Apex Legends players vote on which weapon needs a buff next

With Apex Legends approaching its eighth season, we threw it to the player base to decide which gun needs an urgent buff. With nearly 30,000 votes cast, one weapon was the clear winner. 

Gun balancing is one of the most crucial aspects to any shooter, with few things as annoying as feeling like you shot first and died first. Masses of data analysis goes into weapon balancing, with developers looking at time-to-kill, ADS speed, handling and more when adjusting guns.

As is natural though, certain weapons rise to the top of the pyramid, while others fall right down towards the bottom. For this, we turned our attention towards the bottom of the pyramid and asked the community which weapon needs the most urgent buff.

For Apex specifically though, things are a bit different. Some weapons, like the Mozambique for P2020 for example, are purposefully not as strong as others. This is because in a battle royale, there should still be a semblance of tiers to weapons, which rewards looting for better gear.

What weapon needs buffed in Apex Legends?

Still, there are some weapons that players feel deserve a bit more love to at least make them viable, even if they’re not going to knock off the R-99.

So, we asked the community, and almost 30,000 avid players responded. The options were L-Star, Alternator or Charge Rifle. Three weapons which you’d expect to be viable weapons, even to the end-game, but are usually tossed out in favor of something else.

After nearly 30,000 votes, the Alternator SMG came out on top as the gun most in need of a buff, with a whopping 45% of the vote. That equates to roughly 13,200 votes. The L-Star came in second with almost 25%, while the Charge Rifle only picked up 13%.

The L-Star Plasma fueled LMG was added back in Season 2, but has struggled to truly make its mark on the Apex Legends scene. It can only shoot 22 shots before overheating, or 26 with the Modded Loader attachment. It received just shy of a quarter of the vote.

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The Charge Rifle, a sniper added in Season 3, received 13% of the vote, while the option to nominate an entirely different weapon received 16.7%.

The fourth option, which got 16% of the vote, was to name another weapon.

Some popular suggestions from the comments were the Longbow DMR and Triple Take. One player said: “I feel like [the Longbow]’s probably the worst sniper right now without the hop up.”

Respawn Entertainment

Some players want to see the Longbow buffed, shown off here in the hands of Pathfinder.

Others argued that the Spitfire could do with a buff, perhaps to its fire rate, so it can keep up with its fellow LMG, the Devotion.

Despite its whopping 45% of the vote, some argued the Alternator is perfectly viable as it is. Despite its lower fire rate and damage, the Alternator has excellent handling and a predictable recoil pattern. Some players clearly don’t think this is enough to mitigate its weaknesses.

Only time will tell whether Respawn feel the need to make adjustments to any of the weapons players want to see buffed.