On paper, 17% less healing doesn’t seem like a lot.
But the more I play around with the latest iteration of Mercy, I find it negatively impacts her gameplay a lot more than many might expect.
Mercy gets to stand around a lot longer before she can move to help another ally. 17% more standing to be exact. So you’re effectively less mobile and moving around less often. However much I was zipping around the battlefield to help allies, I’m now doing that 17% less now too.
Sure, it doesn’t seem so bad if you just look at the time difference of healing a single person and then going to help someone else, but drawn out over the course of a match I find it very noticeable.
It has definitely impacted my enjoyment far more than I expected. I am not as mobile, which is one of the definitive characteristics of Mercy as a character.
If you think about it, a 17% healing nerf means you’re spending 17% more time healing, and getting to GA 17% less in order to keep people topped off. That’s nearly 1/5th of a reduction.
In a practical sense, this nerf has resulted in 17% more standing around, and it feels terrible. Another nerf to Mercy player fun.
What’s hilarious is the pros haven’t even gotten ahold of this patch and Mercy is already falling out of the meta. So this change isn’t even really needed from a balance perspective.
The only thing this change really does is make Mercy less enjoyable to play.
I urge the developers to revert this nerf. It has no practical purpose at this point.
If Mercy needs a nerf, do it to something that is not fundamental to virtually everything she does.
99 Likes
If they cared for the feedback of Mercy players, her stupidly OP rework would never have hit live in the first place. :/ They’ll gladly put their fingers in their ears and desperately tout their rework was a success, despite all the evidence and nerfs to the contrary.
Resurrect is too powerful to be a cooldown ability. Mercy will ALWAYS be a must-pick as long as her resurrect is an E ability.
83 Likes
It wont take her off the meta, but it surely reduce the fun a lot.
I feel more sluggish than ever.
24 Likes
17% decrease of a hero’s primary skill is an awful lot. If any DPS gets its primary fire decreased by that much he’ll instantly become trash tier.
43 Likes
Mercy is only dropping in contenders because they know the patch is coming, and more supports are viable now
Ana, Lucio, and Moira are actually being PLAYED and swapped around
It’s not just Mercy/ Zen 100% mirror on both teams every game.
Some teams run Ana/ Zen, the other team has Moira/ Lucio
You still see Mercy, she just isn’t the always go to anymore
13 Likes
Wow it’d sure suck if Mercy LAUNCHED with 50 HPS, right? If she started out that badly, surely none of her mains that cry so adamantly about reverting her to what she used to be would’ve ever enjoyed playing her in the first place!
9 Likes
oh, so this nerf actually did the trick? It toned her down and now other supports can be played effectively? Love it.
30 Likes
Not really, it’s more that the two dominant strats at the moment are Hammond dives and GOATS variants, and both are super fast and aggressive comps; you’re not given enough time to make a difference with 60hp/s and rez on either side.
7 Likes
Because the game is exactly the same as launch.
All the threats to your team’s life are exactly like launch. The context is exactly the same.
What a great argument.
More heroes should just go back to their launch state.
20 Likes
Not even. So long as Hanzo and Widow are must-picks, the ability to Rez an ally is still crucial.
But hey, at least in the hypothetical event that those two aren’t on the enemy team, other healers now have the slightest chance of being worthwhile compared to her now!
6 Likes
only time will tell, but according to scrims and some pro plays, mercy is being completely neglected. In top 500 as well, that’s usually a great indication of what’s going to happen with the meta in following weeks. We’ll see. But I think this time, the nerf did the trick.
I do certainly appreciate this nerf, Rez notwithstanding. I thought it was the dumbest buff in the first place, back when Ana was the primary competition. Even if they do nerf Rez later somehow, that doesn’t mean Mercy deserves to be able to outheal a good Ana so easily.
2 Likes
I would say it’s the exact opposite. Since it takes too long to heal everyone to full, there’s a lot more triaging, require more decision making and mobility.
A pure healer deserves to out heal others who aren’t pure healers.
Ana is much more offensive than Mercy. She can deal hitscan damage from any range without switching weapons.
She can shut down healing to facilitate focus fire and virtually guarantee a pick.
She can completely remove someone from a fight with hard CC, interrupting many ultimates.
Ana might be a main healer, but she is not focused on sustaining a fight like Mercy due to her offensive abilities.
Hypothetically, if Mercy and Ana get the exact same ability to sustain, why should Ana get to also be superior offensively as well?
31 Likes
Because it’s not a lot. But now, of course, you need to stay put for longer.
Could play like Ana and not worry about topping people up in the middle of a fight. Give them enough to sustain a few more hits and move to the next person who needs it
rez, mobility, and self healing?
13 Likes
you do realize it is 17%
if her hps wasn’t so absurdly high that number wouldn’t be a problem
I agree she feels pretty bad with the nerf – I can’t keep up with heals when the team is in trouble and feel pretty underpowered healing a single tank. In QP, I’m continually out-healed by Moira, now, who is also doing damage and not relying on the team to keep her safe, and I feel like I’m not contributing much as Mercy. If Blizzard really want Mercy to have the highest healing over the course of a game, they should undo the healing nerf and look for other ways to increase support diversity if necessary, maybe looking at Resurrect, instead.
13 Likes
you realise that moira and ana actually take more skill than mouse1+shift, right?
and they don’t have the most op ability in any pvp game
2 Likes