With every Apex Legends season comes a new character with a unique ability design—and Revenant is no different. But does the Synthetic Nightmare have what it takes to severely impact the meta?
The new legend’s ability kit is quirky, allowing a team to resurrect while offering a powerful disable. But there are better options in a team setting that provide more mobility and support. While Wattson’s abilities shifted the meta in an unfavorable direction, Crypto’s kit was underwhelming and did little for the competitive scene.
Here’s an in-depth look at Assimilation’s new legend, Revenant.
Breaking down his abilities
The biggest indicator for whether a legend can impact a meta is obviously their kit. Revenant enters the Outlands with decent mobility, but his abilities can potentially influence the state of a game.
Revenant’s passive Stalker ability allows him to crouch walk faster and climb higher than other legends. Though this can lead to some mechanical outplays, using speed and height to your advantage, it’s not necessarily broken, especially when legends like Pathfinder and Octane can do both of those things better.
The killer robot’s tactical ability, Silence, is a grenade that damages and disables enemy abilities for 10 seconds. Apex is a first-person shooter that heavily relies on abilities, so being able to take those away for a whopping 10 seconds can easily turn the tides of a fight. Encounter a Wraith? Silence her and she can’t escape your bullets by phasing away. Run into the burly Gibraltar? Disable him and the Dome Shield is no more.
But the Synthetic Nightmare’s ultimate, Death Totem, is truly game-changing. Players who activate its ability are protected from death for a set amount of time, returning to the totem if killed or downed.
Counter to campers
Season three’s Crypto wasn’t necessarily meta changing. The hacker’s surveillance looks good on paper, especially since World’s Edge is a large map. But being able to get additional information on opponents wasn’t enough to bring Crypto to an S-tier ranking.
Wattson, on the other hand, dominated ranked play and the competitive scene when she hit the Outlands. Almost every pro game featured the Static Defender due to her oppressive electrified fences and ultimate pylons.
This resulted in a wildly unpopular meta that focused on camping and drawn-out lobbies. It was so bad that she had to get nerfed in September 2019. Respawn gave her the Low Profile debuff and limited her pylons to one at a time.
Revenant may be a clear counter to this playstyle because his kit encourages aggression. If a squad is camping, use Death Totem to storm in and do as much damage as possible. And if things go sour, you’ll just resurrect back at the totem and try again. Pair that with his Silence ability and a squad can easily dive campers.
The consensus
Revenant definitely has abilities that can create interesting outplays. His no-risk, aggro playstyle can certainly help a squad climb the ranked ladder quickly, too. But it’s unclear if he can replace legends like Wraith, Pathfinder, and Lifeline in the competitive scene. Pathfinder and Wraith offer tons of mobility for a team, with Lifeline’s support is unrivaled.
Can Revenant shake up the meta? Possibly. But it’ll become more clear as season four progresses.
