But Mercy already has an E ablity! Why replace it?
Yeah, yeah, I know that Mercy already has an E ability. But I think that replacing the “rez on E” (which feels horrible to use) with pretty much anything else would make her more exciting to play. I’ll leave it up to your imagination on what happens to rez after that.
Zarya bubbles just aren’t enough. CC has been creeping up over the past year, and now it’s got the game in a stranglehold.
We need a hero who can consitently protect teammates from CC. And before anyone starts doomsaying “Unstoppable Dragonblades!!”, I’ve got a form of anti-cc that conveniently avoids that pitfall.
Pacify
(Lore description)
Mercy tries to talk down the enemy and pursuade them to consider a non-violent resolution to the conflict. Her words cause them to waver in indecision and pull their punches.
“Can’t we talk this out?”
“Violence isn’t the answer!”
“Calm down!”
Pacify debuff: target (temporarily) deals 20% less damage and cannot deal CC
2 second duration, 8 second cooldown
Visual: Mercy throws a bolt of light (similar to Soldier’s helix rocket)
Single-target projectile ability
Pacify can be blocked by shields, deflected by Genji, and eaten by defense matrix.
Note: “cannot deal cc” means that cc effects are stripped from attacks, but they are still available to use. A Pacified Brigitte can still use her shield bash on enemies, but it’s not going to stun them.
Pacify is intended to be a proactive ability. In order for it to be truly effective, Mercy has to use her gamesense to intuit danger to her teammates and Pacify the enemy targeting them before they’re attacked.
The Pacify projectile is pretty easy to land in close range, but gets harder to hit the farther away the target is. This bit of aim has an added bonus of gently introducing new players to the mechanical side of Overwatch.
Unlike with most DPS, a new player could use Pacify to practice aiming without getting harshly punished and sent to the spawn room every time they miss. By the time they’re ready to branch out to new heroes, the new player has enough experience with aiming Pacify to pick up other, more aim-intensive heroes with confidence.