Here’s my idea: remove Resurrect. Replace it with “Miracle Worker.” (Well, actually, it’s this YouTubers’ idea, but still, it’s a really great idea.)
Miracle Worker:
Applies a three-second effect on a teammate that prevents them from taking damage that kills them. If they take damage that would normally kill them, they don’t die and are instead immediately healed for 50 health. If they don’t take lethal damage in that time period, they are immediately healed for 100 health once the duration is over. The numbers don’t have to be exactly as I described, but I think this would be much easier to balance than Resurrect.
The main problem with Mercy is that Resurrect is difficult to balance. It’s the only ability in the entire game that affects players who have died. As an Ultimate, Mercy players hid and didn’t heal their teammates just so they could pull off a big Resurrect. That’s not something that we want Mercy players to do, right? It’s not fun on the receiving end either, since having the entire enemy team revived after pulling off an epic team kill is not fun whatsoever, just like Jeff Kaplan explained in the original Mercy rework developer update.
However, having it as a regular ability will also be either overpowered or underpowered. When the Mercy rework launched, it was overpowered since you could instantly resurrect and would have the cooldown instantly reset during Valkyrie. You experimented with giving Resurrect an extra charge and only making the cast time zero seconds during Valkyrie, but it was overpowered no matter what you did. Then, you nerfed Mercy so hard that her Resurrect takes 1.5 seconds to cast, and she moves extremely slowly by doing it. Not to mention all the other nerfs to Valkyrie and the nerf to her healing output, which I’ll get to later.
The thing is, reviving someone who has just died is unique in Overwatch. Every other ability in the game, Ultimate or otherwise, only affects players who are alive. Resurrect is the only ability that affects dead players. This makes it hard to properly balance since there’s nothing to compare it to and nothing that can compete with it; there’s no ability that works in a similar fashion. It’s impossible to balance and will always be either underpowered or overpowered, and now, with Mercy’s current kit, it, and Mercy as a whole, is certainly underpowered. The consensus is that Mercy is underpowered at the moment and that Ana and Moira are better main healer picks than Mercy is. Ana and Moira both outheal Mercy at the moment, despite the fact that you have said that Mercy outheals all other support heroes, and their kits are just so much better. Zenyatta’s Ultimate is among the strongest in the game, and so is Lúcio’s Ult. Ana’s Nano Boost can totally win a team fight, and Moira’s Ultimate isn’t far behind either; plus, she gets her Ult very quickly.
Valkyrie, however, removes any need to switch between healed or damage boosted targets, taking away some of the skill required to play Mercy. But, on the other hand, she doesn’t get a boosted healing output, so with only 50 healing per second even during her Ultimate, she cannot help her teammates tank damage to win a team fight. Valkyrie feels like unengaging to use and is too easy to counter after her movement speed during Guardian Angel was severely reduced.
The problem with Mercy at the moment is Valkyrie. It’s also her healing output. But the root cause behind all the problems that Mercy has ever had is simply Resurrect. Resurrect as a regular ability, or as an Ultimate, can simply not work in Overwatch.
So, please, replace it with a different ability. Yes, Resurrect is iconic. It’s what we associate with Mercy’s character. It’s been in the game from the start in some form, and we all know and… well, not love, but we all know it. However, wouldn’t it make more sense for an angel-type character to save her allies rather than make them come back to life after dying? That seems more like a necromancer-type thing to me.
And as for Mercy’s healing, 50 health per second feels extremely slow. She can’t outheal Winston’s Tesla Cannon, which deals 60 damage per second, anymore. When playing as Mercy, I often feel like I can’t keep my teammates alive at all. I can’t juggle the healing beam around to heal different targets because the healing is so slow. I also can’t damage-boost enough since I need to heal all the time due to the slow healing output. I think that it should be reverted to 60 health per second, or at least 55. But in the end, it really just depends on what you do with the rest of her kit. That’s what’s most important. Mercy’s healing output right now isn’t as important as refining the rest of her kit and, hopefully, replacing Resurrect with a different ability.
Blizzard, I mostly love what you’re doing with Overwatch. Oftentimes, I’ve been pretty negative, but in the end, I love this game. It’s one of the best online multiplayer games you can play right now, and that’s why people like me care so much about the balance of the game. I used to play Mercy so much, and I’m sad to see her reach this state right now. With your comments on Mercy, stating that she is in a good place right now and that she outheals every other support hero (the latter of which is objectively incorrect when looking at the statistics), it really makes me think that you will never remove Resurrect or make Mercy a balanced hero again. I don’t want Mercy to be the worst healer, but I also don’t want Mercy to be a must-pick. I want Mercy to be a strong single-target healer with a fun and engaging Ultimate. Not Resurrect. Not Valkyrie (maybe Valkyrie if it’s changed in a notable way). I just want Mercy to be a good pick.
I hope you have something in mind for Mercy for the near future. Thank you.