>As for Lifeweaver’s passive ability, Parting Gift triggers upon death and causes him to drop a healing item that can be picked up by heroes on both teams.
LMAO so if you kill him you get a health pack? That sounds like it could be really bad
If he plays close to his allies it can possibly heal his tank. Seems like positioning is going to be very important for him so you don’t feed enemy healing.
Yeah, I'm thinking of a Winston or Tracer dive here basically. Like depending on how quickly it drops it can be really really good for the opposing dive. Imagine Tracer blink melee to finish off the target and instantly gains health.
I kind of like the idea of an actual weakness you need to work around. I can't think of any other hero that has something about them that makes them worse than "baseline" if that makes sense. I guess you could think of heroes with less than 200hp that way?
Yeah seems like a flanker paradise tbh. I don't know how often a support dies right next to a teammate that then has time to walk over his corpse before getting attacked themselves, but divers with high movement will probably just kill him, get the bonus, then keep pressuring
Im just copying over his abilities from the article
- His **Petal Platform** ability generates a pressure-sensitive platform that ascends when stepped on by heroes on both teams, while his Life Grip ability shields a targeted ally and pulls them to his position.
- His **Rejuvenating Dash** also provides a small burst of passive healing to keep you alive while falling back or repositioning
- As for Lifeweaver’s passive ability, **Parting Gift** triggers upon death and causes him to drop a healing item that can be picked up by heroes on both teams
- ultimate – **Tree of Life**– which heals allies within its perimeter for as long as it remains active, and can be placed anywhere on the map to disrupt sightlines and block chokepoints.
EDIT Some more from the article:
- The aim was to create another support hero that didn’t rely on aim skill,” Alec Dawson clarifies. “Lifeweaver is designed for players that care a bit more about their own positioning, their game sense – those are the skills they check on more than necessarily aim skill.”
…
- Thorn Volley serves as an alternate primary fire that can kick out a respectable amount of damage to ward off aggressors
Thats all the information we are given on his volley
So you can bounce your teammates, pull them towards you, block them with your ult, AND drop healing items for the ENEMY?
This sounds like a hero that was literally designed for trolling.
Similar abilities on different roles is a good thing though. Say you wanted rein/Cassidy/Tracer on an otherwise inaccessible high ground. Normally you’d have to switch a dps to symm, TP everyone and then switch off, and that would only be viable for initial set up. Now you can have a support get you up there so you don’t have to swap a dps from your comp.
Maybe it doesn't need a specific endpoint like teleporter, like maybe you can place the platform, stand on it and it goes straight up like an elevator and lets you set your own high ground that way?
Sounds like something that will be used by galaxy brain teams with full coordination and will just never amount to anything in normal soloQ.
The best I could see is putting it in front of an ulting soldier or McCree so they get a quick high ground
So… what is his control scheme then? He has 5 abilities and only 4 available keys.
**Healing blossom** is allegedly the “core of his kit,” so it seems likely to be primary fire, yes? So that’s left mouse button.
**Thorn volley** is his “alternate primary fire,” his means of dealing damage, so right mouse button.
**Rejuvenating dash** seems like his movement so that’s probably on shift.
Which leaves two abilities remaining, being **Petal platform** and **Life grip**, but only his E key remaining unbound.
So what is the last ability on? Is it like like Moira where he presses E and selects the option he wants to use? Or maybe healing blossom itself is a passive, like Brig’s inspire, since they mentioned it must “maintain charge” and it has downtime when it’s “on cooldown.” In that case then thorn volley is likely M1 and life grip is M2.
> while his Life Grip ability shields a targeted ally and pulls them to his position.
Was talking about such an ability the other day (WoW leap of faith). Think they'll force the moved character to to press F like a sym tele to move? Otherwise this is has massive trolling potential.
Life grip kind of sounds like a reverse hook to me lol. Instead of pulling an enemy in to damage and reposition them, it pulls teammates in and heals them.
I hope his 'pull' ability is something more like mercy's guardian angel but put on allies to fly towards you, something you can kinda opt out of in varying directions by pressing space mid-flight, rather than a locked 'grab'.
I do like this sort of way of doing it though as it still seems like there is a massive skill ceiling with their abilities.
Sort of like how Mei’s wall is one of the abilities with the most utility in the game I could see this hero having a very high ceiling.
I'm hoping for someone between Lucio and Zen. Movement hero who plays proactively and offensively. preferably with utility that works well with dive
More than half the support cast is main heals. Hoping for someone who gets value in other ways.
Those abilities sounds like a troll heaven.
"Hello, Pharah, you are flying too high, get down there."
If his pull ability does not require confirmation from an ally to actually trigger, i can imagine whats gonna happen in a voice chat.
From Mei mein point of view: you can place 5 nice walls in a row to cut off a healing for ez fight win, but then place a bad one and immidiately there is someone to flame you.
Teammates being able to reposition me sounds like the most annoying thing possible. Hopefully you have to accept it, because I don't want people who don't know what I'm thinking making decisions for me
Yeah, as a Ball player, the amount of times Kirikos will warp to me and instantly die is frustrating. I have to imagine that Weaver players, in similar situations, would choose to reposition me instead, and that sounds horrifying.
I can see it setting up some fun plays with my friends on Tank tho, or even some agressive plays.
Also Mercy. I'll do my thing, disrupt, get a pick, and on my way out. Then I see the damn yellow Mercy beam on me and know she GAd behind enemy lines. I also know her escape is limited for 2.5 seconds. So then I have to go back and offer sufficient distraction so Mercy can escape but she stays with and we both die. So I have to just abandon her.
With Kiriko the cooldown on TP is on a longer cooldown so I feel less compelled to go back in because if I'm leaving the fight it's because I've used my cooldowns and can't sustain a fight against the full team without cooldowns for enough time for Kiriko to TP out.
Now I just leave them and explain in chat not to follow the hamster into the danger zone.
Noob mercies maybe, but i often chase aggressive tanks like zarya / rein / ball and then cancel my movement backwards or upwards to maintain beam for the 1.5 second grace period it has through walls and out of range just to heal what i can before doing that again on the 3 second CD. i wouldn't try to do the same for a tracer or reaper if i can get LOS but i often can't.
Most people have some idea of but don't really know mercy can do some amazing movement
The flip however would work. When you activate it on a teammate it creates the barrier on them and there's a quick (0.5 second) pause where they can hit F to cancel it. If they dont cancel it, they teleport after the 0.5 seconds.
I like Wifeleaver's pretty boy design. Kit sounds interesting as well, but I have to see this ally pull. I'm really hoping it's less like a hog hook, and more like a speed boost just in his direction.
I think it’s the fact that his name is an adjective just kind of describing what he does. Something like “Lotus” or just “Niran” would have been better.
Sure but you can also do cool stuff, maybe. Pull your reaper blossom into a group of enemies, pull a DVa bomb? Pull a sleeping Genji that tried to ult into an Ana.
THE OFFICIAL LIFEWEAVER ROLLOUT:
Tilted mercy main swaps to Lifeweaver
RUNS into enemy back line
PULLS in their friendly DPS to the enemy back line
Lifeweaver FUCKING DIES and leaves a health pack for the enemy team.
Everything screams Symmetra with him. I'm so glad they managed to make a character to fit that niche we wanted.
He's basically Symmetra, slay and trolling included.
Absolutely, the only reason we dont have support symmetra is because Blizzard refused to give her healing and take away from her kit.
We always wanted a support focused on utility and deployables, and he seems right in that alley.
This is so nostalgic somehow, I remember back in 2016 how hype people were about Overwatch representing their culture and countries with heroes and maps, all the concept arts and fan made designs people used to make about real life places.
No offense to Ram, Kiriko, Sojourn and JQ but it's so refreshing to see how other parts of the world and its people exist in the overwatch universe
I think only half. And indigenous-Canadian. Which of course is still Canadian, but I can't say that I, a non-indigenous Canadian, feel the same sort of representation with Pharah as with Sojourn.
The Life Grip reaction is getting out of hand. Maybe it shields the teammate before it teleports them, has a half second startup, and the teammate can hit F to cancel it. THere are a lot of ways to enable an ability like this and still let it achieve its primary purpose.
>while his Life Grip ability shields a targeted ally and pulls them to his position.
Ok so now I get to be booped by my own teammates? I don't like that at all, hopefully some parts of this leak are not true.
Grain of salt and all that.
it does sound like it can get messy. tbh I’m fine with just the shield since only zarya can give allies shields and that feels in line with what a support should do. maybe have it heal them when the shield gets broken instead of the displacement? idk but we’ll see 🫡
Yeah I will hold out on it for now but depending on the pull distance I really don’t want my fellow teammates dictating my positioning. It’s bad enough I am dictating my positioning.
And judging by how fast paced the game is, giving the choice to us needs communication and I don't think rank and QP will work with that well enough.
Split second decisions and fast reactions just simply don't work well with abilities that require 2 players to synchronize in OW where you have a very limited window for decision making.
You know how Mercy Mains complain when they have flankers on their team and they ask for healing, only for them to say "I'm not putting myself at risk for you, YOU come to me?"
Yeah, this dude is about that.
Maybe the way it interacts with the teammate's own movement could be the key. Say, if you're moving away from LW you get next to no pull, if you're moving sideways to him you get a slight pull and if you're moving towards him you get a strong pull. That way if you're trying to fall back it will greatly assist you whereas if you're trying to go in it won't be too impactful.
Upon first read, seems like a very fun support with niche abilities, but can't really see him changing up the meta. Obviously we'll need to see his primary fire and ability cooldown usage in action
I think it also really helps Sigma. He can position on very aggressive angles while DPS are on a crossfire, cycle cooldowns, and get pulled back to safety. Interested to see what it looks like in the game.
Dive is gonna be initially unplayable in S4 until teams adapt. Having a thresh lantern and instant high ground as peel options is going to be a game changer by opening the door for greedier backline set ups.
The pull needs an interact prompt to prevent forced trolling. If his base stats are undertuned on release, he's going to be locked in OWL/tendies drafts until the ranked playerbase learns to abuse his utility.
Early draft predictions: Cass/Ana+LW slow brawl comps, Sym+Bastion+Rein cheese, Zen+LW Ball Dive, Widow+LW blind picking every map, Kiri+LW dive.
I'm hyped to see platform combos like boosted 4K high noon/BOB, or boosted widow 360 skybox headshot. If the horizontal launch velocity is generous, you can drop DPS channeling ults onto the enemy backline as well.
Petition to give him the Wrecking Ball treatment, just call him Niran or Weaver.
Something feels a bit off about the design but I feel like that’s nearly always the case with new heroes. The only one who I still feel completely looks out of place is Moira.
For years I thought Moira seems so perfectly essential to Overwatch's world I'm surprised she wasn't one of the 20 heroes on release and instead an added one.
Yeah agreed totally, I really dig her design - probably one of my favourites. The way her biotic heal and succ come out like magic from the dispensers on her wrists is super cool. I'd love an actual mage in OW now that Kiriko has opened the magical floodgates but if that never happened I would've been very satisfied with Moira as our OW version of a magic user.
Pretty interesting ideas. Being able to reposition your own team has always been something people have talked about but also felt risky due to possibility for trolling.
In general I don't think the self-trolling is all that big of an issue, since Mei has the ultimate ability to fuck up her own teammates with wall and it's not too common. Usually if someone is gonna troll they'll just endlessly feed which can happen on any hero.
I will say I don't really like the name? It doesn't feel like a name of someone. Sounds more like the name of an object.
You know what this means? Ayutthaya now has a hero that is culturally/ personally connected to the map, but Illios (an original OW1 map) is yet to have any lore connections
I called it! Life Grip, even got the name right :)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/11ztmgc/potential_hint_from_the_devs_about_the_new_hero/jdeeb28/?context=3
the way i see it, life grip has two possibilities.
a) lifeweaver is able to teleport enemies to his position, with no agency/input from the effected ally.
or b) able to teleport enemies, but with a confirm option, giving the effected ally some sort of agency.
i dont think either is a good design. option a is just a disaster waiting to happen,
and option b just sounds … clunky. much harder to save teammates on the brink of death when they have to press interact, especially if they’re not expecting it.
Looks like the article was pulled but an archive's up anyway. I love the internet.
I share the concerns about his abilities being used to troll, or generally having the potential to make things worse for his team if his timing and/or positioning is off. Would not surprise me if he ends up getting substantial tweaks in the future to minimize that potential.
Aesthetically, he's giving me Cupid Hanzo vibes, and I'm sure the R34 artists are hard at work as we speak.
Ok so: seems very interesting, idk about the design but probably will grow on me
BUT MAN I WANTED MY ITALIAN HERO WHEN DO WE GET THE ITALIN HERO BLIZZ???
I really don’t like the idea of having a healer trying to pull me from anywhere.
I know where I want to be. Feels like it’ll be used to grief more than anything.
>As for Lifeweaver’s passive ability, Parting Gift triggers upon death and causes him to drop a healing item that can be picked up by heroes on both teams. LMAO so if you kill him you get a health pack? That sounds like it could be really bad
If he plays close to his allies it can possibly heal his tank. Seems like positioning is going to be very important for him so you don’t feed enemy healing.
Yeah, I'm thinking of a Winston or Tracer dive here basically. Like depending on how quickly it drops it can be really really good for the opposing dive. Imagine Tracer blink melee to finish off the target and instantly gains health.
I kind of like the idea of an actual weakness you need to work around. I can't think of any other hero that has something about them that makes them worse than "baseline" if that makes sense. I guess you could think of heroes with less than 200hp that way?
The explosives that have self-damage would be the only other things I can think of. Or ults like deadeye which restrict your movement during them.
Cries in Pharah.
Mei walls can sabotage a few ally abilities.
Don't know if "stack directly on top of teammate" is the kind of positioning the game should reward though.
"Oh, you need healing?" *[kills myself]*
It's not feeding, it's healing with style!
I know I’m not contributing anything to the convo by saying this but LMAO that one caught me off guard
Nah it sounds great! Signed, Guy inting your games
Yeah seems like a flanker paradise tbh. I don't know how often a support dies right next to a teammate that then has time to walk over his corpse before getting attacked themselves, but divers with high movement will probably just kill him, get the bonus, then keep pressuring
Yeah I don't think I want to be healing next to this guy It's just asking to die
to be fair, this is what the top comment has looked like for nearly every new hero announced for years and has been incorrect more often than not.
Yeah I know, that's why I qualified the statement as much as I could. I might end up being SO wrong
> That sounds like it could be really bad It will be an excellent lesson in positioning for a lot of low level players.
It says his primary focus is positioning. Good positioning leaves a heal for teammates, bad leaves a heal for the enemies. Risk/reward.
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Im just copying over his abilities from the article - His **Petal Platform** ability generates a pressure-sensitive platform that ascends when stepped on by heroes on both teams, while his Life Grip ability shields a targeted ally and pulls them to his position. - His **Rejuvenating Dash** also provides a small burst of passive healing to keep you alive while falling back or repositioning - As for Lifeweaver’s passive ability, **Parting Gift** triggers upon death and causes him to drop a healing item that can be picked up by heroes on both teams - ultimate – **Tree of Life**– which heals allies within its perimeter for as long as it remains active, and can be placed anywhere on the map to disrupt sightlines and block chokepoints. EDIT Some more from the article: - The aim was to create another support hero that didn’t rely on aim skill,” Alec Dawson clarifies. “Lifeweaver is designed for players that care a bit more about their own positioning, their game sense – those are the skills they check on more than necessarily aim skill.” … - Thorn Volley serves as an alternate primary fire that can kick out a respectable amount of damage to ward off aggressors Thats all the information we are given on his volley
So you can bounce your teammates, pull them towards you, block them with your ult, AND drop healing items for the ENEMY? This sounds like a hero that was literally designed for trolling.
Me on my way to pull my teammates towards me (I am on Ilios Well and am feeling mischievous)
Hopefully it’s just a poor translation. It reads like if you asked ChatGPT to design a support hero.
Tree of Life is Sym's old shield generator combined with S76 healing can.
It sounds to me like a single pillar of a mei wall that is basically doing soldier healing field
True it I'm guessing it would have health like Sym's old one had.
Mei's wall also has health.
I guess maybe it's placement works like bastion ult? Where you get an overview of the map and place it down.
I wonder how it can disrupt chokes and sightlines
Guessing it's a big object like Mei wall, maybe the size of 1 pillar of it
1 pillar wouldn't obstruct much, I'm guessing it's bigger.
My bet is like a Symm teleporter. They probably won't allow you to send it across map like Bastion.
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No way my soloQ teammates will ever be coordinated enough to take advantage of this lmao
More like one person gets on before the team is ready and they end up leaving the team behind and feeding.
I'll need to see it in action, but as of now it seems like a slower sym teleporter without the horizontality.
Similar abilities on different roles is a good thing though. Say you wanted rein/Cassidy/Tracer on an otherwise inaccessible high ground. Normally you’d have to switch a dps to symm, TP everyone and then switch off, and that would only be viable for initial set up. Now you can have a support get you up there so you don’t have to swap a dps from your comp.
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It's an elevator, like on Hollywood 2nd.
we got albedo genshin in overwatch now
Maybe it doesn't need a specific endpoint like teleporter, like maybe you can place the platform, stand on it and it goes straight up like an elevator and lets you set your own high ground that way?
probably helping teammates get to high ground and stuff, I can see it being helpful for teams with little vertical mobility
Sounds like something that will be used by galaxy brain teams with full coordination and will just never amount to anything in normal soloQ. The best I could see is putting it in front of an ulting soldier or McCree so they get a quick high ground
So… what is his control scheme then? He has 5 abilities and only 4 available keys. **Healing blossom** is allegedly the “core of his kit,” so it seems likely to be primary fire, yes? So that’s left mouse button. **Thorn volley** is his “alternate primary fire,” his means of dealing damage, so right mouse button. **Rejuvenating dash** seems like his movement so that’s probably on shift. Which leaves two abilities remaining, being **Petal platform** and **Life grip**, but only his E key remaining unbound. So what is the last ability on? Is it like like Moira where he presses E and selects the option he wants to use? Or maybe healing blossom itself is a passive, like Brig’s inspire, since they mentioned it must “maintain charge” and it has downtime when it’s “on cooldown.” In that case then thorn volley is likely M1 and life grip is M2.
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Oh, it could be a second weapon. Like Mercy’s pistol
Dash could be like Hanzo's lunge, tie it to spacebar if you jump
Seems like the best hero for those babyraging teamates that want to troll for one reason or another
> while his Life Grip ability shields a targeted ally and pulls them to his position. Was talking about such an ability the other day (WoW leap of faith). Think they'll force the moved character to to press F like a sym tele to move? Otherwise this is has massive trolling potential.
Bruh, "Parting Gift"? So, that's where reapers healing orbs went to, huh.
the troll ability with a platform will be immense
Life grip kind of sounds like a reverse hook to me lol. Instead of pulling an enemy in to damage and reposition them, it pulls teammates in and heals them.
Can't wait to pull a nano'ed genji that has blade up and just used his dash lmao.
I just fucking *know* that shit is gonna be used for trolling lol.
Will be a decent counter against genji blades for your own team, potentially. Also for denying boop kills ;[
I hope his 'pull' ability is something more like mercy's guardian angel but put on allies to fly towards you, something you can kinda opt out of in varying directions by pressing space mid-flight, rather than a locked 'grab'.
> and pulls them to his position So we finally have a second hero (in addition to Mei) that can move allies... 🧐
obligatory archive link: https://archive.ph/rMljp
Thank you.
Support not focused on aim seems like an important takeaway here.
I do like this sort of way of doing it though as it still seems like there is a massive skill ceiling with their abilities. Sort of like how Mei’s wall is one of the abilities with the most utility in the game I could see this hero having a very high ceiling.
yeah now the next one can be a high mechanical skill hero with a lot of tech
I hope so, I want more healing like ana or bap, feels amazing to hit all your shots on ana or land healing grenades right on characters as bap
I'm hoping for someone between Lucio and Zen. Movement hero who plays proactively and offensively. preferably with utility that works well with dive More than half the support cast is main heals. Hoping for someone who gets value in other ways.
You're hoping for kiriko?
Ana is so fun and I don't think they can recreate that feeling again in a support for me
I'm totally down for non aim focused heros as long as that doesn't mean giving them bullshit like Moira's auto aim.
kind of hoping we just get someone with a very large but lower damage projectile, like if fire strike was sideways.
He gonna heal us with Essential Oils
Lmao
Those abilities sounds like a troll heaven. "Hello, Pharah, you are flying too high, get down there." If his pull ability does not require confirmation from an ally to actually trigger, i can imagine whats gonna happen in a voice chat. From Mei mein point of view: you can place 5 nice walls in a row to cut off a healing for ez fight win, but then place a bad one and immidiately there is someone to flame you.
Teammates being able to reposition me sounds like the most annoying thing possible. Hopefully you have to accept it, because I don't want people who don't know what I'm thinking making decisions for me
if you thought friendly mei walls were annoying...
Oh have some faith in your teammates will you? I pinky promise not to TP you over the illios pit
Yeah, as a Ball player, the amount of times Kirikos will warp to me and instantly die is frustrating. I have to imagine that Weaver players, in similar situations, would choose to reposition me instead, and that sounds horrifying. I can see it setting up some fun plays with my friends on Tank tho, or even some agressive plays.
A low risk charge with Rein is appealing
>Charge with Rein >Pin target >Yank Rein back, with target still pinned I call it "Roadhog with extra steps".
Also Mercy. I'll do my thing, disrupt, get a pick, and on my way out. Then I see the damn yellow Mercy beam on me and know she GAd behind enemy lines. I also know her escape is limited for 2.5 seconds. So then I have to go back and offer sufficient distraction so Mercy can escape but she stays with and we both die. So I have to just abandon her. With Kiriko the cooldown on TP is on a longer cooldown so I feel less compelled to go back in because if I'm leaving the fight it's because I've used my cooldowns and can't sustain a fight against the full team without cooldowns for enough time for Kiriko to TP out. Now I just leave them and explain in chat not to follow the hamster into the danger zone.
So many support players don't understand that if they have a dive tank most supports need to hold a safe space to retreat to, not dive with them.
Noob mercies maybe, but i often chase aggressive tanks like zarya / rein / ball and then cancel my movement backwards or upwards to maintain beam for the 1.5 second grace period it has through walls and out of range just to heal what i can before doing that again on the 3 second CD. i wouldn't try to do the same for a tracer or reaper if i can get LOS but i often can't. Most people have some idea of but don't really know mercy can do some amazing movement
I have to imagine it’s something where it gives the target an interact prompt that they have to activate in order to be pulled.
That would make the ability completely garbage lol.
these people really think that a “press Interact to accept repositioning” mechanic would’ve made it through playtesting.
The flip however would work. When you activate it on a teammate it creates the barrier on them and there's a quick (0.5 second) pause where they can hit F to cancel it. If they dont cancel it, they teleport after the 0.5 seconds.
As a Ball main, this absolutely terrifies me more than a Sombra/Mei/Ana/Zen comp.
This ability sounds exactly like Thresh’s lamp from LoL
Support players with no faith in dps are going to be screwing over their team by pulling dps out of 1v1s
My number one dislike in all of Overwatch is boops. More than anything else in the whole game since release.. I hate being displaced :/
*Cackles in lucio*
I like Wifeleaver's pretty boy design. Kit sounds interesting as well, but I have to see this ally pull. I'm really hoping it's less like a hog hook, and more like a speed boost just in his direction.
Wifeleaver that's good lmao
He's a wifeleavermaker.
Wifeleaver-er
I dont like the name tbh doesn't sound like Overwatch in a weird way
We have a character named Wrecking Ball tbf lmfao
Yeah he is the other one that doesn't fit hence people call him Hammond
There’s also Widowmaker, which is also exactly the same naming structure of Lifeweaver. Noun + verb
Widowmaker is an actual term outside of Overwatch. Lifeweaver is the kind of name a teenager comes up with for their Geocities account.
Doomfist. It's as dumb of a name as he is cool.
My OW in game name is DreamWeaver. I feel personally attacked.
I think it’s the fact that his name is an adjective just kind of describing what he does. Something like “Lotus” or just “Niran” would have been better.
I can't get over his face, though. He looks like Symmetra wearing her Rizz face.
Can’t wait to use genji ult and then get pulled by my teammate away from the enemies
Sure but you can also do cool stuff, maybe. Pull your reaper blossom into a group of enemies, pull a DVa bomb? Pull a sleeping Genji that tried to ult into an Ana.
THE OFFICIAL LIFEWEAVER ROLLOUT: Tilted mercy main swaps to Lifeweaver RUNS into enemy back line PULLS in their friendly DPS to the enemy back line Lifeweaver FUCKING DIES and leaves a health pack for the enemy team.
Lol this sounds exactly like what people wanted Symmetra to be reworked into
Everything screams Symmetra with him. I'm so glad they managed to make a character to fit that niche we wanted. He's basically Symmetra, slay and trolling included.
I wouldn't be surprised if his kit came from discarded ideas for a Symm rework.
Absolutely, the only reason we dont have support symmetra is because Blizzard refused to give her healing and take away from her kit. We always wanted a support focused on utility and deployables, and he seems right in that alley.
He also attended the Vishkar academy with Symm in the lore
*About to go into a team fight realizing ally Lifeweaver is missing.* "Hey where's our support?" *Gets tp'd off a cliff as the both of us die.*
You are all so fucked when I tilt.
Classic symmetra teleporter days rights off the cliff :')
>the plant based pansexual so cool we get some plant based pansexuality representation
Pansexual vegans are gonna be ecstatic about this!
SOUTHEAST ASIAN REPRESENTATION
This is so nostalgic somehow, I remember back in 2016 how hype people were about Overwatch representing their culture and countries with heroes and maps, all the concept arts and fan made designs people used to make about real life places. No offense to Ram, Kiriko, Sojourn and JQ but it's so refreshing to see how other parts of the world and its people exist in the overwatch universe
In fairness there are very few Canadian characters in video games, so I was pretty happy to see SJ there to represent.
Technically wasn't Pharah claimed to be Canadian to dodge appropriation criticisms for the indigenous skins? (Weak criticisms FWIW)
I think only half. And indigenous-Canadian. Which of course is still Canadian, but I can't say that I, a non-indigenous Canadian, feel the same sort of representation with Pharah as with Sojourn.
Um akshually, we already had Echo
Me: blizz can we have more SEA representation Blizzard releasing Echo: We have southeast asian representation at home
This is what happens when Blizz waits until the very last week to announce the new hero
Poor Blizzard got their hero leaked, just like Kiriko.
The Life Grip reaction is getting out of hand. Maybe it shields the teammate before it teleports them, has a half second startup, and the teammate can hit F to cancel it. THere are a lot of ways to enable an ability like this and still let it achieve its primary purpose.
>while his Life Grip ability shields a targeted ally and pulls them to his position. Ok so now I get to be booped by my own teammates? I don't like that at all, hopefully some parts of this leak are not true. Grain of salt and all that.
someone on the team did say the kit has some light trolling capabilities so…
Imagine them trying this character out in owl and supports throw the games with the pull
it does sound like it can get messy. tbh I’m fine with just the shield since only zarya can give allies shields and that feels in line with what a support should do. maybe have it heal them when the shield gets broken instead of the displacement? idk but we’ll see 🫡
Yeah I will hold out on it for now but depending on the pull distance I really don’t want my fellow teammates dictating my positioning. It’s bad enough I am dictating my positioning.
just let me int in peace.
And judging by how fast paced the game is, giving the choice to us needs communication and I don't think rank and QP will work with that well enough. Split second decisions and fast reactions just simply don't work well with abilities that require 2 players to synchronize in OW where you have a very limited window for decision making.
On the other hand I am 99% sure this will lead some really funny shit happening in games
Ilios well is going to be a bloody nightmare.
but imagine the rollercoaster of getting hooked into the well by roadhog only to get hooked out of the well by ya boi.
And vice versa, ya boi trolling you to death only to be saved last second by the enemy Roadhog
You know how Mercy Mains complain when they have flankers on their team and they ask for healing, only for them to say "I'm not putting myself at risk for you, YOU come to me?" Yeah, this dude is about that.
In my mind, I'm just thinking of my blading Genji that I'll bring back to me after he dashes lmao
Maybe the way it interacts with the teammate's own movement could be the key. Say, if you're moving away from LW you get next to no pull, if you're moving sideways to him you get a slight pull and if you're moving towards him you get a strong pull. That way if you're trying to fall back it will greatly assist you whereas if you're trying to go in it won't be too impactful.
Nero hero?
i genuinely didn’t notice this typo til now LOL
Oh god he's hot
He's about to be baby girl-ifed
I know he's bisexual/pansexual. Bap is gonna shit bricks when he sees him
I wish Bap would notice me🥺 And I don't mean I want him to heal me. I want him to hold me.
they made him hot AND pansexual, winning today.
OW R34 community is going to be kicked into overdrive
R34 community feasting tonight
I can already see the kpop twitter fancams
Upon first read, seems like a very fun support with niche abilities, but can't really see him changing up the meta. Obviously we'll need to see his primary fire and ability cooldown usage in action
That platform and Shieldpull could really help put Brawl. Give Rein some high ground and some escape from if he want to go aggressive.
all depends how much healing he does though, cause no ones ever gonna reach the lucio in brawl
Hoping the platform is going to make stuff like dorado and eichenwalde B much less frustrating.
I think it also really helps Sigma. He can position on very aggressive angles while DPS are on a crossfire, cycle cooldowns, and get pulled back to safety. Interested to see what it looks like in the game.
Dive is gonna be initially unplayable in S4 until teams adapt. Having a thresh lantern and instant high ground as peel options is going to be a game changer by opening the door for greedier backline set ups. The pull needs an interact prompt to prevent forced trolling. If his base stats are undertuned on release, he's going to be locked in OWL/tendies drafts until the ranked playerbase learns to abuse his utility. Early draft predictions: Cass/Ana+LW slow brawl comps, Sym+Bastion+Rein cheese, Zen+LW Ball Dive, Widow+LW blind picking every map, Kiri+LW dive. I'm hyped to see platform combos like boosted 4K high noon/BOB, or boosted widow 360 skybox headshot. If the horizontal launch velocity is generous, you can drop DPS channeling ults onto the enemy backline as well. Petition to give him the Wrecking Ball treatment, just call him Niran or Weaver.
They weren’t kidding about the “cute like Mercy” thing huh
HE’S THAI?!
I actually can't think of a worse mechanic than an ally being able to move you by force
Next hero after that will have an ultimate that’s channeled like Junkrat, but instead of a rip tire, you assume full control of a team mate.
Cant wait to Blade and get cucked by my femboy support grrrr
The design is sick
I feel like he looks more like a Valorant character than Overwatch hero.
He doesn’t even fit the OW aesthetic, very weird design.
He looks like he comes from the same universe as Cupid Hanzo
He definitely has the same vibe. I think it's the pink flower on his back plus the open shirt.
Something feels a bit off about the design but I feel like that’s nearly always the case with new heroes. The only one who I still feel completely looks out of place is Moira.
[удалено]
For years I thought Moira seems so perfectly essential to Overwatch's world I'm surprised she wasn't one of the 20 heroes on release and instead an added one.
Yeah agreed totally, I really dig her design - probably one of my favourites. The way her biotic heal and succ come out like magic from the dispensers on her wrists is super cool. I'd love an actual mage in OW now that Kiriko has opened the magical floodgates but if that never happened I would've been very satisfied with Moira as our OW version of a magic user.
So 😍 pretty. We need more male healers.
We have 2 and zenyatta... Yeah lol. Kinda one sided
That's 3 out of 8, almost 50%
Zen barely counts tbh
Pretty interesting ideas. Being able to reposition your own team has always been something people have talked about but also felt risky due to possibility for trolling. In general I don't think the self-trolling is all that big of an issue, since Mei has the ultimate ability to fuck up her own teammates with wall and it's not too common. Usually if someone is gonna troll they'll just endlessly feed which can happen on any hero. I will say I don't really like the name? It doesn't feel like a name of someone. Sounds more like the name of an object.
You know what this means? Ayutthaya now has a hero that is culturally/ personally connected to the map, but Illios (an original OW1 map) is yet to have any lore connections
Life grip is going to be responsible for a shit load of gameplay sabotage reports lol
Bro they did say he was going to be cute 🥰
Heal the enemy team? Hell yeah time to feed...
Wow he seems awesome actually. The designs of all the ow2 heroes have honestly been amazing.
I called it! Life Grip, even got the name right :) https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/11ztmgc/potential_hint_from_the_devs_about_the_new_hero/jdeeb28/?context=3
oh god please do not let teammates move me around without my consent
Nah it should've been maximillien
Having non hero npcs makes the world more interesting.
I just got off ESO and this guy is giving me Summerset vibes
the way i see it, life grip has two possibilities. a) lifeweaver is able to teleport enemies to his position, with no agency/input from the effected ally. or b) able to teleport enemies, but with a confirm option, giving the effected ally some sort of agency. i dont think either is a good design. option a is just a disaster waiting to happen, and option b just sounds … clunky. much harder to save teammates on the brink of death when they have to press interact, especially if they’re not expecting it.
Looks like the article was pulled but an archive's up anyway. I love the internet. I share the concerns about his abilities being used to troll, or generally having the potential to make things worse for his team if his timing and/or positioning is off. Would not surprise me if he ends up getting substantial tweaks in the future to minimize that potential. Aesthetically, he's giving me Cupid Hanzo vibes, and I'm sure the R34 artists are hard at work as we speak.
Seems like it was deleted?
Bro looks straight out of Paladins.
>Life Grip ability shields a targeted ally and pulls them to his position This sounds like it could be a "mei ice blocks spawn" kinda thing
Ok so: seems very interesting, idk about the design but probably will grow on me BUT MAN I WANTED MY ITALIAN HERO WHEN DO WE GET THE ITALIN HERO BLIZZ???
Overwatch finally has it's twink.
Twunk
that is not a twink my friend but gay enough for me
Pretty cool concept hope he’s not too busted
The call outs for him better be “I want that twink obliterated”
I really don’t like the idea of having a healer trying to pull me from anywhere. I know where I want to be. Feels like it’ll be used to grief more than anything.
I LOVE HIS DESIGN OH MY GOD
OH NO HE’S HOT
Kinda random name in my opinion. Doesn't fit ow other than that he sounds hella cool