Why Hasn't Bangalore Received a Buff?
Throughout the brief history of Apex Legends, Bangalore has stood tried and true as an elite soldier and cemented her place as one of the most stable of all the characters the Battle Royale has to offer.
Bangalore is a starter Legend and is the perfect character to begin your journey into the Outlands with. Anita Williams is what many of us come to expect from a Battle Royale – a soldier, with abilities that we recognise and can instantly connect with and use to the best of our skill. Those migrating over from games such as Call of Duty could rely on Bangalore to provide them with a familiar gameplay experience. Whether that was down to her instantly recognisable abilities such as Smoke Launchers or Rolling Thunder (and artillery strike) she welcomed those used to a wartime model of an FPS game with open arms.
While Bangalore can be efficiently used by almost anyone with shooting game knowledge, we have to ask the question: are her abilities actually powerful enough? Well, yes.
Bangalore possesses all the traits of her moniker, the “Perfect Soldier”. Affectionally known by the Apex community as ‘Bang’, the Legend uses her Tactical Ability Smoke Launchers to her advantage, covering a push, flank, or even revive with ease (and stealth). Her Passive Ability (Double Time) enables her to quickly sprint away from danger, allowing you to get the hell out of dodge in a pinch. Then comes Rolling Thunder. Bang’s Ultimate Ability is a rolling artillery strike, causing shellshock and damage to those it hits, and providing a perfect distraction in those sticky third-party situations.
Click to enlargeAre her perfectly usable abilities the reason why Bangalore hasn’t ever received any significant buffs or nerfs?
In recent Apex Legends patches, many Legends received changes to their abilities - Bangalore did not. This isn’t new for the IMC troop, who hasn’t had any changes to her powers since 2019, where her Rolling Thunder damage was increased from 20 to 40, and her Double Time speed decreased to 30%, from 40.
She’s definitely never had any reworks the size and significance of Mirage or Lifeline, or even nerfs as devastating for Path mains as Pathfinder’s Grapple cooldown time being increased.
Bangalore only manages to scrape the B Tier of our Apex Legends tier list, where we reiterate her solid base of abilities but mention that she may not be as tactically advanced as her peers, and could use some polish. However, her pickrate stays firmly in the middle, at 6.36%.
Some Apex fans believe Bangalore could use some tweaks to bring her back up to speed.
One community member, in particular, is Pooch, who tweeted out his ideas for a Bangalore rework.
His ideas included changes to all of her current abilities, which he stressed were “not OP”.
He suggested her Rolling Thunder Ult could rain down from the sky faster - and explode faster too.
Pooch also came up with his own thoughts for Bang’s Double Time Passive, where this would also reload her currently equipped gun, as well as Double Time automatically activating when placing her own Ult, to allow her to run through unscathed.
Along with this was a proposal that Bangalore should be able to see better through her own Smoke.
Many fans thought these buffs were a pretty good idea, and that included none other than Respawn Producer Josh Medina.
Interesting.
Honestly, Bangalore might be the most perfectly balanced Legend in the game – so maybe the Apex Legends community and Respawn should leave well enough alone, or apply smaller buffs to Bang over time, and let her have a taste of a rework.
Images via Respawn Entertainment