It hasn't been that long since Fuse landed in Apex Legends, with his unabashed confidence and myriad of explosives. However, like most big updates, it came with buffs and nerfs to the other legends in the game as well. Characters like Loba got access to more, while Caustic got a big nerf. The upcoming Season 9 will contain similar performance enhancements and limitations that make the Apex Legends characters as fair as they can be. While no official announcements have been released yet, the developer has a tendency to let fans know ahead of time what to expect.
The Season 8 character list in Apex Legends was a bit shaken up by the changes then and the exciting new War Games LTM now. Although, reportedly Season 9 is going to go even further with new additions and more connections to the Titanfall lore. And of course, a set of buffs and nerfs with some of these already brought up to some degree.
Buffs
Respawn Entertainment wants each of their legends to get equal love in the Apex Games, and so with each update it tries to make the legends more balanced. . For instance, Loba will be getting a buff to her bracelet ability, hopefully fixing bugs and improving the animation speed in and out of the portal to avoid getting massacred when entering or leaving.
Fuse is also reported to get some kind of buff, as he currently has the lowest win rate of all the legends, but it hasn't been announced what. While one or two of those might make fans curious, the biggest buff currently known is going to Lifeline. She will be receiving a 60% healing boost to her drone, along with a big buff to her care package ability. However, this is going to come with a price that might upset the Lifeline fans out there.
Nerfs
The biggest nerf so far, and bad news for the medics, is that Lifeline's drone shield will be removed in Apex Legends Season 9, although she will still be able to deploy her drone to revive downed allies. Speaking of health, Octane's stim ability might be able to be used more often next season, but it also comes with an increased health cost each time. Loba is also getting a light nerf to her Black Market ability, although it hasn't been revealed what that might be. Horizon has also been rumored to get a big nerf, but whether Respawn has it ready or not has yet to be seen.
Some of these changes are likely to upset fans, namely Lifeline mains. However, Respawn Entertainment only seeks to improve gameplay across all its modes and servers. While Lifeline's drone shield led to many revives, it could be very frustrating play against as Lifeline or anyone else could then use it as cover every time someone is downed. This would make it extremely hard to ever get to the person being revived, and almost guarantees players will start lasting longer in the game.
To counteract the negative effects of these nerfs, Respawn usually adds a relatively comparable buff to make them as attractive to play. Only time will tell if these changes, among other surprises Season 9 has in store, will be enough to impress the fans who are now second-guessing their mains.
Apex Legends is available now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.