While Rampart will likely be the main focus of the balance changes that will come alongside Apex Legends season nine, Fuse could also be set to receive a buff or two, Respawn Entertainment senior game designer Daniel Klein revealed last night.
The designer answered a fan’s question in a Reddit thread about the update that introduced the Chaos Theory Collection Event on March 9. And Klein revealed that Fuse has the lowest win rate in the game right now, even below Rampart.
“We have some plans for him, but nothing’s 100 percent yet. But yeah, he didn’t come in super strong like we wanted,” Klein said. “It’s still very hard to predict how strong a character will be unless they have meaningful mobility (Octane/Horizon).”
This refers to Fuse’s lack of mobility, which can be an issue in a fast-paced game like Apex. It’s one of the main reasons why Rampart’s win rate is so low, too. To best use her abilities, she must stay in the same spot for a certain amount of time, while most players play the game by making constant rotations around the map.
Fuse’s abilities are compatible with mobility since they can be deployed while moving, but he has no ability that enhances his movement around the map.
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“We’ve gotta be careful not to fall victim to mobility creep as well: the more general mobility there is, the less fun the game becomes for everyone because you just can’t hit people,” Klein said. “This is why we’re removing some of that power from Horizon.”
Klein also said that Octane’s mobility has made him too powerful, so Respawn may need to “hit him a little bit” and “shave a little power off.”
“I think I found a reasonably fun-neutral way of doing so: I’m currently thinking about increasing the health cost for his Stim but letting you stim again much sooner (there’s currently a 3-4 second delay between the old stim running out and you being able to stim again),” Klein said. “This is kind of a buff if you look at just the speed at which you move, but taken together with the increased health cost it’ll allow you to drop your health real low real fast. I always thought stim’s health cost was a fun way to pay for power with life that was tuned too softly to matter.”
These potential alterations revealed by Klein are still in development and are subject to change.
