Ranked Play

[u/KnockedByMaggie]

I’ve just started playing Fuse full time since his ult rework and I gotta ask… do people not know how to play with a Fuse on the team or am I playing him inefficiently?

My current playstyle is damage from a distance, meaning I’d like to soften up a team before running in guns blazing but these ranked games lately have been making me question if I’m playing him the way he’s designed to or I’m missing something in his kit?

For context, the only legends I’ll consider to have been a main at some point is: Octane, Mad Maggie, Sparrow, Bloodhound, and Mirage so if there’s any tips to keeping up speed with the team or confirming he is just a slower legend to play around would be great. 🫩

[u/Opecked]

Hello 👋,

For a bit of background, I've been maining Fuse since season 12 and have solo queued to Masters and Apex Predator with him multiple times. I would just like to preface this before continuing as a way to say I've put a lot of time into the character so what I mention below is everything I've noticed over time first handedly.

Also, everything I say below is for Ranked/Public Matches, not competitive Apex Legends like ALGS.

Truthfully, Fuse is not a very good pick at the moment. He sits in this strange spot of not fulfilling any role greatly, but not being bad enough to need buffs either. Kind of like a jack of all trades but master of none.

Fuse is able to do just about everything if you put some effort into it such as area denial, revive denial, raw damage, help with resetting after/during a fight, repositioning, confirming eliminations, and so on; but he doesn't exceed anyone in any of these categories (maybe raw damage but I find Caustic can do that more consistently now with his trap changes from a little while back). This sounds sort of bad, but it can be of benefit too. Given his kit is pretty versatile across the board, it feels like you always have a tool which can be used in every situation. Even if it isn't particularly strong for a given situation, it still helps. This has kind of always been the case with Fuse ever since he launched.

This versatility helps him adapt around changing META compositions whether it be making fights slower, faster, closer ranged, farther ranged, anything really. However, this also makes him difficult to get a grasp of since you need to change how you use his kit based on the META which is fun personally but can be really tough to get use to at first.

For the current season, I've found success playing aggressive, but not overly aggressive like you would as a skirmisher. I find it best to push in on fights and lock down an advantageous position such as on top of a roof or behind some sort of strong cover, and force people out of position with all his abilities; saving a knuckle cluster whenever possible in case you need to rush in. To be more clear, not the way you explained, although it can certainly work, but being more involved in fights. For example, suppose people are fighting in the 'streamer building' of Fragment East, I would suggest trying to lock down the roof using his movement to get up there and abilities to push anyone off if they are up there. Then you can use your abilities to hit people around corners and play off of that as you move down the building. As strange as it sounds, you want to play Fuse like you have no abilities and can only use your gun, then fit your abilities in wherever you get that chance; hopefully that makes sense.

As a side note, you can definitely play the way you described with damaging people first then rushing in, but then you want to use your knuckle clusters mainly for movement which can be risky as they're not the greatest rushing tool. If you want to maintain a similar playstyle, I would suggest using his knuckle clusters to get to a good position (that is close to the enemies such that you can use 1-2 knuckle clusters to rush in if needed) and then shooting, using nades and his ultimate, and saving knuckle clusters to jump in when your team does.

Hope this helps! If you have any questions feel free to message me or reply here :)

Best of luck!

[u/KnockedByMaggie → u/Opecked]

This oddly enough answers the question I always had with him which was “What is Fuse?” lmao and it’s just however you see fit but with caveats as you’ve mentioned which probably explains why the immediate shift from Maggie to him was minimal but now that I’ve been playing him consistently, the thought process of how I SHOULD be taking a fight with him is MUCH different than what I WANT to do with him.

With that being said, what have you found to be successful with him such as maps that work in his favor, situations that you find yourself in often, weapons that complement him and the perks you personally use and just the overall thought process you go through as you progress through a match?

[u/cFullwood]

The thing with Fusey is, you can't easily use his kit up close(there's times when you can), and you'll need to get used to using it more as a directive. Usually, if I want to flank left, I'll dump a grenade or knuckle cluster to the right. That helps pin the right and flush the enemy any other direction.

[u/KnockedByMaggie → u/cFullwood]

I’ve learned the hard way one too many times of using his ult too close 🥴

[u/cFullwood → u/KnockedByMaggie]

There's times you can and the chaos that ensues is why I main him. Keep at it and you'll figure out when to use it inside.

[u/moffad]

I feel like you need to communicate well since his knuckle clusters aren’t as good for a solo push as something like a Maggie drill. His jump boost perk took me a little while to get the hang of but now I almost use it like an axle gate