I’m not gonna go into that crazy of a rant but can we just acknowledge that mercy, at her current state, gets outclassed by every support. Juno has her ult but better, Brig has her pocket potential but better, and hereos like Kiri and Moira have better escape abilities WHILE being able to somewhat defend themselves.
I don’t want mercy to be giga buffed, i know how toxic her kit can become when she starts pocketing a dps and they become the server admin of the lobby. I think at this point mercy needs a rework to incorporate some sort of self defense or her movement has to be so high, that dive characters cant just chase/bully her around the map.
I also think that after the release of Juno, Mercy’s ult has become so insanely cosmetic that the only value u get from it is being able to be a fairy and look at pretty clouds in the skybox. Yes, Mercy has some of the highest survability in her ult, but the value from the ult itself is useless. The heals arent good, and the dmg boost isnt that good especially when your team is playing far apart (which many do in ow2).
This might just be me personally, but i’ve completely stopped playing Mercy the past few seasons because I’d rather win with brig or juno, hereos where I know I won’t be flamed and that I know bring impactful value through their kit.
I’m not a game dev so I don’t know what should happen with her but for starters, I think her ult needs to be changed, it’s just so lackluster and non-innovative that it makes me question why it’s even their in the first place. The changed Mass rez to a filler ult and literally never gave her a good substitute that can match the level of impact that several other support ults have. Their’s hereos like Juno, Kiri, Ana and Brig who all have fight winning ults WITH better utility while mercy has neither.
Pocketing and Reviving are some of the worst and most frustrating mechanics in the game for support. Such as hacking and invisibility or snipping are for dps.
So, I dont mind her to be reworked, but pocketing and revive have to go. With the giga tank we have now, when u finally kill one after throwing everything at him or at a genji who is ruining the game for all, and then she revives them … the game fills so dumb and boring at these moments.
the issue in this take is that pocketing will always exist. as long as reliable, good single target healing exists, then so will pocketing, meaning this isn’t even a mercy specific issue—any single target healer can “pocket” a dps and give them advantages they otherwise wouldn’t have. that’s the point of playing support after all.
any rework that pushes mercy away from that pocketing playstyle would have to be incredibly dramatic of a change. good luck designing a kit like that successfully and retaining her fan base.
now res has more room to work with. there are different things you can do with that, turning it into an ult with restrictions on use, making it a proactive ability you have to cast before they die, replacing it completely with something else, etc.
but barring truly exceptional circumstances, “pocketing” is not going anywhere, so it’s best to just make your peace with that now.
They’re probably scared to buff her because of how unhinged content creators and the community gets about her. They’re kinda stuck.
They tried that with her triage healing changes.
But a streamer couldn’t hit a valking Mercy and started a rage movement and got that rework completely removed off of a twitch clip while causing insane toxicity to be directed at Mercy players in the process.
Which other support can and DOES pocket genji, pharah, widow, etc… the way she does? Please tell me. No other support stays stuck the entire game to another hero back like she does. What she does, the way she does it is not funny or healthy for a game. Not funny for the players and not even funny or interesting for the Mercy player. And players who “likes” that should think about what they are doin for two secs.
Any buff in these direction (like better movability for ex) would lead to broken stuffs all over the place.
As a general question, do mercy players like rezz?
thinking back to overwatchs release, i thought about sym and mercy ults (teleport vs mass rezz) and how shield gen was a massive upgrade in my eyes, because you wouldn’t have to have people die to gain value from your ult as sym anymore.)
which would lead to a question if her players would desire a more active ability that does something during the fight, preventing someone from dying, like the guardian angel or what is name is on priest in wow. (just as an example, that would fully heal the target if it would have died)
Don’t focus to much on my idea, my question mainly is if mercy players enjoy rezz as an ability compared to a different one. (or if they are mainly dissatisfied with valk, That would also work)
I can only speak for myself (as someone with waaaay too many hours on Mercy).
Yep. I like it. It’s the highest risk vs reward action in Mercy’s kit, IMHO.
I loooooove Valk too. I’ve got so many options of what I can do with it compared to some other ultimates.
Everything in her kit feels balanced, IMHO. Not the best, not the worst, right there in the middle. And with so many other varied options to try in other support’s kits, there isn’t really any need to fundamentally change any of her kit. She fills her niche perfectly, and doesn’t step on any other role’s role in the process.
I think it would be cool if she were able to use GA to slingshot past her team into the enemy and use the butt end of her staff to melee the enemy. Having some sort of speed/height multiplier on it. I think it would up the skill ceiling and put her in riskier situations, all while making her more of a threat. Getting height from valk would play in huge for this.
I think it’s great. Pending on timing and target, it can really tilt the fight your way; I think all heroes need an ability that feels like that
this is entirely subjective to you. i’m not even going to address this beyond saying “that’s a great opinion” bc that’s all it is, and while it’s okay to have those, suggesting reworks based off literally nothing more than opinions is pointless. there needs to be actual data to back this up.
i could replace mercy with reinhardt or lucio or any character with a notably unique playstyle and make the exact same argument.
what is the difference between a mercy holding down heal on her soldier and a lifeweaver spam healing him? if you are a single target healer and you’re devoting all your resources to one person constantly instead of spreading resources to the team, what else would you call that?
yes, mercy’s playstyle is very unique in that she’s built around this single target interaction specifically, but don’t you think there’s a reason why she’s so popular? do you think it’s genuinely a smart idea for the developers to take one of their most popular characters and change their core mechanics for no reason other than “chrom thinks mercy is not funny (?) or interesting and that anyone who disagrees actually doesn’t disagree at all they just need to think more”?
all i’m saying is that serious balance suggestions should probably take realism into account is all
Pocketing is not an issue on its own. Pocketing is only an issue if the way it works and the value it gets is oppressive or frustrating.
Replace rez with a new E ability and pocketing is instantly less frustrating because when you kill Mercy’s pocket target you know they are going to stay dead.
Rework Blue Beam to only be 15% damage boost instead of 30% but also give the teammate a 30% speed boost so that it nerfs pocket synnergy with ranged DPS but buffs it with tanks and frontline/dive DPS.
Introduce a new mechanic to her healing where she can temporarily increase it by using her Reload button to activate higher HPS, but with an overheat or resource meter or CD mechanic
etc etc etc
Things like these would shift the way her pocketing gets value and feels to play against without removing her lock on beams and without pushing away her core playerbase at all
The issue is the Devs don’t seem to want to try stuff like this
Literally just imagine a version of Mercy like this:
She has a new, fun E ability, like a wide-ish projectile of light that she can throw out like firestrike that goes a set distance and then boomerangs back to her, healing and damage everyone it passes through. Raises her skill ceiling, gives her something fun to do during teamfights besides just fly around and beam people, has fun synnergy with her movement because it’s a boomerang, doesn’t really make her aim intensive at all
Damage boost is 15% damage boost, 30% speed boost, encourages playing her with dive-y comps rather than super static boring poke comps. Rewarded for diving in with a Genji and Winston instead of sitting in the back with a Widow or Ashe
When she uses Valkyrie, she gains one charge of solo rez with a 1.25 sec cast time. Rez is still in her kit but locked behind her ult fot 90% of gameplay.
That version of Mercy is INSTANTLY more fun, engaging, fluid, and fair feeling without alienating her playerbase at all. I have almost 3k hours on her and have been immersed in the Mercy community online for years. They would love that. You’d be encouraged to fly around everywhere, throwing out your healing/damage projectile while using blue beam to speed around your teammates like chess pieces.
Yes, even while being restricted to one player it sucks, compared to immortality field or other abilities, that actually allowed to work on multiple allies. In game with such snowball tendencies, multirez is a must, when you are trying to turn the tide.
Yes, Valkyrie is that ult nobody cares about, because it’s regular ability pretending to be an ult. “Oh look at me, I can fly now and give teammates exactly same buffs I always could”.
Doesn’t take a genius for that - multirez ult.
Simple logic - pocketing is detrimental to gaining ult charge, so if your ult is strong, you naturally try to avoid pocketing to earn that ult faster. As long as Mercy heavily relies on damage boost to get any value(which is useful only on specific players), pocketing will be preferred option. Even if you use Valkyrie, you still rely on damage boost to gain value, making it “keep pocketing, but with more safety” kind of ult.
Runs into same issue her current kit does - viable only on specific teammates. 1 rez as ult doesn’t fly in game, where casualties pile up in mere seconds. So, still more pocketing, just with different heroes.