Is 80 Ping Bad for Apex Legends?

No, a ping of 80ms is not considered "bad" in Apex Legends for most casual and even moderately competitive players. While professional esports players may strive for extraordinarily low pings of 20-40ms, average gamers can expect very smooth gameplay up to around 100ms.

Multiplayer Game Ping Standards

Here are standardized ping rating levels across popular online multiplayer genres per cybersecurity firm Norton:

So Apex Legends gameplay with 80ms ping would land in the "Good to Average" range for responsiveness.

Ping Impact on Other Games

For comparison in other multiplayer shooter games:

• Fortnite: Up to 90-100ms is decent, 120ms introduces noticeable hitches
• Call of Duty: 60-75ms plays smoothly, 100ms+ causes lag
• Overwatch: 60ms plays well, above 100ms hit detection suffers

Apex Legends runs on dedicated servers with high bandwidth, so an 80ms ping won‘t cause as many issues as a similar ping would in titles with more lobby-based networking models.

Detailed Ping Effects on Apex Gameplay

Higher pings mainly impact two key areas in competitive play:

1. Weapon Hit Detection – Bullets can seem to vanish or fail to register damage on enemies. The higher the ping, the more clear examples of failed hits.

2. Movement Delays – High ping can make character actions like crouching, strafing, or special moves activate later than expected. This reduces reaction times in close quarters gunfights.

However, many high ping issues arise most noticeably at the extreme high end past 150+ms in hyper competitive environments. For example, duringpeakpandemic lockdowns, professional esports players unable to bootcampin-person were forced to compete in tournaments at pings up to 90-120ms instead of their usual <30ms. While slight differences were noticeable, gameplay remained highly competitive.

So at 80ms in casual play, Apex Legends still runs smoothly. To quantify the minor disadvantages:

• An 80ms ping player may lose 1-3% more medium range duels vs a 20ms ping opponent, according to aggregated community statistics tracking hit percentage differentials.
• Reaction times for urgent movements like dodging grenades or special attacks could be around 50-100ms slower compared to very low ping situations.

But for almost all players outside the highest skill brackets, an 80ms ping presents no major issues in enjoying and competing in Apex Legends.

Optimizing Your Ping

If you wish to try improving ping from 80ms closer to the high performance 20-50ms range, here are tips:

• Always use a wired Ethernet connection rather than WiFi where possible
• When on WiFi, position yourself in direct line-of-sight to the router antenna
• Update network adapter drivers and router firmware to latest versions
• Run frequent speed tests and contact ISP to fix connectivity issues
• Consider routing traffic through a quality gaming VPN service
• Disable bandwidth-hungry apps when playing Apex Legends

Upgrading internet plans to higher bandwidth can also help reduce ping spikes during peak usage.

For context, here is the breakdown of average pings across connection types:

So options like fiber and upgraded cable packages can provide lower base ping for a better Apex Legends experience.

Conclusion

For the vast majority of gamers and skill levels, a ping of 80ms is totally acceptable for enjoying smooth Apex Legends play without noticeable lag or hit detection issues. Only at the highest tiers of competitive ranked play might such a ping be considered sub-optimal.

Unless your ping frequently spikes above 100ms or becomes unstable, you can expect great gaming performance in Apex Legends at 80ms. Taking the time to optimize connectivity can further improve responsiveness, but isn‘t required for good experiences for most players.