Maybe Mercy’s Kit is Outdated

I am not saying you have to change anything, this is just a thought!

But why does Mercy still have a lock on in the current state of the game? No other hero has a lock on anymore. Even Symmetra has a beam, Brig doesn’t need to aim her primary but it’s not a lock on, and even Moira has to aim as small as the requirement is she does have to aim

So why not have Mercy aim? I think the lock on is basically training wheels holding her back from the true power. A hero that requires no aim shouldn’t have a burst heal or be good at healing tanks imo (both things that I see Mercy mains complain about) at least not to the extent of the other “main” supports.

But by removing the 100% consistency of the lock on I think that would give more room for a burst. Maybe even replace rez with a burst? I mean the complaint is that it’s too hard and rarely used? So why cling to an ability like that?

I don’t think a hero which barely requires any player engagement will ever not be boring. I see a lot of Mercy mains complain that she is not fun or engaging…but what do you expect from a hero who does the job almost al on its own?

4 Likes

I definitely think Mercy would benefit from more things to juggle, but I don’t know if that should come with the lock-on being reworked. I think it’s interesting that Mercy is a character that doesn’t require aiming ability to heal effectively and I think a ton of people find that appealing in combination with juggling her damage boost and GA and in my opinion it would be a mistake to make her like the other healers.

14 Likes

I agree with your point, my thing is though that people want her at the same level as the other supports, but she can’t be the same when she is fundamentally different from all of them imo

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the lock on is fair in her case (imo) because you can’t shoot at the bad men while playing mercy. you heal, or you boost, or you shoot, but not any of the three at once.

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In any fair match you end up all over the place as Mercy, never having a second to stand still. Try GA-ing around and having to aim to heal in such situation – you’ll end up either not healing at all, or not using GA at all.

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I think she should be given a single target cleanse ability that removes any debuff like antinade, TNT dot, discord etc. Problem is I think her kit is already full. I think changing her lockon would cause a riot with the Mercy mains, and I don’t think she’d be playable with say the aim requirements of a beam in her current state. It’d require a full rework. A burst heal on her would be too much I think, unless it’s on a rather long CD.

3 Likes

:roll_eyes:

Mercy is designed as a character that can be just about wherever she wants to be whenever she wants to be to apply a consistent on-demand buff to her patient. That’s what makes her fun and distinct to play.

Replacing her existing Staff with some arbitrary “high skillz AIM” mechanic takes away from her ability to always be on the look-out, ready to GA to the most “profitable” teammate that she can apply Healing or Damage Boost to.

If you wanted to increase her “Skill ceiling” and by extension, her Potential, it should be something that rewards the aforementioned foresight and critical thinking, not just turning her into Other Ana.

Puh, playing Mercy well is far more hectic and involved than Ana.

3 Likes

Because that detracts from the point of her design. If you’ve played her for more than 5 mins you’d realize that you don’t even have time to aim at your target most of the time because you’re so busy flying between allies.

What are you talking about. This game still has plenty of lock on abilities. What do you think Harmony orb or repair pack or Nano is. It’s a lock on because it is a healing ability and you can’t aim when she has to dart all over the map at an incredible speed. Comparing it to Syms lock on which was a damage primary is disingenuous.

Why does this part make me think you either don’t play her or play her at bronze level.

1 Like

I think Mercy needs more power because:

She has extremely limited offensive capabilities.

Mobility is her only real defensive option.

Outside of ult, she can only heal one target at a time.

Her range is very limited. Nearly every other healer can heal from a better range.

The only advantage Mercy really has is mobility. But flying around doesn’t really keep your team alive.

Mercy is a hero that goes all in on support and healing, but there are other heroes who do that job better than her.

Imagine playing an RPG where you picked a priest to be super focused on healing, but then the paladin ends up healing more targets than you, has more burst healing, and runs around doing more damage than you ever will.

It begs the question: why pick the priest?

That’s where Mercy players are right now. If I want to keep my team alive, I don’t pick Mercy. I pick Ana, Moira, or Baptiste.

Not only will I keep my team up better, I can assist more with damage and get a pick when the opportunity arises.

I wish people would just learn how to play Mercy instead of trying to retool her into something else.

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The part I find outdated is not how the healing is implemented, but merely how all of her actions are single target only and the fact she does not have that many effects or many effects up at one time. Mercy literally has… dmg boost, single target, resurrection… for most of her time playing the character.

Compared to many other characters who have a plethora of effects that can be up simultaneously or have more options at any given time.

  • Ana can have a nano boost going, a bionade effect up, a sleep dart on the field, then choosing between damage and healing.
  • Moira can have an orb flying around, she could have residual healing up, and then choosing between more healing/damage.
  • Brig can be applying armor, doing damage, residual healing, and having the option to stun, knockback, or single target heal.

In order for Mercy to have more value being played simultaneously you have to be playing her in the way of exposing yourself to the enemy team to give them something to shoot at to pull fire away from your own team and for her to dip behind cover to heal up.

They would add a burst heal skill where you have to aim. Example: with your staff you shoot 3 “bubble” that heals like Ana’s one, but simply it heals more.

yes i think her kit is too full as well, that’s why i suggested replacing rez with a burst, in that way she can have a strong ability that she can use more often rather than how little rez is claimed to be used

i never said it has to be a high skill ability, im sure we can both agree that moira’s heal beam isn’t high skill, but it’s also not mercy’s lock on…

but mechanically it does not require as much is what i meant by this!

she is my second most played, but that has nothing to do with what i was saying

this is addressing the idea that she should have the same amount of healing power when the method she uses for healing is by far the easiest since it is the most consistent and requires no aim (which im not saying is skilless, it just would be crazy to give her ana’s healing numbers for example)

why are you always so unnecessarily aggressive and try to attack me personally rather than what i said, makes me not care what you have to say :woman_shrugging:

and the advantage of not needing aim, reload, or cooldown which makes her the most consistent

that’s why i’m suggesting if she needs to be stronger something should give, such as her lock on or her rez (just ideas)

this is why i think the lock on is what is holding all this back maybe…imagine being able to support multiple teammates with a consistent lock on

i just wonder what they could do if they even made her heals similar to moira’s way of applying it, i think it would be easier to give her more things? :woman_shrugging:

like Echo’s stickies but with heals maybe? lol

People often do when being called out on being wrong as a defence mechanism, it triggers the fight or flight instincts in your brain.

What are you talking about? Most other healers have autoaim healing.

i mean you called me bronze instead of staying on topic, what is there to read?

Monkey, I mean Scientist does

i think it is the same as moira’s damage beam where it is a big hitbox no?

I called you bronze because you described her gameplay as a bronze player would. If you want me to not call you bronze you have to show me you have an understanding of the heros kit beyond bronze level.