Balance Suggestions to Change Mercy ⚖ or Rework Her 2019

Newest PTR patch didn’t mention any support changes other than Brigitte. I had this typed out a couple of months ago but never posted it since I thought Mercy was going to get a slight buff.

Apparently not.

Here’s my take on the current state of Mercy. Let’s go.

I feel there are 2 (3 but it’s a stretch) ways of changing her without doing too much.


Option 1: Keep Valkyrie and make tweaks to it.

Mercy use to have 60 HPS Base and 60 HPS Ultimate Heal.

Now she has 50HPS/60ULT.

You took away 10HPS from her base healing, let’s put what you took away but redistribute it.

Change it to:

  • 55HPS/65ULT

Mercy on launch had 50HPS however in today’s game it feels weak due to players getting better at the game and gameplay changes.

It is hard to keep players up by heal beam swapping quickly, when she had 60 base HPS this was possible. At 50 HPS it’s possible to keep players up in lower ranks but in GM the players now have much better aim and is harder to keep team mates up, even with proper beam swapping.

If you have not played a Support or Tank in Grand Master please understand that it’s not the same experience as the lower ranks.

Buffing it to 55 would help her out a tad; this has been suggested but not adding the remaining 5HPS to her ult. It would be a slight buff that would help with what she is struggling with now.

OR

  • 50HPS/70ULT
    (Keep ultimate charge the same for both versions. Damage boost is fine and should not be touched, it’s a strong ability.)

50HPS remains the same but using Valkyrie will enhance her healing to 70HPS. This change will make her feel impactful and have more uses in more situations. As of right now, her ultimate most of the time can’t save anyone at 60HPS when entering or during a fight. At 70 HPS this can help and at the same time not make players “unkillable”.

I honestly feel the above changes will make her on par with Ana and not hinder Ana’s usage.

Mercy’s base healing at 60 HPS is too much and will just push Ana out of the meta again, unless she gets buffed. These changes can eliminate reworking her to have an ability to increase healing or damage.

Please test this with the Custom game setting values listed below.


Option 2: Entire Rework (Long post)

I feel in the game state today Valkerie can work and we’re almost there. But if we really want to change Mercy into something unique I think this might do the trick.

Here we go:

* Base 50HPS, Overheal 45HPS.

* Passive, 20HPS outside 1 second of combat.

* Allow Overhealing. 110% of Max HP ( Includes Shields + Armor). Treated as Lucio Shields/Degrades. Stats Below.

* “E” Resurrect, 40/s CD.

* “Shift” Guardian Angel

* “R” Boosts Healing to 70HPS, Damage Boost to 33%. 5.5 Second Duration, 10 Second CD. Staff Only

* Ultimate: Bubble applied to beam target. Decreases damage by 40%. Bubble stays on target for 2 Seconds after Beam loss. 12 Second duration. Bubble is applied to Mercy through duration + 20HPS uninterruptable to Mercy. 1625 Charge required (Unchanged). Guardian Angel Increased Speed.

* Max damage reduction stays at 50%. (Nanoboost and Take a Breather does not break the 50% rule.)

* Pistol. Stays the same.

110% Overheal Stats:

**NOTE:** 
* Added armor from Brigette, Torbjorn, and Shields from Lucio or Doomfist does not affect the Overheal amount given.

* Multiple Mercy’s does not affect Overheal.

* This is not permanent and will slowly degrade overtime if heal beam is not on target.

*  Overheal is reduced to 45HPS. “R” ability will not increase Overheal rate.

*  Overheal HP will grant Ultimate Charge to damage dealers. Unlike Hammond Shields.

RED: DPS (Accidentally put Bastion as a “Tank”)
BLUE: Tanks (Roadhog has 600 HP not 500. Typo.)
GREEN: Supports

https://imgur.com/vdtc4Ku

https://imgur.com/nNqmJwi

Zarya Bubble Interaction / Graphic Change

Where to begin… The biggest change is her ultimate, its graphics look would be similar to a Zarya bubble but bigger. Think of the Discipline Priest bubble in World of Warcraft. If both Zarya and Mercy’s bubble is applied the damage to Zarya’s bubble is not affected.

https://blizzardwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/discipline-priest-divine-aegis-argent.jpg


Paying Attention Rewards The Player (Ultimate)

With a damage reduction Ultimate it encourages beam swapping and in certain situations you can still pocket a team mate. However to get the full value out of the ultimate you will be swapping to team mates to give them bubbles.

Combining her “R” ability to enhance healing greatly promotes beam swapping. The more you’re paying attention to the entire team the more you will be awarded.

If both teams have a Mercy the Mercy who manages her team better will have a greater chance of winning the fight.


Overhealing

Overhealing will add that little bit of value to team mates when there is downtime after fights or extra protection during fights. If 2 healers are healing one person this mechanic acts as a little bonus for the Mercy player.

Overheal HP will add another stat to Mercy which will be “Damage blocked” similar to Lucio’s Ultimate. When Enemies are damaging Mercy’s Overheal it will add up in the “Tab stats”. This will also grant “On fire” value.

TF2 has an Overheal mechanic, a lot of information is on their Wiki page.

https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Healing#Overheal


Resurrect

Resurrect is probably the most hated ability in the entire game. Increasing its CD will lower the overall Resurrections and will require the Mercy to be more cautious when going for an attempt.

Combined with her ultimate 40 Seconds seems fair.


Final Thoughts

This rework aims to require little graphical work from the FX team.

  • The ultimate while active will look the same as the current Valkerie.

  • Angel Wings enhanced, encased in a transparent, shiny, yellow bubble. (WoW reference above.)

  • Mercy moth flying is removed.

  • “R” Bonus Healing Ability can have a sound queue and Beam colour change.

This rework aims to appeal to Mercy’s background, to save and heal wounded allies.

Be civil please. Let’s have a nice discussion.
I don’t speak on behalf of anyone, It’s just a suggestion.

Notable Mercy threads:


Custom Game Settings:

Please try these values before you jump to conclusions.

Use this to get a feel how it would play if the heal values were changed. I have tested these beforehand. Try on Hard Bots or actual Humans.

Base Heal 70: 50 * 1.4 = 70 140%
Base Heal 65: 50 * 1.3 = 65 130%
Base Heal 55: 50 * 1.10 = 55 110%
Base Heal 45 (Overheal Rate): 50 * 0.90 = 45 90%
Valk 65 Heal: 60 * 1.08= 64.8 108%
Valk 70 Heal: 60 * 1.17 = 70.2 117%

Increase Health of all Heroes by 10%. 110%


QoL Suggestions for Supports

  • Ana’s reload speed reverted. Ammo count reduced to 12.
  • Ana’s Nano Boost heals her to full HP when used.
  • Ana Heals herself 5 HP every shot landed with her rifle. Healing allies or dealing damage.
  • Lower animation recovery time on Moira’s Orbs. (Time between throwing and being able to heal or damage)
  • Lucio’s Aura reverted back to 30.
5 Likes

This is…amazing! Wow! I love all the thought you put into this, the animation reference pictures and Overheal stats for every hero. It’s clearly a very well developed and thought out idea, and I personally would LOVE if Mercy was reworked like this.

It doesn’t have any form of mass rez, which I personally like. In fact, it puts Rez on in the background, which is also nice, and gives us other utility and impact to use.

The Heal boost on her reload key is something I’ve been suggesting a while, and it honestly is such a good idea, I wish they would implement it. It would add so much more depth and complexity (and cooldown management) to the hero where she is currently lacking.

I also really like the idea of the ult. I’m a big fan of trading freeflight for faster GA (And maybe a reduced cooldown too?) and the way the bubble works rewards good beam usage.

Overall, this is amazing! Really hope this gains some much deserved attention!

Edit: Just noticed the changes for other supports, I LOVE those ideas too! Makes Lucio more of a main healer role again, which is great. He can be way more flexible and work with other comps again. Ana would become more skillful to use, but also gain a net power increase for players who can hit their shots. And Moira would feel a lot better. I might add, I think Moira should be able to heal through shields again, even if only at half her HPS (40 instead of 80).

2 Likes

For the notable mercy threads part, if you like it, you can put mine there too

Ill bookmark to check out the main thread tomorrow 2am

2 Likes

I’ll have to take some time to double back and read through all this, but so far it looks interesting. I like the Ana self-heal most of all.

3 Likes

I think it’d be balanced to keep Mercy’s current healing but add a second level of 70hp/s for teammates she’s locked on to for more than a second or so. This would help her heal tanks and make pocketing a better strategy.

I just want to add another reason why 50 doesn’t work with the state of the game.

Peeling is a necessity in Overwatch, especially when your healer is Mercy. But having to peel for too long to get healing ruins the pace of the match.

60 gave time for someone out too far to pull back and peel if they actually realised their mistake and tried to run. 50 tends to not give that time.

60 meant people did not have to stay behind cover for too long after a peel. 50 makes it take far longer and it can be felt with even with the squishiest heroes.

Peeling is good, but peeling for too long is bad and that is what 50 results in.

1 Like

Thank you, I spent a while on this. It feels like it could be in the game. I read a lot on the Mercy threads and tried to find middle ground on everything.

It solves the problems she has and is a very minor buff. I feel we are very close to balancing the main healers in this game.

60 HPS was great for Mercy but the problem is that it would push Ana out of the game again and that is not good. Ana requires aim and prediction shots from her hip fire. Mercy’s consistent healing would just push her aside again.

Nano-blade is strong but in the long run during a match 60HPS Mercy outweighs current Ana.

Increasing her healing from an ability would help in saving out of position team mates. (Rework)

1 Like

This looks amazing. I love the Thought you put into it. It’s about time they work on some healers.

1 Like

That healing number does not push Ana out of the game.
Ana’s design pushes her out of the game. She is burst by design with not enough health pools of a large enough size for the amount that she heals to actually have an impact on.
Her burst heals do not benefit DPS and she lacks consistency needed for DPS.

Don’t blame 60HPS Mercy for Ana’s inherent issues.

Moira got afterheals and still gets to be pretty bursty.
I would say that Ana would benefit DPS more if she too had an after heal.

Consistency is the issue.
It is a big issue in this game.

DPS is currently instant kills or high burst.
Heals match that because it has to.

Both need to be reversed so consistency is the main goal of both classes.

And tanks needs adjustments so that they are given protection as their main goal and damage as a secondary and tanking with their health bars a last resort.
GOATS exists because damage was too high that only tanks could handle that sort of damage to give even the burst supports time to do their job, but that results in them just tanking with their health bars most of the time.

I like option 1 (50/70)

If they change their minds and decide to ‘rework’ Mercy again I’d like to see resurrect removed altogether.

Why would she? She’s balanced.

1 Like

Pretty much. We should have buffed Ana in the first place anyway. You need to run at least 2 tanks to get the most value out of her.

1 Like