Kiriko’s Healing Ofuda does 13HP per paper and she can fire one burst per second or around a second. That’s 130HP/s of consistent and reliable heals.
Obviously Mercy has an auto-lock but Kiriko’s heals are just homing missiles at this point - they’re not exactly aim intensive. They also travel way further. In other words, one of Mercy’s only niches has been taken.
Kiriko’s sef-healing capabilities overshadow anything Mercy has to offer. Swift Step cleanses her of most debuffs andProtection Suzu cleanses and heals (50HP).
Meanwhile, Mercy, who was previously the only hero to have a passive self-heal, heals 22.5HP/s after not taking damage for 1.5 seconds. In comparison, all other supports heal 15HP/s after 1.5 seconds.
Kiriko does more damage than Mercy. No surprises there… But a comparison can be made about how Kiriko can heal and damage at the same time whilst Mercy has to chose between the two. Her pistol could, theoretically deal more damage over a course of a match than Kiriko but she would have to give up healing to do so.
Kiriko’s Swift Step is literally a better version of Mercy’s GA. There’s no other way to put it.
Instead of a predictable vertical path, Kiriko is just teleported instantaneously for the same distance. Unlike Mercy’s GA, there’s barely any risk or downsides. It’s the perfect escape ability.
As previously mentioned before, it also self-cleanses which just enhances Kiriko’s survivability.
The CD is longer for Swift Step but honestly a 7 second CD is hardly long at all when taken at face value.
To put it mildly, Kiriko is more of a guardian Angel support than Mercy. Her insane mobility is compounded by the fact that she can also climb walls so nice Blizzard
Kiriko has better utility and team enhancing abilities.
Protection Suzu is an AoE team cleanse and invulnerability ability. Compare that to a clunky and extremely difficult Resurrect that you A, have to wait for your teammates to die to use and B, is the longest CD ability in the game for what is relatively little value in comparison. Any GM player will you tell that a teammate being kept alive is better than reviving them after they die.
Damage Boost is arguably Mercy’s most invaluable ability but even this is overshadowed by Kiriko. For the amount of damage a Mercy boosts, a Kiriko could get double that amount in less the time. Even if we ignore Kiriko’s damage, Kiriko’s ultimate is absolutely insane and better than anything Valkyrie or Dmg Boost could throw at us.
I mean, let’s just do a little comparison:
Valkyrie
A 15 second ultimate which transforms Mercy’s single-target heals/dmg boost into AoE heals/dmg boost. So that’s 60HP/s or 30% dmg boost spread out across 4 teammates.
Kitsune Rush
A 10 second ultimate that enhances movement speed, reload speed, rate of fire and ability CDs for all players that enter the ult’s long and wide path. Leaving the area of the ultimate also gives you 2 seconds lingering effects
So yeah…
This is not a post to criticise Kiriko (though she does need nerfs here and there). It’s mainly to point out a concerning trend regarding Mercy in OW2. She is undoubtedly the worst support in OW2 and is set to become even worse as her niches get filled up by another support.
Meanwhile, Blizzard is still intent on modifying and reiterating a tech that never needed fiddling with.
Purposefully Obtuse? Please. What’s purposefully obtuse is Blizzard trying to simplify a GA tech that was perfectly fine. Literally no one asked for it.
Kit = abilities, playstyle etc.
That and, again, Mercy’s skill-floor is hardly any different from Kiriko’s. She isn’t an Ana or a Baptiste lol.
Say sike rn. Kiriko is not difficult wth??? The fact that she’s overpowered right now makes her even easier to play lol. She has a high skill ceiling no doubt but her skill floor shouldn’t be considered ridiculously higher than Mercy’s.
Kiriko’s heal is 130HP heal every 1.7 seconds. We’ve got to measure time from when Kiriko starts the heal to when she starts the next heal. That’s 75HP/s.
Mercy can pocket in the air but Kiriko will fall. Mercy can dodge when approaching a teammate. She can revive a dead teammate. Her Guardian Angel is on 1.5s cooldown. Mercy is awesome!
However I think Kiriko’s Swift Step should not cleanse. And if Mercy feels bad to play she needs a buff. Also, we’ll need to see Win Rates.
I mean watching ml7 and even he was having trouble hitting some shots with her lol. Unless you’re an aim god it looks like she’s going to be very hard to play.
Yeah her aiming I dont doubt it gonna be pretty hard, but calling her the hardest hero this games ever seen just because people arent used to her projectiles yet is a bit of a stretch
Fair enough. That’s still a 20HP difference for what are two very aim lenient heals.
I don’t think this is a positive. Being in the air is the most risky thing you can do as Mercy. Kiriko being able to teleport without travelling any distance makes her a more reliable pocket at the end of the day.
Kiriko doesn’t need to dodge. She just spawns to her teammate. When she gets there, she’ll spam heals, use her invulnerability and take advantage of the close range to trigger the x3 headshot damage multiplier.
I explained in the post how much worse this is compared to just keeping a teammate alive…
Addressed this too…
Well duh. I want her to be more awesome though because balance wise, she is hot garbage.
I said that.
I’m basing this off of overwhelming feedback from top Mercy players, including streamers, and just a general kit comparison. We’ll need to wait until October for her stats.
. But looks like she’ll be one of the hardest which is exciting!