Lets talk about ultimates…what they are and what they do…
Strong abilities, be it something completely different relative to every other ability in a character’s kit (though not necessarily from a regular ability on another character) or a stronger version of an ability a character already posseses…really thats it…there isnt anything really special about them…you can in fact take any ability currently in game and make it an ultimate if you really wanted to (i can point you to other threads if you dont believe that)…regardless the intent of said abilities is provide a potentially game changing situation that can lead to a victory…
every single ultimate in the game provides your team the opportunity to do one of three things: kill the enemy team, provide some sort of control against the enemy team, or help your team survive incoming damage.
However, none of the ultimates guarantees that you will in fact accomplish anything…for as strong as some ultimates are, every single one can be countered in some way shape or form…either outright negating or through mitigation via other abilities and/or other ults.
ex - Reaper CAN kill 5 enemies once he hits that Q…he can also hit Q in the middle of a 6 man grav and not kill a single person if theres a tranq or a def matrix or a mei wall goes up…sombra can EMP 6 people…it does not guarantee you will actually kill anyone…tranq does not guarantee everyone will survive…etc etc
every single ult behaves this way
except one…
Why is mass res gone? - the million dollar question
i know people are tired of hearing about it…but given how often it gets brought up…i feel the need to explain it
it has nothing to do with fun…or win rates…or pick rates…or play styles…or hide and rez…its gone because of one simple reason: mass rez did not behave like the other ults in the game
the intent of mass rez was not to do one of those three things i mentioned up above…no the intent was not to help surive incoming damage…the intent was to UNDO/ERASE the last 20-30 secs of a match (maybe even more depending on how the lead up to it played out)…enemy managed to get a pick or 2? hit Q…singular enemy managed to get an epic dva bomb…hit Q…enemy team carefully planned out a precision combo attack that manages to essentially win the match…hit Q…in fact it didnt matter what ultimate(s) was used…it (by itself) countered EVERYTHING else…the only ability in game capable of claiming this…
and furthermore it was extremely good at it…as i said all the other ults have a potential maximum benefit…you can MAYBE get there…you might only do 50% of what youd like to…you may in fact do nothing
mass rez? 2 possible outcomes: either the enemy team stops it before it happens OR it resulted in guaranteed BEST possible outcome every time. if the current situation was 1 person dead…thats what it did…if it was 2…thats what it did…if it was 3 or 4 or 5…thats what it did…max potential or bust everytime…and again undoing everything in the lead up to it…
the short of it is…it was a uniquely powerful ultimate that behaved completely different from everything else in the game
blizz removed it because it was a broken ability…not because they couldnt tweak it (which in fact they did on several occasions)…because it just didnt belong…and was leading to game play that was less than popular because of what it was: a glorified DELETE key…the only other thing i can compare it to is scatter arrow…why is that gone? because it was a broken ability…and mind you i dont even mean the fact that it could kill you on the other side of the map while hiding in a room because it ricocheted off 4 walls to get to you…no warning…could kill anyone really…zero counterplay (it was worse than rez imo)…
theyve already said on multiple occasions that they would rather try to improve things than get rid of them…so think about how bad something has to be for them to do exactly the opposite…
TL:DR - it was not just an ultimate…it was a mechanic that didnt belong
few things
how do i feel about current rez then?
they could get rid of it…you wouldnt see me complaining…but its no longer capable of countering EVERYTHING…thats for damn sure
what about valk then?
its not “broken”…the chief complaint is that its boring…it can be improved…it can also be replaced…but i dont see any reason why they would…but if they did its not going to be mass rez again…make the same mistake twice??
what about her f-tier status when she had mass rez then?
THAT is not determined solely by character ultimates…she was f-tier because the landscape of OW at the time did not favor her over other characters…much like now…not being meta does not make a character broken…is she broken now? no…she is not favored (theres a difference)…is she weak?..probably but even then its not because of her ultimate…make a few characters stronger now (or even back then) and she would be A+ tier (again)…i would also pose the question of why you would want to go back to that if thats how you really feel tiers are determined…lets go back to when she was bad…total sense…
should they rework her because of how many mercy mains are complaining about her?
they CAN but theyre not going to as long as the reason is a completely subjective “fun” factor issue…and again…its not going to be to a version where mass res is her ult again…theres zero point in that