Lifelines new ult

@BalladalidilaThis was a major buff. Before the packages would drop things that would remain on the package most of the time. There was no viable use to the ultimate anymore. This 100% guarantees an upgrade for yourself and or your team. So always having something to grab off it is huge compared to the things that normally just rot away.

In arena mode its pretty beast first round. Free secondary or primary weapons. So abusing this mechanic will allow a lifeline to only need to buy the ult and a gold backpack and still will be given a weapon of some sort. Quite a game changer having that backpack first round. 

@E9ine_AC 

In theory yes but I am talking in practice. Consider these three scenarios; early, mid and late game:

TL:DR: Before the patch, the ult was, as you said, quite useless late game but it was very good if you could drop it very early game since it could give you a high tier loot straight from your early game loot. In my opinion after a couple of games with the rework, its still quite useless late game since you already are stacked then but its become much worse if you drop it early game. 

Early game (from popping multiple ult accelerants or charge towers right at the drop): 

Before patch: You would get high grade loot like Purple/golden armor, Purple/golden BP, Digi-threat, Purple mags etc when most people are running around with low/mid tier loot --> Very good for you

After patch; You will most likely get meh loot like a blue armor or blue BP as I got when dropping it immediately. Nice but is it worth the attention from nearby enemy squads (talking high elo ranked here)? 

Mid game (like when you get the ULT without using any speedups like close to the end of round 2) 

Before patch: if you played "tactically" and avoided fights, your loot will be just a tad better than in the early game scenario i.e also a mid-game drop will be very good for you since it might give you some high-tier loot. If you played aggressively and got 1-3 squad wipes, your loot will already be mid-to-high tier and the items in the ult will result in a slight upgrade.

After patch:  if you played "tactically" and avoided fights, your loot will be just a tad better than in the early game scenario i.e also a mid-game drop will be MEH for you and probably not worth the risk of the attention. If you played aggressively and got good loot already, your ult might give you something really nice but not "game breaking"  to your already OK loot)

Late game (like final 4-8 squads or so)

Before patch: if you played "tactically" and avoided fights, your loot will be just a tad better than in the early game scenario i.e also a mid-game drop will be very good for you since it might give you some high-tier loot. If you played aggressively up to this point, your loot will already be stacked and you wont need the ult and its not worth the risk of using it other than cover/armor swap.

After patch : if you played "tactically" and avoided fights, your loot will be just a tad better than in the early game scenario i.e also a mid-game drop will be MEH for you and probably not worth the risk of the attention. If you played aggressively up to this point, your essential loot will already be stacked and you will most likely get something semi-useful like golden knockdown etc.

@BalladalidilaI only got around 1k games into lifeline which is very small amount for me so as a none lifeline main i tend to lean on my friends thoughts on it. He has been a lifeline main from day 1 he loved the re-work she was quite strong with the res shield as it seems most players had zero desires to learn to counter it instead complained they cant do nothing about it.

The ult package he likes to. The care package never guaranteed an upgrade before even early game you had the chance for thermal optics as you did an armor or helmet. It was randomized so this ensures always some type of upgrade which is better than a sniper thermal no one is going to use. So with him there has been no complaints with the kit as of yet. He has over 100k kills and over 5500 wins on his lifeline. this isnt to say people will think the same when it comes to changes i just mainly look at it from someone who put their life in lifeline to fully see and understand the changes. He has been wanting a re-work since season 4 for the care package to change.

@E9ine_AC 

I also wanted the LF change and I actually like the change to the revival shield since most players in Diamond+ elo wont be bothered by it in close range fights nor will they often get randomly  knocked at long range/mid range fights where the old res shield was OP. I never thought the old res shield was overall OP and the 0% pick rate in pro play is a proof of this. The new revive allows for sneakier reses that totally can surprise enemies who suddenly gets attacked by a third teammate who they though was already downed.

But I am just saying what I am experiencing now. Even if it might, in theory, be better to get a guaranteed one-tier upgrade of an item you need, I find it more often than not, NOT to be so in practice, based on what your  "usual" current inventory at any given time of the game. Just 4 minutes ago, in my last game, I got a phoenix kit, a purple stock (which was the guaranteed upgrade from my blue stock) and some shield cells, this in a package I dropped when it was 2 squads left and I had full purple armor + yellow knock shield. 

@BalladalidilaThats exactly what its supposed to do 1 tier upgrade at a time, but imo lifeline needs a new Ultimate all together because the care package not only gives away your location to any nearby enemies but also only gives slightly better gear so Im not sure if its worth the risk unless you are trying to get gold items

Lifeline’s auto revive is incredibly annoying to fight against as a passive so... what if they do what Rogue Company did and made auto revive part of the ultimate but as a buff to her current version like instead of lifeline having to physically be at the person to revive them lifeline’s drone would automatically fly over to your teammate assuming they are within like 30-50 m and start resing them (without a shield) this would be useful in battle royale when your playing at a distance from each other and a teammate gets sniped with a kraber but you don’t want to lose your current position and I can also see it being useful in the arena

Lifeline would get her old manual revive kit back (with a shield) so she can actually fulfill her job as a combat medic and you can have fun outplaying the enemy team with a shield and peacekeeper and stuff again like we used to before auto revive was added to the game

@TheApexLegendNub 

Yeah exactly my point. Lifelines ult was already before the patch quite the risk to use in Diamond+ games since so many teams spread out and just wait to 3rd party. Now after the patch, bringing it down early game, when your loot is usually low tier,  will only get you some blue armor, which isnt that much value from a white armor. And later in the game, you usually  have the essential stuff already (like purple armor etc) so the "one tier upgrade" is usually something semi-useful like a purple stock or a golden armor (when everyone has purple on their way to red which at least I prefer in the end game).

My point was just that I assumed she would get a substantial buff to balance the revive shield nerf but instead her ULT didnt really get buffed but more of a side grade rework. Sure; her Q is better but its still rarely used in a "decisive" manner that will impact the game to your favor, but more of a time saver after you won a fight etc