As the eighth season of popular battle royale Apex Legends winds to a close, details are beginning to trickle through about what’s coming in Season 9. We’ve yet to get the season's marketing subtitle or a tease for the next Legend, but we are learning of some changes coming.
One such change is coming for Lifeline, one of the game’s most important characters. Unlike battle royales such as Fortnite or PUBG, Legends have abilities and roles to play in battle. As the game’s only combat medic, Lifeline can make or break a team’s chances at victory. Unfortunately, she seems to be making more than she’s breaking, and as a result, Respawn will be dishing out a massive debuff to her next season.
It’s hard to remember now, but Apex Legends was pretty revolutionary when it launched in 2019. It offered players the ability to revive teammates who had fallen and provided each Legend with a unique ability, like Bloodhound’s Eye of the Allfather, which lets them scan the area for enemies or Pathfinder’s Grappling Line. Those abilities have been tweaked since the game’s launch based on the character’s pick rate (how often players use them versus the other Legends) and win rate (how often a Legend is part of a winning team). Eye of the Allfather, for example, has seen its cooldown increased to reduce how often players can use it in battle, while Pathfinder saw Grappling Line’s cooldown was reduced in specific circumstances.
What’s being nerfed for Lifeline is her passive ability, Combat Revive. When a player typically falls in Apex, a teammate can pick them up, but it’s a dangerous prospect. Both teammates are out in the open during the animation, and canceling the animation in the face of oncoming gunfire means starting all over again. Lifeline, however, has her Drone of Compassion, better known as D.O.C., which can do the heavy lifting. D.O.C. will drop a shield and begin the revive process, allowing Lifeline to continue moving and defending unimpeded.
As confirmed in a Reddit AMA with Apex’s Live Balance Designer John Larson, Lifeline’s Combat Revive will be losing its most important aspect: the revive shield. She’ll still be able to drop D.O.C. to revive teammates, but no longer will the team have the luxury of a free shield to hide behind during the revive animation. This means Lifeline’s will now have to be on their toes, or else all their hard work reviving the team will be for naught.
It’s not all bad news for Lifeline players, though. While she may be losing her revive shield, the rest of her abilities are getting significant buffs. For starters, her Tactical D.O.C. Heal Drone will be getting a roughly 60% speed increase. In its current state, the Drone heals up to 150 health at a rate of 7.5 health per second and lasts for up to 20 seconds. The updated version should be closer to 12 health per second in the same span, meaning players will do less standing around and waiting for heals. Lifeline’s coveted Lifeline Care Package will also be getting a buff to the point where it gives players guaranteed upgrades, though Larson did not elaborate further.
As one of Apex Legends’ marquee characters, Lifeline clearly isn’t going anywhere. However, these changes show how willing Respawn is to change how a character works on a fundamental level to improve balance issues with Apex. Whether Lifeline’s updates will help or harm how she works in the team dynamic will take some time to determine, but players won’t have to wait too much longer as we’re only a few weeks away from the start of Season 9.
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