If you are not up to snuff with how Mercy has been changed for the community patch, below are the changes…
**Guardian Angel
•Cooldown reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second.
Resurrect
•Cast time reduced from 1.75 seconds to 1 second.
•Cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 18 seconds.
•Allies resurrected are now only temporarily alive for 10 seconds.
Valkyrie
•Resets Resurrect cooldown.**
In my opinion, these changes are perfect at balancing Mercy’s rez, and I’ll tell you why. Mercy is a pocket support. There is nothing wrong in particular with that, but what makes her an especially volatile support is her use of rez. Why is rez so bad in the state that it is?
For one, it undos the damage that a team does to another, making it a waste of time dealing said damage. This is especially noticeable for a defending team with lots of stall since one enemy’s death can change the game, but a rezzing Mercy (who will do it from cover protected by her teammates) essentially turns the game into a 5v6.
For two, it encourages boosting (whether it works or doesn’t). Mercy’s base kit already encouraged that with the whole pocket-healer aesthetic, but the thing is when her ally dies, they’re dead. She’ll have to attach to someone else till her carry comes back. However, when rez is an ability, it ends up worsening the boosting situation. Mercy is now obligated to not only heal her target but rez them too. This can go two ways, the best way being that she is hard carried and is smart enough to land rezzes when appropriate and the worst way being that her pocket does little in damage or pics and Mercy isn’t healing her teammates.
Lasty for three, and this is for the one-tricks out there, does rez feel good to land? When you hit rez, do you feel accomplished when an ally comes back? Of course not. Rez feels slow and stiff. We mostly do it behind cover, and the only time we engage with Rez is when we’re popping Valk for the slight speed boost.
Why I think the changes to Mercy here are great are as follows:
- The reduction in cooldown and cast time makes it feel much better to land and viable in heat-of-the-moment situations. You’d probably rez more than usual, which is balanced by your rezzes being temporary.
- Boosting is not as encouraged as previously done because the rez won’t last forever. After the carry dies, she’ll need to help the rest of her team.
- It doesn’t negate a pick by the enemy team because the rez is temporary. While it sucks that it landed, your kill still counts.
- It creates interesting situations where players are frenzied after rez. They’ll die anyway, so the all-or-nothing mentality can really spice up a battle, especially when a dead teammate is spamming “My Ultimate Is Ready!”
This is merely my take as someone who played Mercy since Season 1. However, I hate playing as Mercy as I do against a Mercy. This change makes her more balanced, gives her more agency, and most importantly feels fun.
P.S. Can the one-tricks who will comment toxicity and flag this post focus on the potential of this Rez instead of the same old “Mercy is ruined for me, bleh”? You guys complained when rez became an ability. You guys complained when rez was given a cast time. You guys complained when superjump became a feature. How about accept change for once instead of calling anything that isn’t a flat-out buff “butchering”, yeah?
