4Game

Hi everyone! With the new ranked split and the results of ALGS, I think the Legend meta could use a mix-up. The same legends (Wraith, Pathfinder, Watson, and Gibby) have dominated the metagame and were almost the only characters used competitively. One character I want restored to glory is Lifeline. I know other characters like Mirage and Revenant need buffs more than her but ever since the Gibby buffs I feel like she has lost her place. Before I go into the buffs I want to explain why she is in a weird state right now. A lot of people point out that Lifeline's fast revive and fast heals can be used anywhere whereas Gibby has to be in his dome. However, whenever a Gibby needs to heal or revive in the first place they are already going to place the dome for cover and with these buffs, it essentially eliminates Lifeline's purpose as the healer and support.

Okay onto the buffs:

The main problem I have with Lifeline is that her ultimate is almost useless especially in late game (except for some niche cover). With the abundance of cargo bots and loot vaults finding purple armor is really easy. My suggestion is to give her the dummies big day emergency heal. This would promote several things. This would be an indirect buff to Revenant as he could shut down her ultimate with his tactical. Additionally, a current problem with Revenant's ult is that he has to heal after he is killed in his ult and make the ult have no real value. With this new ult, lifeline could instantly heal Revenant and push the enemy team. This new ult also rewards a more aggressive game pace. With the same mechanics in dummies big day, Lifelines ult would heal enemies as well as allies. This rewards teams who aggressively push Lifelines as they risk healing the enemy team as well.

The second change is to allow her drone to heal in the ring again. The main reason this was removed was that Lifeline's could camp outside the final ring and it removes the sense of urgency when the ring starts to close. With the changes to ring damage, Lifeline's can no longer camp outside the final ring. Allowing Lifeline's drone to heal outside the ring also eliminates the problems with chokepoints and third parties in World's Edge. So many teams in ALGS died to zone because of gatekeeping. A lifeline team could reposition through the ring and escape common chokepoints such as the bridge that connects Capital City and Harvester or the train tunnels. In the current state of the game, gatekeeping rewards teams for camping chokepoints and is a big reason why Watson is so viable in competitive play. Another common issue in World's Edge is the prevalence and sheer power of third parties. Giving Lifeline's the emergency area heal allows her to have her team prepared for the third party and engage on equal playing fields. In competitive play, teams are screwed over by third parties because they are at a health disadvantage and the fact that third parties allow teams to get easy points makes the game less of skill and more pure circumstance and chance.

The point of this buff concept isn't to have Lifeline replace one of the top legends but allow her to compete with Gibraltar and eliminate things that make competitive apex so frustrating. I would love to hear any ideas for buffs to other characters!