A potential fix for Mercy & a silly Bastion "E" for good measure!

This could be long, bear with me. It’s also just an idea, I’m not a game designer; I’m aware there could always be concerns with this set-up.
I’d like to keep all the current aspects of Mercy’s kit in some way as they fit her character, lore & the gameplay of OW; it’s an asymmetrically designed sorta MOBA-shooter about BS superheroes from the future, so she’s definitely not out of place at least.

I personally have no problem with Res in concept, I just think it needs some way of being balanced enough to feel rewarding & fair on both sides.
I’m also aware the focus for Mercy is to be a predominantly solo-healer with the highest & most reliable base potential for her healing output, so I’m trying to accommodate that as well. She is the resident “White Mage” after all.

TL;DR: Move Valk to ‘E’ & modify it, then make a new Resurrect ult.
With this you could leave her base HP/s healing as it is, or it could go back to 60 HP/s; variables may apply, but I will be basing this off her current values.

Let’s start at the beginning.

New Valkyrie (E)
[A stripped down version of the ultimate that actually could be more useful, yet also more fun & engaging; while not being as irritating to play against. Maybe.]

Valkyrie Notes **Background info**

4-6 second transformation, 12-18 second CD?

There will be no perma-flight or health regen increase.
The GA speed increase could stay, it could not.

I would even consider her losing any health regen when activating this mode (as a compromise both in-world & in-game) so as to divert power to her wings & staff & keep her from being too obnoxious to deal with.
With this addition I would make Valkyrie cancellable so that an injured Mercy can begin self-healing again if needs be, but has to sacrifice Valk to do so.
I would posit that her health regen restarts immediately upon cancelling Valkyrie, even if she has taken damage within the last second or two; but is then subject to its normal rules.

How it works

Starts with a mini Pharah jump, allowing you to gain some altitude without a teammate. This can be used with the current wing-opening animation.

Activates a temporary chain-beam transformation, which allows her to transition from solo-healer to mass-healer/booster when it is appropriate.

Focused target receives amplified healing & the chains do less than her base. This allows a Mercy to pocket efficiently when needed, but means she will not always be able to do so at her current base healing so that there can be a degree of counter-play.

This also allows for her to switch to a mass/AoE healer where appropriate; focusing the most important/damaged target whilst giving some support to the rest of your team. But I wouldn’t want this mass healing to exceed Lucio’s in healing or cooldown values, especially as the ability has possibly more utility.

For example, keeping Mercy’s HP/s as it is now (50 HP/s), the Valkyrie transformation would boost her main beam’s healing to 70/80 HP/s, while the chains would do 35/40 HP/s. I don’t think it should go any higher than this even if her base healing is reverted to 60 HP/s.

The same logic could be applied to her damage boost (30% -> 35/40% & 18/20%), but as damage boost is already theoretically quite powerful, it could well be left where it is but just gain the chain benefit (30% -> 30% & 15%).

Another way for this to work would be for her to have different healing options while in Valkyrie:

Pressing ‘R’ would allow her to switch between two modes.
“Pocket mode”, where she heals/boosts a single target for a higher amount of healing/damage, & “Chain mode” where she heals/boosts multiple targets for a lower amount.
This obviously does has some concerns surrounding increased damage boost though xD. Maybe that could be left where it is, at least numbers-wise.

A further, simpler way to do this (that keeps her as a pure solo healer) is for her to receive only boosted healing & chained damage when in Valkyrie. This prevents her from mass healing & from gaining increased damage boost, but still gives her more utility, power & variety in her kit.

Optional Extras

There could be a CD reset on GA or it could possibly even be used unimpeded for the duration of the transformation so as to make full use of the wings & keep the idea of increased mobility.

There also could be a cleanse mechanic as it is activated, removing any statuses/CC from Mercy or possibly even surrounding teammates; but this could likely be way too much.

A further, crazy idea I had was to grant Mercy’s allies an extra ability when she is in her Valkyrie form…
When Mercy is in LoS & range of an ally & she is using Valkyrie, the ally gets a soft lock on to Mercy & the ability to press Interact (F) to sprout their own angel wings of hard-light (for example) & fly to Mercy a la Guardian Angel.
I would posit this should only be available once to each ally during the transformation & would be subject to the same rules as Guardian Angel.
This could be incredibly useful as a regrouping or repositioning tool for teams with low mobility.
It could also look hilarious. :smiley:

Okay, here we go.

New Resurrect (Q)
[Percentage-based charges & a bunch of conditions.]

Resurrect Notes

33-66% counts as a single charge & allows you to rez a single target at close range. More variables below.
67-99% counts as 2 separate charges & allows you to rez up to two targets individually, just as above.
100% counts as its own separate technique & allows you to rez everyone within line of sight & range.

This way you can always earn your Res without TOO much hassle so any rank can make some use of it, but the better Mercy’s will obviously obtain more resurrects.

However, as Res is so powerful, we could deny Mercy any passive ult charge gain so she has to obtain her ult through active involvement. Her overall ult gain would also probably have to be lowered for this to be somewhat balanced & fair anyway.

You could also have any interruption of this ult lose all available ult charge as a compensation?
Or any spare ult-charge past the obtained Res charge gets lost when it is used? (i.e. 45% -> rez -> 0%)
Or if when at 100% any cast will always perform the LoS version, which could only result in one resurrect & therefore wasting the value of the available charge?

Basically, any chance to waste the entire ult charge could be a valid way to balance this out so that it’s risks/downsides are more comparable to it’s rewards xD. I am happy to assign every single condition above to this.

You could have the cast time of each be different as well, the more powerful 100% rez needing a longer cast time like current rez, whereas the single rez’s take less time as compensation for their lower range of effect.

You could go a step further & make the cast animation a skillshot for the initial 2 charges so that it takes a skilled Mercy to make use of the tempo Res’s, while keeping the full ultimate more powerful & worth reaching in its own right.

There won’t be any special interactions with Valkyrie.
This also wouldn’t feature invulnerability.

Okay, curveball, a different Ult:

Angel’s Blessing (Q)
[Based on BlameTheController’s Miracle Worker concept.]

Angel's Blessing Notes

Either a cast-time or transformation ultimate. Both would function similarly but would be applied in different ways.

Cast-Time:
Any allies in LoS & range have a buff placed upon them. This buff causes them to be raised to full health if their health were to be reduced to zero. This could be an indefinite buff or it could have its own limited duration.

Transformation: Mercy’s wings glow with a radiant light that returns any ally within it to full health if they are reduced to zero during the time the light is present.

As BTC had designed Miracle Worker based on it being an ‘E’ ability, he had it heal killed allies for far less & gave it an interaction with ultimate Valkyrie.
As I’m making it into an ultimate as Angel’s Blessing, it heals stricken allies to full & has no special interaction with ability Valkyrie in either form.

Okay, now for some more fun stuff that might not get me shouted at :smiley:

Bastion’s New ‘E’ Ability
[Cannon Butt-Jump / Blast Bounce]

Blast Bounce Notes

I’m aware Bastion is difficult to deal with!
I won’t be dealing with any of the rest of his kit or numbers, just this ability.

Bastion’s Tank cannon is obviously stored within his body when not in use, as his minigun rests on his back.
I therefore posit that the cannon is stored within his chest cavity, with the barrel pointing downwards.

I hope you can see where I’m going with this.

In either Recon or Sentry form, by pressing ‘E’, Bastion will launch himself directly upwards in the air via a large explosion. This should have a relatively long cooldown (12-18 seconds).

The explosion will be generated by using one of his Tank form shots & so will deal the same kind of damage in an AoE around Bastion (with fall-off etc.) & it also damages Bastion as usual.
This will also be impossible to land directly on an enemy unless used in midair.
(It could be made unavailable mid-air or become a high-level Bastion tech xD).

It could send Bastion the same distance upwards as a normal Tank-shot jump, or it could even send him higher as he will theoretically be directly atop the explosion.

Whilst in Tank mode, this could work differently & give Bastion a huge boost forward, like a Winston leap; as he flips the cannon backwards to shoot the ground directly behind him.

Conditions:
Using this ability could forcefully change you to Recon mode, or at least swap your current mode between Recon & Sentry depending on the currently used mode. However, this will not change you out of Tank mode.
Using Blast Bounce in Sentry mode should have limited to non-existent horizontal mobility.
Using Blast Bounce in Tank mode could be subject to his fire-rate, taking up the slot of a shot to be fired in exchange for the heightened mobility.

Now that we’re at the end, I should stop before I make people mad xD.
I hope you enjoyed!

3 Likes

That Valkyrie concept seems pretty complicated for a hero that isn’t known for being too mechanically advanced, but it sure sounds interesting and I’d love to see that in the game.

2 Likes

I thought it would add a bit more of a skill-cap & some enjoyment to the ability :smiley: thanks yo!

1 Like

I don’t think this would be a good idea. Combined with her regen, Ga, and Ga hop, she’d have too much survivability.

1 Like

That’s fair. With some of the other stuff in there it could not be necessary. I also don’t want her to have increased health regen during Valkyrie. That could even be a condition for it’s activation; you sacrifice your own health regen in order to power up your staff & wings.

But ultimately, I figured it allowed for better sight angles to use GA etc. & kept the theme of the technique running. It also allows for Mercy to have some independent movement, especially concerning environmental hazards.

But as a counter to that, this can encourage enemies into forcing Mercy into these environmental hazards to provoke the transformation, so that they can work around it?