disclaimer: i main mercy, im not pro though and i guess this might make my opinion obsolete since im only mid 3100, but whatever
Overwatch balance is always something that’s been… sad, to say the least. and i doubt that the game will ever really be balanced and whatnot.
balanced heroes will be considered niche because of the meta and because there will always be stronger heroes. its sad but true
and hell, hero balance will not always guarantee that a hero is fun to play, especially not in the current state
I am not saying that “mercy is fun!! shes so great to play omg omg ”
I am saying that mercy is fair, she can be impactful based on the players (your) decisions. mercy can also feel overshadowed when being played against stronger supports like ana. She is necessarily meta, but she isnt considered to be unplayable either.
she is not broken or underpowered in her current state
and heres a quick callout: mercy is not a braindead hero to play, if you want to get immense value out of her, you have to have experience and skill:sparkles:
if you are bad at mercy, which yes, it is possible to be, then you will obviously not be as good as someone like Animetic or Hoshizora
Mercy is balanced but she is slightly undertuned like most other supports. A little buff to Mercy will make her stand in the same ground as Ana is. And not just buff Mercy, every other healer should also be buffed too.
Like, right now Ana is just dominating between all the supports right now and the one that came on second is Zen and Mercy. Yes, Mercy right now is better than Lucio ever since his nerf and the meta shifting. And I personally think that every other healer except Ana deserve a buff or two. However for Baptiste, Moira and Brigitte, Blizzard should consider giving them a major buff or a rework.
Moira is currently dominating in lower ranks due to her very high healing and her elimination potential. Moira can be adjusted by giving her utilities in exchange for her healing so she won’t be so overpowered in the lower ranks and at the same time Moira will have more plays in the higher ranks.
Baptiste needs a full rework in my opinion. He seriously didn’t have that much value outside bunker. Most of his abilities are just too stationary and he can’t move them on his own will. It will be nice if he could be more mobile.
Brigitte just needs a full rework or a revert nerfs. Like Baptiste, outside GOATS or triple supports she is just lacking in so many ways.
Yet what’s “highly subjective” was infact one of the top reasons for her original rework. Disheartening to play against her ultimate ability. Now that there’s some aura of finding her current state not so fun to play as… it’s simply and generally “she’s balanced, her pick rate and win rate are fine, adapt or move on”. Pick rate and win rate were, ironically, not one of the big reasons for her original rework, yet are now being cited whenever anyone complains about Mercy’s current state to play as.
No worries, was just clarifying . I’m not arguing that Mercy is presumably balanced but she is missing something. Her ‘on fire’ is still arguably below average too, even since the many nerfs followed by the rework (which obviously was necessary to nerf, I realise that). Just hasn’t been great from start to date.
I think that “fun is subjective” but the notion that Mercy pre-rework was disheartening to play against, was largely objective. I don’t know anyone ever in the history of evers who got a team wipe rezzed and thought “YES! Now I can kill them all again!!”
I don’t think they’ve adjusted what it takes for her to be on fire since her rework. Last I remember it’s based on your rezes which is hard to do when you can only do it once every 30 seconds. lol
Yeah it seems to be still biased toward the time when she could get multiple successful resurrects off, but now at best you’ll rez someone and kill a person to be on fire.
It’s not really a hot take. Mercy isn’t a Deathball character and Deathball had been the go-to style of play for a while. It shouldn’t be surprising the healers who are good in deathballs, like Ana and Lucio tend to perform better than her, especially when Ana is overtuned.
Now that the meta is shifting towards more of a Bunker comp where Mercy can perform well, especially with her her synergy with Snipers, she’s beginning to see a lot more play.
As someone who doesnt play mercy, I think this is the best version of mercy OW has had. Not weak with incentives to purposely let people die, and not broken like she was after the rework. Still versatile and can be used in almost any comp, with a fairly high pick rate and a decent win rate. I still dont like playing against rez, but its here to stay and seems to be the most fair version.
While a lot of people found it un fun to play against, blizz stated the reason for the change to also be because of the gameplay it promoted. They didnt like mercy sitting outside of the fight telling ppl to die on the cart cuz they have rez. They wanted her to remain active in the fight, and with all the issues 2.0 brought, they did succeed on that part.
Valkyrie doesn’t offer that much more than amping what she can already do by some degree. It’ll hardly pivot a game unless the enemy’s already exhausted.
From a satisfaction or stylistic perspective there isn’t anything in her kit worthy of camera time — nothing of spectacle to wow the audience and no move you could time well, save the day then later congratulate yourself with.
That’s something you’re going to have accept playing her.
Personally I’d be happy if they made Resurrection instant again — even if they ramped up the cost by which to use it to Zarya ultimate levels. With it you could at least make one satisfactory move in a game rather than flutter about like a gas meter attendant making sure everyone else is topped off.
That’s just my take. Her lack of a power move of any kind has me feeling like she’s still incomplete — like there ought to be something more to her than is.
Aside from that sure, you’re right, there’s not much else wrong with her. She’s balanced to be par but that’s about it. They pared her down to about being 3 decibels floor to peak in everything she does and can possibly do. She hardly makes any sound louder than background noise.
It’s actually somewhat debatable whether she is balanced or not.
Regardless, most of the Mercy debate centers around the fact that the rework she got radically changed her play style, it was incredibly poorly handled, and now her kit is just a poorly designed mess.
I like Mercy where shes at now, of course there are some things I dislike about her but I can say that for any character.
I love flying around and doing super jumps, but I hate how she’s weakened if her teammates can’t hit their shots/peel. Mercy’s kit isn’t designed around her dpsing so she relies on others to do it for her (not that she can’t), but I don’t like dmg boosting thin air.
Like every character she has her strengths and weaknesses.
skill:sparkles:
. I’m not arguing that Mercy is presumably balanced but she is missing something. Her ‘on fire’ is still arguably below average too, even since the many nerfs followed by the rework (which obviously was necessary to nerf, I realise that). Just hasn’t been great from start to date.