Apex Legends finally nerfs it's most overpowered character, but my guy Fuse is still completely useless

There's something about Fuse that immediately drew me to him. I think it's the moustache. Or that Aussie accent. Or the flamboyant 'divorced dad who signs up to a bloodsport as a midlife crisis' energy he brings to Apex Legends. He instantly usurped Bloodhound as my main when he was introduced to the battle royale game five years ago this month. While I juggle the pair these days, I anticipated great things from the Season 28 rework at the beginning of February. Unfortunately, Octane stole the spotlight with a load of incredible buffs just weeks earlier, while Fuse's new ultimate has all the explosiveness of a damp biscuit - and Respawn shows no signs of reverting it.

While my heart breaks for Fuse, Octane players have been enjoying some deserved excitement. The fastest character on the Apex Legends roster has been outpaced in recent months, as more movement abilities have been added to other characters. Sparrow's double-jumping shenanigans were the final knife in the back for the game's OG movement master (sorry, Pathfinder), and his buffs were a long time coming.

However, they proved too oppressive. As such, Respawn has today released a hotfix that removes the 'Fortified' buff from Octane when he uses his stims, while simultaneously reducing the speed boost it gives. It's still higher than its pre-buff levels, but he won't be quite so difficult to target now.

"Over the first week of the season, Octane is still being picked and winning fights at a rate we consider unhealthy," write the developers in the patch notes. "That is the data we needed to action on, nerfing what we consider the 'spikiest' elements of Octane's recent update, while preserving most of the new utility his rework brings."

The reason they waited this long before nerfing him was to check that the Fuse rework wouldn't impact his rate of winning fights. As we Fuse mains understand all too well, however, Walter Fitzroy's new ultimate ability is useless. His tactical knuckle cluster is more consistent, but sometimes the ult simply doesn't do any damage whatsoever. I'm not sure whether it's bugged or if this is intentional, but his old motherlode was superior in every possible way.

While I'm glad that Octanes aren't practically immune to bullets while stimmed to the gills anymore, I still think that he shouldn't be immune to damage-slowing, either, but we'll see how things work out with the current nerfs. As for Fuse, it's rare for Respawn to revert a rework completely, but his ultimate needs addressing fast. His pickrate has dropped by nearly 20% from the start of the season, according to data from Apex Legends Status, and while that initial number was likely inflated by players flocking to try out his new kit, it's not good news for the grumbling grenadier.

This isn't enough for me to turn to the dark side and become an Octane main for the remainder of Season 28, but I certainly won't be picking Fuse any more, when doing so is practically a handicap. There's only one thing for it: welcome back Bloodhound, my old friend. It's been too long.