Overwatch 2 Reveals Lifeweaver's Abilities, Gameplay

Overwatch 2's new support hero, Lifeweaver, was officially and fully revealed on Tuesday following numerous teases from Blizzard that hinted at what the character was capable of and what his story entails. Most exciting of all, Blizzard has now revealed what the character's kit of abilities looks like. Lifeweaver can heal allies just as all other supports can, but he's also got an impressive amount of utility built into his kit, utility which Blizzard said should make players rethink how they approach the game's maps.

Lifeweaver's abilities were first previewed ahead of his full reveal via a brief gameplay trailer which can be seen below. It showed the hero dashing about, healing others, and even lifting people up into the air at times thanks to one of his more unique abilities. To help make sense of what all is happening in the trailer, you can also find an overview of Lifeweaver's abilities below:

Passive: Parting Gift

• On death, drop a gift that heals the first person, enemy or ally, to pick it up.

Primary: Healing Blossom

• Hold to charge a healing burst. Release to heal a targeted ally.

Secondary: Thorn Volley

• Rapidly fire a spread of projectiles.

Petal Platform

• Throw a platform that springs upwards when stepped on.

Rejuvenating Dash

• Dash towards your traveling direction and lightly heal yourself.

Life Grip

• Pull an ally to your location, protecting them as they travel.

Ultimate: Tree of Life

• Place a tree that instantly heals allies upon sprouting and continues healing periodically as it lives.

During a preview of the new hero, we learned a little more from the Overwatch 2 team about some of the specifics of these abilities. The characters ultimate ability, Tree of Life, can indeed be destroyed by enemies (and it probably should be, too, considering how it's an AOE heal). The Petal Platform ability is probably his most unique one with uses like lifting up an enemy Orisa to negate her ultimate showcased in the video above, though for allies, it's easy to imagine this being useful for a Widowmaker or Cassidy player, too.

As for the Life Grip move, players may already be thinking that ability has the potential to be a prime tool for trolls, but the Overwatch 2 team thinks differently. The Overwatch 2 devs said that even though this ability takes away control of your hero if Lifeweaver uses it on you, it's more often than not been useful with players anecdotally finding that it saved them from potentially dangerous situations most of the time. There's still clearly room for Lifeweavers to negatively impact their team with the move, however, so it remains to be seen how Life Grip will be handled in the future.

Lifeweaver will be added to Overwatch 2 in Season 4.