The feature has been since the rework that actually Valkyrie is a much stronger Ultimate than Mass Resurrect for several reasons:
It is not conditional in its use.
It is very versatile.
It provides just enough survivability to be in flight which would otherwise be nil unviable to do if it were not for Uninterrupted Regeneration.
Dispite the above points; I do not usefulness is a good metric to judge art by therefore a bad metric to judge the art of gameplay by.
TL;DR Valkyrie is a powerful utilitarian Ultimate comparable to a freight train while the Resurrect Ultimate was like a missile exploding.
The freight train is usually useful, but background to most people and only garnering attention from a few at most.
The missile is situational and can very harmful if used at the wrong time, but it will almost always garner attention. <That is what made Mass Resurrect exciting and dismaying.
One week, guys and gals, until we get to play Mercy again! They’ll have to bring the real her back for the Uprising event - there’s no way this imposter will work in that game-mode.
And when they do, every free minute I’ve got will be spent in the event playing her.
I think Mercy as a hero is fine with regards to balance. However, I do believe that the Mercy changes killed a lot of the fun there was for Mercy players in having the whole impactful moment you describe. I think the GA changes where you can fly way better did a bit to counteract this, as well as having a counter-able resurrect that makes you vulnerable, but I think having (what is in my opinion) a really boring ult really kills the fun, at least for me.
I read these posts about it, and they sounded like it’s most likely to set bots to ignore Mercy a little more, instead giving her the power of an old res.
I would compare Valkyrie in a way to Orisa’s supercharger. It can be very well timed and effective and feel good when you know you had a big impact on that fight, but a lot of the times it’s something you just toss and don’t really do anything else for its duration
One of the better ideas I’ve heard. If that were to happen, it would need to have something like an extremely limited range and a LOS requirement. But I imagine it would take the other supports being stronger than mercy to make that happen (ana, lucio)
Well as described it would be 5M still to Resurrect the ally and whoever is in a 10M radius around that target will also be Resurrected. Just remember old Resurrect was 15M so it would be an even smaller range with more counterplay but still equally as impactful.
Edit: I added what the ability would look like in the initial post cause I think everyone thinks it would become the old Mass Resurrect which is not what it would be at all.
Unfortunately it will continue to be asked for because is Mercy’s form of gaining the same satisfaction as an elimination. No matter how much may see it totally different. Mass Resurrect was the Ultimate that gave a similar level of satisfaction as a Rip-Tire (but instead of bringing death, Mass Resurrect brought life [and likely death again if used without regard for follow up enemy teamwipes).
The way Mercy is in relation to this game and community, prompts me to feel the Devs should give up on making a pacifist, enabling character because in game death is just better understood it seems.
Make a lore event where Mercy is abducted by Talon. She is abused, murder is attempted, but fails due to her biotic tech that gives her regeneration. After which she becomes a cold hearted character still wishing for a better world, but will murder in order to attain it. This would allow for a much more significant gameplay rework that removes utility applied to teammates in trade for damage done to opponents.
Would I like this change, NO!
Would I still play Mercy, yes.
I would play her for the spiteful satisfaction of eliminating my opponents as her, waiting for the new voiceline “They deserved it.”
Because murder is acceptable outplay even when counterplay is nil because you should have just clicked the Rip-Tire.
Mercy me, this post just took a real dark turn didn’t it?