The latest hero in Overwatch 2 made a name for himself with one of the most volatile hero launches in the franchise’s history when he launched on April 11. Usually, a new hero joining the roster of Overwatch characters instantly fills in a role and fills it well, becoming viable in ranked or even Overwatch League play.
Lifeweaver has been the opposite due to weird controls, mediocre abilities, and plenty of patches within weeks of his release. All of them were aiming to make him stronger and easier to understand for all players, as he was not good across all ranks and also hard to learn. Two weeks after he joined Overwatch 2, Lifeweaver is still a puzzle neither players nor devs are able to crack.
Game director of Overwatch 2, Aaron Keller, spoke more about the future of Lifeweaver in a blog post today. He mentioned all the changes Lifeweaver got since release, starting with his rearranged control scheme that fans helped remake. Alongside buffing his entire kit, from his healing to his damage and ultimate, he’s seen an increase up to about a 45 percent win rate. Even with those buffs, the higher the skill level, the worse Lifeweaver gets.
Alas, this is where the main problem lies: he’s gotten buffed and has good stats, but still doesn’t help teams win games or represent a clear role amongst the game’s support heroes. Keller himself stated it, saying “[w]e want it to be clearer why players may select Lifeweaver over other heroes. If your current hero pick isn’t working for some reason (whether it be the map or enemy team comp), what’s a strong incentive for swapping to Lifeweaver?”
It’s a process, making a hero that was released nigh-unusable grow into a good choice. Some of the proposed changes that might be coming in the near future include buffing Thorn Volley and increasing his healing more on all of his healing abilities. Even then, there is a possibility that they could go too far and make Lifeweaver overpowered, similar to when Kiriko came out.
Either way, Keller and the Overwatch team are aiming to find Lifeweaver’s role as a support in Overwatch 2. It’ll take some more tweaking, with the goal to not have to talk about the hero as much as they had to since his release.
Published: May 5, 2023 05:50 pm