Exactly as Expected

[Titanium-1686]

Eight days ago, this exchange occurred between myself and another player in the Mercy megathread:

@Cameron-22892

Well at least we’ve been told that they’re reading our feedback. Although, it doesn’t feel like it and judging by a lot of the developer read time, it doesn’t look like it either.

@Titanium-1686

Jeff said the same thing in one of the previous megathreads on the old forums. He then spoke in a different thread a few days later saying that they don’t want to revert Mercy and that they don’t think she’s unplayable.

Either he was lying, and he didn’t read the feedback, because if he did he would know that balance is/was not a priority for us; or he knew what our complaints were and intentionally ignored them to target a strawman argument that he felt like addressing.

I’m expecting our next developer comments on the topic (assuming there’s going to be one) to follow the same pattern.

• “We’re listening.”
• “We have no idea what the issue is.”
• Four months of silence.
• Repeat.

Behold, our latest developer comment on Mercy:

@JeffreyKaplan

Mercy is the 3rd most played hero in the current competitive season and in the game for the past month. Her win rate hovers very close to 50%.

We don’t feel like Mercy needs changes right now.

What a surprise! They still think we’re discussing pickrates/winrates/balance positions! Wow!

At least it was in the megathread when I found it… So… Progress?

Do you want to know what we are actually complaining about?

@Sandity-1715

So what are the devs thinking right now for tweaks to mercy? are we thinking about another rework perhaps?

Smaller changes to make the act of playing mercy more enjoyable?

@Bendubz11-2740

Where is the fun in an unengaging ultimate, and not having to earn your strongest ability? It’s the case for every other hero, that their most powerful ability is earned, not given (yes I’m including Supercharger in that). And earning things is fun. Her signature ability went from being a reward to being already there. That is not fun to play, nor is it fun to play against.

@VenusArmani-1354

This is getting really absurd!

How have you not addressed the feedback that people don’t feel like she’s fun anymore??? Like FOR REAL!

@ChibiFox-11511

But a Single Rez, will never accomplish what a Multi Rez of Any Kind Ever did.

Which is Probably why a LOT Of Mercy players feel like it’s a Cheap side Ability.

They want to bring back it’s Overall usefulness, Not Gain it’s usefulness over a Long time, handed out in Pieces.

@Neospartan-11644

You know what I dislike the most of the Mercy rework? How the skill gap was almost completely removed. Before the rework I could easily tell a Grandmaster and Diamond Mercy apart, but ever since the rework it’s been so hard to see the skill. Hell, during the Overwatch World Cup and OWL Stage 1 I couldn’t help but feel like my Gold level donkey could do a better job than half the Mercys I saw.

I can no longer see the skill difference between an average player like me and a professional player, how sad is that?

@blahaj-1757

Mercy is a mess right now

• You put in low input you get low output

• You put in modearte input you get moderate output.

• Mercy can’t do anything more than moderate.

• Her ult is useless in a fight where the enemy even uses one ult. But it’s okay if the Enemy doesn’t have any.

• She doesn’t have the power to swing back fights in her favour, the absolute most she can do is maybe Rez someone but at most it will even the odds.

In spite of all that, she’s balanced.

• Sure, Rez feels like absolute but it’s still possible.
• Sure, You are no longer impactful in the fight whatsoever but you’re still contributing
• Sure, You may have one of the worst support ults in game, but at least it’s not as useless as Tank Form.

They’re never going to change her back as long as she’s still somewhat viable

@fayescarlet-1614

Mercy is also boring as sin, too easy to play, and the skills in strategy and improvisation needed to play her are no longer there. For a rework that made Mercy ‘fun and engaging’, they sure succeeded with Mercy’s single-use-single-target Rez that slows her to a crawl, and she pretty much HAS to hide to pull it off safely. ._. What a genius rework.

@Inky-11160

But Genji does have the potential for high impact plays. Mercy is just kinda there the whole time til she dies. She just drags out team fights at this point.

@Xaron-1831

Valk can’t heal through any DPS (edit sorry) ults either. It is used for initiation and escape. At best, Mercy becomes a spectator as her job becomes easy. At worst, she dies anyway without changing the outcome.

@Qwazi-2242

I’m fine with Mercy having a low skill-floor, but I stopped playing Overwatch because they lowered Mercy’s skill-ceiling significantly; first with the rework, then even more with the latest nerf. Rez is trivial and so is Valkyrie, and how you move and prioritize your heals are the only factors that differentiate between a good and a bad Mercy player now.

I wish Mercy had a higher skill ceiling and I’d be happy to sacrifice both rez and Valkyrie to get it…

@QuizzyBunny-2512

I will never stop expressing my dislike for rez on E. I don’t understand how Blizzard could put what many expressed as “discouraging” and forum goers called “frustrating” on a cooldown. It absolutely sucks to do (no ability with all those limitations feel great) and when you’re on the other team it feels cheap because you know the Mercy didn’t do anything to deserve it - in theory she could literally be standing in a corner and only come out to rez, kinda like people accused her of doing before.

Rez on E has ruined the character for me; it’s not about losing her old ult and getting a new one, it’s about how she still feels like she has an ability that is too strong for her base kit despite everything.

@Brawl-2310

The problem is the core design of Valkyrie does not alowe it to have more decision making than her base kit already offers. Give it more it becomes OP (must pick status), give it less and it’s balanced, but boring and bland as hell.

The point is that Mercy need’s an Ult which works with her kit and not empowers it. If it’s just empowered, nothing changes about the way you play her. The point of an Ult is that you can make a big play by changing your strategy in a drastic way. Even widow and Sym do that, but not Mercy. Mercy stays the same the entire time.

The end result is that Mercy needs an Ult with instant impact. Like Reinhardt or Lucio. It can be Mass Res (would be the easiest and most balanced solution) but something with an equal impact would be fine.

@kristwi-21609

IF I HAD TO EXPLAIN MERCY IN ONE WORD…

BORING

@Ɠrim-1763

I’d assumed that after a few months Blizzard would make Mercy fun again. After i realized that wasn’t true I came to the forums.

@DangerBeans-1176

I don’t want Mercy to be more powerful, I just want her to be more engaging to play. As of now, her ultimate doesn’t feel very powerful and resurrection just feels punishing.

@Boniebell-2552

So again… WE DON’T WANT BUFF MERCY! We just want most fun with her… Mercy now can fly and heal… and this is ultimate?

@Lithy-2614

Mercy: She can press her ez mode Q and do what she could do just gitting good at her basics, pretending to be like a pro. Usually, She can’t make great plays, and usually, if you earn potg you will feel arkward because someone really deserved it more than you.

@Symperfect-2618

The thing that makes me angry is that just because it wasn’t “fun” to play against they had to rework mercy, but now even tho it’s not “fun” to play they won’t make any changes.

@galXieranger-1900

You know what else was said that was subjective? “Her ult (Mass-Rez) is un-fun to play against.”

And gee, if that subjectivity can get us a rework that no-one asked for. Then maybe us saying that she’s now un-fun to play as should get the same treatment.

@Trash-11284

All that being said, Mercy’s problem is not viability, but impact, in my opinion. As a Mercy player, your SR is almost completely dependant on your team’s performance at this point; she was much more impactful with rez as an ult, for better or worse. Now all Mercy play is nearly the same, which is, by far, my largest issue.

@MightySquid-11711

Res made me feel so powerful, that I as the support could change the outcome of a fight, valk Just doesn’t come close. So please dev team, consider bringing back res and adjusting it. If not, at least do something to current mercy to make her more engaging

@Soleil-21781

Valk is boring as hell, both thematically and gameplay wise.

@sprite-12678

Agreed. Putting an ability that literally brings people back from death can’t be balanced and enjoyable on a 30 second cooldown. It’s a flawed design, like giving Genji a 30 second CD Dragonblade, or McCree a 30 second CD High Noon

@Macster-11267

Mercy needs Valkyrie as utility and Resurrect as an ultimate. It’s not healthy for Resurrect to be on a cooldown. There is 0 room for a Mercy player to grow because every 30 seconds you will get a Resurrect no matter what.

No matter how well you do you will never be able to influence that timer. Meaning the skill ceiling is low. You may gain Valkyrie a lot more but it doesn’t do anything to stop an ultimate. Damage boost is the only effective thing to use Valkyrie for and survival that’s about it. Use Valkyrie to stay safe and boost team damage to get a kill. Make sure tanks are not dropping below half and you can Resurrect whoever dies after the teamfight. That’s a standard Mercy play by play every fight I’ve been in.

She needs a higher skill ceiling. She needs to have a bigger and more impactful ultimate. Finally Valkyrie moving to her E where we can use it more frequently without ruining the flow of our kit.

@WILGNER-11948

The rework was a totally failure since the primary purpose was make her more enjoyable and engaging to play. Well, now she could be many things (boring, passive af) but definitely no engaging and enjoyable to play. Did I mentioned that you have to ride to rez now? Crazy right? Since that was another reason to make the rework. Please Blizzard think about could be done with Mercy to make her become more than a flying healbot and to be fun again. I just love the character so much and her current gameplay state makes me so sad.

Mercy is boring.
Resurrect is punishing.
Valkyrie is underwhelming.
Her skill ceiling is incredibly low.

How many times will this need to be said before it is received by the developers?