I personally donāt think Mercy should compete with a support like Ana on any level, let alone on raw healing. Mercy is not a primary healer like Ana is, Mercyās healing has no real skill entry to provide like Anaās does. Mercy has a lot more escape options than Ana, and is therefore often a less difficult and less risky hero to play. They take up entirely different roles in the game.
And most importantly, Ana is wildly overpowered. We absolutely, full stop, do not want to attempt to bring supports up to Anaās level. We need to tweak Ana down. And I say this as a GM flex support player who is exhausted with Anaās outright dominance and sheer favoritism in the role. Itās boring now after nearly a decade.
If youāre presenting a discussion about why Mercy does not feel useful when used appropriately, and not in directly comparison to both the strongest, overtuned hero in the game who is not even categorically in the same role as Mercy, Iām more inclined to talk about it. But itās hard to look at the supports as they now exist with perks and feel out balance, when theyāre just all so entirely outshone by Ana. I can see lowering the CD for the lower heals (as I personally think the lower heals are both healthier for the game, and more in line with what Mercy is meant to achieve), but itās hard to talk about cast time without exacts. I donāt have a huge issue with her current cast for what it currently does, but if the healing were lowered, I could see the time very slightly lowered as well. The issue, for me, is to maintain counterplay for Mercy. Or make it a small HoT, like Brigās packs, or something. I actually found, through my coaching since perks came out, that Mercy is quite effective at doing her designated role with the perks, and a little more overall useful when played in poor scenarios. Thatās really great for the hero. I donāt think itās increased her value as you climb in SR very much, but frankly, if Ana were less viable, Juno and Kiriko would seem slightly weaker as well (because nade enables both of their kits). That might open up more opportunities for Mercy too. So itās hard to discuss the balance when there is one very obvious over performer disrupting everything.
Is Mercy weaker than Ana? Sure. Is Zen weaker than Ana? Sure. (Though, as I said, theyāre not really in the same role as her). What about Baptiste, who is in the same role? Yep. Hybrids like Kiriko and Juno, who are both really strong? Also weaker than Ana. I donāt especially think any of them need buffing up yet, Iād rather see how things shake out when/if Ana is nerfed. Weāre so eager to buff the supports in this game when almost all of them realistically still need nerfing.
As far as āuselessā perks. I am of the hopeful mind that Blizz is tracking perk PRs and, after say a season, if a heros perk is just entirely underperforming -maybe Mercyās will be, I can think of several perks among the support role that are justā¦pointless-, either tweaking them or removing them entirely in favor of something new. (Thatās the option I prefer, as it will keep the game thoughtful and fresher for longer).
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