Overwatch 2’s Lifeweaver Balance Changes Revealed

Overwatch 2’s newest hero, Lifeweaver, just released not long ago, but Blizzard already has big changes planned for the character. For starters, the Overwatch 2 team revealed this week that Lifeweaver’s inputs would be reworked to move around different abilities in an effort to hopefully create a more agreeable layout for people who were struggling with the inputs he featured at launch. After that reveal, Overwatch 2’s lead hero designer Alec Dawson revealed this week what the plans are for Lifeweaver’s balance changes, changes which include the total removal of his Parting Gift passive.

Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller was the first to talk about upcoming Lifeweaver changes on Tuesday when he revealed the new inputs that would be live next week. To follow that up, Dawson shared the changes below which include buffs for three different abilities alongside the removal of the Parting Gift passive.

Lifeweaver updates, coming 4/25

Healing Blossom
– Ammo up to 20 (from 12)
– Slow during charge now kicks in 1 second after fully charging

Thorn Volley
– Spread tightened

Tree of Life
– Health up to 1200 (from 1000)
– Per pulse healing up to 75 (from 50)

Parting Gift
– Removed

— Alec Dawson (@GW_Alec) April 20, 2023

In another tweet, Dawson offered some insights into why these specific changes were being made. He echoed comments shared by Keller previously which confirmed that we’d be hearing more about these changes in an upcoming stream as well as through Keller’s next blog post which are routinely shared to offer updates on the status of Overwatch 2‘s various topics of interest.

“These changes look to increase Lifeweaver’s healing capabilities and smooth out a few of his weaknesses,” Dawson said. “We’ll continue to monitor his effectiveness over the next few weeks and see if additional changes are needed. More insight coming tomorrow in Aaron’s blog and a Q+A stream!”

People have had various qualms with Lifeweaver since he debuted in Overwatch 2, but the Parting Gift passive has been something that players have been particularly inquisitive about. The ability drops a healing resource upon Lifeweaver’s death, but it’s one that can be picked up by either a teammate or an ally. Death-based abilities are typically frowned upon in ability-based games like this one since they innately require characters to die in order to make use of them, and in games like Overwatch 2 and pretty much anything else, players would very much prefer to stay alive and to have a passive that helps them achieve that goal.

All we know for now, however, is that it’s being removed without any indication of something replacing it, so perhaps we’ll hear more on that in the upcoming stream and blog post.