Blizzard disables Lifeweaver across every Overwatch mode

Blizzard has temporarily disabled Lifeweaver across every Overwatch game mode. Players have been unable to pick the support hero on the hero selection screen since the morning of August 21, Esports.gg reports.

Blizzard confirmed the removal in an official post but has not said what prompted it, and has given no return date beyond describing the disable as temporary. Esports.gg noted a suggestion from OWCavalry on social media that an undisclosed bug is behind it; Blizzard has not confirmed that.

With Lifeweaver out, the support pool is Ana, Baptiste, Brigitte, Illari, Jetpack Cat, Juno, Kiriko, Lucio, Mercy, Mizuki, Moira, Wuyang and Zenyatta, leaving 13 heroes in the role instead of 14.

The hero is not the only thing pulled. The Black Forest map has also been disabled, in its case for graphical issues, and Blizzard's known issues list records that Jetpack Cat's base movement speed is displayed incorrectly in the Advanced Info Panel as 6 m/s instead of 5.5 m/s.

The rest of the known issues list

Several battle pass problems are outstanding. Battle Pass XP and rewards progress may replay when no new levels or rewards were earned in the previous match, XP earned from challenges may not appear on the Rewards screen, and progression may not appear at all when no XP-granting challenges were completed. A background can also flash, or briefly appear incorrectly, when switching between menu tabs.

The ping system accounts for most of the rest. Heal ping sound effects may not play when pinging allies through walls, recon heroes can ping enemies detected by their subrole passive for 1.5 seconds longer than intended, and Venture cannot currently be pinged while underground. Targets also cannot be pinged through walls in certain situations only the pinging player can see, including Zenyatta's Orb of Discord, Junker Queen's Jagged Blade, Sombra's hacked health packs and Cassidy's Deadeye, and enemy pings currently carry lower priority than warning pings.

Hero disables of this kind are usually short and tied to a specific bug, but until Blizzard says more, the only confirmed details are that Lifeweaver is out of every mode and that he is expected back.