A Wraith Guide: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Tips for Optimal Play.
Wraith has been one of my favorite legends to play for many reasons. So, she’s next on this quest of providing a guide for all legends in Apex Legends. She performs well while alone and with the team. And, she works well in all ranges of combat. She’s also the only character Dizzy plays (I consider him to be the best player in Apex I’ve seen), which says something about the legend.
Wraith and Bangalore are the two characters I prefer playing while solo queueing due to their ability to fend for themselves and wielding tools for clutch plays. We’ll be discussing Bangalore (The Jill of All Trades) soon enough. To best discuss Wraith, we’ll first cover her abilities.
Passive: Voices from the Void
Wraith’s passive is essentially an “anti-ambush” ability. If enemies are nearby or looking at you from afar, a voice warns you. It even specifies if a sniper has you in their scope. A common issue when playing a Battle Royale is getting ambushed by players sneaking up on you or waiting for you to pass by, and that element of surprise is not very effective against Wraith. This is pretty straight-forward usefulness for the entire team.
“Secondary Passive”: Character Size and Strafe Speed
This isn’t an official ability, but it’s worth being discussed. In Apex, your character’s hitbox seems to be relative to the character’s model size. This is a major negative factor regarding some legends like Caustic. For Wraith, this is a huge strength. Because base geographical movement speed is similar for all legends, Wraith’s model appears to move quicker because of how small she is (especially while strafing).
This small size and quick strafe speed cause Wraith to be the most difficult standard target to shoot (Bloodhound in ult or Bangalore w/ passive activate are certainly rivals). She’s honestly the only reason I ever use EVA-8 over Peacekeeper for a shotgun option, so I can spam hip fire shots to get some form of consistent damage on her. I’ve played all legends enough to get 100 kills or more on each of them (some at 200+ at this point), and I definitely experience getting hit less often while strafing on Wraith than a character with a larger model like Pathfinder or Caustic. And, I experience more difficulty hitting a Wraith than someone bigger like Gibraltar. This (alongside her tactical ability) allows more aggressive positioning and less reliance on maintaining cover at all times.
Tactical: Into the Void
Upon activation, you become immune and (almost) invisible for three seconds. This would be a broken ability, but you can’t fire a weapon, reload, heal, or do anything other than move during those three seconds. Additionally, Wraith leaves a light trail for where she’s traveling. This ability is ridiculously good. Activation timing and positioning provide a rather tall skill ceiling.
One of my favorite ways to use this ability is to throw arc stars onto enemy players and warp while waiting for the detonation. If I stick the enemy, this is essentially a checkmate move as they can’t hurt me at all while I wait out the detonation. This is a play I like to call the “Warpstar.” The warp also works to counter damage like an arc star stuck onto me or being caught in a Bangalore ult.
Quick reaction times can get you out of a lot of hairy situations like three enemies peaking an angle you decided to challenge, previously thinking there would only be one enemy. This ability’s immunity also works against passive damage from being outside the zone, which makes getting back to the safe zone far easier. As previously mentioned, this ability isn’t all positive. I’ll further discuss the weaknesses of this ability in the later “Weaknesses” section of this guide.
Ultimate: Dimensional Rift
Wraith can set two points of a portal by setting the first upon activation and setting the second upon a certain distance traveled and time spent or deactivation of the ultimate. While moving to set the second portal point, Wraith can move much faster than normal, but she can still take damage and cannot shoot, reload, heal, or do anything other than move. The fast movement can still provide a decent escape ability and gap closing ability in a fight. You should be careful where you place the rift though because enemy players can also use your rift the same as you and your teammates can.
Because of enemy access, most Wraith players tend to use the rift for faster movement around the map, much like Pathfinder’s zipline. You also can’t change directions during rift transport, so you’re forced to exit the predetermined location after entering the rift. This would make you an easy target during a fight if the enemy knows you took the rift. You also can’t see any enemies/allies/player objects during transport much like during Wraith’s void warping.
Many players (like myself) tried and failed at coming up with practical aggressive uses of this rift during combat. The best way to use it is map travel or flanking an enemy team. You can also use it to set up multiple sniping angles if you’re fighting in a long distance battle.
*Note: At the time of this post, there is a game mechanic where you will instantly die if you exit a Wraith portal that is set in a doorway with the door closed. My guess is the game doesn’t know what to do with your character model, so it simply removes the model from the game (kills you). I would imagine this will eventually be fixed and have the character end up on one side of the door, but I haven’t seen any mention of this being unintended or being looked at by Respawn yet.
Strengths:
Wraith is amazing at being the aggressive player of the team. Use the rift for allies to catch up to her as she scouts ahead. The void warp allows her to buy time while the team arrives or can be used to fall back to the team safely. Fast map movement, an anti-ambush mechanic, an amazing defensive “nope” ability, and being a difficult target to hit are all components to a very strong character in Apex.
Weaknesses:
During both the void warp state and the rift usage, you cannot see other players (allies and enemies) or player-made objects (like Caustic traps). This makes aggressive use of these abilities incredibly risky. Using the rift has a unique audio cue as well, so audibly alert players can prepare to shoot you as you exit at a predetermined location. You would be delayed from having to react to the sudden attack and figure out where the enemy is located, so chances of winning that fight are slim.
The void warp trail is easily seen by visually alert players. Wraiths will need to find cover away from the enemy’s line of sight to not be shot instantly after the warp’s short timer runs out. The timer of the warp is set and cannot be canceled. This along with the inability to do anything but move means its purpose is purely defensive and only buys time in a fight.
Plays well with:
Wraith is a lone wolf kind of character who does pretty well with everyone. If I were forced to pick a good combo, I’d suppose she’s good with Caustic. Caustic can set a trap at the exit point of a rift so anybody trying to follow your team will be met with quite a surprise.
To reference my last guide (Pathfinder’s), a great team comp would be Wraith, Pathfinder, and Caustic. Caustic needs movement assistance, can set traps to stop enemies from using your team’s travel ults, and both Wraith and Pathfinder can play around the gas well. Pathfinder gets high ground away from the gas and Wraith can warp through the gas if needed. You could also replace Pathfinder for Lifeline to use the traps to buy time for heals and Wraith can rift the team out when they’re done. The rift is good for keeping the team moving while Lifeline waits for her care package too.
Summary:
I covered many tips for this character already, so we’ll move straight to the summary. Wraith is meant to be a playmaking, aggressive scout for the team. She’s in and out of engagements and has a scrappy approach to fights. Her ult is for transportation and flanking. Her passive(s) and tactical are defensive, but allow you to play more offensively as you know you have a bit of a safety net. To truly optimize the use of the void warp, develop a good sense of “line of sight.” Know when and where enemy players will be able to shoot you so you can position yourself behind cover when you exit your warp.
