So Mercy (imo) has been less rewarding, less fun, and less impactful since Valk came into the picture over a year ago.
I have since learned how to kickass with Widowmaker, put 230+ hours on her just playing arcade and honing my aim.
Yet, despite having a blast and getting dopamines every time I HS kill someone, if Mercy got her mass rez back as an Ult, I’d drop Widow in a heartbeat and start maining Mercy again.
So why do I have this mindset? And why would Mercy’s old Ultimate would make me enjoy Overwatch as a whole again? Here are my reasons:
- More Rewarding
Old Mercy is rewarding as hell when I rez people, even if it’s just 1 teammate. Why? Well the more I heal (or do damage with the pistol), the more the ULT meter builds up to get the Rez. A mass rez as an ult IS the big pay off, like saying “Good job playing Mercy and watching over your teammates, here is your Ultimate that can bring people back to life, because you earned it” kinda thing.
With current Mercy, you do a gj healing or whatever to build up Ult, and once you activate Valk, you just sorta, do the exact same thing, but you’re flying this time. And that usually doesn’t impact the tide of the game.
There are many times Valk feels useless because another Ult can kill your teammates faster than you can heal. It’s not as rewarding as the old ultimate, not even by a little bit for me.
And since current Mercy’s Rez is now the E ability on a cool down, using it doesn’t feel rewarding as well.
I never earned it. It’s just there, no matter how good or bad I play, it will always give me a potential 1-man rez, no matter what. That game style isn’t rewarding at all.
- Why Mass Rez is fun to play against
“Haha!” You DPS mains reacts. “But Songstrider, how the heck can you say that mass rez is fun to play against? Surely you jest!”
Before you stop reading and disregard everything I typed out, hear me out.
Sure, we all get mad playing Overwatch. It’s a given.
Say, everyone’s doing fine capturing a point until suddenly, a surprise death blossom just ruins everything. Wipes out your team completely.
You start to get annoyed. You start to express your anger over voice chat. Maybe you start pointing fingers at your teammates for a preventable event, or maybe you just want to vent how its unfair.
Well guess what? Many, many Ultimates are “unfair” if played right. I know gaming and anger goes hand to hand, but why was there so much anger for Mass Rez, that it has to be taken out?
It’s an ultimate that can also be preventable, if not, counter-played.
And that adds another layer of strategy! Another layer of fun!
“Hey, we killed almost everyone on the enemy team except for the Mercy, what should we do?”
Choice A)
Bait the Mercy and kill her before she gets into the radius to do mass rez.
This is a rather difficult thing to pull off since Mercy can instantly rez and have invulnerability. But, I’ve seen AND experienced many scenarios where mcrees, widows, 76s, sombras, junkrats, roadhogs… etc etc with their abilities, prevent Mercy from reaching that Rez radius.
Killing Mercy last is obviously a bad idea, but if you manage to kill her last, it’s icing on the cake. It’s satisfying. It’s fun to pull off if you do.
Choice B)
Wait for Mercy to do mass rez, so you can counter-play the newly rezzed enemy team with a counter-ult/ability of your own.
This is a much easier task to do compared to Choice A, but it’s a very common counter-play to do and/or experience.
Those who has played Overwatch between launch and the Mercy rework, you know what I’m talking about!
Ok, here’s a familiar scenario:
Mercy uses Mass Rez to revive all 5 teammates. You can do one of the following:
- Use say, Lucio’s/Pharah’s/Roadhog’s boop ability/ult, to do environmental kills if the mass rez occurs near a ledge.
- Use destructive ults to re-wipe the newly rezzed enemy team.
Examples: Self-destruct, Dragonstrike, Dragonblade, Deadeye, Tank, Death Blossom, Pulse Bomb… etc etc - Start nervously running around shooting, like a chicken with it’s head cutoff, because your whole team wasted all their Ults for that team wipe you all pulled off, and you have nothing left to counter-play the newly rezzed enemy team.
#3 is common among solo groups or among new players, because you’re all not coordinated or anticipating to counter-play or prevent the mass rez.
And this is where the vocal minority comes from. They start saying Mass Rez is unfair, and have no counter-play, and Mercy should be reworked or deleted.
The thing is, it’s on you. And it’s a mistake that Mass Rez capitalizes on to be a successful ult.
This is why old school Mercy mains develop a skill to keep track on which enemy still has their ult, to decide whether to use their mass rez or not.
Higher rank players and partied groups, starts pulling off #1’s and #2’s, but #3’s usually happens among these uncoordinated teams.
But for those who consistently pulls of #1’s and #2’s, isn’t it fun to counter play mass rez? Hearing that “Team Kill” after pulling off something like that, makes it rewarding and satisfying, and it’s overall: FUN.
So YES.
Mass Rez is fun to play against if you’re anticipating it!
Bottom line, Mercy used to be a hero that gives off hope. That gives you a second chance to win. She is an angel after all, and with all the destructive, violent, powerful ults in the game, it’s only fitting we have 1 hero that has an ultimate that gives you a second chance.
And we need that back.
#revertmercy #bringbackmassrez #mercy3.0
