Ever since Blizzard revealed Overwatch 2’s latest hero, Lifeweaver, would be capable of pulling allies to his location with Life Grip, players have feared the worst when it comes to his trolling capabilities. Putting your faith in your teammates can be a challenge at the best of times, but Lifeweaver’s kit takes that need for trust to the next level.
For one unfortunate Cassidy player, who documented their tragic tale on the Overwatch subreddit on April 12, they experienced firsthand just how devastating an unfortunately timed Life Grip pull could be.
Ominously titled “And so it begins…”, u/ThatGuyCamLa’s clip starts with them lining up a Deadeye shot toward the end of a push on Havana. With the enemy Baptiste down and no shields to speak of, it’s a Deadeye that could have easily achieved three or four kills on the enemies still stuck out in the open. But unfortunately for them, they had barely begun charging up the Ultimate before being violently plucked out of sight and around the corner thanks to a Life Grip from their allied Lifeweaver.
With the majority of Deadeye’s duration still ticking down, ThatGuyCamLa decided it was best spent staring down the Lifeweaver who had deprived them of a potential play of the game while the Lifeweaver in question apologized profusely in the in-game chat. As one commenter pointed out, “he did apologize,” to which ThatGuyCamLa agreed and added that they “had a good laugh about it afterwards.”
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Despite it not being an intentional troll move this time around, the clip was still proof to many players of the anxieties they’ve had around Lifeweaver’s Life Grip ability since before he launched. “Your title was enough for me to know what was gonna happen,” commented u/The99thCourier, and another reply jokingly tagged on that “the character design upon release was enough for us to know what was going to happen.”
Players in the thread took it as an opportunity to discuss what changes to the ability might prevent situations like this from occurring in the future. One popular comment suggested that it should be changed to a “permissive ability” allies would need to accept first, with permission only overridden in scenarios where that ally is in a critical condition.
But as others point out, abilities like Mei’s Ice Wall have been in the game for years with no such requirements to meet and just as capable of griefing a team. Another offered the rebuttal that clips such as this one were a lot rarer in-game than some responses would have viewers believe and that dictating Lifeweaver’s balance around them would be an “absolutely terrible idea.”
Regardless of how much Lifeweaver’s Life Grip is a genuine problem for his allies in Overwatch 2, this Cassidy is one of the unfortunate souls to experience the absolute worst of its potential firsthand.
