No. Every hero is supposed to stand on their own feet and be better with synergy. Mercy only has synergies. Thatâs boosting stats.
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You said it better than me.
Also hers is supposed to be dive. As a main healer. But since she cannot main heal, she doesnât have this strat anymore either.
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Heck Mecho isnât really needed because Echo is pretty self-sufficient without a Mercy.
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Absolutely not.
A hero that can be played with and against every single team comp, being viable at all times, is the definition of a must pick.
That was literally Moth Mercy being able to heal deathball comps.
âshe is not viable in any compâ
*proceeds to list heroâs she synergises with that form a team composition.
Also, if youâre gonna sit there and pretend pocketing a dps counts as a strat and not just a duo synergyâŠthen when that hero is meta, their duo partner should be too.
But Echo is meta rn, and Mercy is not despite that being all she can do.
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Generally viable =/= every single comp, but go ahead and argue strawmen. Itâs all you have.
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I have really⊠complex feelings about Mercy. Get ready for a snowball.
Back before Valk was a thing, I loved- no, absolutely adored solo healing with her. It was such a good challenge to put upon myself, and it happened so often. You thought Quad Tank with Ana Lucio was hellish, try QuinTank with me and my Tank mains friends on Mercy with ult Rez. Good times.
(Even now, if I solo heal in a gamemode and someone goes offhealer, I take it as an insult to my solo healing capabilities, lmao.)
60 HPS was good- you had a solid amount of impact and could be more than someoneâs personal heal station without the risk of not being able to do enough. Healing Tanks and/or DPS like a real mainheal, even if it took a hot minute. And I was happy with that. I barely even used Rez unless I explicitly got asked to or if we were in overtime.
Then Valk came in after all those complaints about Rez, and, well, everything went downhill.
I suppose it was fair to do- Rez was designed as an Ultimate that would cover the drawbacks of 50hps solo healing Mercy in the early days of Overwatch, really.
But initially, I never liked Valk, only vaguely liked ability Rez. Never liked the whole rework. It felt like I was just having everything handed to me instead of fighting to get it.
âYou arenât doing enough heals? Now just press Q.â
âSomeone died? Now just press E.â
âSomeone ELSE died? Now just press Q, then E, then Space, then M1/M2. Have fun!â - Jeffâ„
And yet during the time where she was meta, people- friends included- would always assume I loved playing the most broken hero in the game. Sure, she was good (understatement), but I didnât even like her. I didnât ask for flight, or better regen, or chain beams, or four rezzes if I managed its CD and my Valk right.
I wouldâve taken that 50hps nerf back when Mass Rez was a thing, and you know what? I wouldâve been okay with it. Iâd have been okay with further nerfs, even. Maybe even happy without the initial 60hps buff- I didnât need it to compete with Ana. Youâd be surprised what sheer determination to simply do well can get you through when it comes to playing this game.
But after playing through all the crap theyâve done to her, climbing from Bronze to Master with her (while also flexing to Tank and other Supports to be fair,) I can safely say:
I donât want to be every healerâs offhealer.
Most of the time, when I run Mercy with a Lucio or a Brig, people consider me offheal. 
The only person Iâm not consistently considered an offheal for is Zen. (Note: I said consistently. Itâs happened.) And who can heal under Zenâs level- barring Transcendence?
With all the time I have free not playing her due to her difficult position, I spend my time on the forums, and I see people saying that âshe doesnât need a healing buff, her role has changed, sheâs a pocket healer now!â
âŠLiterally every other healer can be run as something else than what the playerbase believes theyâre meant for.
Moira can be run as an offheal for Ana, but a mainheal for everyone else.
Zen can be and was actually run as a mainheal for Lucio (vice versa on that one.) but an offheal for anyone else.
Baptiste can be run as an offheal for Ana, but a mainheal for everyone else.
Brig can be run as a mainheal OR offheal for Lucio/Zen, but an offheal usually for anyone else.
Hell, none of these even have to apply- you can run whatever combo you want except Zen/Lucio or Ana/Zen these days (unless youâre in perfect coordination,) and you still have a fighting chance.
But Mercy canât be run as a mainhealer against any of those combos without being at an immediate disadvantage due to the sheer healing difference, and thatâs cool with yâall, right?
And the only remaining viable comps for Mercy involve Pharmercy, Ashemercy, and Mecho (Iâve heard that she didnât even belong in Dive in favor of Lucio when she fits the most with it- and now sheâs been kicked out in higher tiers in favor of Brigitte. Echo doesnât even NEED her to do well, and neither do Pharah and Ashe if played well,) and thatâs cool with yâall, right?
And Mercy is meant to be permanently gimped and forced into being an offhealer DPS pocket, and ONLY that, and thatâs cool with yâall, RIGHT?
If so, Iâm sorry, but Iâm not gonna play a hero like that. Go to LFG, r/COW or the OW Discord and find your own pocket, but donât turn the entire playerbase for one hero into dedicated pockets.
I didnât go to support to pocket one random DPS and pray for a carry. I went to support to take care of or assist my entire team EQUALLY and have my own impact while doing so. Iâm sure most support players feel that way.
Rez doesnât matter when it comes to her impact, in my opinion. You could go Lucio and taxi someone back, you could go Sym and set up a TP at spawn, Rez is just an faster alternative to any of those but with more risk.
Her healing is what matters.
And itâs lackluster compared to almost everyone else.
I donât want to play one of my favorite heroes and be shafted during hero selection and relegated to being glued onto a DPS for the entire game sans during my ult. I want to be a viable main healer that doesnât need another mainhealer to work as one.
I donât want to have to play with a tanky comp like I used to and put my absolute best effort in to be their mainhealer (which used to be more than enough) and watch with guilt as the entire team comp shifts just because Mercy does NOT do enough healing.
I donât want to have to tell myself EVERY SINGLE GAME on Mercy that "Iâm not doing anything at all, I must be garbage, maybe I should go onto (x)âŠ" and when I go onto (x), all the effort and energy that I was putting into Mercy nets me exponentially more value on (x).
When you absolutely need an Ana/Moira/Bap (or debatably Brig) to have a glimmer of a fighting chance to keep up on healing while trying to be considered a mainhealer as a healer who was formerly considered one without any argument, then⊠maybe, itâs safe to say something is wrong.
If the only alternative to knowing her inside out and refusing to be anything but a mainhealer (despite everyone around me telling me who I should pocket) is going to another hero who will give me better value for less trouble, then I might end up choosing the latter; since every time I go onto another healer, I feel like Iâm getting so much more for the same amount of effort I put into Mercy.
I donât want stats shoved in my face telling me that âIâm wrong, sheâs doing just fine and that Iâm just pulling this out of nowhere-â because considering the state of the game right now, where the most viable, dare I say meta supports can be banned on a whim leaving a power vacuum in its place where players scramble to find supports that can be run with whatever comp can be built around the current rotation, on top of Mercy already being the most popular healer hands downâŠ
The stats saying âsheâs fineâ might not be perfect. They might just be saying âshe was the only solid option for most people, and even then, she could be switched out easily.â
I donât want someone telling me that they can run her as a healer and outheal anyone consistently- because thereâs so many variables in everyoneâs games that the aforementioned claim just does not hold up.
You can have enemy DPS that do trash damage, causing her co-support to not have any real heavy healing to do, which makes it easy for Mercy to outheal.
You could have a co-support slacking on healing, which puts a lot of pressure on you as a Mercy and causes you to outheal them, naturally.
You could literally just not have a co-support at all.
And Valk certainly adds a lot more complexity to her healing stats- but it stands to reason that a solo healing Mercy would do less healing than a solo healing Moira, or Baptiste, or maybe even an Ana.
In Comp Classic/Open Queue, I played a game with a solo-healing Brig against a Mercy/Lucio. We won. We actually rolled. No joke.
Iâm sorry to everyone traumatized by the demonic 60 HPS Mass Rezzing Mercy Monster, or the crazy broken 60HPS AOE Chain Beam Having, 10s Rez CD, Valking Moth Monster, but she needs that 60hps back on her base kit. Iâd even take a flip where they put 60 HPS on base but nerfed Valk to 50 HPS due to the chain beams. Youâd see me Valking less for sure.
Most people will agree- even the majority of the professional community has taken back the sentiment of her being ungodly broken and said that sheâs actually kind of bad now- but Iâm not going to repeat their words for people who wonât listen. I donât have the patience for that anymore. Ryan, though, has been trying to reinforce that point for a long time now.
If the ones who spearheaded the opinions that led to Mercyâs changes have for the most part changed their minds, why canât anyone else?
Itâs just that Iâve had enough, and this utter ignorance of how bad sheâs gotten is the straw thatâs breaking the steel beam- cause the camelâs back broke a long time ago.
Yes, I still love her like anyone else who plays her these days, but Iâve suffered enough on her. I canât do it anymore. Somethingâs gotta give, man.
Sorry, this got really ranty. I just spent a lot of time sitting on the sidelines, watching everything just kind of fall apart when it came to her state. It kind of eats at you after so long. But I donât regret saying it, flame me all you want. All I want is for my hero to be good- not BROKEN- good.
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Again, thatâs because Echo doesnât need a Mercy to be effective. She has shields for sustain, and better mobility while airborne.
A lot of people said that Mercy was gonna be meta when Echo would come, but we see thatâs the complete opposite.
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Just because Ana has synergy with Genji in nano blade does not mean that is her comp. Her comp is Death ball. Do you really need me to explain how being a healer for an entire comp is different from having synergy with one specific character? Or are you gonna stop pretending not to understand the difference on purpose.
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Echo is far from meta right now with a 1.2% pickrate this week in GM. Meanwhile Mercy is in the top 5 most played.
Except thatâs exactly your argument. Her being viable in team comps that compliment her isnât enough. Itâs a fault to you that sheâs not also viable in team comps that donât compliment her.
It really does. The âbig playâ is nano blade. The comp is built around enabling that nano blade. What do you think a team comp is?
My biggest gripe is that the thing that was (and still is) used to mock Mercy players is the âlol Mercy one-trick duoing with her partner to be boostedâ, and itâs now not only her most viable playstyle, but a niche the community thinks she belongs in. Like, everyone expresses despise for it yet want her role to be centered around that?
Not going to speak for all Mercy players but to me the pocketing playstyle is probably the most boring one sheâs had yet.
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Every single character has synergy with at least one other character. By your logic there is no character that is not viable and never has been. Composition is the entire team not just 2 characters of said team. She does not work as a healer for any specific team comp, she works only as a personal healer of one of the 3 mentioned dps. Jesus
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It shouldnât matter. Echo not needing Mercy doesnât negate that Mercy should work better for Echo comps than generalists if thatâs about all Mercy should be good for
If sheâs supposed to be a pocket specialist than pocketing should be more rewarding than what a general use hero can offer when an appropriate pocket is played.
Also, I bet the only reason her winrate is above 50% is because people only play her in duos as a hard pocket
Try playing Mercy solo queue and it will look as if the toilet backed up
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No. It isnât my argument. At this point you been told that directly so weâve gone from just lame strawmen to lying on folks now.
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I honestly donât believe he doesnât get that this is the argument. Better to bow out now than argue in a bad faith argument. They lead nowhere and are so unproductive.
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Composition =/= team composition. Weâre having two different conversations here.
Pharmercy in dive, it was called dive. The big play was enabling Phara and Mercy. Pharmercy is the composition. Dive was how the meta was played.
The same thing with Nano blade. Ana Genji is a composition. The team is built around enabling those two. The big play is nano blade. The composition is Nano Blade. Death ball is how the meta was played.
Composition is just a fancy way of saying these things make up a whole.
Still no comment?
I donât think that is the case but only being used in such specific cases does boost winrate and doesnât speak to general viability. Itâs one reason why Symmetra had the highest winrate in the game for a long time and was straight trash.
Genji suffers from this as well. Because he can nanoblades, people think he is better than he actually is.
Look, I get it. Mercy shouldnât be able to fit in every single comp. Thatâs absolutely true.
But if the Mercy works hard to do so and it succeeds, it doesnât mean sheâs the best pick for it. It means that sheâs putting in a LOT more effort to do so than the most optimal pick would ever have to.
Mercy Meta being the exception- she was overpowered then.
And besides, what team comp works with Mercy anymore besides Dive (when the blue moon is shining in the sky)? And no, (DPS)+Mercy duos arenât entire team comps. Thatâs just a DPS pocket duo.
Bunker doesnât count either- she literally exists only to press E on the Bastion and damage boost him to death.
You canât run 3+ DPS comps anymore- and everyone constantly said that was her âniche.â
So, in what comp is she actively engaging in the fight, providing so much to the synergy that causes her to be an essential part of it? What is her comp?
Cause if you know, tell me. I want to run it.
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I give up, Iâm going to bed. Iâm just⊠tired of 3 years of this. Letâs pick this up another day
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