Valkyrie soars into Apex Legends meta after Season 10 ranked swap

Valkyrie is soaring into the upper echelons of Apex Legends ranked midway through Season 10, and has been storming into the ALGS meta as an Octane replacement to boot, off the back of her top-tier rotational Ultimate ability and her versatile combat mobility.

Keep your eyes fixed on the skies, Legends.

Why? Well, now, midway through Apex Legends Season 10, there’s no telling when a Valkyrie ⁠— flanked by her two teammates ⁠— is going to come screaming in.

The Winged Avenger has surged into the battle royale’s ranked meta in recent weeks, climbing to a 5.8% pick rate behind favorites Lifeline and Pathfinder. Her arrival marks a major shift away from other fast-moving Legends in favor of using Valkyrie’s Skyward Dive to reposition ahead of critical fights.

According to ApexLegendsStatus, Valkyrie is the only Apex Legend with any meaningful trend upwards in her play rates (up 7.4% this week) since Season 10 ranked playlists moved back to Kings Canyon in the split refresh.

That is, of course, disregarding Bloodhound’s monster 39.99% boost, which is mainly due to the Technological Tracker’s “Old Ways, New Blood” missions.

Apex Legends pros follow suit

Apex Legends ranked queues aren’t the only place Valkyrie is shining either. Since ALGS returned, pros have been swapping in the Titanfall 2 pilot over Octane.

This shift has been most prevalent in North America.

The newly-restarted Pro League has, so far, been chock-full of Valkyrie compositions, masterminded by pacesetting TSM. European champions SCARZ have made similar team swaps, while Kungarna won an NA title with Valkyrie-Gibraltar-Caustic.

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The BFC Weekly Series and ALGS Preseason Qualifiers have followed the same trends; four of the top five ⁠— TSM included ⁠— ditched Octane for Valkyrie.

What makes Valkyrie a great pick?

Valkyrie has had no buffs or real changes since midway through Season 9, all the way back in May, but that hasn’t stopped her spiking in popularity over these past few weeks.

The main reason is her flexibility when it comes to map-wide rotations. Apex Legends is such a position-focused game; high ground is king, flanking opponents can win your battles, and ‘lucking out’ with the final circle swings the game.

Valkyrie removes many of these rotational concerns for players.

The Winged Avenger acts in a similar way to Wraith, Octane, or Pathfinder. Her ultimate allows her to shift squadmates into better positions. Valkyrie’s Skyward Dive is even better than those other abilities too, simply for how far-ranging it can be ⁠— activate the ultimate and you could soar halfway across the Kings Canyon map in a moment.

This hyper-aggressive rotational ability means teams can run fewer mobile characters like Caustic, Gibraltar, or Loba, who offer other powers in combat or when looting, and don’t need to be rushing across the battlefield.

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On top of that, Valkyrie can scan Recon Beacons, meaning she can replace both Pathfinder and Bloodhound in that regard. Everyone loves a two-for-one!

Now Dexerto isn’t expecting anything crazy like a new “Valkyrie meta” to spawn halfway through Season 10. Don’t worry if you aren’t too crash-hot with the Titanfall pilot; Season 9’s debutant is still hovering around 5.8% play rate, way behind top dogs Octane (14.6%) and Wraith (10.9%).

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That said, expect to see more Skyward Dives as Apex Legends players shift the Winged Avenger into their plans ⁠— Kairi Imahara is certainly on the rise.