You mean Discord Orb? You do realize that, in theory, Zen doesn’t have to participate in team fights, as long has he can manage both of his orbs? It’s risky, but you can play an entirely passive Zen, if you were so inclined.
With Valkyrie, you basically have to use it offensively, as defensively, the ult was (and now certainly is) not viable, given how every single hero in the game can burst through it.
So what’s your opinion on her escape?
It IS a valid argument. Not much as really changed other than Mercy being nerfed and brought into line. I don’t see Blizzard randomly deciding “you know what? Never mind guys, it was all a joke!”
I think it’s been made pretty obvious that Blizzard is ready to move on and have no plans of reverting her. With Geoff’s stream with Seagull to them outright saying
“Mercy’s recent rework has been successful”
Or just the interview with Kaplan? You can see their goal and standpoint very clearly.
I get that it’s stressful, but I would assume the reason for being silent is that there is nothing left for them to say.
And “in theory” you can use Valkyrie defensively, it just won’t be as effect.
You can play Zenyatta “passively” and it won’t be as offensive.
That being said, putting a orb on someone to make them take 30% more damage isn’t exactly passive.
They nerfed it lot seems becasue each time they didn’t want to over nerf her then buff her after her controversy. They made small adjustments each nerf excluding January nerfs. And each one put her closer to what they intended her impact and power in a game to be.
It was a successful rework when you think about it. They wanted mercy to be active ALL the time and never leave her team (go off to hide for mass Rez etc etc) so they gave her Valkyrie and Rez and this meant mercy was a strong and valuable addition to the team throughout the whole fight not just end fight where she’d swoop in and Rez.
This rework was rushed I will admit and wasn’t very decided on when it came to us on live but they are and/or decided what they want her rework to do, the power and the impact on a fight it has.
So Overall they nerfed her little by little.
The end. Mercy rework was a success because it does force her into the whole fight and she can help at every second during that fight not once everyone is dead. So to them and to me, this is successful but it did cause other issues such as her being a lot less fun than we’d like and she now feels bad to play but tbh I see them coming back after torbjorn and bastion and having another look at her and decide if they want to do another rework, change her Valkyrie or chnage resurrect.
Ps I enjoy Valkyrie a lot more than mass resurrect just because I love the mechanics and the Lore (that I just imagine but enjoy doing so) and it allows mercy to become more flexible in the aspect of healing and damage boost and helping everyone throughout a fight.
But I do think ressurect should be removed, as a mercy main myself, it is unbalanced no matter what at this point. Resurrect feels bad to play against, bad to use and not to mention pins down each part of mercy kit with nerfs to try to keep Rez in check.
Honestly I never pick her for Ressurection. I pick her for Guardian Angel.
Personally I think they’ve been looking and adjusting the wrong attributes all along. It’ll be a shame once they get to that then find her useless for everything else they nerfed.
A thread about the state of mercy and how many nerfs she has received, im sure there will be plenty of new and engaging information in this thread. /s
Erm… are you sure? I mean, people said that, like, for the past three nerfs to Mercy. There’s more nerfs coming, mark my words.
It won’t be at random. At least, not from their point of view. There’s plenty of ways to spin such a development in a way that makes them look like the heroes the world could use according to Tracer.
Just like his remarks on the Sombra rework, right? That didn’t go down very well with her player base, either.
I don’t see a goal, at all, really. The game’s balance is all over the place, which is odd, given they’re trying to push a e-sports scene. Reinhardt is pretty much FUBAR, the last patch broke things we didn’t even know were in the game…
Personally, I’m assuming they simply don’t know what to say, anymore. I mean, we didn’t even get a developer update for the Summer Games event. Things slowly seem to be escalating out of their control.
Based on my experiences in the past few weeks for Mid-to-High ladder, Mercy is never picked anymore. Maybe every 5-7 games, but not as extreme as Ana. Ana’s kit is maybe a little overmeta anymore, since most people in the division has meh-ish aim, and tanks are so HUGE that it’s nap time for me every time I initiate, and the hitscan burst healing that Ana does just out-damages pretty much every burst anymore. So pocketing with that massive healing on a dived teammate such as a Zenyatta (who still has that +30% damage “cooldown”) can destroy a comp, the only way to get any kills anymore is just waste a teamfight and hope to god that they don’t know the flank, just to dive the Ana way behind the point. Just like a Widowmaker who’s dominating the team by staring down the choke hitting headshot after headshot from a perch 500 miles behind her team.
Mercy is in no way meta anymore unless Pharah is picked, and again, the sniper renaissance has kind of destroyed that strat. The only thing keeping Mercy alive at the moment is Resurrect and the consistant healing beam, which the Devs nerfed the output of, making the game focused on DPS/OrisaHog/Support burst if not the current GravDragon, or Stun metas. 
Valkyrie is a great ult to initiate, but can be shut down by Ana with that bionade of hers, as well as it’s unfun to play in it. Basically it’s just an area of effect beam with the ability to fly. Which is easily shut down with Duck Hunt Widows and Anas against Mercy. Valkyrie is mostly ineffective against burst which is nerfed due to the fact that you still don’t generate more healing in it than you do normally.
The fact of the huge Ana buffs, the Mercy nerfs, and Zenyatta inaction causes a perception of “skill” buffs. But only high damage heroes like Zarya, Hanzo, Widowmaker, Reaper, McCree, Hamster, Zenyatta, Doomfist, Brigitte, Tracer, Orisa, and Roadhog will be able to cut through Ana’s healing and bionade unless another Ana is effectively shutting her down.
Consistent damaging characters like D.va, Winston, Reinhardt, Sombra, Genji, Mei, Lucio, Soldier:76, Moira, and Symmetra’s Beam won’t be viable until their burst cooldowns are reset, because burst healing is extremely powerful.
Zenyatta is still okay because he’s kept up by stronger healers. He’s basically Reinhardt in the GravDragon meta when it comes to viability. He is flexible with most comps as is. Lucio’s ult needed the buff, and he will be used much more because of it, and Moira is an excellent healer/DPS to take if you need powerful healing in short amounts of time with a highly mobile comp. Just Mercy is in the basement anymore, the consistent healing isn’t enough to keep her on her throne of best healer. The Rez is the only thing remaining to send her into dumpster tier, and knowing the community it’ll probably be removed once the developers read the overwhelming dissent produced daily about the ability.
I really hope I’m just making a fuss over nothing, because I love Mercy and D.va’s playstyle, but if they keep buffing “skill” like McCree, Hanzo, Widow, and Ana… Then both will once again be in a garbage tier only used for abilities like Defense Matrix and Resurrect.
Wow, that went right over our head…
Since the new patch Mercy’s pickrate has been steadily falling. Ana is coming back into meta. I think this disproves the theory that the only way to balance mercy was to get rid of Rez on E.
I don’t know why it took them so long to get to this point, but at least we are there now.
So we’re basically back with a season 3-like meta, except Mercy isn’t just a sub-optimal pick but downright unviable?
No, it doesn’t. If the only way to ‘balance’ a hero is to make them unviable (kind of like what happened to Ana after she got nuked) you’ve failed spectacularly.
It’s gonna be like old sym or sombra by the time they’re done
She also does no damage!
Well, Belgian waffles ain’t Belgian, so Belgians don’t eat it much for one
Long live square style
One time they said they were fine with her state, but they nerfed her healing recently
"Mercy is the 3rd most played hero in the current competitive season and in the game for the past month. Her win rate hovers very close to 50%. We don’t feel like Mercy needs changes right now."- By Jeff Kaplan
Damn, i want waffles even more now…
Let’s take a look at this on a different spectrum…
You’d think Blizzard would understand what they have done to the community by now. This has essentially ensured permanent toxicity between Mercy mains vs People who hate Mercy.
This was matured by the developers, not the player base.
There are heroes who are actually fine balance wise and feel balanced ingame and are fun to play as, such as Zenyatta.
Then there are heroes who are a broken mess like Mercy but they’re too proud to fix her anymore because they like single ress and valk and ignore all feedback.
Guess which hero has gotten bazillion nerfbats, even when told they’re in a good spot?
I want my 10hps back please, you can keep the stinking ress at this point. Messing with the core gameplay is not cool.
You’re assuming a lot there about what the devs think or feel. I assure you, they want to make people happy, because that’s how they make money. HOWEVER, big picture balance sometimes has to take priority over single characters.
The reason there have been 13 nerfs is because they take things slowly and see what happens. Trust me, if they did 3 big nerfs instead of 13 small ones, we’d be in a MUCH worse place.