I just wanted to post it to debunk the “Mercy was OP since inception but for some strange reason the devs still buffed her”. I have this dream where all healers are viable but good for different comps… and most importantly, they are all fun.
I completely agree with you.
Disagree strongly with this statement.
No, it’s logic and seeing how Blizzard have treated the healer class, what with all the main healers having fast charging ults that do a little to help the team while all the off healers we’ve ever had have slow charging ults with a way bigger impact (old Mercy and maybe very early Ana as the only exceptions). It’s pretty obvious that you look at an off-healer and see that they have less healing potential than a main healer and less dmg potential than a DPS, and that would make them a inefficient pick relative to something like a Moira that has way better heals and still okay dmg, at least enough to make Moira+Ana something you might see once or twice in pro games.
But obviously dmg and heals aren’t the whole equation and off healers have a few features that make up for being generally lacklustre in either category, which is why they have always had a role. The main examples of this are a non-healing utility (e.g. discord orb), a powerful often defensive ultimate (e.g. transcendence) and some mechanic that allows them to heal in a way main healers cannot (e.g. harmony orb’s unlimited range and working without LOS). These features are what give the off healers their role, you don’t pick a Zen for the extra healing he provides, its the discord+trans and you don’t pick Lucio for his dmg, its for speed+barrier(+boops if the map is right). Start giving a main healer features that look more and more like the off healer ones and the off healer class could suffer in a big way, or any other main healer becomes objectively worse than the healer that’s playing both roles.
Mercy already has a little of this with dmg boost as a utility beyond healing. By itself that is fine to have, same as Ana’s sleep dart and nade, but add to that an ult that can have the same sort of defensive impact as trans and she starts to look like a must pick. Either you can run her with Moira or Ana and push through so much healing the rest of your team make up for any dmg lost but can still reverse fights and counter ults through the mass rez. Its’ that or you can run Mercy with an off-healer as the enemy will have huge trouble making big play ults as your teams shut down potential is through the roof. Either way outside of a few very specific and niche comps Mercy would be the obvious pick because she is filling 2 roles and none of the other healers could contend with that.
This is not however to say that current Mercy is fine btw, none of this really has anything to do with live Mercy. It’s just to say that reverting her is a bad idea, so if it’s decided current Mercy isn’t working and needs a change I’d much rather see a new, different rework than a revert.