First of all let me start by saying I understand wanting to nerf mercy’s movement, and the reasoning behind wanting to encourage people to use their ability with purpose rather than playing flappy bird (which works in the lower ranks where people struggle to aim). For reference I am currently a Diamond 1 mercy player, so I do get a lot of variety when it comes to the sr range average of my games, from low plat to high masters and therefore used to playing vs both lower and higher skilled players. The rework is intuitive overall, however the only issues so far I’ve come across is with the reduced GA cooldown, and I will give some practical examples of reasons why.
PHARAMERCY
With the new cooldown, following your Phara can result difficult and even leave you stranded if timings are unlucky. As an example, if your Phara chooses to boost upwards as you are using your GA, by the time you have your cooldown returned she may out of your range to fly to her. This leaves mercy in a less than ideal situation where she is essentially out of range from anyone in her team, and in higher ranks will be instantly punished.
Another thing I would commonly do as mercy when playing with a Phara is play with cover such as rooftops and walls to avoid getting shot. This can be relatively hard to do in certain situations so I would consider it one of the more ‘skilful’ GA uses. With the new cooldown however I find myself struggling to do this unless my Phara is playing close to me, which will not always be the case. Against the higher skilled hitscan players, the only way to survive at all as mercy was to keep yourself at range from your Phara while floating on nearby cover. The new cooldown however has forced me to play in closer range to my Phara, therefore resulting in me getting shot down instantly, especially vs Diamond + players.
As a side note I would like to acknowledge that phara-mercy can be oppressing in lower ranks. However, the rework to mercy’s passive means you can now just focus mercy a lot more reliably since she isn’t able to regen as effectively if you do not shoot the Phara, so if she is flying in the open she will be killed. This alone helps a lot with dealing with phara-mercy at these lower ranks where it is oppressive, while rewarding you for playing smartly using cover. So I do think the passive itself is a good change that encourages better positioning, however the reduced GA cooldown makes this difficult to utilize and therefore can be frustrating.
BROKEN SYNERGY WITH PREFER BEAM TARGET & PREFER FACING TARGET
Both these settings allow mercy to stay attached to a target out of her LOS. It was a great setting to pocket someone during dangerous situations. The new GA cd makes it so the beam often breaks before you are able to fly back, making it only viable once or two times, if you are lucky. As an avid user of these settings, I find it frustrating that I cannot pocket someone reliably anymore using this, once again forcing me to stay closer to my pocket AND to float longer in LOS of my pocket which many times can mean death. For example, when pocketing a hitscan on the high-ground, I would often hang lower from them to remain in cover, using minimum GA to not drop from my target. This very basic pocketing technique now feels clunky and forces me to stay floating in Angelic Descent to avoid beam breakage. This gives the enemy enough time to shoot me at higher ranks.
PIT PLAY (yes you read it right)
As mercy I often play around the edges of maps to survive intense fights. Maps such as Eichenwalde 2nd point, Kings Row 3rd and Oasis Well are great examples where mercy can shine by dipping under the map, whether it is to pull off a risky rez or simply survive during an OT fight. Maybe this was intentionally something that was being nerfed, but I feel the need to make people aware that this was the only way for mercy to have a chance at surviving during the more intense fights, and in diamond plus let me tell you even dangling off the map I am chased and often killed. And yes for this one I will say it…it was so fun to do! Not being able to play on the outskirts of maps anymore is a real gameplay killer (for me personally).
REZ
This is a smaller topic, but I will say needing to wait that extra second after a rez to fly out of danger has made my rez count close to 0 in diamond + ranks where people expect the rez and will do everything in their power to stop it. Most of the rezzes I have been able to do have been either really early fight when someone gets sniped, or really late fight, aka after a fight is won, neither of which hold great value. The only time I can pull off a rez mid fight is during Valkyrie, which I obviously won’t have every fight. I understand rez isn’t punished much in lower ranks, but after a certain SR rez isn’t that easy to pull off and having that instant get away was essential to getting a chance to survive. So I’m not sure how you would handle this one but this is the situation at my current SR, which isn’t even that high, let alone in high master or GM, where mercy rez is treated like a rare blood moon of some sort.
Thanks for taking the time to read my feedback, complaints aside I do appreciate the increase in communication with the community, and other than GA issue the rest of the season 3 looks rad!
. And yea i’m starting to think they may have a list of favorites, samito, jay3 etc. Remember jay3 is the same guy who said supports shouldn’t dps unless everyone on their team is at full health.
Sadly you’d be surprised how many players do not do this apart from maybe an initial pick up. Also, are you not needing to look at your mercy more often? Doesn’t this affect your gameplay? I feel like if had to be looking to often behind me it would make it harder to focus on the rest of the game on a hero like Phara, but maybe that’s just me.