It looks like Respawn may be changing up Apex Legends’ Lifeline soon
Respawn has announced plans to tweak the abilities of one of Apex Legends' original heroes, Lifeline, in an incoming update.
In an AMA over on Reddit, developers from Respawn asked the community for some feedback about one of the game’s original support heroes, Lifeline.
During the AMA, a Reddit user named CSKaay asked "how is Lifeline's kit being handled?" in the next round of updates and balance changes coming to the game. Lifeline is the game’s only combat medic, and – as such – appears in more or less every team setup at this point. Respawn seems to want to nerf her, as a result.
It looks like Respawn wants to alter Lifeline’s passive ability, Combat Revive. When a player falls in Apex Legends, a teammate usually has to make a conscious effort to go and pick them up – during the animation, both teammates are out in the open and vulnerable to incoming abilities or gunfire.
Lifeline has a mobile drone, DOC, which can drop a shield and begin the revive process as Lifeline remains fully mobile – proving to be either a threat or get a headstart on making defensive maneuvers.
As such, Apex Legend’s live balance designer John Larson has suggested the complete removal of Lifeline’s revive shield. DOC will still be able to start reviving downed allies, but there will no longer be a shield in place to protect them from incoming fire.
The upside? Larson also notes that the nerf would be balanced by increasing Lifeline’s tactical healing speed by "60 percent" and buffing her care package drops "to give guaranteed upgrades”, making her Ultimate once again viable in the latter stages of the game.
It’s an interesting proposition, then: remove one of the character's key gimmicks in order to better balance another ability.
Recently, we saw a dataminer suggest Titans coming to Apex Legends alongside new character in the game's ninth season, which is in line with some comments from the core team at Respawn, too.
Let's just hope that the hulking mechs don't distract too much from a shiny, new version of Lifeline to play with if these changes happen.