Lifeline has been a fan favorite in Apex Legends since the game launched, and it’s easy to see why.
Her personality and healing abilities provide some nice levity when contrasted with a cast of characters who are either serious to a fault, or actually evil (Mirage and Wattson notwithstanding). Her competitive viability has lagged behind most of her counterparts, however, due to a lengthy ultimate charge and her D.O.C. healing drone, a tactical ability that is mostly only good for saving on medical loot.
Apex Legends devs have been cognizant of this fact, attempting to buff Lifeline by giving her an extra passive, the ability to unlock extra loot in blue loot crates. Still, her ultimate and passive aren’t even the best loot-collecting abilities in the game, with the introduction of Loba’s Black Market Boutique. Lifeline remains weak, her most useful abilities being her other passives, the ability to use medical supplies 25 percent faster, and the shield that D.O.C. deploys when she revives fallen teammates.
It looks like Lifeline is in for a potentially massive buff, however, in the latest Apex Legends update, Lost Treasures. While not explicitly confirmed by devs as a buff, the trailer shown at the EA Play event showed Lifeline going to revive her teammate—by putting down D.O.C., and letting the drone take care of the rest. The revive shield deploys, D.O.C. begins reviving a fallen Bangalore, and Lifeline stands back up and begins to return fire at an enemy squad. You can see it for yourself at the 1:00 mark of the Lost Treasures trailer.
If this ability becomes Lifeline’s standard way of reviving teammates in the game, it’s difficult to understate the implications that has for Lifeline’s viability and the game’s meta. Where characters like Wraith, Wattson, Gibraltar, and Pathfinder have dominated the casual and competitive Apex scenes, the ability to revive a teammate while fighting at the same time should propel Lifeline up character tier lists across the board.
No other character has the ability to protect a downed teammate like that, while at the same time ensuring a squad isn’t losing extra firepower in a fight to save a squad member. And it certainly kicks up the “combat” part of Lifeline’s description as a Combat Medic.
Will this ability make it into the game? And if so, will it change Lifeline’s fortunes as a character? You can find out for yourself when the Lost Treasures event begins on Tuesday, June 23.
