life weaver Was in surveillance 2 for just under a month, and already the plant-based support hero has had some pretty significant overhauls both its control scheme and its capabilities. Personally, I’ve had a much better experience with the character since its last update, but it sounds like Blizzard is planning more changes as it tries to figure out where the character should fit in its popular hero shooter.
In a new post on the over watch website, director Aaron Keller spoke about the team’s mindset as we move forward with Lifeweaver. While they made some improvements to his healing exit (he has one of the higher ones in the game now), the team says changes like reducing the spread of his offensive alternate fire, Thorn Volley, didn’t have a big impact on his kill rate. On the bright side, he also has one of the lowest mortality rates of any support hero, so I’m happy to hear from you all took my advice and stay away from the fight.
All in all, Keller says the team is still trying to better figure out Lifeweaver’s intended role in the game, and that’s what I’ve been trying to do since he joined the roster. before life weaver, Baptiste And Bridget were my favorite support characters based on my team composition and map type, but Lifeweaver feels like this very situational character that I mostly carry just because he’s new, I like him as a character, and his gear is fun, not because Its utility feels objectively better than the other options.
Its skills – like Petal Platform, which takes a player to a higher level, or the controversial one grip of life, which drag an ally to Lifeweaver’s position – are best used in a coordinated team. The problem is that most randos online don’t understand or care about how to create effective plays, and it seems like most just want support players to act as heal bots rather than heading towards more diverse support abilities leave. It feels like my teammates and sometimes I don’t know how to coordinate at Lifeweaver, so I can understand why Blizzard is hoping to make his ideal role clearer in Season 5.
Keller continued:
When it comes to future changes for Lifeweaver, here’s what we keep in mind. We want to make it clearer why players may choose Lifeweaver over other heroes. If your current hero choices aren’t working for some reason (be it the map or opposing team composition), what’s a strong incentive to switch to Lifeweaver? We may make other changes over time such as: We’re going to make changes that aim to further emphasize Lifeweaver’s strengths and clearly define his role on your team. This could be focusing more on his healing power with a new passive ability, or giving some extra benefits to some of his utility-focused abilities. With a defensively oriented hero, we need to be careful how far we go in terms of raw healing and defensive ability buffs – too far can negatively disrupt the overall flow of a fight. These are some of the first things we’re going through and hope to have our next changes ready for Season 5.
Even when Lifeweaver first debuted, I figured he would be a character that would evolve a lot over time, similar to Symmetra, whose moveset has changed more than once since she debuted on the original over watch‘s launch. As someone who has already put over a dozen hours into Lifeweaver, I’m confident that all of the upcoming changes will help him be the effective support character everyone wants him to be surveillance 2The struggling support players could really use some wins.
