So Valkyrie. Before you chase me with “Mercy is fine” comments, stay awhile and listen.
Since the developers want all main healers to mostly have initiation based ultimates and said they want to find ways to buff damage boost…
What if we kept the concept of Valkyrie and made it more of a burst of power, rather than a basic ability-styled ult that lasts really long and isnt as powerful?
For a very basic example, lessen the duration to 10 seconds and remove the aoe beams, but buff up her healing to 95 and damage boost to 40%
This way you give her back her single target beam identity while retaining her ults versitility as it can be used defensively to keep the team alive with good beam prioritization or offensively to push with your genji blade or monkey dive or any other combination.
Edit: Yes another idea is to keep the AOE beams but increase the power of the main beams and lessen the AOE. This thread isnt really an ideas based thread so stats dont really matter. Its mostly suggesting a new direction for Mercy ult.
But her kit just doesnt flow well with itself. Her E freezes her for 2 seconds and has the most limitations in the game unlike any E. Her ultimate just isnt much of an ultimate, its a small boost to her basic kit that removes her weaknesses for 15 seconds.
Stats are not the end all be all. Sometimes characters just need to function fluidly.
According to this then. Doomfist shouldnt have been nerfed because his stats were fine. Mercy and DVa shouldnt have been reworked because “oppresive to play against” So this argument doesnt hold much value or truth in it at this point.
I agree that Mercy needs something to make her feel less of an enabler, however be prepared to get a lot of members just citing win rate and/or pick rate as if they solely determine whether a hero is fine or not. Particularly from those who may not main Mercy.
If we went by such stats (win rate and pick rate), we could say for example… Ana is overpowered (I don’t honestly think she is, I think it’s more that other main healers are behind her level or can’t offer a near to the same amount of potential impact in a match), or that Reinhardt is overpowered (he’s not). Sorry to burst your bubble but these stats don’t paint an entire picture of why a hero is strongly picked or such.
The problem isn’t with her statistics, it’s with her kit. It honestly doesn’t feel as if it flows well together, resurrect is such a powerful unearned ability but has to be extremely clunky to use. Valkyrie on the other hand feels like it lasts too long for what little it delivers. I feel there’s no harm in making Valkyrie shorter, but instead a little more focused (e.g. less on the chain beams, more on the primary beam).
Doomfist (and Brigitte) got indeed nerfed because their kit was being seen as oppressive, but also to tone down CC in the game.
I’m not quite sure why Dva was reworked anymore tbh. I believe they wanted to turn her more into a bully tank and less as a protecting tank.
Mercy… Well Mercy got reworked for multiple reasons. I can bring up the balance triangle and all, but please note that being unfun to deal with wasn’t the only reason why she got reworked. (The rework wasn’t even needed imo.)
Another good examples would be McCree and Reaper. They were oppressive in lower ranks (after their buffs) and got nerfed because of this.
But still, I don’t see why they should change a hero who are already is balanced. That’s just unnecessary work that brings more risks.
But they just nerfed Torbjorn so who knows what they are thinking, right?
Its actually kinda fun seeing drastic changes if you think about it. It isnt as major as another rework but it will keep things interesting for a while and besides they can always rebalance and tweak things on the way, they said they learned to take action faster ever since the mercy meta as it lasted far longer than it should have.
Another issue with E res is the fact that its not usable inside team fights which means mercys utility is limited to snipers who stay back or uncoordinated environments. There is a way I thought of to make rez more usable during teamfights and its also a simple stat change but eh this is a valkyrie post (which is also a weird ult as you said)
Taking away chain beams wouldn’t be good, especially for dmg boost. Dmg boost during valk is extremely strong, because unlike her usual dmg boost, it goes to everyone, and that means ALL damage is amplified. That’s insane damage, but more importantly, insane ult charge.
I just hate how her kit contradicts what she supposed to be. She is suppose to be a strong 1 target healer, but has 50HPS and her ultimate is an AoE. Amazing mobility, but has a 2 second stun on her rez…
Been suggesting that, with other numbers, for a long time.
No one cares, not Blizz, not this forum. They rather keep Valk poorly designed because of their own mistake, which was the Valk 1.0 that scares them to this day.
Because by having chain beams it inherently runs into zens ult, and orisas. Flat. And better because mercy can switch between it as needed, and use her other abilities like Rez and pistol which Zen can’t while ulting and orisa cannot heal .
would be so kind as to try the changes I proposed a post above yours? I also think like you but this felt like a middle ground for most parties involved and I would love some feedback from all sources!
Would also give back the need to prioritize in Valk, and actually make it feel like there can be times to use it rather than the “eeehhh whenever’s fine” attitude it currently has.
. Honestly some of their balancing decisions seem a bit random at times.