Okay back to reality. 53% winrate in GM means what exactly?
Let’s go off of the stats for a quick bit! (Because math doesn’t lie.):
h ttps://www.overbuff.com/heroes (and select the Grandmaster tag)
So let’s take a look together at the winrates. And sort by winrates. This means anyone at the top of the list as a higher winrate than anyone lower than them.
Where is Mercy at?
h ttps://i.imgur.com/cBRBrYS.png
Over half the page down. Hm. But still 53% winrate, she must be OP?
Oh. WAIT A SECOND. WHO IS THAT ON TOP??
Clearly: Torbjorn (PRE-REWORK), Symmetra and Mei are absolutely dominant picks in the meta and are desperately in need of a nerf. (That is sarcasm. But through that I think I was allowed to give everyone a good insight into how these statistics are flawed to look at in this manner.)
Symmetra is now a “goddess” of destruction and winrate at 58.37% winrate?
Torbjorn (pre-rework) is now suddenly a 57.65% winrate in game “Overlord”?
Mei is now a 57.37% winrate “superbeast”?
Gosh. I should be picking these heroes and climbing MY way to grandmaster myself! 58.37% winrate? HOLY SHMOLEY!
Clearly they all are fine and in great spots right?
Answer: No. These winrates are not actually reflective of the character being in a good position.
So now we’ve established hero winrates…
Let’s take a moment to look into the fact that literally every single hero in GM has a winrate above 50% other than bastion.
So saying Mercy has an above 50% winrate in GM is like saying the sky is blue. Everyone in GM knows what they are doing. Again, every single hero in GM has a winrate about 50% other than our beloved omnic bastion. Where even he sports a winrate close to 50%.
In fact, someone made REAPER work who is in GM right now. One tricking reaper to high grand master. We’re talking about the same HERO Reaper that this community widely accepts needs a lot of help. The same reaper that we say “Q is a one way ticket back to spawn”.
That very same reaper hero has a higher winrate than Mercy. A hero widely regarded as a “throw pick DPS” currently has a higher winrate than Mercy. At a tier where Mercy’s allegedly “high” winrate is being used to attempt to silence Mercy mains like myself.
I can’t make this up.
(Yeah, really. Please do look: h ttps://i.imgur.com/cBRBrYS.png )
GOATS and GM. What counters a bunch of tanks and supports that aren’t hitscan?
Pharah.
Out of anyone in the GOATS comp there is pharah that can reliably counter them.
Pharah is also a bit harder to heal for Ana and other supports so Mercy is clearly the go-to pick. Where many people argue the current pharah changes are a significant buff for a skilled pharah player I am not surprised in the least to see Mercy’s pick rate increase to accompany pharah.
GOATS is popular and super effective and being able to take Pharah and do something about it is a natural choice.
So Mercy having a slightly elevated winrate and pick rate in GM where GOATS can be found on nearly any stream is not surprising. At all.
MERCY IS NOT THE BEST SUPPORT IN GM EVEN BY WINRATES.
Quite literally the only support with a lower winrate than Mercy is Moira and Lucio. Where Lucio boasts a pick rate nearly SIX TIMES THAT OF MERCY.
Meaning you’re nearly 6x more likely to see a Lucio than a Mercy in grandmaster. (But clearly Mercy is the better pick? No. She clearly isn’t because she would be picked way more often.)
And keep in mind this is GM, the only reason Mercy has that higher winrate and any pickrate is because of Pharah. And Pharahs ability to counter GOATs. Not because Mercy is apparently amazing.
(I mean look at Lucio’s 6x higher pickrate. Clearly Lucio is preferred to Mercy by far.)
But wait a second. Look at Ana’s 14.31% pick rate
Not only does Ana have a 14.31% pick rate (nearly maximum) but also Ana has a higher winrate than Mercy by a non-trivial margin.
That’s nearly 14x the pickrate of Mercy. Meaning Ana will be picked 14x more often than Mercy.
So… right now people are really making the argument that Mercy has a stunning 53% winrate and I ain’t buying it.
Let’s get this straight: GM is a tiny tiny tiny fraction of the total playerbase
Most players of this game are in gold and platinum. This point isn’t really something in debate because anyone can pull up the statistics and historical statistics and see that it’s true.
Gold and plat contain VASTLY more players than grandmaster, hands down. Meaning that only a few grandmaster players playing a hero particularily effectively can raise it’s winrate artifically.
Remember that this is still a video game and I am not sure why we are doing balancing for the tiny % fraction of players at the highest levels of play especially when the hero has been proven to be doing horrifically bad in other areas with STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANTLY sub 50% winrates.
For the incredible majority of players she’s doing horrifically. (You know, the people that tune into OWL, streams, bought the game and play the game. That slightly maybe very critical component of players.)
Just because she is an accessory with pharah where pharah is used to counter GOATS doesn’t suddenly make her okay.
CONCLUSION
Mercy isn’t fine. And I don’t know why we are looking at GM where only Bastion has a lower than 50% winrate and saying “LOOK MERCY IS FINE!”
I’ll reiterate:
Just because she is an accessory with pharah where pharah is used to counter GOATS doesn’t suddenly make her okay.
Because that’s all she is right now there, an accessory. She’s like that necklace you pair with that dress before you go out for the evening. It ties it together nicely but everyone knows it’s only there for the dress to look better on you.
Mercy’s an accessory now in a favorable meta in GM.
I’m like whatever live your truth but