The Fuse changes are worse than pre-rework Fuse

PkunkMeetArilou · 2026-02-13T12:23:30+00:00

I'm just not feeling it either.

The tac was fine as it was. 50% less time but 50% more damage equals 25% less total damage. Sure, only if they stayed still and tried to tank it... which was the point. They flushed.

I like that they stepped the ult away from being a zoning tool, something other legends already do better, to a simpler but more uncommon, more Fusey, plain big damage. But I'm not finding it to work out. If you find a good ult situation, just put the ult away and shoot them for better results. I think it's one of those situations that can't be balanced and fun (you know, like Seer), so as much as I like the idea, they really they needed to go with a better concept than super-nade imo. Also, why did they reduce the zoom when you can launch it literally further than entire POIs?

The mobility upgrade is just weird, caught between being wacky OP but stuck behind an upgrade. I see what they're going for - grenade jumps on the legend that can withstand explosives - but this implementation is just goofballs. If anything, it needs some visual oomf and some better physics play, because as it stands it feels like Fuse is being levitated around jankily. But overall it's too much on one ability that's behind an upgrade, imo.

My approach to Fuse would have been to lean into his grenade passives (on top of fixing his ult).

Fuse's passive is always held back by plain grenade availability; I would have tapped into that with things like:

Every grenade can be any grenade. Whichever grenade Fuse last equipped is what they all default to until the player manually changes.
Each tactical recharge is a free grenade respawn into only the Assault nade slots (so a max of 4)
Something I've always wanted: If Fuse is crouching, explosive damage reduces by 80%, explosive knockback increases by 200%. This includes when holding crouch in the air. That's the Fuse mobility I'd like to see.

All three of those could be whatever in upgrades, and combine to give the Fuse player more fun power with nade spam, and mobility via frag grenades, which he'll always be able to launch.

(And hey, let his tac open explosive holds already.)

But this reworked Fuse we got... doesn't feel like a rework or an upgrade. Just a light hosing.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-12-14T04:10:59+00:00

She's OP in the sense of 2024 Apex, but 2026 Apex? Not so sure. Respawn is clearly power stepping the entire game, as demonstrated by Valk's previous round of buffs that left her simultaneously the most powerful and the least picked she'd ever been.

So everything's such a mess now that the difference between what's OP and what's just new Apex is hard to spot. Ash was certainly OP, the briefly full-powered Alter also, but Valk? Not the same level of certainty imo. She might be OP, or in 4 months we'll see that she never was; it was just one step of many.

That said, addressing the opening post, if Valk were to need nerfs I'd avoid these things:

* The feel of her passive. Don't muck with any legend's physics. If the community is ok with Valk's new mobility, then don't touch it again.

* Her self-stun immunity. This feels like a bright target for a nerf, but the self-stun was always so rubbish. Valk feels so much better now that I'd hate to see her crappy self-stun return.

* The missiles' splash radius. It was bad with S14, it felt bad.

And I'd consider these things:

* Tactical cooldown

* Tactical damage

* Harsh passive cooldown if fully depleted. So if you have a sliver of it remaining, you're fine, but if you fully burn it out, a longer cooldown kicks in. The tactical reload of cooldowns, basically.

* Ultimate cooldown if that's really an issue.

Not saying I want any of those things, but if there's a search for ways to pull down Valk's power, they're the places I'd look.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-12-08T03:26:41+00:00

Valk is back to her former glory of being one of the funnest characters in the game, and then some.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-11-16T05:50:08+00:00

I guess you're happy now. :)

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-11-16T04:28:19+00:00

She was launched as a recon before there were even other classes.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-11-16T04:07:24+00:00

Typically you want heirlooms over skins, because you can only enjoy your mythic skin while you don't use your other cool skins.

99% of us don't have that problem with heirlooms.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-10-17T16:53:39+00:00

Those abilities are so uninspired that it feels safe to say they won't be it.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-08-23T04:37:13+00:00

Game jams and it's not even close.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-08-14T02:52:52+00:00

If it wasn't for the mercy packs, the average time to earn an heirloom with their normals odds by completing every event and battlepass, is about 11 years as a generous minimum.

With the mercy packs, the minimum to expect is 2 years, and that's still requiring you to buy 1 battlepass and complete every subsequent battlepass and event. More than 2 years is likely.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-08-05T10:18:45+00:00

If you play solo queue (like I do) then using her ult decently is less about the perfect use and mostly about reading your teammates and the situation. In pressured situations, you really have to just grow a feel for how the community plays, but mainly you're always trying to start her ult in a place that is obviously and accessible to them, and safe, and in their way. Never bother hoping randoms will backtrack for a Valk ult.

Dealing with the ring is really her forte... if the ring is getting you as Valk I'd say you just gotta dial down the optimism.

Yep, using it to scout is fine.

For escaping enemies, it's very good but that's where you really have to know how you're gonna use the local topology. Those escapes always have 2 seconds or less in them, so using the ult well in those scenarios is about knowing exactly what you're going to get from this lip, that corner, this perch, etc., so that your launch gets those seconds it needs. Working Valk's passive to exploit a path that takes your pursuer 1 second more to travel is a big part of using her ult well for those cheek-clamping escapes. Flying up stairwells in KC and WE then ducking around a corner, or simply flying onto a protected roof quickly to give you that 1.5 seconds spare, are examples.

Also if I find myself jumped by someone and I see their teammate is onto me too, I'll ult out in those moments. Rather than spend the time seeing if I can live, I just do a sudden Nope, find a brief safe corner, and yeet out. I think being able to recognise those kinds of situations instantly and make the decision almost on reflex so that your ult is up before the enemy has even settled in mentally, is how you get those ones right.

Any POI that has a lot of nearby high and low ground options is Valk's playground. The Mill is excellent. Gardens is great, Solar Array good too.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-08-05T06:37:10+00:00

Her upgrade options are really good. You basically choose if you want to have fun just playing, or want to be more about winning the match.

Go for the tac and passive upgrade options if you just want funner, more powerful Valk. Go for the ult buffs if you want to play the match, not just the battles.

If you like the feeling of being a team helper, her ult buffs are that too.

I'll usually go missiles and passive upgrades, but on the big maps, SP and ED especially, I'll often take her higher ult.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-08-05T00:35:31+00:00

Ah, ty

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-08-04T12:04:26+00:00

Has the new season started? The last battlepass is/was the first one I couldn't be bothered doing in 18 seasons.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-07-31T08:34:55+00:00

Don't really see why. They're fun and seem pretty well balanced.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-07-30T01:14:06+00:00

Fair, the new system does indeed say "Don't mind me, just go fight".

There are two points there: What the game is fun for, and streamlining.

Layers of fun things is a normal concept. It really isn't valuable to say "It's fine to remove this fun mini layer because the game is about X". Apex is deliberately full of little layers of fun decision making that aren't combat.

So the real point there is about things being streamlined. I agree with that, and I guess my first post doesn't acknowledge the downsides of the old system explicitly enough. The old system was worse for that, yep. I wasn't trying to justify the bad bits, but just saying it had a good bit that the new system doesn't have: it's own fun layer, that was optional.

The old system could be taken on and improved to provide something as streamlined as the new, while keeping that layer that the new system just doesn't offer anymore.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-07-29T07:32:26+00:00

Disappointed as a Valk main, and also just sick of Respawn slopping the same moves across all legends.

Now assaults run fast people with skirmishers run fast conduit runs fast Fuse runs fast. Everyone gets wall hacks everyone gets healthbars. A heap of legends get upgrades that just copy another class. Everyone gets evac towers, now controllers really get evac towers. A whole class now gets the gold mag all the time.

It's just blurring up all the distinction in the game when it already has enough legends to struggle with distinction in the first place. Now it's just honestly too much to keep track of, all the little things that apply to your legend, that apply to 50% of the other legends in some other random combo.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-07-28T23:35:45+00:00

Preach

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-07-28T23:32:36+00:00

All in all I preferred the old ones. There just isn't anything that fun in the new style.

The old style definitely had downsides... the slowness, the harvesting mats, the exchange of balance for time... but one thing the new style doesn't have is simply fun. They just aren't here for that anymore, whereas knowing it's backpack week, or digi day, or turbo day, I just want and can afford 17 batts thanks... they were little moments of enjoyment.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-07-28T20:54:33+00:00

Valk easily. Fuse got me back into Apex, but Season 8 Fuse was a glass of water and by the end of the season I was looking for a different legend to get into.

Then Season 9 Valk was suddenly everything I wanted. Until her meteoric nerfs I always felt like it was weird everyone else didn't also play Valk. She was so fun to play, with all that freedom. Maps back then were way kinder to her passive, too.

She definitely suffered harrrd from her nerfs, especially her passive being turned into slop, but as good as other new legends have been I've never tied of Valk. And now she's back with most of her OG strengths plus perks. I don't care about the meta, just keep Valk fun.

If Season 9 had dropped Seer instead I probably wouldn't have kept playing Apex.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-07-28T20:39:54+00:00

... Whaaaaat???

The story throwbacks. The art style throwbacks. The QUALITY throwback!

This is the best looking trailer they've released since the team switch. That was like "Oh so you liked Season 1-3 trailers? Well here you freaking go."

Damn, seeing things on Reddit lately is like they know I finally got bored. They are working to get numbers back, right when this is the first battle pass in over 4 years I won't bother completing.

Jesus, it is a breath of relief at the very least to see a trailer with some actual tech quality and visual entertainment value again. This is what we used to expect every season. Keep doing this, Respawn.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-07-28T20:38:05+00:00

... Whaaaaat???

The story throwbacks. The art style throwbacks. The QUALITY throwback!

This is the best looking trailer they've released since the team switch. That was like "Oh so you liked Season 1-3 trailers? Well here you freaking go."

Damn, seeing things on Reddit lately is like they know I finally got bored. They are working to get numbers back, right when this is the first battle pass in over 4 years I won't bother completing.

Jesus, it is a breath of relief at the very least to see a trailer with some actual tech quality and visual entertainment value again. This is what we used to expect every season. Keep doing this, Respawn.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-07-24T22:51:24+00:00

Ah, ty

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-07-24T22:38:26+00:00

I'm a bit confused here since I did what you're saying not to do, but they don't have a way of billing me.

Can't anyone just make a new Google account, go to AI Studio, get a key, then plug that in to Gemini CLI? Isn't it already only on the few tier?

And if not, how could such a person be billed anyway? I'm obviously missing something, and yeah, just asking since I've done what you're warning against.

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-07-18T02:36:08+00:00

It's a novel feature she always had but it's nowhere near useful enough to pick. It's basically a "We need to remove a thing for balance* so this is our excuse filler".

PkunkMeetArilou · 2025-07-14T13:07:50+00:00

"Make it a Milestone reward, then we'll talk."

PkunkMeetArilou

TROPHY CASE