Mercy is balanced

General Discussion
1

I know there are still a lot of complaints about Mercy’s balance. But statistically, if you look at her winrates, pickrates, healing done, etc she is actually very balanced. There is no reason for Blizzard to change her based on her actual balance at the moment.

But, and there is a but, I think a lot of Mercy players are still very unhappy with her. The theme I pick out from people’s comments is really more that they aren’t having as much fun with her. Fun is very subjective, and so it is hard to balance around “fun”. Still, that is the source of the frustration as far as I can tell.

So, I had an idea that I think would make her more “fun” but still hopefully keep her balanced by removing some of her power from the mid-fight and making her ultimate more satisfying. I want to see how people feel about this.

  1. Remove Rez outside of her ultimate. No more 30 second cooldown res ability. This leaves that E slot open for something else potentially in the future.
  2. Increase Guardian Angel flight speed during Valk. It’s fun to go fast, but it means that she’s even harder to kill during the ultimate.
  3. Have Rez available during Valk, but make it instant again. No more sitting duck feeling.
  4. Have 2 Rez charges available during Valk, but ONLY during Valk. They expire at the end of the ultimate. You could maybe even go with 3 since she no longer has it out of Valk.
  5. Reduce Valk time to 12 seconds.

I think the overall effect is that Mercy would be less valuable outside of her ultimate, but her ultimate would be much more satisfying than it currently is.

This idea does not make Mercy more balanced. But that isn’t really the goal. Would Mercy players like this change?

5 Likes
2

If we got 2 rez-charges in Valkyrie I wouldn’t mind a cast-time up to 0,8 seconds. Counter-play is nice, and it would be the same cast-time as Lucio’s ultimate. And yes, I want a new E!

3 Likes
3

This is a good suggestion, but it’s going to get lost in The Megathread

6 Likes
4

Possibly, but I thought it was worth throwing out there anyway.

5

This is not a bad idea at all. A lot of Mercy players just want her to be fun, so nice job.

Problem is, megathread will eat this up and forget about it. Makes me sick…

https://sayingimages.com/wp-content/uploads/disapproval-baby-annoyed-meme-1.jpg

5 Likes
6

She is by far in the best spot balance-wise so far.

You don’t feel opressed if your team isn’t running Mercy but the enemy team is. And you don’t feel as if she’s a bad pick if she’s on your team. It doesn’t feel cancerous to play against anymore. Hopefully Blizz keeps her as is and doesn’t bring back anything that lacks counterplay, meaning, either mass rez that can’t be interrupted or instant rez of any form. If they do, I’ll just pretty much quit the game. And pretty sure that at least some other people will

4 Likes
7

I agree with this actually. I think she’s very balanced. People who play her just don’t seem to find her satisfying to play which is a hard problem to address.

4 Likes
8

I do agree, she is very balanced. But Mercy players just want her more fun again.

We have to find a way to make her a little more engaging without sacrificing balance😁

2 Likes
9

*forum people who play her

those that do won’t even bother to come here and complain about it

it’s always the same few who are making most of the posts and threads

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People that enjoy her new kit are the minority from everyone I’ve spoken to both on the forums, reddit, and in game. Even the mass rez haters almost all admit that she is balanced, that they hated mass rez, but they agree that she needs her fun factor increased.

3 Likes
11

Your suggestions have been stated at least 50 times in the megathread. It’s an excellent suggestion by the way. The problem is that these great idea get overlooked, marked as “Oh that’s just a Mercy main crying for changes”, and tossed into the Feedback thread without a response.

The problem is clear, in that it is not that Mercy is no longer fun to play, and on that, I agree with your implications that fun is in fact subjective, but that Mercy is no longer rewarding to play. That’s a key detail that I would like to address there, the rewarding aspect of Mercy is no longer a part of her current kit, in my opinon.

Critics love to use the “She’s balanced, get over it” argument to shut up Mercy mains who try to explain this, and I don’t think that it’s a very fair way to address the issue, but puts a band-aid on a problem that still exists.

Let’s not forget by the way, even the pros who are playing the OWL agree, that Mercy was nerfed too hard. Pros… The people who initially complained that Mercy’s rework was OP (and rightfully so) and some of which who made the statement that “Mercy is the hero that should be removed from the game.” Those same people are admitting that she has been nerfed way too hard, and for good reason.

With punishing game mechanics like her E move turning into a button that more often than not gets Mercy killed during valkyrie, 1 single res every 30 seconds - whether you play her well or not, and her overall low impact in her Ultimate being a little more than a watered down version of Zen’s and Orisa’s Ults. Mercy has been placed as this hero as a “jack of all trades, master of none.”

And while there are definitely people out there who still find her amazing to play, which is fine, I believe that it’s just as fair to consider those many players who find her current playstyle uneventful and boring, in spite of her being balanced. This is a video game afterall, and a hero that’s not fun to play goes against the entire purpose of why you play overwatch - To have fun. Not everyone plays a game solely for it’s “mechanics”.

But alas, she’s balanced now, so who cares about wanting to be rewarded or having fun playing a video game character in a video game? “This was a huge success.”

~Sincerely Yours xoxo,
a Lover of True, Fair, and Fun Balance.
xavvypls :blue_heart:

7 Likes
12

In terms of removing “die on point I have rez”, yes, the rework was very succesful.

13

:joy: :joy:
Mercy is balanced? :joy: omg nice joke.

-_- She isn’t

14

I do think Mercy is mostly balanced, I’m just unhappy that most of the power has been shifted to her main kit from her ult. It’s a total reversal from how she used to be, not that that was perfect either. I just want some of her power shifted around a bit, both between her main kit to ultimate and within the ultimate itself.

Right now her ultimate feels like a chunk of butter that has been spread too wide and thin to actually be enjoyable on the sandwich.

3 Likes
15

How to make Mercy even more broken than before 101.

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You realise valk with its two instant rez’s is what still made her a must pick right?

17

Love the ideas. Perhaps I can build it with the ability I came up with

THe New E could be something that naturally evolves into rez upon Valk’s activation, my idea was this
“Angel’s cry”
Targets the guardian angel target, and requires current rez range, when used on a dead target it slices 2 seconds off of the spawn timer, when used on a living target it applies a 50% damage reduction shield for 2 seconds.
10 second cooldown
Valk grants 1 extra charge and evolves into outright rez or an outright immunity for 2 seconds.

2 Likes
18

You do realize that that’s partially incorrect right?

Mercy having Invincibility during Valkyrie, the speed boost during her Ult, the quicker self healing, the SR gain bug, combined with her small frame made her a must pick.

The number of Resurrects had nothing to do with it, as she’s had mass res back in 1.0 and was considered a troll pick, even though she had the ability to res a lot more people. No one ever seems to bring that up when talking about Mercy as a “must pick” for some reason…

~Sincerely Yours xoxo,
a Lover of True, Fair, and Fun Balance.
xavvypls :blue_heart:

2 Likes
19

No, he’s right, you’re wrong

2 instant rezzes is what made her the must pick

Pretty much everyone acknowledged that, from pros to casuals

20

I thought it was a bit more than that. It’s 2 instant Rezes with a 20 second valk and a Rez outside of Valk on a 30 second cooldown.

In my suggestion, I am removing the Rez outside of Valk entirely which will prevent her from fixing that first pick of the fight and also Valk is no longer the current 15 second duration. I suggested 12, but it could even be 10.

I’m not saying my suggestion is perfect, it’s more of a starting framework to maybe try to find a way to keep her balanced while shifting her power a bit to increase how rewarding she is to play. It’s not science it’s art, so there’s room to negotiate the specifics.

How do you feel overall about the idea of reducing her power outside of her ultimate in exchange for increasing the power of her ultimate? Just as a concept?

1 Like