Apex Legends dev says Lifeline is a “little” too strong after Season 9 changes

Lifeline has been a staple for Apex Legends players since day one, but she received a total rework going into Season 9, Legacy. Respawn are keeping an eye on her dominance though.

Lifeline has always been one of the safer picks in Apex Legends. Perfect for new and experienced players alike, the combat medic always places high on the Legend tier list.

Turns out it’s not only on the open fields of Olympus or World’s Edge that she performs well. Apex’s 3v3 mode, Arenas, seems to be the perfect place for her, with the Legend deemed an S-Tier pick at the moment.

Respawn have noticed her rise in prominence, and are weighing up possible tweaks, but at the moment, have no plans to implement changes.

Lifeline meta in Apex Legends?

Lifeline received some pretty hefty changes with the debut of Season 9, and while the devs are happy with her overall performance, there are concerns over how dominant she’s become.

Lead Game Designer for Apex, Daniel Klein, has responded to fan questions about Lifeline’s current status. The TLDR is, that she’s performing “a little too well.”

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“Numerically, she’s too strong. She wins too often, both across the game as a whole and in every single skill bucket we look at, and she’s picked very often (particularly in Arenas)” Klein writes, but highlights that this doesn’t “mean [Respawn] must nerf her right away.”

In terms of the main body of the rework, though, it seems like she’s performing exactly as the devs wanted. “Experientially, she’s so much better. No longer having the res shield means it’s feasible to thirst a downed enemy being revived; but that also gives Lifeline an option to engage you while you’re otherwise occupied or when your gun’s running dry. Good play on both sides”

It leaves Respawn in a bit of a sticky situation. “Not sure what, if anything, we’ll do to her, but I think the changes landed very well,” Klein notes.

“Maybe we need to nerf her numerically a little bit (like drone heal speed / ult cooldown), maybe we can look at her hitboxes and see where they’re too small, but right now? No plans to speak of.”

So, love her or hate her, we best get used to this current iteration of Lifeline. We’ll need to wait and see if there are any future changes as the season continues to progress.