 12. With the help of her Tactical, which has the ability to counter abilities like Rampart walls and Gibby Bubbles (and now her ult, too), and her scan passive when damaging enemies, there were concerns that she might be overpowered.

Nevertheless, in practice, Maggie’s abilities are not as overwhelming as players might have expected. Her passive scan after damage is amazing, but is rather short, so players will rarely have to worry too much as long as they move quickly or just shoot back.

Maggie’s tactical, the Drill, is surely the main part of her kit, but it is also easy to waste by missing one’s shot. In case you love shotguns, Maggie will be a go-to pick owing to her shotgun speed buffs.

However, it is maybe not enough to push the Legend into the upper tiers, not yet anyway. We would be taken back in case Maggie is not in line for some serious buffs.

Newcastle

It is still the early days for Newcastle in Apex, but so far, our first impression is that the Legend will surely have a place in the meta as a support-oriented, defensive Legend. Naturally, his ability to reach his team members in need quickly makes him an ideal hybrid between a support character, and a character with great movement.

If you compare it to other Legends who can easily zip across distances quickly (think Pathfinder next, with his grapple) Newcastle is simply way more effective at this.

Nevertheless, it remains to be seen long-term if this will be enough to make him a famous pick among movement fans (such as Octane mains) or support players who prefer Lifeline. For now, he is in the b-tier, but he could move up (or down) as players get used to both playing as well as countering Newcastle.

Pathfinder

There was a time when Pathfinder was among the best Legends to play in Apex Legends, but successive nerfs made him drop down to the B-tier. However, he is still among some of the most fun Legends to play, and if players can master his grapple, they can move like no other character.

The Grapple can still be used to make a quick escape or to push up on weak enemies before they get the chance to heal. Now though, Wraith, Ash, Loba, Octane, and Valkyrie might be better to make those escapes.

His movement is still unmatched on paper, and the Zipline Ultimate works similarly to that of Wraith’s portal, in which you get your team out of a tight spot, or to get to hard-to-reach- locations. Your opponents can also use it, so you will need to watch your back.

Revenant

Revenant was introduced to Apex Legends in Season 4 and has had many ups and downs in the meta. This lethal Simulacrum Assassin shines when it comes to his Ultimate ability, allowing him, as well as his team members, to escape death temporarily.

His Passive ability, known as the Stalker, gives him the ability to crouch walk quicker and climb much higher up walls. Respawn might have overlooked that this ability pales in comparison to someone like Pathfinder, Horizon, or Valkyrie. 

Both of these Legends have the ability to climb up pretty much any building of any height in no time. Revenant’s Tactical, Silence, is extremely powerful on paper and deals a portion of damage and prevents all enemy abilities.

Unfortunately, it only works for 20 seconds, after which the opponent squad can use their abilities as they would normally.

Respawn has also commented on the Legend, noting that they are going to change specific aspects of him later down the line. So, we see no reason to adjust his spot on the list since he can still prove valuable in most scenarios.

Vantage

Introduced to the game in Season 14, Vantage is an amazing choice, especially for players who are fans of siping but can be pretty niche too. In case you like fighting at a distance, then, of course, Vantage will be a decent pick for casual players who wish to live out that sniper fantasy.

So far, though, there is no area where Vantage truly excels in order to make her a must-pick over many of the other legends unless you just love that sniper fantasy.

Wattson

Wattson is a fantastic team-based Legend, and when placed in the right hands, she can turn out to be pretty lethal. Her Ultimate ability can easily destroy enemy throwables and allows a squad to hold down a position. Your shield will also recharge in the area.

In case you are playing as a part of a team, Wattson can be a great teammate to have with her Perimeter Security traps. However, she cannot be placed any higher on this list because, as a solo player, she certainly is not the right choice.

Huge changes were made to Wattson in Season 11, which allowed her to move back up to B-tier, and players who have played her for a long time will know exactly how to use her to their advantage and get the best out of her abilities.

In case you have not played Wattson before, it might take you some time to get used to her and get ‘good’ with her abilities. It is crucial to know when and where to place fences and use your ultimate when it matters the most. Wattson can be a crucial and valuable team player with enough practice.

C Tier

Crypto

Unluckily, Crypto stays at the bottom of the tier list. For most of the players, you will be way better with a more explosive character. However, this isn’t to say that Crypto is a bad Legend or isn’t very effective.

With team coordination, the Surveillance Expert has the potential to be amazing. He predominantly suffers from the rest of the team constantly pushing it and being outnumbered, but coupled with more thoughtful gameplay, Crypto can be a terrific pick.

Crypto’s kit received huge changes back in Season 12, which made her kit more useable by allowing him to send his drone remotely, but so far, it has not been enough to greatly increase his pick rate.

Crypto is not really a bad character but is simply a more cerebral Legend than the majority of the game would wish to use, so it is hard to justify his position at any of the higher tiers on this list.

Rampart

Added to the game in Season 6, the Quick Witted Modder, Rampart, was surely one of the worst legends for most of her lifetimes in Apex Legends. Luckily, Respawn eventually handled some of her weaknesses to make sure that she saw her full potential as a legend in the game.

The most vital change was giving Rampart the ability to move with her Ultimate, Shiela. Now, players can carry around the most powerful weapon in the game (Kraber notwithstanding) and take out opponents with aggression.

Rampart’s walls have always been a helpful ability, and now pair even better with the Ultimate. Rampart received a much-needed buff back in Season 13, however, unfortunately, her abilities are still way too situational to escape the C Tier. Unless you opt-out for a rather defensive and static playstyle, there are other Legends that you could choose first.

Best Apex Legends Characters For Beginners

Although there are plenty of highly effective Legends in Apex Legends, some are tougher to master as compared to others. For instance, even though Valkyrie ranks as an S-Tier Legend, mastering when to use her abilities so that it will be best for your team might require more experience playing Apex.

With that being said, the following is a list of some of the best Apex Legends characters for new players:

• Bloodhound
• Lifeline
• Octane
• Loba
• Wraith

While beginners can find success in using a variety of characters in Apex Legends, these characters have both strong and relatively easy-to-use abilities, where they cannot really go wrong.

In case you want to make a quick escape, then Octane, Loba, and Wraith are all good choices and will allow you to reset before heading back into the fight. That is all there is for our current ranking of the characters in Apex Legends.