Apex Legends Season 17 Introduces Ballistic: All Abilities Explained
- August “Ballistic” Brinkman will be the 24 Legend added to Apex Legends.
- He will be introduced in Season 17 Arsenal on May 9th.
- Ballistic’s passive allows him to hold a third weapon, his tactical overheats enemy weapons and his ultimate provides several team buffs including unlimited ammo.
Season 17 Arsenal introduces the 24th character for Apex Legends. An old legend from the glory days before the Apex games, Ballistic was a household name who was known for kicking butt and taking names. He’s fully kitted with some amazing abilities for his debut in Season 17 Arsenal of Apex Legends.
Ballistics Abilities Explained
August ‘Ballistic’ Brinkman is as old as it gets in Apex Legends. He’s good at one thing and he does it in style: winning. He’s fast and he’s aggressive and his kit is built around running, gunning and getting the job done.
Ballistic has an impressive range of skills from his passive ability to carry a third gun so he doesn’t have to reload when the enemy is, to his tactical ability to take one enemy out of the fight long enough to push the advantage. Plus, his ultimate ability might be one of the scariest in the game. Here’s everything you need to know about Ballistic and his abilities in Apex Legends Season 17 Arsenal.
Passive Ability: Sling
Ballistics' passive ability is called Sling and allows him to carry a third weapon. As far as passive abilities go, this is a pretty good one but it’s not as immediately overpowered as it seems at first glance.
This third weapon cannot have attachments on it and cannot be a golden weapon or care package weapon. It’s the bare minimum, fresh-off-the-ground version of a gun, but it does have some interplay with his ultimate ability Tempest.
Tactical Ability: Whistler
Some players were hoping the Titanfall smart bullet guns were coming to Apex for everyone to use, but that would be a bit much. Even in Ballistic’s hands, it’s not quite a new weapon. His trusty sidearm is actually his tactical ability.
If you hold it down you’ll get an aiming reticle that after a short time of targeting an enemy will lock on. When the smart bullet hits, it will give that enemy a debuff that as they fire their weapon, the gun overheats and deals 30 damage to them.
Swapping weapons won’t help either as it’s a debuff on the character. You can see in the trailer for Ballistic there’s a moment where he fires to the right of a Rampart wall and the bullet curves striking her. A perfect ability for pushing in on an enemy trying to hold a position by themselves.
Ultimate Ability: Tempest
Ballistic's ultimate, Tempest, is going to be a rough one to have to fight against. It’s great for initiating and finishing fights. When engaged, you’ll see the top of Ballistic’s backpack start to glow as two small pylons emerge over his shoulders. This will help enemy teams identify when he’s in his ultimate.
While Tempest is active a few things are going to happen; Ballistic’s teammates will have unlimited ammo, faster reloads and faster movement while armed. Those are all, on their own, amazing buffs but together they’re incredible. What makes this ultimate even more attractive is, unlike a Wattson, Revenant or Newcastle, the ultimate benefits aren’t provided by stationary structures you can simply destroy.
And unlike Bloodhound or Rampart, who carry their ultimates with them but only they really receive the main benefits, Ballistic gives it to everyone. Facing a Ballistic with Tempest activated is going to be a scary thing to do.
In addition to all of that, Ballistics third weapon in his sling will become a fully-upgraded golden weapon. So in addition to the infinite ammo, increased movement speed and faster reload time you could be staring down the barrel of a golden Devotion or Havoc with a Turbocharger.
More from Season 17 Arsenal
Season 17 Arsenal of Apex Legends is shaping up to be massive with a lot of interesting changes coming in for all players.
We’ve also got you covered on some of the new changes like an improved Firing Range, an overhauled ranked system, a reworked Ping System, the new progression system in Weapon Mastery, the changes coming to World’s Edge and the Evac Tower survival item. Check out our full patch notes break down here.
Apex Legends Season 17 Arsenal launches on May 9th.
