Apex Legends Season 16 is certainly a season of massive change for the battle royale, with seven popular legends getting balancing sweeps alongside that all-important class rework. One thing that definitely won’t change though is launch legend Lifeline still being the game’s only healer – however, she is one of the special seven getting tweaked and will receive some nice buffs to her kit.
As you’d expect, Lifeline will remain a Support legend in the newly reworked Apex Legends classes, and will be joined in that class by Loba, Newcastle, and Gibraltar. Lifeline’s old ability of being able to access additional loot in blue supply bins has now been extended to the entire Support class, so what is Respawn doing to make sure Apex’s only healer is still a viable pick?
Well, for a start the slow penalty applied when activating her revive will be “greatly reduced” in Season 16, according to Devan McGuire, Apex Legends’ lead legend designer.
On top of this, her Care Package ultimate is getting some love as well. Respawn is buffing its drop speed – which means less standing around waiting for that lovely loot to touch down – and its range.
“Overall, [these changes] may feel like a relatively minor adjustment, but it keeps Lifeline and her team from feeling stuck in place while waiting for these abilities,” McGuire says.
They are the only aspects of Lifeline’s specific kit that are changing, but of course she will receive the class-wide perks of being a Support legend in the new system. As mentioned earlier, Lifeline (and now her fellow Supports too) will be able to get extra loot from blue bins, but rather than just random bits of gear and ammo, this extra loot will be made up of valuable healing items. While specific items haven’t been mentioned yet, you can imagine this will include Med Kits, Shield Batteries, Phoenix Kits, and more.
As well as this, Support legends can now craft expired respawn banners for fallen teammates, so as a Lifeline player you can bring players back later in the game if you have enough crafting material.
So, those are the changes for Lifeline in Season 16 of Apex Legends. On the surface, they’re maybe not as radical as some of the other legend changes we’re seeing to the likes of Seer, Wraith, and Horizon, but when you’re a devout Lifeline main, every little helps.
If you want to know when you’ll be able to hop in and try out this all-new legend meta, check out the Apex Legends Season 16 release date.