How about instead of dmg boost messing with dmg break points they just make it speed up RoF and Melee attacks. This is more balanced in my opinion as it doesn’t automatically turn characters ashe from a 2 shot to a 1 shot killer demon from hell. Whilst simultaneously doing nothing to mccree except boosting his range, as it doesn’t change his breakpoints.
And they could probably make it stronger as it doesn’t mess with breakpoints ie a linger effect.
Changes
dmg boost now increase RoF and melee attacks by 35%
there is now a 2 second linger effect when mercy detached her beam (on a 5 second cooldown so it can’t be spammed)
It’d be weaker than dmg boost in 3 key ways
u don’t change breakpoints ie widow not needing to charge up as much/ same with cree deadeye
it’d doo less dmg than pure dmg boost as you have to reload more often and you also don’t get boosted mag dmg… ie ashe will still do 960 per mag not 1248
it doesn’t buff CD damage like ashe dynamite
But would probably be a better utility ability as now it has the linger affect
I see where you’re coming from…but I think the simplest answer here (nerfing damage boost) is the obvious answer to the problem. Retool Mercy a bit so she’s more entertaining to play and relies a bit more on her own kit, than the abillities of others. Nerf damage boost to like, 20% from 30%, up her healing to 60 HPS, and give her an ability -or some sort of passive on her heal beam- that heals a target within range of her beam something like 50HP burst on a CD.
It gives Mercy more to do, forces her to play a little more intelligently and be more aware of positioning and CDs, while taking advantage of her full kit.
Or make her heal beam/damage beam work on a combined resource/ammo pool (like Baptiste’s, or Moira), so she has to recharge it every once in a while. Something to bring more mindfullness to her kit.
Me flicking damageboost on ashe in rhythm of their rate of fire be like
Ashe: “STOP BOOSTING ME UR RUINING MY ACCURACY!”
Mercy: “I DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT YOUR ROF IS ANYMORE IM AS CONFUSED AS YOU ARE!”
Widow: “Boost doesn’t even work for me anymore sadge”
Symm: “You guys were getting damageboosted?”
It’s because Mercy’s boost makes any sniper/hitscan feel like a poorly designed hero. People complain about all the hitscan/snipers (and flying heros like Pharah and Echo get brought up a lot too), when it’s not really those heros, it’s damage boost.
And don’t get me wrong; I don’t think Mercy is badly balanced either. She’s pretty delicately alright right now -but damage boost’s interaction is too strong for too many heros-.
Do people realy have such a big problem with Mercy dmg boost? I mean you are basicly trading a hero in your team for the damage boost that isn’t shooting much themself. I can understand that Ashe oneshots are annoying, but I don’t see how it is differnt to play against compared to Widow or Hanzo that oneshot as well.
I am genuily curious, cause I find it quite intersting and motivating to learn the damage numbers and breakpoints as a Mercy. And wouldn’t Zen with discord basicly provoke the same problem?
About the suggestion of the post. RoF increase kinda sounds bad for me cause I just would mess with my muscle memory personaly.
P.S.: You should also adjust ultcharge since Mercy is getting ult chage from damage boost.
It wasnt an issue before, it only became an issue with Ashe, who becomes Widowmaker+++ with it.
So no, lets not pretend it was ever an issue, when historically no one gave a single crap about it for years UNTIL Blizz released that widow skin onto a hero slot.
Damage Boost isnt even what makes Pharmercy a strong combo, is the stead amount of healing on a hard to aim, flying hero.
Damage Boost is literally ONLY an issue on Ashe, who gets a oneshot breakthrough with it.
Again, why should Mercy be changed, and potentially broke, instead of reworking (or hopefully deleting) the actual problem hero?
Ashe needed lots of buffs and basically removal of barriers and nerfing support healing for people to suddenly figure out that boosted dynamite spam and suddenly consistently hitting scope shots at fast ROF is actually broken af. Damageboost ain’t doing anything if your ashe misses every scope shot because the scoped in sight was so wonky and inaccurate.
Early ashe had lots of hitreg problems. They fixed most of ashe’s issues, gave her loads of buffs and suddenly she broke.
Its not a thing of numerical buffs or neutering of barriers.
Ashe is a sniper whose kit is designed to eliminate most sniper weaknesses, all for a ‘‘cant oneshot from afar with no counterplay like Widow unless she has a damage boost’’ inconsequential drawback.
At this point I firmly believe she shouldnt even exist.
The problem is that geoff goodman literally said that when people were talking about mercy buffs and mercy feedback. That ashe was a buff to mercy.
No joke, he said it.
I don’t think I can find the source anymore, it’s been like 2 years, so I don’t remember if they had made a forum post about it or if it was from emongg stream. Google doesn’t give me anything.
But there’s literally topics about it, I personally remember that remark as well and how mad it made mercy community at the time because mercy was literally trash.