Mercy is being ignored?

[Novalysium-1136]

is the only part of Jeff video that I could agree.

Mercy and Zenyatta are not a must pick anymore, literally. Ana/Moira and Lucio can shine again and that’s good.

You cannot expect after 1 year of Mercy dominating every single tier also being the most picked hero to get a buff after one patch that balanced the rest of the support role.

Mercy eventually will get chances/fixes but not after 1 patch.

[Sly-13591]

I don’t care about gold players.

Cool.

No.

Glad we can agree.

[Arceus-2238]

Glad we can agree.

Disagree you mean. Both are stances are different.

[Dad76-1212]

Who cares? She was the META for nearly a year honestly feels refreshing not having Mercy on my team and the enemy team every damn match. If you want a Hero who has been truly ignored, than look no further than Reaper, A hero who hasn’t been META since season 2 and only gets small buffs that sort of help.

[Justin-17714]

it was being used in pro play too. they didn’t have an sr based motive.

[Arceus-2238]

Ugh, what? That makes no sense for 2 reasons.

• she was f-tier in pro play and was only ever used to pocket a Pharah. Her res was also only ever used to just res the Pharah.

• it’s a bad strategy. To let your team die.

@Titanium-1686

Moving onto “Hide and rez” …

“We think it’s wrong to tell a main-healing character to go off and hide somewhere and stop healing for some period of time.”

But it is fine for a main-damage character to go off and hide somewhere and stop dealing damage for some period of time, like many heroes currently do in preparation for an ultimate?

In actuality, you are right; just not for the reason you think you are. You are correct because hiding was maladaptive for the team’s chance of victory, and therefore was a bad way to play her. Allow me to explain this in an even more elaborate manner than my past few megaposts.

The success of a mass-Resurrection (4+ revived players) depended upon several factors:

• The Mercy’s ability to survive and execute the ability in the first place (the obvious one).
• The number of players alive on each team after the Resurrection.
• The number of available ultimates held by each team after the Resurrection (but primarily the enemy team).
• The shock value of Resurrect against the enemy (by far the most important factor for the post-rez fight).

The last factor is more important than the other two post-rez factors because it determines what other factors need to advantage the Mercy in order to have a good chance at a successful Resurrection. As the enemy team is given time to reorganize and fire their first attacks at the newly Resurrected team, they would already have a positioning advantage and the first shot… that is, if the team was expecting the Resurrection.

If the enemy team is expecting the Resurrection, they will have the post-rez advantages of the first shot and additional positioning time. Of course, this is a very bad situation to be in for the newly revived team, requiring some very strong advantages of their own to compensate and have a chance at winning the fight. In this case, they would need both the numbers advantage and the ultimate ability advantage.

If the enemy team isn’t expecting the Resurrection, then the Mercy could probably get by with either the numbers advantage or the ultimate advantage and still have a chance at winning, as the enemy team might not capitalize on their positioning and first shot opportunities as well as they should due to the shock value of Resurrect.

How does “Hide and rez” fit into all of this, you might ask? Hiding before the fight removes the possibility of having enough of those advantages against the enemy team in the post-rez fight, and therefore any chance of a victorious post-rez fight against any team of similar skill.

Hiding leaves the initial fight to a 5v6, the missing hero on the Mercy’s team being the main healer and primary source of sustain. Obviously, this is a huge advantage for the team of 6 in the first fight, allowing them to steamroll over Mercy’s team with likely zero casualties, and ultimate expenditures used only to counter any of the opposition’s ultimates. On top of this, the team of 6 also now collectively has 2000-3000 more ultimate charge from killing 5 players in addition to any healing dealt over the duration of that fight. Thus, it hands the ultimate ability advantage to the team opposing the Mercy.

The opposing team, assuming they are paying even the slightest attention to what is happening around them, would notice that the enemy is crumbling very easily for a supposed 6v6, raising suspicions as to whether or not the fight really is a 6v6, quickly leading to the realization that the enemy Mercy is missing from the fight. From this, only one conclusion could logically be drawn; she’s waiting to use Resurrect. There goes the ultimate’s shock value.

At this point, even if the team of 6 somehow managed to sustain 2 casualties in the initial fight, it won’t matter. If both teams entered the fight with the same number of ultimates, the team that does not have the hiding Mercy has at least two more ultimates than the other team (2000+ ultimate charge, Mercy’s team used Resurrect). One or two offensive ultimates is the absolute maximum a team needs to wipe a freshly-revived team when they are expecting the Resurrection, resulting in the revived team staring down the barrel of a gun they have no chance of avoiding.

In contrast, a Mercy who stays with her team keeps the fight at a 6v6, granting her team more sustain and forcing the enemy to expend ultimates to overpower them. Once the ultimates started firing, the mercy would distance themselves from the fight, evade, or take cover, laying down pistol fire or amplifying damage rather than attempting to heal those for whom healing would be useless. As a result, the enemy was less likely to realize that Mercy has Resurrect (the enemy was comparatively difficult to kill, removing the prompt to think about why they were crumbling easily in the first place), Mercy’s team was more likely to pick off a few enemies, and Mercy has successfully baited more ultimates from the enemy team. As a result, her team has more advantages and fewer disadvantages in the post-rez fight.

The only cost to staying with the team was an increased chance of being picked off before being able to revive the team, which just follows the same risk choice explained in the Resurrect section; if taking more controllable risks now helps to mitigate the high risk later, then taking those smaller risks now is safer than not in the long run.

Consequently, reviving a team after hiding typically resulted in a second wipe, while staying with the team until it was unsafe to do so was more likely to yield favorable results. That is why it was “wrong to tell a main-healing character to go off and hide somewhere” . It was a bad tactic, as it usually backfired.

Rather than letting the issue resolve itself by fixing the SR exploit that ultimately led to the tactic’s rise in the first place, the developers decided to remove Resurrect as an ultimate entirely. They changed the thing that wasn’t the problem, and ended up pissing off the playerbase.

Sound familiar?

Anyway, I’ve used this example many times before, but removing Resurrect as an ultimate because some players abandoned their team leading to a second wipe is equivalent to removing Rocket Barrage as an ultimate because Pharah players too often blew themselves up with it. There’s no need to intervene; the tactic will die out on its own, so long as the ranking system isn’t feeding it.

Ironically, the rework ended up only replacing one tactic of hiding with another. This time, however, the is no drawback to it, making the tactic beneficial. Valkyrie is best used by pressing Q and then flying the hell away, barely staying within beam range of the team. Doing this minimizes risk, but compromises no rewards. A Mercy playing closer to her team in Valkyrie is not helping her team any more than a Mercy 29 meters from her team, and is only exposing herself to enemy fire. Consequently, staying as far as possible from the fight for Valkyrie’s full duration is the way to go.

Can I get a link?

[Justin-17714]

she was f-tier in pro play and was only ever used to pocket a Pharah. Her res was also only ever used to just res the Pharah.

she wasn’t f-tier after her invulnerability rework, she was a must pick. its why the pros asked for changes.

also it wasn’t a bad strategy it was used to bait out ultimates. you intentionally make them drop ultimates and hide to rez them after they do.

Can I get a link?

oh how cute, you think a forums essay is proof of anything.

[Estal7-1675]

I’m with you there, I would rather Mercy stay the way she is for a while so they can address her properly and give us a fun, viable, balanced, and flexible hero than trying to force things but the question is will Blizzard do that? Hopefully

[Arceus-2238]

she wasn’t f-tier after her invulnerability rework, she was a must pick. its why the pros asked for changes.

She was balanced. If anything, replacing invulnerability for damage reduction or burst heals would still make her balanced. All invulnerability did was make it easier for Mercy to survive.

also it wasn’t a bad strategy it was used to bait out ultimates. you intentionally make them drop ultimates and hide to rez them after they do

I’m not buying it. Pros get baited to use ults in a 6v5? Please, that doesn’t even sound remotely realistic.

oh how cute, you think a forums essay is proof of anything.

I need video proof of pros using said strategy. since you’re claiming this:

it was being used in pro play too

[Enki-11241]

i think mercy is in a pretty good spot atm

Did you say this with a straight face? I’m not a mercy main, I play her occasionally but currently there is no reason to play her over any of the other healers. Her healing being lowered was even more confusing than other changes before.

[Justin-17714]

She was balanced.

Saying this doesn’t change the fact that it was infact inbalanced at pro play.

I’m not buying it. Pros get baited to use ults in a 6v5? Please, that doesn’t even sound remotely realistic.

go look up old xqc clips from season 3 then come back and tell me the same thing.

I need video proof of pros using said strategy. since you’re claiming this:

video evidence isn’t possible because overwatch league banned streaming pro scrims. it was a prevelant issue, and widly talked about however, and the reason people asked for changes.

[Arceus-2238]

Saying this doesn’t change the fact that it was infact inbalanced at pro play.

Wrong.

go look up old xqc clips from season 3 then come back and tell me the same thing.

Apparently ladder play is pro play. Besides, you’re gonna have to find the clips since you’re the one claiming this. The burden of proof is on the one making the claim.

video evidence isn’t possible because overwatch league banned streaming pro scrims. it was a prevelant issue, and widly talked about however, and the reason people asked for changes.

No video evidence? Then your point is basically moot. It was obviously talked about because it was a commonly used, bad strategy that often lead to lost games. People were upset that they were losing games because of a hiding Mercy. That’s understandable. That being said, it isn’t a good strategy at all and would’ve died if the SR system was fixed earlier and if they gave Res a cast time.

[Narcodix-1755]

It honestly feels like Mercy players wont be happy unless shes a must pick. I often see the she cant perform her job argument or she only pockets a dps now being said like it’s a bad thing.

Pharmercy has been a thing since launch and recently the sniper meta gave her a chance to shine yet again, but why was that? It’s simple really, the team comps she was strong in WERE STRONG.

It’s perfectly fine for her to be a niche pick and regardless of what anyone says Mercys (when not healing) has always been glued to damage boosting certain DPS on applicable maps/team compositions. Which again is fine.

She may not be the definitive single target healer anymore but that does NOT make her bad, it makes her a Niche pick just like Sym, Torb, Sombra ect.

While you can still find success with her, or any other of the aforementioned heros, she is best played when the entirety of her kit can shine. Which isnt and has never been healing tanks after the release of Ana.

Lastly Aria. I’m done with her, I wish her no I’ll will but shes far to biased and looks at things from a consumer (for lack of a better word) standpoint and not a developer one. Meaning sure mass rez may be workable within the confines of Mercys kit, but the long term implications, new heros and numerous buffs and nerfs make an overall fix or revert far less black and white then her videos would imply.

Failure to touch on those points are why I dont enjoy her videos. Shes entitled to her opinion but I’d rather she use her position to give credible/useable feedback outside of “this is a double standard” or “Mercy would be fun with…”.

[Justin-17714]

Wrong.

Im not. again saying it isn’t the case doesn’t change it.

Apparently ladder play is pro play. Besides, you’re gonna have to find the clips since you’re the one claiming this. The burden of proof is on the one making the claim.

https://clips.twitch.tv/SuccessfulRespectfulKaleDancingBanana?tt_medium=clips&tt_content=recommendation

Apparently ladder play is pro play.

you realise XQC was on a pro team in season 3 right? as was every pro player? just not an OWL team. because they weren’t out yet.

No video evidence? Then your point is basically moot.

youre entire argument is wrong, has always been wrong, and you know nothing.

[Mackavich-1924]

Don’t hope for it, if mercy gets even a slight slice of life change, half of the player base will freak out and immediately think blizzard is ruining the game again.

[Fraevar-2777]

This is just sad. If Blizzard views turning a niche but well-liked character into first an OP monster and then nerfs it 14 times in a row as “a success”, I don’t even know where to begin. They seem to have this backwards logic to balancing, that it doesn’t matter how a prominent hero feels to play, as long as they are removed from prominence. Turning Mercy in a worse version of her former self just so the other supports can shine, after a rework that her player base didn’t ask for… Just terrible. The right way to balance a class isn’t to utterly destroy one so others can rise. It certainly did cause a meta switch, but the way they went about it… Just terrible. And to think, it all started because they wanted to give Mercy a more “OWL - friendly” kit, and her actual player base have just been trodden on ever since.

[Freakybih-1654]

people are trying to use her where she isn’t applicable

All supports should be viable this is why she received a rework. Her mid fight was weak when everyone elses was good. Now history repeats herself her mid fight sucks now after 14 nerfs.

[Justin-17714]

she is viable. in certain situations. better niche in some, than a must pick in all.

[Desu-1820]

Rule one of game balance: Nobody cares about healers. If you feel like maining one, you will be nerfed into the ground and have the hardest job. Flashy DPS attracts the most players and attention, being the “funnest” and they will see the best heroes, most buffs, and most attention.

Blizz doesn’t want or need all heroes to be viable at the same time. Their entire strategy is selling this game as esports, which thrives on having 90% of the cast worthless and outside of the meta while the exciting decent or good ones get talked about. Maybe they’ll buff Mercy to coincide with releasing another MTX-only skin for her.

[chevsta-2368]

any threads about mercy in general would be ignored tbh