Rampart’s Mobile Minigun “Sheila” was silently buffed in the Warriors Collection event patch with no mention of the change in the official Apex Legends patch notes.
With Apex Legends’ roster of characters growing every single season, it’s becoming more and more difficult for Respawn to keep every Legend balanced.
As a result, even small buffs and nerfs can have a huge impact on the meta, so the whole community keeps an eye on exactly what’s being changed in all of the patch notes.
Despite this, occasionally, a shadow buff or nerf will slip through the cracks accidentally, and that’s exactly what’s happened with Rampart in the Warriors Collection event update.
Rampart shadow buffed in Warriors update
According to reliable dataminer Shrugtal, Rampart’s Ultimate received a shadow buff in the recent update that wasn’t mentioned in the patch notes.
In total, the charge-up time of Sheila was decreased by 30%, down from 1.75 seconds to 1.25 seconds. It’s worth noting that this only applies to the mobile version of the weapon, not the turret variant.
Although this may seem like a minor buff at first, it actually makes the Amped Modder’s Ultimate significantly more powerful.
Sheila already does a hefty amount of damage, but the wind-up time makes it hard to use the weapon at close quarters, so any decrease means Rampart is more likely to land the first bullet.
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Shadow buffs in 12.1 Update:
* Rampart "Sheila" Charge Up Time (-30%) : 1.75 -> 1.25* Bow Shatter Caps Damage (+2): 3/6/9 -> 5/8/11
Try out the Rampart buff, it feels nutty.
— Shrugtal (@shrugtal) March 29, 2022
On top of this, Shatter Caps for the Bocek Bow received a small damage buff making the weapon a more viable option at close-range.
Despite these changes being live in-game since the Warriors update arrived, it looks like Respawn is planning on reverting the silent buff to Rampart in a hotfix today.
Hotfix incoming later today to revert the Rampart shadow buff to Mobile Minigun "Sheila" wind up time.
— Shrugtal (@shrugtal) March 30, 2022
It’ll be interesting to see how the playerbase reacts to this news, as Rampart has the lowest pick rate out of any Legend in the entire game at 1.4%.
So, removing the Ultimate buff will likely be a massive disappointment to the Amped Modder mains, but the devs clearly feel that the change is far too powerful to be left alone.