So we have a support hero who’s gimmick is manipulating team mobility and creates buildables.
The rhythm of the heal orb charging is alsy very similar to be to Sym’s damage orbs
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The goal of the hero was to be “Mercy-like” in the sense that
a) they don’t have to rely on heavy aiming for value/healing
b) they are a “pure support” focused mainly on their team instead of their abilities focusing on the enemy team (aka rez and damage boost instead of anti nade and sleep and discord)
I’d say they accomplished both goals with the hero tbh
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Fairly similar, yeah.
I’ve mentioned this before, but he definitely as some kind of Builder-esque flavor to him.
Some would argue otherwise because he doesn’t “repair” or manage his devices, he just deploys them. Though, in that same way, Symmetra also works in a similar manner, but finds herself more dependent on her devices (particularly her Sentries).
Most supports are functionally like this. The most difficult healing support(s) would be Baptiste and Ana, and even then it’s still pretty light overall.
Pretty much every support functions like this. Mercy would be the only exception since she has to maintain a channel on Damage-boost to keep it maintained. But for every other Support, they just press the button and their “utility” is activated. Some might require more aiming or timing, but otherwise every Support is functionally similar in execution. Lifeweaver is this case, isn’t much different, so the idea of a “pure support” doesn’t really exist.
Lifeweaver playstyle is closer to Zen without the firepower, and he’s very team reliant like Mercy without the consistent healing. He can’t do both like bapt, kiriko, and ana. What he provides is utility, that rely on teammates knowing how to work with him.
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Literally does not matter what you think I’m just saying what the Devs themselves said in the interview about more Mercy like heroes.
Because he isn’t a main support, he’s a flex support, and the dev team does not understand role theory
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I think you’re misunderstanding why they meant by “Mercy-like”.
There are no hybrids, or divisions within each role. They are specifically and intentionally all “Main Support”. Until the community can actually come to consensus of what defines “Main Support” and “Off-Support”, it is still irrelevant because Blizzard does not design with the intention of any hero being “off-support” or “off”-anything.
I think this was their first mistake. Who asked for more passive pocket-bot supports? Like who??? Hello?? We didnt want this.
When they said more mercy-like supports i thought they meant healers who can play well alongside heroes like pharah and fit into mobile comps with winston, ball, doom.
If you have a pharah you are forced to play a mercy cus no other support can keep up with her. You have no other hypermobile supports who can keep up with tanks like dva and winston who dive in. Thats what we needed more of from a mercy-style support. Not another healer that cant do anything for themselves. Theres a reason no one except mercy players like mercy, she is too passive and team reliant for people to find her fun.
Overlord should have been the new support. Another hypermobile flying support who can play well with pharah and keep up with winston, dva, doom when they dive. Thus giving you more options when picking who you want to play
Right now i will be on numbani and we have winston, i just have to go mercy. Winston will jump onto the high ground and none of the other supports can follow him up there except mercy.
Also, comparing the 2 newest supports, kiriko & LW, they are complete opposites.
1 can do everything for themselves, requires a high amount of mechanical skill and game sense to get good value but if achieved can carry games solo
The other feels like they do absolute nothing, have no impact, are entirely team dependent, actively reward the enemy team.
It honestly feels like they took their new design philosophy, that supports in ow2 are these aggressive playmakers, then ripped it up and spat on it. Then proceeded to release a feeble, team dependent, passive Support instead
I agree.
But they did so lacking the context of why Mercy works.
Lifeweaver currently does not. They need to redefine his identity quickly and only buff him after they know where they are going wrong.
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They didn’t mean more pocket supports. Did you read my post? The Devs said by Mercy like they meant supports who are not aim-reliant for value, and who focus on utility for supporting their team as opposed to interacting with the enemy much.
Lifeweaver doesn’t have fun or useful utility tho lol.
Also, you can still have utility be proactive like sleep and suzu but they chose to go the passive utility route, like mercy, where you just pray your team knows what they are doing. If they dont and people dont use your platform, you are a useless support.
Thats the difference between lifeweaver and other supports. People dont choose whether they get sped by lucio, lucio chooses. People dont choose whether they get suzu by kiriko, kiri chooses. People dont choose to be dmg boosted or rezd. People choose whether to use lifeweavers platforms.
Kind of poetic really how he has 1 ability that takes the control away from a teammate and another that is fully in the control of that teammate to use
What he can do other supports can do better
Life grip is good but suzu and immo are better for saving people. Only benefit grip has is for people so out of position that suzu or immo cant get them. At that point you are just throwing buckets of water out of your sinking ship of a team
Platform is a joke and even on a 2 sec cooldown would be useless in its current state.
Only new utility he brings to the game is healing the enemy
Well yeah, I also think they accomplished it, but there’s something odd about LW’s ability-kit combination, idk if it’s his self agency when being threatened or if it’s his healing mechanics… I’d say Mercy’s kit is more fun though, but fun is personal, although many people complained about LW being clunky too.
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Don’t bother with Elton John, till he gets a soft rework, and a buff.
They’re both clunky and heal teammates? I dunno honestly.
Lifeweaver doesn’t make sense as a flex support tho.
Flex supports either have something to off set their low heal. Like utility or high damage. Brig & Lucio have CC, Bap window & lamp, Ana sleep & anti, etc.
If Lifeweaver isn’t going to do much heal, and people are saying he’s not, he should have some utility or damage to compensate. But he don’t. His tickle thorns are laughable, and none of his other abilities do anything the enemy should be scared of. They just dish out some more mediocre heal.
His main heal is also really boring, unlike Mercy, who can heal it in a fun way
I agree which is why they are hopefully gonna buff the heck out of him soon
I think he will feel a lot better once they fix/rework his control scheme like they said so he doesnt have to weapon swap to heal/do damage and also buff his healing hopefully and remove the slow down during it
I also selfishly want him to get 2 charges of dash to feel mobile and fun and offset his huge hitbox
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you are taking mercy comparison way too seriously
Honestly, I’ve been playing him constantly since his release and there was one match were I got around 12 to 13k healing even with another support dealing around 6k.
I’ve played a few matches with Mercy’s and my healing is usually on par with Mercy players or that even more with a Mercy.
Mercy players will find once you use every bit of the kit you have much more mobility and much more range to get to people.
LOL when I first started I never really have set controls for all heroes so I custom make controls based on the character. For the first few minuts into an half and hour I didn’t bother to look for any means, didn’t thnk it might be a weapon rotation until like 15 minutes by than I was already in a match.
I learned, you attack when neccesary and just heal for 98% of the time. I would stress, playing him now and getting use to the kit until the eventual nerf hammer happens.
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His healing weapon is like Symmetra with the charge mechanic.
He is a vishkar hero after all which I think it’s a nice nod.
It’s a mix of battle Mercy and Symmetra definitely. I play both! With his tree basically being a Mei wall healing well.