Let’s take a look at the balance triangle , shall we?
Balancing is based on these 3 points:
Playerbase impression.
Developer impression.
Hero stats.
Now let’s see how Mercy 1.0 (with mass rez) fits in this balance triangle.
Mass rez wasn’t liked by many players.
We all have seen the threads back then. The majority seemed to dislike it. Mercy’s ult had no counterplay other than dealing with Mercy before she ulted. (This could’ve been easily fixed with LOS checks though.)
The devs thought it promoted bad play, which it did. The hide and rez part of it. This is not how they wanted to see her played, even though that tactic wasn’t used that often.
Mercy wasn’t viable back then. Especially not after Ana’s release. She was even F-tier.
And how does Mercy 2.0 (the current Mercy) fits in the balance triangle?
Players are divided about this. Some Mercy mains like her current kit and some don’t. One thing is for certain and that is that the majority of the playerbase doesn’t complain about Mercy’s ultimate anymore.
The devs have stated that they are not going to revert and rework Mercy anymore. The amount of changes she has received proves that they are trying to make the current Mercy work. (But they could’ve done a better job at balancing her.) In interviews during the Blizzcon did multiple developers even stated that they are satisfied with the state of all support heroes.
Her average healing is on par with other main healers and her pickrate is still healthy. It seems it’s better in low and mid ranks than in high ranks, but this could be blamed on the fact that Mercy isn’t meta.
I think it’s a bit of everything why she got reworked.
Fun is a terrible reason to balance a hero.
There are players who dislike Mercy 2.0 and want mercy 1.0.
There are players who dislike Mercy 2.0 and want Mercy 3.0.
There are players who like Mercy 2.0 and don’t want mercy 1.0 or Mercy 3.0.
To whose fun should we balance Mercy?
Also, players who are dissatisfied about something are more likely to express their opinion than those who are satisfied about something.
Would a Mercy player who like the current Mercy makes threads about how happy he/she is with the current Mercy?
Would a Mercy player who doesn’t like the current Mercy makes threads about how unhappy he/she is with the current Mercy?
mercy has a lower than ever skill ceiling right now because there are not enough decisions to be made w/ Valkyrie
before Valkyrie: is a fight going to break out? are we going to push? then i’ll press Q
during Valkyrie: do they have a hitscan(or hanzo in some cases)? yes–> i have to position myself properly no–> i can do w/e i want!
things were different back in mercy 2.0 or mercy 1.0
I feel like I make impacts with Mercy… And tbh I don’t really see how her skill expression was changed? Mass Rez wasn’t all too hard to pull off if you were doing it correctly just like now except you can’t go in and get a last second Rez. If anything it’s harder to pull off a good Rez that does help your team overall vs. being killed over it…
she’s not in a good spot Valkyrie is harmful for the game it doesn’t seem to be that way because it’s drawn out and less impactful than beat or trans
Valkyrie is a win-more ultimate that means that if you’re winning it helps you win a lot harder and if you’re losing it doesn’t do anything
you probably have heard that overwatch is a snow-bally game and Valkyrie just makes it more snow-bally
good question!
IMO fun in overwatch boils down to three things 1) mobility 2) flexibility (it means you can take a hero in any situation and manage to do your job relatively well) and 3) carry potential (look at any hero that’s well known for being fun they all have these three things)
mercy has excellent mobility and good flexibility but what she’s missing is some carry potential which she had w/ mercy 2.0 and mercy 1.0
so don’t balance her based on what one person finds interesting and fun but based on what we collectively as a community find interesting and fun!
Because I have been in games where there were 5 DPS and I showed up, solo healed as mercy, effectively winning the game for them. Both sides even proclaimed mercy carry.
It actually was quite funny because I was all dw people we got this, I am here. And it worked out.
I think what happened was when I came in people were tilted and my nonchalant attitude changed their perspective but then again the red team never killed me for 2 rounds lol
Statistically she is. She really is in an healthy spot, even with Valkyrie.
Also, off-healers have a better ultimates than any other main healer in the game. It’s not just Mercy, but Ana and Moira as well.
I think I have more faith in the developers than a collective community. Why? Because some heroes have a larger fanbase than others, and I don’t want the largest fanbase, which are Mercy’s and Genji’s fanbase, to have the largest voice in hero balancing.
But player feedback is important though and should not be easily discarded.
that has nothing to do w/ what i said! i think you just read the first 5 words and started typing!
no they both have powerful defensive ultimates and ana has a powerful offensive ultimate
Valkyrie is neither of those things it provides power to a push but not as much as nano and it slows down enemies’ push but not as well as beat or trans! and again it being drawn out is the reason why it’s balanced
this has nothing to do with fan base do you not agree that a hero that has mobility flexibility and carry potential is considered fun by the majority of players?
This post has a lot of passion in it. You have to be careful because that will probably turn some people off, especially given the topic.
I am responding mostly because I think you are on to something when you talk about her skill ceiling being too close to her skill floor.
Statistically speaking, she is the 7th most picked hero overall. She’s actually played more than D.Va. But when you start digging in, you find that she’s picked much less at the top tier. She is #16 at GM.
So, her baseline output seems to be good, but at top tier play she really drops off. The same thing happens to Moira by the way.
I don’t think that Mercy is trash or useless or anything like that for a majority of ranks, but as you climb she loses value. There’s diminishing returns.
All healers have their place and they arent going to be viable all of the time. There are many mercy mains making videos on how to play new mercy that you can check out. Otherwise it’s time to go to spawn, press h, and learn a new healer. Blizzard doesnt have to balance around your inflexibility.
That’s the crux of the issue, other heroes that are harder can use can find more value out of them by preforming better. With Mercy since so much of her power is done automatically for her, she doesn’t have a way to outplay anyone. So where she ends up balance wise is where she stays because her room for improvement is so minuscule.
Yeah, pre-work you could see a difference between a new Mercy player and a more experienced one.
Post-rework she is boring to play and the skill ceiling is very low, as in its all very watered down, homogenized. Everyone gets a free rez, everyone gets to heal and watch their team mate die because even healing cannot match the most lowest damage output in the game. And you get to spectate from the air watching your team die and have no impact.
I want to see her reworked with rez and valk removed and healing put back to 60/s.
Mercy’s skill ceiling post rework is way higher than it was prior lmao what are some people on about?
Her GA rework allows higher skilled Mercy players to use her movement in creative ways and now rez is a high risk high reward skill. If you really think post rework mercy is low skill or that bad you have to accept that you just don’t know how to play her anymore.
I don’t think something is healthy for the game if it’s unfun and clashes with Mercy easy to pick up kit, regardless of its balance state, which I’m fine assuming its perfectly balanced. There’s enough reason for alterations if you ask me.
Valkyrie is designed around covering for skill, and that’s a fine design by itself, unfortunately it clashes with Mercy’s kit, the easy to pick hero, accessible, newcomer friendly, an ultimate that closes that skill gap even further is not a good choice, it denies player expression far too much.
The closest comparison in the game is Tactical Visor. They’re both skill covering ultimates. Tac Visor lasts 6 second and covers just for aim. Valkyrie lasts 15 (!!) and covers almost everything out of a Mercy skill pool.
Allow Valkyrie to use the same skills as base Mercy’s kit, rather than cover for them, and it’ll be a vast improvement. Remove chain beam, allow for target selection, keep faster GA but remove flight, make the pistol better instead spammable. Valkyrie doesn’t need to increase a skill ceiling, but it shouldn’t drop it on the player’s toes either.
Valkyrie plays like punishment sometimes. Mercy feels amazing to play, you’ll be ping ponging around, nigh unkillable because you dodge everything with GA, you boost and heal just at the right time both DPS and the Zarya thought you were pocketing… Now I have ult so I get the same result but… I don’t have to work for it anymore? Okay I guess, let me go battle mercy then, oh great I have infinite ammo too, I’ll just spam who cares.
I don’t want mass res, cheap and simple tweaks to Valk will go a long way.
Valk is not a budget trance or sound barrier. It’s not an afk spectator. Its like saying widows ult is useless because shes just looking at people. You should be using it to initiate fights, help your team build ult charge, shot calling what you see from the air. If you wanna be more active and use a defensive ult to save the team play lucio. But Mercys kit has a specific place and purpose.
