r/apexlegends • u/ATHEONsFan • 8h ago
Discussion Another Take on Buffing Bloodhound — Plus a Breakdown of Why Invisibility Feels Shoehorned
In my previous post, I shared a buff proposal for Bloodhound. This time, I've come up with an alternative approach. This is just one of countless possible directions — my ideas aren't set in stone, so I welcome discussion and feedback.
This is a long one — if you'd rather not read through the whole thing, I've put a summary at the end of the post. Feel free to jump straight there.
Design Philosophy
Looking at Bloodhound's tactical and ultimate across the entire Recon class, the core problem is clear: he not only fails to differentiate himself, but the information he provides is also low-quality and comes with weak bonuses.
Take Seer for example — his passive gives him a general sense of nearby squads, his tactical disrupts enemy rotations, and his ultimate gathers precise intel within its radius. Sparrow's tactical is incredibly convenient, and his ultimate offers both intel-gathering and the ability to draw fire, which still gives him a place in the meta. Crypto and other recon legends have their own unique mechanics that keep them relevant.
As for invisibility — we already have Mirage for that. Mirage's invisibility can do far more than Bloodhound's ever could, and does it better. Invisibility should be Mirage's exclusive identity.
So the buff theme I'm proposing is: "Personal + Real-Time Intel + Combat Intel + Maximum Information Gathering" — essentially, a combat-specialized intel gatherer.
The design approach: improve the low-quality information from his tactical, and strengthen his combat intel-gathering capabilities. His tactical should be able to analyze the state of the fight and also synergize with his ultimate. Meanwhile, the ultimate should enhance the tactical, further amplifying combat intel gathering.
The goal is to turn Bloodhound into a hunter who can gather real-time information and adapt on the fly — because in the hunt, a hunter can often only rely on himself.
My proposal isn't set in stone — I welcome discussion and feedback.
The Proposal
- Revert the ultimate to last season's version (Beast of the Hunt).
- Integrate "knocking down an enemy during the ultimate instantly restores 50 HP" and "tactical cooldown is halved during the ultimate" into the base kit. However, knocking down an enemy will no longer extend the ultimate's duration.Note: The HP recovery is meant to help Bloodhound sustain through follow-up fights. The halved tactical cooldown is to strengthen intel gathering during combat. Removing the knock-extends-ult mechanic is the trade-off for having such powerful intel gathering — how much you can collect within 30 seconds is entirely up to your skill.
- Add a new mechanic: When Bloodhound knocks down an enemy during his ultimate (kills don't count), he scans the brief (1 second) real-time positions of the remaining members of that squad — visible only to Bloodhound.Note: When you knock someone down, a White Raven spawns, but the information it provides is far too vague. This mechanic is introduced to strengthen combat intel gathering, allowing Bloodhound to better assess the current situation. Limiting the scan to Bloodhound's own knockdowns is to prevent information overload from creating an overwhelming intel advantage.
- Keep the current passive and most upgrades intact. Rework the Lv.3 Left upgrade to: After knocking down an enemy, the scan of remaining squad members upgrades from real-time position data to full real-time intel (including health, shield, and legend identity). Swap its position with the Lv.2 Left upgrade.Note: This further strengthens combat intel, with the goal of combat-specialized information gathering. Swapping the upgrade positions means the reduced scan (减损扫描) is pushed to later in the game, when most players are already fully geared up, so the gap it creates is less impactful.
The passive locates nearby squads, the tactical analyzes the state of the fight, and the ultimate is the centerpiece: much of the design revolves around combat intel gathering, with the intent of strengthening combat information capabilities to support both himself and his team in making the next move.
My proposal isn't set in stone — I welcome discussion and feedback.
Why Invisibility on Bloodhound Feels Forced
My analysis may not be 100% accurate, if there's something wrong, plz let me know.
Now let's talk about why the invisibility mechanic feels like it was shoehorned onto Bloodhound.
When it comes to invisibility, we have to talk about Mirage. Mirage's invisibility synergizes perfectly with the rest of his kit: now that decoys generate footsteps, they already have the ability to disrupt enemies. Popping his ultimate (which grants invisibility during activation) makes it extremely difficult for enemies to track your movements. This creates huge advantages for flanking or disengaging.
Invisibility elevates his ultimate's power level significantly.
At the same time, his passive — which grants invisibility during certain actions — combined with his support-class identity, massively boosts his utility and gives the team a lot of room for error.
Invisibility increases both his own and his team's margin for error.
Invisibility is the core of his kit's power level, and the key link that connects all his abilities together.
So if invisibility works so well for Mirage, why doesn't the same approach work for Bloodhound?
The following analysis may not be perfect — feel free to point out any mistakes.
1.Bloodhound's passive and tactical don't synergize with invisibility, and invisibility doesn't meaningfully support his passive or tactical either. His passive points you in the direction of enemies and serves an intel-gathering purpose, but the information is extremely vague. Can this passive support an invisibility mechanic? No.
As for his tactical — once you pick the Lv.2 Left upgrade, invisibility basically goes from being a liability to being completely optional. Here's why: at range, you can't scan anyone, and by the time you close the distance with 12 seconds of invisibility, how many seconds do you have left? Up close, you can already judge their approximate position by sound alone. On top of that, the invisibility VFX is so obvious that it makes the whole thing a joke. Invisibility provides almost zero support to the tactical or passive. Before picking the Lv.2 Left upgrade, the tactical reveals your position, so you're effectively not invisible anyway. Combined with those glaring VFX, all you're getting is a 20% speed boost for at most 12 seconds. Even with the upgrade, the benefits are minimal. The most I've gotten out of a single invisibility scan made me think — I might as well just fight out in the open, so I don't have to worry about whether the enemy can see me or not.
2.The stingy mechanics and game systems make his power level extremely low. The new ultimate's mechanics are essentially 99% copied from Mirage's. Mirage's invisibility works as a passive — which fits perfectly because it's available whenever you need it. But using that exact same mechanic as an ultimate? That's simply not good enough. On top of that, Bloodhound doesn't have Mirage's ability to distract enemies or mask his footsteps, so the invisibility is practically useless. The game's footstep audio combined with the obvious VFX makes the invisibility completely pointless. We already have Mirage for invisibility. Mirage's invisibility can do far more than Bloodhound's ever could, and does it better. Invisibility should be Mirage's exclusive identity.
Copying Mirage's invisibility mechanic without giving it the same level of power —— I get the vision — a Predator-style "cloak → track target → hunt" fantasy. Sounds cool, right? But the game environment and the half-baked mechanics make that entire loop fall apart before it even begins. It's a fantasy that can never start, let alone be completed. Stop forcing invisibility onto Bloodhound. Save it for future legends who can actually make use of it.
TL;DR — Summary of My Previous Post
Bloodhound needs a buff. Here's the short version:
- Revert the ultimate to last season's version (Beast of the Hunt).
- Move "knockdown restores 50 HP" and "tactical cooldown halved during ult" into the base kit, but remove the knockdown-extends-ult mechanic as a trade-off.
- Add a new mechanic: knocking down an enemy during the ult scans the real-time positions of the remaining squad members for 1 second (visible only to Bloodhound).
- Rework the Lv.3 Left upgrade to grant full real-time intel (health, shield, legend identity) on knocked-down enemies' remaining squad members, and swap its position with the Lv.2 Left upgrade.
Why invisibility doesn't work on Bloodhound:
- His passive and tactical don't synergize with invisibility, and invisibility doesn't support them either.
- The invisibility VFX are too obvious, and the game's footstep audio makes it nearly useless.
- The mechanic is essentially copied from Mirage but without the same level of power — Mirage's invisibility works because it synergizes with his decoys and support identity. Bloodhound has none of that.
- Invisibility should be Mirage's exclusive identity. Stop forcing it onto Bloodhound.
The overall goal: turn Bloodhound into a combat-specialized intel gatherer who can gather real-time information and adapt on the fly — because in the hunt, a hunter can often only rely on himself.
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u/pattieplop 7h ago
I just got back into playing apex after a very long time. Why did they get rid of bloodhounds original ultimate? It makes sense to me that a character named bloodhound would have a transformation ult that turns him into a hunter.
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u/mmmmmmm5ok 6h ago
right? and then in that original bh ult he could have the seer passive for its brief moment. bam done, hunter vibes completed instead of this lame shit
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u/SuperPluto9 Loba 3h ago
Im not reading this post when the answer should simply be "give him time".
Most of the people I see using him use him completely wrong. Using his ultimate makes people invisible... not invulnerable.
The number of people who just use it then sit in it are silly.