What’s This About? (Intro)

Hi, my name is Alistair and I go by EMEF. Today I’ll be discussing the metagame around Bloodhound and his interactions with the typical WBB (Wraith Bloodhound Bangalore) comp in mind, and why I believe the mostly flexible role of Wraith is more flexible than most people give credit, especially in the infant format where true competition is yet to develop.

Format Dependency

It is important to take into consideration the point format for competitive Apex Legends, as so far there has been radio silence on Respawn’s end in that regard. If we are to assume that the scoring will revolve around kills in public matches (PK format), which is nearly guaranteed for the game’s infancy while the devs set up a true competitive mode, then of course the faster rotations and the higher risk characters will be rewarded more, even in the common Fortnite format of a 2x/3x win multiplier. In this scenario, I believe the best option would be to forego the Bangalore entirely.

Why Not Bangalore?

I have in the past claimed Bangalore to be the greatest character in the game, with 3 S-Tier abilities with complete flexibility and synergy with the common Bloodhound duo. However, in this post-launch proto-metagame, the consensus is that every team needs a Bangalore, and that smokes will continually litter any server. On this basis, the advantage reversal of having your own Bloodhound to counter and benefit from enemy Smoke Launcher/Rolling Thunder Smog (whose movement and visual debuff also affects the enemy Bangalore and their teammates) is still present, even without the lenience and flexibility that communicating with a friendly Bangalore provides. This communication would also rarely happen outside of late-game in a PK format, as split-solo play is obviously more rewarding on a high-risk efficiency basis.

Who Subs In?

I am of the opinion that a character like Lifeline would fill the slot well, filling the protective role of smoke-revives with her passive ability Combat Medic, which is even more clutch than Bangalore’s smoke in the late game scenarios littered with Digital Threat Scopes, especially in PK formats that have potentially ludicrous multiplier rewards for an Apex Champion win. As for ultimate synergy, admittedly, there is none. However, as previously mentioned, the synergy is not as necessary in the PK format, and the easily-farmed consumable ult can be put to great use early game to get the loot snowball effect rolling.

WBL is Not a Good Comp.

Admittedly, the compositional advantage of removing the greatest character in the game is minor, but the next character’s potential adds a lot to the team in terms of efficiency. Wraith is a decent character, whose low risk tac ability serves as somewhat of a “get out of jail free” card for when the user aggresses too early into a third party fight, or overestimates their advantages against a full team. However, her passive is effectively useless in a permanent aggro playstyle that the PK format rewards, and while her ult is effective in a light speed boost in rotation, it’s actual usage is not even close to the point of the ult, and has little value. Furthermore, all 2 of these abilities are objectively inferior to my choice’s counterparts, with the third having much more utility for the format.

Who’s the Replacement?

BEWARE OF BIAS: While I have played all characters to the degree of solid understanding, Pathfinder is the character I have the most time on. I wholly believe he is has the most potential and highest skill ceiling of any Legend at launch by a large margin, which is why I choose him to start over Wraith. His kit is perfectly suited to a PK format, with lightning quick and efficient rotations possible for both Pathfinder and his 2 teammates via his ludicrously fast charging ultimate: Zip-line. It serves the purpose of Wraith’s portal boost while maximizing its value by an enormous amount. Furthermore, the positional advantage it creates is immense, even synergising with Bloodhound’s ult in late-game to get high ground, and use the highlighting capability to see all the remaining teams for maximum PK efficiency.

The second objectively better ability is Pathfinder’s only non-supportive ability Grapple Hook. The distance, speed, and to a degree, safety that a smart, quick, mechanical player can achieve with grapple is drastically higher than Wraith’s Phase Shift ability. While the ability to become literally invincible is obviously safer than the speed of grapple, the speed, distance and flexibility between combat creativity and consistent rotation gives it much more value than Phase Shift’s minor protective buff. It’s not even like Grapple is a particularly vulnerable form of movement like Zip-line is, as the arc and velocity means that even the higher end of pub player cannot consistently track and lead shots on them.

Finally, Pathfinder’s passive, while situational, is not only more frequently useful than Wraith’s passive, it’s also stylistically suited to a PK format. Having the ability to foresee ring movements a round in advance can help fill the down-time between fights whilst rapidly rotating for a new fight, and aid teams in pre-planning rotations and predict high-traffic choke-points, such as the ever-present cave mouths dotted around typical endgame zones. The audio of a beacon activation is loud and wide, which can be used to the advantage of attracting kills, or the instant association of any player on the team hearing the SFX, and knowing the enemy Pathfinder’s location instantly, as the beacons do not appear on the map unless a player on your team is Pathfinder.

Now, Who Does What?

The roles of players from the previous composition of WBB are open to the team to assign, as it’s more important for a player to be comfortable with their kit, feeding into their play intelligence and gunskill. However, with a selfless, talented and varied team, the most mechanically skilled player should run Bloodhound. This player will be playing solo far more than the other two, and the ability to mop up teams in 1v3 situations with Bloodhound ults, is vital to this composition, and is the main cycle of score generation. In WBB, this role was typically played by the Wraith/Bloodhound player.

Next, the role of Lifeline is a hard supporting role, which isn’t as present in WBB. The best communicator, damage dealer, or macro strategist should play this character, as they will take most of the fights at a distance, and when played correctly, as the only character without mobility, they wouldn’t be able to make it to the fight before it’s already over. They can also call some of the Zip-line timings and placements to maximize rotational efficiency. This role is typically filled by the original Bloodhound/Bangalore player.

Finally, the role of the Pathfinder player should be the next most mechanically talented player, with a mind for movement efficiency and micro strategy within a teamfight. In early/mid game it is played the same as Bloodhound, scouring the map for 1v3s, but in late game it is used as more of an addition to Bloodhound. In the ideal Bangalore match-up, a Bloodhound would wade through a smoke with ult active, with a Pathfinder grappling over it to turn attention away from the Bloodhound for a quick and decisive cleanup.

What About Other Formats? (Outro)

The more competitive closed-lobby kill based formats (CK) or closed-lobby placement based formats (CP) involve entirely different mental framework, and I can cover them in other posts another day. Or if someone would sign me I could post them privately. Either way, I hope you enjoyed and learned something, and to be updated about more of these waffles follow me on Twitter and/or Twitch. (Warning: I can’t aim)