Lifeweaver is the newest Overwatch 2 hero in the game, released in Season 4. This support hero sports a unique kit that allows him to reposition his teammates, either by lifting them into the air with his Petal Platform or by pulling them involuntarily to his location with Life Grip. Life Grip is already a controversial ability, but his kit is made even more controversial by the community, simply because they don’t seem to think he’s very good.
Game Director of Overwatch 2, Aaron Keller, tweeted that the team is “collecting Lifeweaver performance data over the weekend and should have details on balance changes” within the next week. He also mentioned that these changes will likely be buffs, and is also working on alternate controls for Lifeweaver as well.
Is Lifeweaver weak in Overwatch 2?
There are a few issues the community points out with Lifeweaver’s kit in Overwatch 2. One major complaint is his low healing, despite him being marketed as a “main healer.” Lifeweaver must charge up all of his heals, which takes a long time and has trouble keeping allies alive during a fight. Additionally, Lifeweaver is slowed while charging his heal, making it feel clunky as well. Compared with Kiriko, who has high healing and another invulnerability-granting ability with Protective Suzu, Lifeweaver almost pales in comparison.
Lifeweaver also has a clunky control system, which forces him to swap weapons when he wishes to deal damage instead. Despite heroes like Moira and Kiriko having heal and damage on left-click and right-click respectively, Lifeweaver must manually change between his healing and damage-dealing weapon similar to Mercy. Many players pointed out how clunky this is, with some even creating different control schemes for the character to fix the issue. Compounded with how slow his healing is, and many players find it difficult to weave in damage.
The team will continue collecting Lifeweaver performance data over the weekend and should have details on balance changes (more than likely a buff) sometime next week. Info on coming control scheme changes should come next week as well.
— Aaron Keller (@aaronkellerOW) April 14, 2023