Apex Legends Patch Makes Lifeline A More Supportive Medic

Lifeline is one of the latest Apex Legends characters to get an update that adjusts her in-match meta. During The Old Ways event, several balance changes were made to certain characters and weapons, such as Revenant who go huge buffs that transformed him into a more efficient attacker. Lifeline got a less fundamental change, though the combat medic is now able to better support her team throughout a match.

As Pathfinder has transformed into a recon character, Lifeline is now the sole support character in Apex Legends. Geared towards healing, Lifeline's greatest asset is reviving allies more quickly and while under cover, as well as gifting healing and armor items to her allies through her Care Packages. However, she's seen an immense drop in utility with Gibraltar's buffs in Season 3: Meltdown and Season 4: Assimilation--especially with his new passive allowing him to revive allies as quickly as Lifeline and while under more cover than she provides.

Frankly, Gibraltar has become a better healer than Lifeline, which means the medic is truly only unique for her ability to gift items. Admittedly, this is a useful skill--especially on Kings Canyon where loot is a little more scarce than World's Edge--though the long cooldown timer on Lifeline's Care Package has made it difficult to balance her usefulness in comparison to other characters (her ultimate has the longest cooldown timer of all the legends at 360 seconds). The balance changes in The Old Ways update seems to address this.

On both Kings Canyon and World's Edge, new blue loot bins will now randomly spawn on the map--replacing the traditional red ones. These bins will offer the usual two to four items when opened by any character but a Lifeline. When Lifeline interacts with these bins, it opens a secret compartment that will, according to The Old Ways patch notes, "always contain some mixture of health items, weapon attachments, and knockdown shields."

Though you'll still have to wait the three minutes for her Care Package (barring the use of an Ultimate Accelerant, of course), this change does mean that Lifeline will be able to more regularly find and provide items that she or her teammates may need. Instead of simply coming in clutch during specific moments of a match, the combat medic is now able to continuously keep her squad outfitted.

Lifeline is not the only legend to get a fundamental change in recent months to her abilities in order to better highlight her role on the battlefield. Bloodhound, for example, has become more of a hunter-like recon character. Respawn seems to have additional transformations planned, with lead game designer Carlos Pineda teasing that a much-needed change for Mirage is on the way.