In terms of the most-picked Apex Legends characters, Newcastle is as low as they go. He currently sits at the bottom of the (albeit unofficial) trackers showing which Apex Legends character gets chosen the most and which gets chosen the least, but as is the case with pretty much any other character in the game, that doesn’t by any means that he’s a back pick. A clip shared just recently showing a clutch win from a Newcastle player has reminded players of that and has some reminding others that they’ve been sleeping on the Mobile Guardian.
Anidevv, an Apex Legends player who goes by that name on Reddit, shared their Newcastle clip this week to give others a peek at what the Apex Legend is capable of. After all, he’s only got a pick rate of 1.2% across all players and game modes, according to this tracker, so there’s a good chance most players probably won’t see something like this in their games compared to flashy plays from more common characters.
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As we’ve seen in ALGS matches where some teams pick Newcastle on occasion, the Support Legend’s power is shown off here where he’s able to first create space by defending an open area that’d normally be indefensible thanks to his Castle Wall ultimate ability. Couple that with his Mobile Shield tactical and his use of the Knockdown Shield via the Retrieve the Wounded Castle and Newcastle has plenty of shields to keep others at bay.
“People still making excuses and sleeping on Newcastle in the comments tsk tsk tsk,” said one of the top comments in the thread after Apex Legends players started coming out to poke holes in the play.
To be fair to the naysayers though, they’ve got some valid point about why Newcastle was able to pull off this kind of play. His Mobile Shield is strong against one or two people at a time since he can weave in and out of its protection, but it can be destroyed relatively easily by a coordinated team who focus their fire on it. This Newcastle also still had a white Knockdown Shield at the end of the game which would’ve been even easier to break than the Mobile Shield instead of trying to shoot around it. Because Newcastle is seldomly picked, people sometimes don’t have as much experience playing against him as someone like Wraith, so it reasons that people might not make the right call in those kinds of endgame scenarios.
“Newcastle isn’t a bad legend by any means, he’s just difficult for people to learn how to play properly,” another Apex Legendsย player said.
Anidevv has posted videos like this one featuring Newcastle in the past, so it’s clear they’re no stranger to the playmaking potential he offers. For the sake of those who main Newcastle, hopefully clips like these remain uncommon so that their favorite Legend continues to fly under the radar.
