If You're So Afraid Of Reverting Ana And Mercy Just Put Both Version 1.0 On The PTR

General Discussion
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I’ll try to get right to the point with no filler text.

You left the Mercy we have now on the PTR for months before putting it through. I see no reason NOT to “test” older patched Heroes for months on end.

Please consider reverting the changes you made to these heroes on the PTR so we can test them further.

Ana and Mercy keep being brought up everywhere. It’s obvious the player’s don’t like the position these heroes are in and we want something to change still.

Ana and Mercy (plus Moira to a point) are the main healers in the game that have gotten nerfed to the floor, we can’t have them get ruined anymore. They don’t need anymore nerfs. We need to balance these 2 out and waiting 2 years before something happens is not acceptable. Almost all of the healers have been power creeped and we need to restore or change their kit back to a healthy state.

As much as the community doesn’t like the OWL, reverting these heroes would bring more “hype” and “intensive” moments. Imagine wiping the team with a nano boost. The other team resurrecting and getting wiped again? 2 powerful plays that could go either way just happened.

Ana
LIST OF ANA’S OLDER PATCH NOTES:

JANUARY 24TH, 2017
Hero Balance Update
	Biotic Grenade
	Effect duration has been reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds
	Healing boost on allies has been decreased by 50%
Developer Comments
The healing boost from Ana’s Biotic Grenade was providing too much healing, especially when used on targets with large health pools.

NOVEMBER 30TH, 2016
Bug Fixes
Arcade
	Fixed a bug that prevented Ana from being selected in 1v1 matches

NOVEMBER 15TH, 2016
Hero Balance Change;
General
	Dealing damage to things other than players (like Torbjörn's turret or Symmetra's teleporter) no longer charges ultimate abilities
	Ultimate costs have been increased by 25% for all heroes
   
 Developer Comment
Game-changing ultimate abilities were coming up a bit too frequently. This change helps keep them in check while still allowing them to be powerful.
  
  	Nano Boost
	No longer increases move speed
 
   Developer Comment
The increased speed from Ana’s Nano Boost made the ability feel unstoppable and forced Ana players to select targets that could really take advantage of the speed boost. Removing the speed boost means that Ana has a reason to apply Nano Boost to a larger variety of heroes, and enemies can fend off the attack more easily.
  
  Bug Fixes
Heroes
	Fixed a bug that prevented Ana’s healing stats from showing up in the Career Profile page
	Fixed a bug that prevented Ana’s custom crosshairs from displaying while zoomed
  
  OCTOBER 19TH, 2016
Bug Fixes
Heroes
	Fixed an issue preventing Ana’s Nano Boost callouts from being heard by the enemy team
   
 OCTOBER 11TH, 2016
General Update
General
	Heroes hit by Ana's Nano Boost have a new voice line that informs other players
  
  Hero Balance Updates
	Nano Boost
	Ultimate cost has been increased by 20%
	Biotic Grenade
	Radius has been increased from 3 to 4 meters
  
  Developer Comments
So far, we haven't seen any indication that Ana is too strong overall, but her ultimate charges a little too fast, especially considering the impact it can have on a match. Also, her Biotic Grenades are getting a small boost to help her hit multiple targets.
   
 SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2016
Bug Fixes
Maps
	Fixed a bug that allowed the payload to heal players, even when they were negatively affected by Ana’s Biotic Grenade
	Fixed a bug preventing the health bars on the Practice Range bots from displaying the effects of Ana’s Biotic Grenade
Heroes
	Smoothed the animation during Ana’s zoom-release transition
  
  SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2016
General Updates
General
	When activating the "Needs healing" communication while targeting a teammate, Ana, Lúcio, Mercy, and Zenyatta will now tell allies to group up to receive healing. A marker will also appear above the player's head, allowing teammates to locate the healer more quickly
Bug Fixes;
General
	Fixed a bug in the Custom Game settings preventing the Ability Cooldown modifier from affecting Ana
Heroes
	Appropriate sound effects now play when Ana shoots barriers, shields, and armor
	Ana’s scope now correctly displays all custom reticle options
	Ana’s attacks and abilities now activate the controller’s rumble function
  
  AUGUST 2, 2016
Bug Fixes
Heroes
	Fixed a bug that was affecting the majority of Ana’s “Most in Game” career statistics
	Fixed a bug that caused Ana’s Biotic Grenade to miss an allied Reaper while in Wraith Form
A.I.
	Fixed an issue hindering Ana from restoring allies to full health
   
 JULY 26, 2016
Hero Balance Updates
	Biotic Rifle
	Rate of fire increased by 20%
	Magazine size increased from 8 to 10
Developer Comments
While Ana has been very well received, she was showing to be a little bit weaker overall. In addition to helping her feel better to play, these changes should also increase her healing and damage output.
Bug Fixes;
Heroes
	Targets of Ana’s Sleep Dart will no longer instantly recover when damaged (recovery time is now 0.5 seconds)
  
  JULY 21, 2016
Bug Fixes
Heroes
	The correct hit pip sound will now play whenever one of Ana’s darts impact with a barrier
	All of Ana’s in-game sounds now have proper occlusion

Ana has had a bad time after Season 3.
You:

  • removed her speed boost from Nano
  • removed her fast reload speed
  • killed her damage (Slowly returning)
  • killed her Bio Grenade
  • Removed the ability to pre-heal (Like what?!?)

Revert her back to:
(Values are in the old patch notes)

  • Faster Reload Speed and reduce the ammo reserve back to 10.
  • Give back the speed boost when someone is Nano Boosted.
  • Decrease the time it takes to obtain her ultimate (Or don’t change it )
  • Revert back her original bonus healing from Bio Grenade
  • Revert back her damage
  • Keep damage reduction capped at 50%
  • Remove the ability to shoot through fully healed allies.

These original abilities of this hero made her a healer worth picking and kept Mercy’s Resurrection pretty much on the same playing field. She’s strong in this state and still relies on a second healer to keep her sustained.

Ana needs to be reverted so she actually has a slight edge or equal edge over Mercy. After all you have to aim with her and Mercy you don’t, you need to feel rewarded for hitting shots, she needs to be seen as a threat instead of an easy kill. She also needs to be slightly better or offer something slightly more powerful than her counterpart.

Ana before the nerfs was keeping Mercy in check when she had Mass Resurrection.

Nano Blade, Nano Reinhardt, and Reaper were a strong combo and only required 1-2 ultimates to win team fights, these combos are still strong but have lessened in consistency after the nerfs. Ana’s ultimate was fairly fast to generate as well and her bio grenade increased healing a fair bit.

By reverting this hero it just indirectly boosts the effectiveness of Reaper, who is still having a hard time even with his buffs.

The Devs wants us to be able to get “creative” with our team comps, and having all healers viable is one step in that direction.

In the heat of the moment you can flub shots and lose the game. With Mercy you have some mobility and guaranteed heals in chaotic fights. There has been no reason to pick Ana over Mercy for the past 5 seasons due to Mercy’s consistency. Ana’s power from her kit (not healing) has been removed. She is now a bad heal bot with a terrible ultimate.

Mercy

LIST OF OLD MERCY PATCH NOTES:

DECEMBER 13TH, 2016
Bug Fixes
	Fixed a bug that prevented Mercy from using Resurrect in rare situations on King’s Row

NOVEMBER 30TH, 2016
Bug Fixes
	Fixed a bug that allowed Mercy to receive Ultimate charge when using her Cadueus Staff to increase teammates’ damage when they’re not damaging enemies

NOVEMBER 15TH, 2016
Hero Balance Change
	Ultimate costs have been increased by 25% for all heroes
  Developer Comment
Game-changing ultimate abilities were coming up a bit too frequently. This change helps keep them in check while still allowing them to be powerful.
 	Passive health regeneration now activates when Mercy avoids taking damage for 1 second (formerly 3 seconds)
Developer Comment
This change allows Mercy to survive more easily by evading enemy fire.
Bug Fixes
	Fixed a bug preventing Mercy’s staff from showing up in the “Guardian Angel” highlight intro with her Cobalt skin equipped
   
 SEPTEMBER 13TH, 2016
General Update
General
	Players should now see fewer Plays of the Game featuring Mercy’s Resurrection ability
  
  SEPTEMBER 1, 2016
General Updates
General
	When activating the "Needs healing" communication while targeting a teammate, Ana, Lúcio, Mercy, and Zenyatta will now tell allies to group up to receive healing. A marker will also appear above the player's head, allowing teammates to locate the healer more quickly
Hero Balance Update
	Ultimates that consume the ultimate meter when activated will now drain the meter more quickly (.25 second instead of 1 second)
	Reverted a recent change that reduced the size of heroes' projectiles
	Most hero abilities will no longer interrupt quick melee attacks
	Ultimate abilities will now interrupt quick melee attacks
Developer Comments
Altering the size of projectiles in flight had too many unintended side effects to keep in the game, at least in its current form. We will continue watching this and make additional changes if necessary. We’re also making quick melee more consistent when interacting with enemy abilities.
	Caduceus Staff
	Healing Beam
	Healing-per-second has been increased by 20%
	Resurrect
	Resurrected allies will be able to maneuver after 2.25 seconds (reduced from 3 seconds)
Developer Comments
Resurrection now allows teammates to jump back into the fight more quickly, which should help Mercy survive after activating her ultimate. Mercy's healing is also getting a boost to solidify her role as a strong, single-target healer.

JULY 19, 2016
General
	Self-healing abilities now charge ultimate abilities. As a result, some heroes’ ultimate costs have been adjusted (see below).
Hero Balance Change
	Caduceus Staff
	Damage Boost
	Effect will no longer stacks with bonus damage provided by another Mercy
	Resurrect
	Ultimate charge cost increased by 30%
	Movement is no longer prevented during activation
	Guardian Angel instantly resets upon use
Developer Notes
Mercy's ultimate is one of the most powerful abilities in the game; however, players would often fly into the fray and die while using it. With this update, Resurrect will now take a bit longer to charge, but Mercy will be a lot safer when activating the ability in the middle of combat.
Bug Fixes
	[PC Only] Fixed a bug that caused Mercy’s Caduceus Staff beam to disconnect from its target if the player a) quickly switched between healing and damage beams by holding down both mouse buttons and/or b) was facing away from the target at the time of the switch
  
  JUNE 21, 2016
Bug Fixes
	Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause projectiles to hit Reinhardt instead of his Barrier Field in "High Bandwidth" Custom Games
 
   JUNE 14, 2016
Bug Fixes
	Fixed a bug that allowed Mercy to gain Ultimate charge whenever damage boosting an ally who was attacking a barrier or Ice Wall

Mercy has completely changed. Her pick rate was never this high when she had Resurrection as an ultimate, this is all due to her being a consistent heal bot in today’s game with better survival. No other healer can match her.

I see no reason as to why you wouldn’t put put Mercy 1.0 on the PTR.

  • S̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶o̶s̶e̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶B̶u̶n̶n̶y̶ ̶h̶o̶p̶ ̶a̶b̶i̶l̶i̶t̶y̶.̶
  • She has to wait 1.5 seconds to begin healing herself
  • She loses mass healing from her ultimate (No more Valk)
  • She gains Resurrect that has the potential to be wasted
  • Resurrect is off from “E” and no longer is a 30 second CD, Resurrect needs to be earned by healing not a cooldown.
  • Decrease the time it takes to obtain her ultimate, or keep it the same.
  • You are not invincible when using Resurrect
  • Player’s need to wait 3 seconds before moving from Resurrect.
  • Guardian Angel is reset upon using Resurrect.
  • IF NEEDED, add a cast time to resurrect at the cost of her whole ultimate charge.
  • Do NOT keep ultimate charge gain from damage boosting damage into enemy shields.

Putting Mercy 1.0 on the PTR to test is a way to “nerf” her. If it’s too much you can hopefully use Valkyrie as a buff (Ability not ultimate) later in the future. These changes affect her healing, mobility and self-sustain with Resurrection. By doing this we’re making her close to Ana’s survivable state but at the same time keeping her powerful.

The real reason players still don’t like her is because she’s too consistent at healing and the others are not. While this won’t ever go away nerfing her even more won’t solve anything. If you continue to nerf her she will be a dumpster tier hero.

Most of this backlash would have been avoided if you just buffed Ana in the first place rather than rework Mercy.

Please remember this is an OPINION! I am also not someone speaking on behalf of everyone. No hate.

The Megathread has been forgotten and this is not okay.

If you don’t agree that’s okay it’s a touchy subject, please post what changes should be done to both Heroes.

Getting real sick and tired of seeing people in game and outside of the game complain about healers in general. I played since the open beta and I play this game purely for the support category and seeing it being gutted left and right is getting annoying now, supports should be strong in a different way. Yes this includes Symmetra but that’s a whole other issue.

TL;DR: Put Ana 1.0 and Mercy 1.0 on the PTR. It does not mean they will get pushed through.

40 Likes
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You know that Ana 1.0 had a 5 round clip and fire rate slower than Widow charged up right? I really do not want that back.

18 Likes
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Mercy is not coming back. She should not come back. The old rez as an ultimate rewarded bad game behavior and punished good game behavior.

Is Mercy in a good and balanced place right now? Absolutely not. But bringing back one of the least liked things about the game won’t help that at all.

As for Ana; Ana would feel better if Mercy was not so dominant. It’s not a case of Ana being weak; it’s Mercy being too strong.

19 Likes
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Unpopular Opinion: Mercy 1.0 was too reliant on her team and not nearly as fun on top of being unfun to play against. I’d rather they tweak 2.0 or try again. Anything but 1.0.

5 Likes
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Completely agree with everything in this post. Make healers fun to play again.

6 Likes
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“She loses the Bunny hop ability.”

Nope.

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This is a well organize threads and was very informational.

I have a quick question, how do you do the the scroll down box when you list old patch notes?
1 Like
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Having her old grenade back would make her a must pick again, and +100% healing could potentially create a dive tank meta that is beyond playable.
I think she needs some minor buffs or something, though. By minor I mean actually something impactful but not crazy (not like “5 more healing”).

Old mercy was terrible. Her Guardian Angel was way worse, her ult made the best strategy be to not play the game until your team dies (or actually requiring your team to die in a coordinated manner; where do they teach that skill?). I do not see any advantages trying out older mercy would give, when she’s in a decent position at the moment.

2 Likes
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Actually using the PTR for trailing balance changes and not just a preview sneak peak of the next patch?!? I’ll have some of what your smoking sir.

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No, Ana is weak, we do not buff heroes by nerfing other ones. Ana needs some work. Mercy doesn’t need nerfs.

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Hell to the no! If they remove bunnyhopping, I quit Mercy. It’s the only fun and succesful part of her rework, that’s a horrible idea. Also your “changes” to Mercy are just many nerfs, lol…

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Ana feels weak because there is a better, easier option in Mercy. Ana is far more challenging to play than Mercy, but if you are good at her, she should have a higher reward. That’s just not the case right now; for a lot less effort and skill, you can get more out of Mercy. At the moment, it is just wasteful to pick Ana over Mercy.

Should Ana have something small done? I think she and Lucio need some small tweaking. But you’re wrong if you think buffing several heros to make up for one overpowered one is the answer. That’s a slippery slope; the supports do not have to be these powerhouses. Mercy feels so strong because there is minimal skill, effort, or risk involved in very high reward actions (compared to the other supports, generally). So it’s a case of, why wouldn’t you play her, and with rez as it is, simply leaving your team at a disadvantage if the enemy has a Mercy and you do not, which cancels out 2 of the 12 picks in a given game. That’s why she has a nearly 100% pickrate ladder and pro scene.

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1: it rewarded bad behavior because you would gain more SR and lose less if you got a 5 man rez. This feature was taken out of the game.

2: Mercy is balanced. She was more balanced before her rework.

3: Ana is also balanced.

4 Likes
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While that’s true, Widow, what I was alluding to was the so-called Mercy ‘hide and seek’. That was never the intention of how Mercy should be played, but Mercys had to play that way. And, as a matter of fact, the Mercy players who then claimed ‘Well that wasn’t me, I didn’t hide with rez!’ were either lying, or playing her wrong, as it was in your team’s best interest to hide with rez. That’s the ‘rewarding bad behavior’ I meant, really. Though the SR boosting was an issue as well. Blizzard tried on multiple occasions to prevent the ‘hiding with rez’; that’s not the way they wanted the hero played. That’s why it was reworked.

As for punishing good gameplay; while obviously working together and using ultimates to get a bunch of solid kills as a team is good behavior, and Mercy just undoing it with one button feels punishing for that (which Blizzard acknowledged multiple times; they said they understood why players were so frustrated with that mechanic), the fact that you had to first seek out the hiding Mercy and kill her -but kill her in a specific order, because she could rush in from respawn and still undo everything- felt like punishing good, team-fight behavior. Overwatch is an objective-based game; that’s never how it was intended to function.

I don’t think Mercy is far from balanced, like say Hanzo right now. I think she needs tweaking to her risk-reward ratio. If that was done, I think she would feel like she is in the proper place. Her pickrate as it is, for as long as it has been, shows she is not in quite the right place balance-wise. All these tiresome metas that have evolved are rooted in the Mercy-meta, because Mercy-meta never really ended.

And as for Ana; I agree with you mostly on that as well. I think perhaps something small could be done for her -as she is particularly weak against barriers, and barriers are so prevalent now- but I would also say she is a more or less balanced hero. She just does not feel that way right now because of the overbearing presence of the far less skill oriented Mercy, with her risk-reward ratio.

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The whole point of the thread is to put these Heroes back to a powerful state and not just resorting them to a “heal bot”

Of course everything from “1.0” wouldn’t stay it would need to be tweaked. But they should have done that in the first place instead of reworking everything.

Bunny hopping would most likely return to the hero.

Old Ana was powerful and so was Mercy. Now Mercy is literally the only hero that is consistent in healing.

I don’t want to see more threads on Nerfing Mercy. I rather see Ana above Mercy but have Mercy also be powerful at the same time. This is possible to do. But the Developers seem to not want to do this.

Bringing back Resurrection is more of a nerf than a buff but players seem to not realise this.

If we nerf Mercy more then Ana will be a must pick while Mercy will not. Back in S3 you could still play Mercy even when Ana was Meta at the time.

2 Likes
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So me climbing to 3990 before the rework hit live means I was playing her wrong? really?

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Agreed, and current Resurrect still encourages bad game behavior. Anecdotal, but I have SOOO many people complain when I play Ana that I can’t Resurrect them when they peak and die 10 times (underestimate?) in a game.

Resurrect totally encourages people to be more risky and not learn when they do stupid crap.

The game just feels better when I play as Ana vs Ana or a Moira. Even vs Zen and Lucio. The moments that feel bad are when a Mercy resurrects a Reinhardt in a 3v2 or something like it. Fight was going fine, now you’re out of luck. How do you kill a Mercy in that situation when there’s a Brigitte stunning you or Zarya giving her a bubble or Mercy is behind a wall or Mercy is floating down, out of LoS, and resurrecting in mid-air. Hell, if a Tracer has to reload the resurrect gets off.

I can’t think of another ability in the game that I am always worried about. Thinking “If Mercy gets one of those off this fight it’s over.”

Resurrect cast time is 1.75 seconds. Human reaction time is .25. Sleep Dart takes .5 seconds to cast. Sleep Dart travels 60 meters a second. An Ana better have a very nice flick and reaction to sleep the Mercy. Assuming the Mercy doesn’t have help from her team.

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This is how power creep happens. Ana is just slightly weak in her healing average, but completely eclipsed by how brokenly OP Mercy is.

If you want to buff Ana to Mercy’s level, nothing will ever die in overwatch.

2 Likes
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I can’t speak at all for how you played, but it is known and acknowledged by Blizzard that Mercy’s SR gains vs losses before her rework were very out of sync. She was gaining a disproportionate amount of SR for wins, and losing less SR for losses, because ‘big rez’ skewed her stats so much. There were instances where, even if it cost them fights, Mercys would allow teammates to die, just to get more players in the rez to boost their SR. That’s a known fact. It’s not just a running gag that Mercy mains were boosted into higher SR then perhaps they ought to be. Many of them did, because with Mercy and Mercy alone that was possible.

But if you were hide-and-seeking, that was the unintended way to play Mercy, but that was how she ought to be played, for the good of your team. This is a moot argument, really, as she was reworked for this very reason.

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omg you people need to stop

1: the SR gains and losses applied to EVERY HERO as if your stats during the match were really good you would gain more SR and lose less and you emphasizing words doesn’t make you right btw

2: majority of BAD mercys in low ranks did this and they stayed in low ranks for a reason. They were bad. They suck. They probably still do. Garbage. She was reworked because some popular streamer said on stream “hide and seek isn’t fun” noe because you could exploit her SR gains but because they didn’t like doing that game play. With this logic, i think every hero should be reworked since they’re all unfun to play against. “I want to ult as soldier oh no I can’t because they have a rein how dare they I deserve to do whatever I want.”

You are not right, you’re wrong. I’m sorry you’re so biased you decided to make things up so you can fool yourself into believing your convoluted lies but I don’t care.