According to a developer from Respawn Entertainment, Lifeline is going to receive some significant reworks to her abilities soon in Apex Legends.
Lifeline has already been the recipient of some pretty big changes Apex Legends. In early 2020, the medic character received the ability to revive a downed teammate with her drone, freeing her up to revive another teammate or keep fighting.
When Lifeline’s drone revives a teammate, however, it also gets an unbreakable shield, which has been the subject of much frustration for players. In February, two developers from Respawn said they were aware of the frustration and were playtesting possible changes for Lifeline. Now it has been revealed what will be changing for Ajay Che. When asked on Reddit what players could expect, Live Balance Designer John Larson said that Respawn will be removing the revive shield for Lifeline’s drone, completely.
While that may sound like a shocking nerf, the developer is buffing her in some other areas to make up for it. Her tactical, in which her drone restores the health of her and her teammates, will be receiving a 60% boost. Her ultimate too, will now give “guaranteed upgrades” instead of the usually low tier gear and healing items it currently offers. Assumedly the “upgrades” would be higher tier Body Shields or maybe Phoenix Kits, but Larson did not clarify.
While the indestructible revive shield was incredibly frustrating for players, many thought the solution would be to just allow the shield to be destructible, like Rampart’s Amped Cover tactical. The removal of the shield will likely be a welcome change to many non-Lifeline players but will take some getting used to for Lifeline players. Aggressive revives out in the open won’t be as viable now, so Lifeline players will have to wait until a downed teammate has crawled to safety or behind cover before reviving.
Elsewhere in the Reddit thread, Larson reaffirmed that Respawn still wants to remove the Low Profile perk from all legends. Larson also stated that the developer is still considering ways to implement parts of the fan-favorite Locked and Loaded mode, like starting with a level 1 Body Shield, Helmet, and Knockdown Shield.
The changes for Lifeline sound likely to be implemented for the start of Season 9, but Larson did not explicitly confirm that. Season 9 is likely to begin on May 4. In the meantime, a new event called War Games is set to start next week in Apex, where new modes will be taking over Play Apex every few days. The list includes a mode where Banners re automatically picked up when a teammate dies, and a mode where players automatically respawn after dying.
Apex Legends is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Reddit
