That definitive 101 Loba upgrade / fix post

💎💎💎 Hello 💎💎💎

I got a dumb WR with 👨‍👨‍👧 Loba (items pinged through walls), and top 5% on all stats, this is still my main character.
I played over 1500 hours with Loba, got Diamond with her several times.
So I think I can add some feedback here. 🙂

That being said, Loba is one of the least played characters, sees close to no Ranked play and zero ALGS play. Also, people who play her are far from being the best players.
(source, see: https://apex.tracker.gg/apex/insights / https://apex.tracker.gg/apex/leaderboards/stats/all/RankScore?page=1 Respawn does not communicate on Legends breakdown)

👉 First, as you might have seen, she's the only character called by her real name. She's just here as "Loba".
That's not really add spice to her identity in the game. All the other characters get a nickname, she doesn't. Too late to change that.

👉 Then, she has 2/3 abilities linked to items, which make her seen as "a useless character cause she focuses on loot and not fighting" (by "That-Guy-Who-Probably-Fights-With-Fists-And-Heirlooms-But-Actually-Will-Take-That-Purple-Shield-Thx" ©). You know what I mean, those people who just got brainwashed by game trailers and watching TSM videos, thinking they'll do the same, with a blue shield a bare gun with no mods. Yeah, you will.

Her only ability that's perceived as serious is the teleport... Which doesn't come up to the expectations.

So the outcome is that she'll never be seen as "serious" by pro-wannabes. Picking distant purple armor is not as shiny as Gibby's ultimate, for many reasons.

She's been greatly improved in season 7 (that was totally expected but really super super fine). But that's not enough. I'd still recommend going that way.

👉 There are a few ways to make her better. The general good way is to make her (a thief) more... Silent and discrete. A thief that makes THAT much noise will most likely get caught.

- Make her ultimate more discrete. Waking the whole map is a no-go many times, so people stop using her ultimate... As the game goes, which goes against what's intended, unlike LifeLine's ultimate that at least creates a protection wall for last rings. Both noise and visual shockwave are way too much.

- Allow people to loot 1 weapon, 1 addon, 1 shield/health item, 1 other item. Or two of the same type only (as today) before it's over. That can be up to 4 only 50% of the time the shop lands on a map.

- Accelerate the bracelet animation. That is: doing it while running (no, this is not bold, it will not break the game, despite the fear of the misuse of Wraith's tactical as an escape ability that has been tentatively fixed every season), faster bracelet travel, faster recovery after teleport. The stun is a little too long.

- As for the ultimate, make the tactical bracelet even more discrete.

- Make the items picking trail in the air shorter and more discrete, too.

- Make the ultimate go a little further (+10%)

- Fix the bracelet landings, there are still bugs, at random, and of course we notice them especially when warping for your lives... That usually kills us.

- Try to shorten the initial (post-first drop) ultimate faster (10s).
- Make her have the same post-drop ultimate timer once she gets revived (or simply put: for all drops, like in the current War Game event mod).

- Triple her ultimate shop HPs. Make it really harder to destroy, but do not change it's hitbox.

- Finally a deep, ballsy suggestion: I'd make her reload ammo stack in inventory passively, on the condition that it is taken from a short, surrounding stack on the floor, bullet per bullet. Like "passive stealing". But that seems like really off the character, this is just a start-up, brainstorming thought, though. Also, want to go mayhem? Make that passive reload the teammates in range ammo slowly, too. 😉

- One last, new, bold move (but you already reworked LifeLine, for instance, so you can do that): add to her passive one new, Rampart-like bonus. Make Loba have more stability with sniper rifles (or get +1 ammo per clip), like getting more from any sniper stock. Or do that with pistols (matching her finisher), but I'd reserve that for a new character.

There's no need to change the bracelet distance (would be unfair to other legends in a fight, better than Wraith or Pathfinder is not a good path to take), nor the way it travels (just make sure it works).
And, of course, that goes without saying: don't make her steal anywhere else than on the ground. Stealing other players would be awesome, but really really backlashing from other players. Let the pissing off to Octane pads and Horizon lifts thrown under people's feet (which is REALLY annoying already).

👉 Now, about the skins, that's one of the least skinned character. So let's fix this.

First, you made it be a provocative, hot character. It appears in every of her chat and the way she talks: "I don't bite", "Enough flirting", "Business IS my pleasure", "I'm looking for someone special to... take out.", "Time to break some hearts.", "Brought to your knees by a beautiful woman, don't be so surprised.", etc.

So that's it, you wanted a 👢 "femme fatale", you made it. Even though this is to be taken with care. Because the game is not rated under R (16yo). So you can push this concept, but not too much, cause of course, lots of people are under 16 in the game. So the "quite naked/shiny/tight" skins shall be considered with care: Octane is already half naked top on some skins, Crypto too, and Lifelife has some crop tops, not more. Good. But be careful: not all female players enjoyed Loba as a character, some thought she was a powerful woman, but some of my friends said "you can see she clearly was designed by men".

Also, one of the great successes of Apex Legends so far was the engagement in the art team not to make a "wh0r€-like" art, like RPGs, with naked (or close to it) characters, men in armor, women in stockings (same armor, lol). And you did it. That's a great step into feminism: removing the objectification of female characters... Until Loba came, but you made it part of her story and personality, so the rant is not too big. Also, your emblematic character is still and will still be Wraith, another female character, so this is fine, I suppose, but as a male human, I'll let female players say what they feel about that rather than making up my opinion by myself.

You also stood up with BLM, ALM, and made half characters male, half female, you talked about bisexuality, non-binarism, promoted ethnical background from all over the world, and that's working out very well. For that, Respawn / EA, you stepped up into 2019-2021, and it's great, nice job.

So, that being said, what can we do?
First, you already did that for many other characters: variation on existing skins. The problem is that Purple Reign is too visible in bushes, but remains the coolest skin, so does the event skin Self-Reflection. The steampunk ones are super nice too, but too classic and lack a little more creativity.

So, my 2 cents (as a game developer, which I somehow am):

- Make a "Purple Reign" white version.

- Same for Bootlegger black version.

- Make an assassin / thief skin with a hooded cloak.

- Make another, more steampunk outfit (googles, gears, corset, garters, etc.)

- Make a long, evening dress skin with laces, roman-style shoes/boots, and jewels.💎

- Make a molded, tight exo-suit with mirrors, almost like Mirage, except it doesn't really cloack.

- Make a skin where she has long, unattached hair.

- Make a skin where the makeup under her eyes is another color.

- Make alternate Loba skins MUCH more often in the shop. I'll buy all of them, personally.

- We should have 4 different base Legendary Skins + 1 new at least. 3 is not enough.

Please take another look at that topic, too: https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Loba-skins/td-p/9212956.

The Respawn artist original post is here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/EV3k90 

👉 And also: Loba has TWO jump emotes... This is really nasty. All non-core legends SHOULD have a jump trail in season 9, Crypto, Revenant, Fuse, Horizon, Rampart at least.

Needless to say, the next event NEEDs a Loba legendary skin and an jump emote.

👉 And for the Heirloom, now the core legends have been made, she's on the waiting line in fourth position.

So, before the game gets too old and you start losing players (unfortunetaly, that might happen :'[ ) I suggest that you multiply by 1.5x the pace of releasing heirlooms. So far, this is a little too slow. 8 heirlooms in 2 years while releasing 8 more characters means it will take two more years for the next 8, which is way too long. I got 300 shards waiting right now and no use of them.

Of course, those two shorts sabers in her back could be awesome (don't do the staff as an heirloom, otherwise it would be awkward to melee while the shop is active). But any "Wolf fang" stuff, like short, reverse pikal knife or those blades that actually get that "U" form and cover the whole fist with a long, 270° blade.

👉 Finally, let's make an event with Loba story. The only summary of her, so far is, "she got her parents killed in front of her, went through the trauma, searches for revenge, joined Apex Games, the end.". You'll admit that's a little light, right?

👉 And don't forget to include her in comics and seasonal stories. She was only secondary in Season 5 story (no one really understood that "Help Loba Find Treasures" or artifacts, to make a Revenant copy alive), then disappeared.

Hope this counts as a feedback. I'll edit with further ideas if any.