Hello.
Many of you probably have already assumed that this is going to be a fairly long thread based upon the author (hi) and the greeting as the first word. Looking at about how much I actually typed up, this is one of my shorter threads, as I am spending this post focusing on only the two quotes listed in the title. That is, unless you are unfamiliar with my complaints about Mercy, and choose to read the roughly 38 pages of text that are hidden behind those summaries.
Let’s get started!
"Mercy is fine."
Generally, the followup or full statement of the above quote is “Mercy is balanced, therefore she is fine.”
Which already reveals hypocrisy. If balance is the only thing taken into consideration when altering heroes, why was Mercy reworked in the first place? She was balanced. Yet, despite being balanced, she was reworked because “Resurrect wasn’t fun to play against” and “We didn’t like hide and rez”.
In her 1.x. version before the rework, Mercy was balanced, but the developers decided that she wasn’t “fine” and reworked her anyway… For reasons that were poorly thought-out and/or never actually addressed, but I digress. The point of this thread isn’t to fling crap at the developers… at least, not yet.
If reasons such as “They aren’t fun to play against”, which is subjective, unrelated to balance, and a blanket statement that can be made about any hero when playing against other players, are considered valid reasons to change a hero, then “They aren’t fun to play anymore” is certainly a valid reason to change that same hero again.
If “They’re balanced, therefore they are fine” were a true statement, then Mercy would have been left as she was in the first place. Therefore, saying that after the rework has been live for 6 months is simply a double standard designed to suit the speaker’s purposes because the speaker is either too lazy or too ignorant to respond in a meaningful manner.
For those of you who might be unaware of what exactly our (or at least mine, it just so happens that a lot of people agree with me on this topic) issues with Mercy are, here is a moderately huge chunk of text that I lifted from one of my previous threads:
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Resurrect
Functionality:
Resurrect is an ultimate that was forced into the slot of a basic ability.
In order to make an ultimate fit as a basic ability, absurd exceptions needed to be made to reduce its power level, or in our case, its potential to have any impact. To accomplish this, the following changes were applied:
- 30 second cooldown, no exceptions.
- Single target.
- 5 meter range.
- LoS/direct FoV requirement.
- 1.75 second cast time.
- 75% movement speed reduction while casting.
- Abilities and attacks are disabled while casting.
The developers clearly had the goal in mind to balance Resurrect as a basic ability. For that goal, these changes were needed. The method to reach that goal was fine; the goal of forcing an ultimate into a basic ability was comically stupid.
Resurrect is now the most situational non-ultimate in the game with the longest cooldown duration out of all basic abilities. However, it is still powerful. Why? Because it’s an ultimate.
As a result of these changes, Resurrect feels less like something a player would want to consider an “asset” and more like something a player would consider a chore. It’s anticlimactic, and it interrupts the otherwise smooth mobility-based flow of Mercy’s kit with a standstill ability. Rather than jumping at the opportunity to use it, the player is left with more of a great-one-of-my-allies-got-themselves-killed-and-now-I-need-to-handicap-myself-to-save-their-sorry-butt feeling. After pulling off a successful Resurrection, the player is often left wondering why the hell they just forced themselves through that to recover an ally from their own mistakes. It simply feels bad to use.
However, using Resurrect often is practically a requirement, as it is clearly the best way to play Mercy. The problem is that the best way to play Mercy in regards to this ability is also the least fun way to play Mercy.
Cooldown Vs. Charge:
When Resurrect was an ultimate, it had a fluid cooldown that depended upon the performance of the player. If the player was a Mercy god, they would have their ultimate up in 31 seconds or potentially less; if the player was a vegetable, they would have it in 5 minutes and 25 seconds.
Because Resurrect was often one of two or fewer ultimates on the team designed to counter four or more ultimates on the enemy team, there was a consistent need to charge it as quickly as possible after its previous use. Players would play more aggressively, making choices that would be considered too risky to execute under normal circumstances, to secure that last 10-20% ultimate charge just before the teamfight broke out. They might overextend to heal an ally they would otherwise force to come to them to receive healing; they might draw their pistol and lay down some fire of their own, exposing themselves to enemy fire in return; they might stop healing a high-priority target to quickly amplify a target about to deal a lot of burst damage. A Mercy who did not have Resurrect in their possession before a teamfight would rush to charge it, taking calculated risks to do so. By taking these risks, the player receives that same rush of excitement felt on other heroes when they take risks of their own.
This incentive to make these hazardous plays increased the skill ceiling of Mercy’s base kit, as the capacity to get in and out of a dangerous situation that would otherwise be impractical to enter is now rewarded. Playing Mercy became a game of balancing risk and returns.
When the player took these risks and came out on top, they were rewarded in the form of a Resurrect and a feeling of accomplishment. Skilled Mercy players would have their ultimate available more often than Mercy players of lower skill, and those players who were not so successful had something to strive toward throughout their normal playstyle. Mercy players could take pride in how often Resurrect was an available asset to them, as they knew that it had been earned by their own performance.
Resurrect currently functions on a static 30 second cooldown. It cannot be earned. There is no reason to play aggressively like there was before; there is no return for placing yourself in jeopardy. If there is no reason to do something, and there is good reason to not do that same something, then the best choice is always to not do that something.
Why risk getting yourself killed and losing the fight because of it when you would be just as effective without taking that risk?
Mercy’s gameplay isn’t about balancing risk and reward anymore. It’s about avoiding risk altogether and at all costs, removing yourself from the fight as much as possible to do so. The aggressive play is not there anymore and neither is the rush from it.
Every game is a constant cycle of reversing the first pick in a fight (for reasons I will get to in the next section), not having Resurrect if/when it is needed during the following fight, and watching it become available between engagements. It is upsetting to not have Resurrect when it is needed, completely incapable of accelerating its cooldown process, and it feels cheesy and borderline insulting to have Resurrect become available again after it is way too late for it to be useful.
“I don’t have another Resurrect for this fight, but don’t worry guys; I’ll have it immediately after we all respawn.”
Or
“I just love participation awards. There’s nothing better than receiving my most game-changing ability shortly after getting my [gluteus maximus] handed to me.”
Also a consequence of the static cooldown on Resurrect, the availability difference of Resurrect between good Mercy players and bad Mercy players is nonexistent, therefore lowering the skill ceiling. There is no longer pride taken in how many Resurrections a player can charge because that’s not something a player can take pride in anymore.
Thought Process:
I often saw (and still do see) non-Mercy players making remarks along the lines of “Now Mercy players have to think before using Resurrect” in response to objections to the cast time on Resurrect.
What a joke.
Sure, you need to think about Resurrect, but only as much as you need to think before crossing a neighborhood street. Look left. Now look right. Any cars coming? Yes/No. The answer is that clear.
The part of the current Resurrect that requires the most thought is remembering to look both ways before crossing. Remembering to check and see if it’s safe to use Resurrect is more difficult than actually checking to see if it is safe enough to use Resurrect. There is no grey area; it’s either safe, or it’s not.
If we were to take that same analogy and make it relevant to Resurrect when it was an ultimate, it would be an intersection of two different freeways that the player is trying to cross diagonally without the presence of traffic lights or speed limits. The people driving the cars have no regards for pedestrians, and the player is simultaneously trying to prove trigonometric identities while crossing.
Does it seem like I’m going off on a tangent to respond to a hilarious misconception? I’m not. Part of the fun of Mercy 1.x was not only balancing risk and reward to earn Resurrect, but also to the mind game that came with trying to use it to its maximum potential.
Resurrect as an ultimate had enormous variation in its value. This value was never tied to one specific thing, requiring that the Mercy take in the entire situation as a whole to accurately predict the significance of the hypothetical Resurrect. Numbers weren’t everything. A five-man Resurrect could be useless or potentially detrimental if the team is down right in front of spawn or separated by walls in the midst of the enemy team. Conversely, a single-target Resurrection could rapidly swing a losing battle into a victory if the target is in a good position and/or has their ultimate ready.
In the original version of this thread, I constructed a single hypothetical scenario to illustrate what was considered when determining if and how to use Resurrect as an ultimate. I could have simply copy/pasted that here, but because I have a lot of spare time, I decided to elaborate much more than I did previously and go further into specifics for different scenarios. However, if you want the more compressed version you can see it here:
The short (ish) version
"I am going to construct a hypothetical yet likely situation to give an idea of the factors considered when deciding how to use Resurrect in its ultimate form.
Defense on the first point of Hanamura. Enemy team is grouping for a push. Resurrect is fully charged.
- What ultimates do the enemies have? What synergies do those ultimates have with each other?
- Of those ultimates they have, which will they expend first? Will they wait until they have a pick to start using them, or will they use them as soon as they arrive for more shock value?
- Where can I position myself that will allow me to both heal my team and quickly find cover? Is there a location I can reach that will provide an advantageous fighting position for me if the need arises?
- What ultimates do we have? What are their synergies with each other and will they save us from the enemy’s ultimates without Resurrect?
- Are all of the enemies accounted for? If not, do the missing enemies have ultimates and will they flank to use them? How can I evade them if they come for me?
- Is my entire team alive? If not, can I/should I revive the fallen ally so we are a full team for the next fight, or can we stall the enemy until they return?
A single ally is killed.
- Does that ally have their ultimate up? Who are they and what ultimate do they have?
- Is the enemy pushing in? Have they started using ultimates yet?
- Where is that dead ally positioned relative to the enemy team? Would a solo-rez put that ally in a good position to kill enemies, or weaken them enough that my other allies can press the advantage? Would a solo-rez discourage the enemy from pushing in if they haven’t already?
- Can my allies push the enemy back with their remaining ultimates? If I do solo-rez, will the other support be able to use their ultimate and keep the team alive through the following fight?
- Is the enemy firing ultimates yet? Is it time for me to withdraw to a safer location, or can I get my team to bait more ultimates without risking myself?
Assuming the player chooses not to use Resurrect…
Two more allies die. A third is at half health. The enemy uses two ultimates, which are both still active.
- How many enemies are still alive?
- Of those living enemies, who still has their ultimate ready?
- Should I revive my teammates now, or wait for more to die? If I choose to ult now, will that ally at half health survive post-resurrection?
- Who on my team has what ultimates? Have any been expended so far?
- Is the enemy aware that I’m still alive? Will they be hunting me, or will they prepare to counter my Resurrection with remaining ultimates? If so, can our other support help with their ultimate?
- Where are all of my allies? Are they close enough to all be caught in a Resurrection? Is there a specific angle I will need to fly in from in order to revive all of them?
- How far apart in time have all of my allies died so far? How long will it take the last one to die, and will I be able to rez all of them without worrying about the respawn timer? If I have to choose between reviving different players because of either space or time differences, who would be the best candidates?
- Is this Resurrection going to be useful at all, or are my allies too poorly positioned? Will it cause a snowball effect in the enemy’s favor if I choose to carry on?"
For those of you who have a surprising amount of patience and spare time:
The slightly less short (ish) version
Let’s construct ourselves a situation.
Defense rotation on Kings Row between the second and third checkpoints.
The enemy team is comprised of a Soldier:76, a Zarya, a Reinhardt, a McCree, a Symmetra, and an Ana. Mercy’s team is comprised of a Soldier:76, a McCree, a Reinhardt, an Ana, a Winston, and a Mercy (herself). From this point on, I will be narrating the fight from the point of view of the Mercy.
We need to pull back from the second objective and regroup.
The enemy team recently used Tactical Visor and Nano-Boost the last teamfight that lead to them capturing the previous objective. It’s very unlikely that they will have those two ultimates for the next fight unless we spend a lot of time trickling or poking.
The entire enemy team is alive and on the payload. I need to keep my living allies topped off until everyone is here.
Winston is far from the rest of us, possibly looking for a good opening or trying to bait the enemy. Our Soldier:76 is moving away from Winston towards the rest of the team. I need to give him a little healing to cover his escape. Winston is staying within line of sight for now, which means Ana can keep him alive as long as I can keep the rest of my team alive. In a 1v1 fight against an enemy, he should have the advantage.
Ana and McCree are right in front of me. We’re still waiting on our Reinhardt to join us.
The enemy Reinhardt just charged away from his team towards our Winston. His team wasn’t right behind him, which is typically a good reason to not charge at an enemy, even if it seems appealing to do so. He’s probably playing more aggressively because he has Earthshatter. He hasn’t used Earthshatter recently either, so he definitely has it with the delay and his abnormal behavior. Reinhardt didn’t manage to pin Winston, but now Winston is taking a little fire. I’ll move up a little to cover his escape.
Zarya just rounded the corner looking for trouble without the rest of her team before backing off shortly after while Winston was jumping back towards us. She is also playing dangerously; if we had good focus fire there, they would be down a tank. Being that it’s been a while since she has used Graviton Surge, they likely have that too. I need to keep my distance from the team.
The enemy Symmetra just placed a Shield Generator, meaning there’s only one enemy ultimate I have not yet accounted for: Deadeye. The enemy McCree hasn’t used it in a while so I suspect that he has it. He will almost certainly use it to combo with Earthshatter or Graviton Surge.
That’s three enemy offensive ultimates for one allied defensive ultimate. Our Ana has Nano-boost, but that’s not going to help much against the ultimates we are up against.
What other ultimates do we have? Our McCree was just playing Genji so he probably isn’t close to having Deadeye. Our Winston was just playing Roadhog, so he also doesn’t have much of his ultimate, not that it would help a whole lot unless he gets himself and the enemy in just the perfect position. Our Reinhardt has Earthshatter, and our Soldier:76 used Tactical Visor in the previous engagement. He might have it up soon, but I shouldn’t count on it.
So, we have Resurrect, Nano-boost, and Earthshatter.
The location of the engagement will be just ahead. Our Reinhardt will be back any second and we will be ready to contest the payload. With that in mind…
The enemy has no flankers, so finding an advantageous fighting position shouldn’t be necessary so long as I position myself so that the enemy needs to go through my team and then a little distance to get to me. That position is directly behind me, an elevated platform slightly higher than the ground before it. It has cover, so I have a place to duck behind when things get hot. I should be able to heal my team from a safe distance there, and I have a clear sight line to fire down with my pistol if my allies push too far ahead.
Reinhardt’s back.
Our Soldier:76 just died a few paces from Reinhardt. Perfect.
I have two options now; I could either revive that Soldier:76 to have an even teamfight but have our chances of success dropped due to an ultimate disadvantage (3 offensive ultimates against 2 offensive ultimates in a 6v6), or I could hold onto Resurrect for longer hoping that the enemy will use their ultimates regardless of our disadvantage.
Soldier:76 doesn’t have his ultimate up and isn’t in a very advantageous place to swing the tides of the fight. I’m going to wait and see what the enemy does before deciding…
The enemy has not capitalized on their advantage, and Soldier:76 is about to respawn. The spawn location isn’t too far from us and he can quickly close that distance with his Sprint ability. We can collapse back towards him if we need to.
I’m going to save Resurrect.
Our Winston just engaged by leaping towards the enemy team. Why he’s doing that when we’re down a player, I don’t know.
Our Ana just called out that the enemy’s Zarya is asleep. That’s my team’s cue to full engage and my cue to get to that safer position before resuming.
I reached that safer position just a few paces away. “Hammer down” is heard as I am approaching it and three of my allies are in critical condition. Two are dead when I hear “It’s high noon”. I have not attached my beam to any targets; however, they still might know my location, indicated by a Biotic Grenade being tossed my way.
The living allies are still between myself and the enemy, and they are at low health. Trying to save them would be pointless now. When they die, I will Resurrect them. The enemy still has Graviton Surge, but we will have some protection with Winston’s bubble and Reinhardt’s barrier. Nano can help an ally live through it and retake control along with Earthshatter.
The last two allies are dead. Soldier:76 is back from spawn and within sight. All dead allies are within range of Resurrect from my current position.
Q. The team is back up.
Zarya ulted, as expected, but died shortly afterwards before being able to capitalize on it. Our Ana Nano-Boosted our Reinhardt, who pushed the enemy back while Winston and Ana were protected by Winston’s barrier despite being caught inside Graviton Surge. The enemy Symmetra flanked and killed our McCree and our Soldier:76, but our tanks pushed the enemy back for now.
And with that, we conclude our first scenario.
Let’s make another.
Eichenwalde offense rotation between the second and third objectives.
The defending team has a Tracer, Widowmaker, Genji, Mei, McCree, and Mercy. The attacking team has a McCree, Soldier:76, Tracer, D.Va, Genji, and Mercy (herself). Standard Quickplay lineup.
Now we return to the perspective of the Mercy.
The enemy Tracer just used Pulse Bomb and killed nobody with it. Our D.Va is out of her MEKA and at least four of my allies are at critical health. We’re not directly engaged with the enemy save for that one Tracer who is in the room off to my left, so there’s no reason to withdraw in preparation to revive anyone. It would be better to heal everyone instead.
McCree killed that Tracer. I need to finish topping every one off before the next engagement. There’s 40 seconds left on the timer; either we win this fight or we lose the match.
Time to start taking inventory.
We’ll have no sustain going into this next fight unless D.Va gets inside her mech soon. We have only Resurrect going into the next fight unless someone pops off and charges another ultimate.
Being that I have Resurrect and it has been a while since the enemy Mercy has used her Resurrect, it’s safe to assume that she has it too. We have two flankers, though, so they can probably kill her before she’s able to use it.
By that same token, the enemy also has two flankers. It’s very unlikely that the enemy Tracer will have Pulse Bomb up again, being that she just used it. The enemy Genji might have Dragonblade. I need to stay close to my McCree around the last corner to the objective so he can help if I get attacked. There aren’t any particularly good flanking routes in this area, but better to be safe than dead.
I need to keep an eye on that flanking route to my left. The enemy Tracer might decide to sneak through it. I can see the beginning of it from where I’m standing, so I’ll have some time to reposition if she goes through there. I might actually be able to use that route to my advantage…
Scratch that. The enemy Widowmaker has good aim and just shot our McCree from a good distance away. It wasn’t a headshot, but I don’t want to risk the next shot on me being one. Her current position will allow her to shoot at me if I walk towards that doorway to my left, and a little repositioning on her part will allow her to suppress me when I reach the other end.
I need to stay around this corner from the enemy team. I can still heal my team a bit from here.
Our McCree is moving towards the other side of the battlefield, likely trying to take the high ground over there. My current position is more vulnerable because of this, but it will also provide a good escape route of I get attacked. He doesn’t have Deadeye yet, though. Maybe he’s close?
Speaking of Deadeye, the enemy McCree definitely has that too. Their Mei certainly has Blizzard.
Our D.Va is back in her MEKA. She might be able to DM Blizzard or Deadeye. Either way, the enemy is going to use ultimates very soon now that they have more to shoot at.
Our Genji just got a pick on the enemy McCree. Now he’s ulting. Two more kills with his ultimate, one on their Genji and one on their Mei. Mei managed to fire her ultimate before being killed though. The enemy Mercy is still alive and has a golden opportunity to give her team an advantage, as that Blizzard is going to deal some damage as long as there is followup.
Yep. Three-man Resurrect. The enemy might have Dragonblade at this point, and Genji was just revived. Their McCree was also revived, and he has Deadeye.
Our Genji and D.Va are caught in Blizzard.
McCree has the high ground right now, so I can fly to him if I need to. I’m only going to do so if I absolutely have to, as the enemy has that area locked down with Widowmaker and Deadeye. I don’t seem to be under threat of attack from flankers.
Our McCree killed the enemy Mercy and then was shot by the enemy McCree who was telling the time. If I can reset my team’s numbers, we’ll have an advantage in the following fight.
Tracer just got headshot by the enemy Mei. Nothing I could do there.
Our Genji, Tracer, and McCree are dead. Soldier:76 and D.Va, who is now outside of her MEKA, are both in critical condition. Time to break line of sight so the enemy doesn’t come looking for me.
Soldier:76 is dead. D.Va has very little health left. I’m flying in. By the time I’m there, she’ll be dead.
Oh look, a “X5”! Q.
That was a close shot on the part of the enemy Widowmaker. Glad I chose to stay behind that corner until flying in.
Our D.Va managed to kill the enemy Genji before dying, surprisingly. That means we don’t need to worry about Dragonblade immediately.
We have the clear advantage here; it’s a 6v4. I think I’ll press that advantage with a few shots from my pistol on the enemy Mei. Their only healer is down, so any damage counts.
No more ultimates are left. Just killing things is all that matters and the objective will be ours.
4 seconds remaining when the payload reached its destination.
End of our second scenario.
Another one?
3rd round on Hollywood. Defense rotation between 1st and 2nd objective.
The game is in overtime. The defending team is comprised of a Tracer, Reinhardt, McCree, Roadhog, Zenyatta, and Mercy (herself). The attacking team has a Reinhardt, Pharah, Roadhog, Genji, Ana, and Zenyatta.
And now we return to the perspective of the Mercy.
Our Reinhardt has Earthshatter. Our Tracer should have Pulse Bomb soon because I haven’t seen her use it yet. McCree recently used Deadeye before dying, so it’s very unlikely that he will have it again before this next teamfight. I don’t know about Roadhog and Zenyatta. I would assume that at least Zenyatta is close, as his utlimate charges about as fast as mine.
The enemy Pharah is pushing pretty far ahead of her team. No doubt she’s looking for someone to barrage. I need to keep an eye out for her and stay beneath low ceilings when possible.
My team is spread pretty far out. Rocket Barrage won’t kill many of us like this, but our team doesn’t have a solid defense like this either.
The enemy will not have Nano-boost because they used it in the last fight, but they probably have Transcendence, they might have Earthshatter, and they definitely have Dragonblade. Our team is way too spread to take out an ulting Genji. I need to stay back a bit. If I cling to the left external wall beneath the roof, I should be relatively safe from Pharah while simultaneously placing myself further away from Genji if he uses Dragonblade. Zenyatta will be my escape route in the event that Genji goes straight for me.
The game is in overtime; if we can get them off the payload for just a second, this round will end.
The enemy just used Whole Hog. I didn’t anticipate that. I need to pull back.
Pharah is using Rocket Barrage and was killed in the process. So far only our Reinhardt is down. The enemy Genji is currently inside the room to my left.
Genji is down. It’s a 5v4, and they only have Earthshatter and Transcendence available this fight. We’re loaded with ultimates. I could press this advantage by reviving our Reinhardt, who has Earthshatter, but some of my allies are at low health and might need it instead.
Scratch that, Tracer just rewound and our Roadhog just vaped. I’m reviving our Reinhardt to secure the fight.
The enemy is using Transcendence because they probably knew they were about to be swamped. Our Zenyatta replied with a Transcendence of his own. Our Roadhog is pushing the enemy Reinhardt away with Whole Hog. Oh look, our Reinhardt put his hammer down… now he’s charging the enemy Reinhardt. Have a damage boost.
The enemy healers are in my face, the enemy Transcendence has ended, and I’m feeling aggressive. Pew, pew pew.
The enemy is off the payload. Overtime is over.
Angry Japanese screaming from the enemy spawn
A bit late.
End of Scenario 3.
Now that I have given you these three “hypothetical” scenarios, you might be interested in knowing that not one of them is hypothetical. All of them actually happened, the perspective of the Mercy in question being my own at the time.
Don’t believe me? Good. That means there was a good reason for me to dig through my some of my old recordings:
Scenario 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXb4FklOz2Y
Scenario 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpGqTopkWUo
Scenario 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS7qfYlB5OE
Each video clip begins a little before the narratives begin to provide additional context.
Scenario 1 was recorded in early season 4, scenario 2 was a Quickplay match before the end of season 5 (it was also the last five-man Resurrect I ever got; I had a grand total of 8 of them, at least 2 of them ending in a second wipe), and scenario 3 was recorded in early-mid season 4.
Resurrect as an ultimate had huge variation in value. On a scale from 0-10 as to how effective abilities can be, Resurrect had a range of -5 to 11 and was never predefined in value. There was never a single optimal time to use Resurrect as an ultimate.
In contrast, Resurrect as a single-target basic ability will always have an optimal time of usage. It’s rigid cooldown and its lack of flexibility due to reduced range, single-target mechanic, and cast time, close the system down to whether or not it is possible to revive the target and whether or not there is a point in doing so.
Resurrect as a basic ability will always be most effective when used to negate an early-fight pick. Mercy no longer has the capacity to reverse the tide of the battle once one side has gained a clear advantage, so the best thing she can do is to prevent the scales from tipping too far in the enemy’s direction to begin with. Not only does a single-target Resurrect lose value as the fight goes on, but it also becomes more risky to attempt to revive targets as the fight grows older. More allies down means a lower chance of successful reversal and less protection to attempt any reversal. Thus, it is always best to reverse a kill as early as possible. This prevents the enemy team from snowballing an advantage and minimizes risk; yet another way that the game of balancing risk versus reward has been tossed out the window and replaced with minimizing risk whenever possible.
The thought currently required for Resurrect is simply checking a few parameters. It has no regards for how those parameters interact with one another, and it doesn’t require knowledge of nearly the amount of parameters that mass-rez did.
For example, the player doesn’t need to track enemy ultimates anymore. They can if they really want to, but it doesn’t impact their playstyle at all. There’s nothing they can do to stop or mitigate enemy ultimates, so why bother worrying about it?
When it comes to using Resurrect as an ability, there is only one question to consider:
Will attempting to revive the ally in question get myself or the ally killed?
It is no longer a question of how could the player best use Resurrect, it is now a question of if the player can use Resurrect at all; the rest is already decided.
The awareness of an experienced Mercy pre-rework is easily capable of exceeding the capacity at which awareness stops being valuable for the new Mercy. The skill ceiling for awareness is drastically lower than it used to be, and that skill ceiling was never expanded anywhere else to compensate.
The mind game and the sense of accomplishment that came with winning that game is gone. Now there’s just looking both ways before crossing the street.
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Valkyrie
Functionality:
Valkyrie is what you get when you take a bunch of existing abilities/ultimates, cram them into a single ability, and try to balance it as an ultimate.
We have Pharah’s flight but better, an off-brand Transcendence that was bought from Walmart (or the aura of a very hyperactive Lucio, depending upon how you look at it) that comes with a very long selfie stick, and a discount Supercharger minus the Orisa. Reinhardt’s ammo capacity was slapped onto Mercy’s pistol, and poof! We have Valkyrie.
Except… it’s kind of a… bad ultimate…
It’s a team-wide 60 HPS or a team-wide 30% damage boost or a 100 constant DPS with her pistol. Comparing this to other ultimates…
Transcendence heals all allies within its radius at a rate of 300 health/second. It makes Zenyatta invincible and the rest of his team basically immortal outside of a few specific attacks and abilities. Valkyrie allows Mercy to fly away and have uninterrupted health regeneration, and it provides 60 health/second to all allies affected by Mercy’s healing stream. Valkyrie has 1/5th the potency of Transcendence.
Supercharger increases the damage output of all allies within its range by 50%, including Orisa, the one who used the ultimate. Valkyrie increases the damage output of all affected allies by 30%. Mercy is not affected by this amplification, nor is she able to shoot at all, for that matter. Valkyrie is a weaker Supercharger that does not allow the player activating the ability to utilize it themselves.
With how weak Valkyrie is in comparison to other ultimate abilities, it would have a good place as a basic ability with a 2-4 second duration. It would be great as an asset the player has to manage throughout the fight. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
The balancing team decided not to take that route because… reasons?
Instead, they tried to put something that fits just fine as a basic ability into the place of an ultimate; the reverse of what they tried to do with Resurrect.
In order to stretch Valkyrie’s power and make it somewhat-worthy of fitting into the ultimate slot, the balancing team did something very creative:
They made it last for 15 seconds (originally 20 seconds).
https://i.imgur.com/CHoyD6b.gif
This didn’t really succeed in making it more useful, it just made the ability great at doing specific things, like making your team slightly more annoying for the entire teamfight and escaping just about any threat for the entire teamfight. The ultimate is pretty pathetic overall; it isn’t likely to change the outcome of the fight if any other ultimate is involved.
I often see players reply to the complaint that Valkyrie is weak by saying, “It’s weaker than Transcendence, but it charges faster than Transcendence, so it balances out”.
Which I find pretty funny. The statement that Valkyrie charging quickly might balance out Valkyrie’s lack of impact isn’t necessarily wrong; it’s the assumption that Valkyrie charges quickly that is wrong.
Before I run the math, let’s throw a reference into this. Resurrect, when it was an ultimate, already charged slower than Transcendence. I ran the numbers, and you can find them here:
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20758647473#post-1
When Mercy’s ultimate was changed from Resurrect to Valkyrie, it’s charge requirement was increased by 325 charge points, a 20% charge requirement increase.
Let’s grab some data from Overbuff and do some math.
Mercy:
393 damage = 393 charge.
11926 healing = 9540.8 charge (4/5 conversion ratio).
555 damage amplified = 2405 damage dealt by amplified target = 1603.33 charge (2/3 conversion ratio).
3000 passive gain from existing for 10 minutes.
Total charge: 14537.13.
Charge Requirement: 1950.
Ignoring usage delay, that’s 7.45 ultimates/game, assuming each game is 10 minutes long.
Zenyatta:
8644 damage = 8644 charge.
6911 healing - 2089.97 Transcendence healing = 4821.03 non-ult healing = 6363.76 charge (33/25 conversion ratio).
3000 passive gain from existing for 10 minutes.
Total charge: 18007.76.
Charge requirement: 2075.
Ignoring usage delay, that’s 8.68 ultimates/game, assuming each game is 10 minutes long.
Did you notice something that was missing from Mercy’s side? We don’t have values for how much healing/damage/amplification Mercy players are getting while in Valkyrie; the data is generalized. This means that we are including values that should not be included, which means Valkyrie would have an even slower charge rate than the rate that is represented by the above numbers. We already know that Zenyatta gains ultimate faster than Mercy does, but even those numbers above do not fully show how large the gap between the two heroes is.
Not only did inflating the duration of Valkyrie fail to actually solve its lack of impact, but it also caused negative side effects. Explaining those side effects are what the following three sections are for.
The Best Defense:
Is to stay as far away from the fight as possible.
This is the same issue that we are seeing with the risk/reward concept in Mercy’s basic kit. Valkyrie is just as effective when activated and utilized in a dangerous way as it is when utilized in a far safer way. The effectiveness of Valkyrie has no regards for where the player positions themselves as long as their beams can reach their team, and that isn’t much of a restriction considering Mercy’s beams reach up to 30 meters in Valkyrie. A Mercy placing a beam on a target while flying 10 meters above her team contributes just as much as a Mercy placing a beam on that same target while flying 29 meters above and behind her team. The difference is that the Mercy staying closer to her team is at a significantly greater risk of dying to enemy fire than the other Mercy.
As a result, we have the same issue we have with Mercy’s base kit in relation to Resurrect no longer being a chargeable ability; if there is no reason to do something, and there is good reason to not do that same something, then the best choice is always to not do that something. The less risk the player takes, the better.
Because Valkyrie promotes taking as little risk as possible, players take full advantage of Valkyrie’s beam range, disengaging themselves from the fight as much as possible; it’s safer 29 meters away than it is in the fight. Where most ultimates are designed to draw the user into the battle, Valkyrie pushes the player out of it.
War of Attrition:
Valkyrie lacks the sudden impact that other ultimates have to swing the tide of the fight. It grants one team an advantage for the entire fight that can be easily overturned by another ultimate on the opposing team. If the fight is already going somewhat downhill, it has no shock value or sudden impact to negate that tipping.
As a result, Valkyrie is best used early on to grant a team an advantage for most of, if not the entire teamfight. It does not do this by rapidly changing the scales, but by allowing the affected team to slog through more than the opposing team. If no more ultimates are involved, or if they are used very poorly, the fight comes down to a matter of “Which team can take a beating for longer”, a battle that is typically won by the team using Valkyrie. There is no “wow” in Valkyrie. It’s not a playmaking ability.
Tracer can blink behind the enemy’s frontline, stick a Pulse Bomb to an enemy, and blink away as they get a quick single or double kill. That’s exciting.
Zarya can use Graviton Surge and gather the entire enemy team into a single location allowing for a rapid teamwipe. That’s exciting.
Reinhardt can Eathshatter four enemies and instantly swing the tides in his team’s favor. That’s exciting.
Lucio can save his entire team from a series of ultimates by using Sound Barrier. That’s exciting.
Mercy uses Valkyrie and disengages while the rest of her team, mildly stronger than before, pushes ahead. She then stays disengaged for the next 15 seconds. That is utterly unimpressive.
Valkyrie feels incredibly underwhelming as an ultimate. It doesn’t offer much power compared to most other ultimates in the game, and none of that power is left in Mercy’s own hands (unless the player goes full Battle Mercy, in which case they are typically hurting their chances of winning, but I honestly cannot blame them for that with how boring Valkyrie is) because they are too busy being their team’s mobile Shield Generator. There is no way to increase Valkyrie’s effectiveness once the beam is already chaining to all five allies. If any of the following ultimates are used effectively, Mercy is powerless to intervene in a meaningful way to save her teammates:
- Rip-Tire.
- Rocket Barrage.
- Earthshatter.
- Configuration: Tank.
- Blizzard.
- Death Blossom.
- Self-Destruct.
- Deadeye.
- DragonBlade.
- EMP.
- DragonStrike.
- Whole Hog.
- Graviton Surge.
- Meteor Strike.
- Pulse Bomb.
- Tactical Visor.
“But she can fly.”
No, seriously, I see this a lot. The most common justification I see for the lack of impact Mercy has on the fight with Valkyrie goes along the lines of “Mercy can fly for 15 seconds, becoming effectively unkillable for that time; stop complaining”.
Sure, Mercy is incredibly hard to kill in Valkyrie (because of the constant regeneration, faster movement speed, and both the capacity and good reason to stay 29 meters away from her team at all times), but that doesn’t really say much. 60 health/second isn’t potent enough to protect teammates from normal focus fire; throw an ultimate into the equation and you can ignore the Mercy entirely, as she isn’t having enough impact to matter at that point. Winston alone is able to negate that rate of healing without even looking directly at his target and ignores barriers to do it. What do you think would happen when the entire enemy team is there as well?
You don’t need to shoot the Mercy. You can ignore her and kill her team without any more resistance than you would encounter while trying to kill a team protected by a Shield Generator. If Zenyatta’s Transcendence only healed for 60 health/second, the fact that he is invulnerable wouldn’t be a concern in the fight; his team would still be killed due to sheer damage. Consequently, Zenyatta mains would have every right to complain about how lackluster their ultimate is.
Valkyrie isn’t decisive. It prolongs the fight in favor of Mercy’s team and fails to provide any source of excitement for the player. The fact that it is underwhelming while it simultaneously pushes the player away from the fight for its duration makes Mercy’s base kit of Guardian Angel, healing, and damage amplifying more entertaining and engaging than using Valkyrie; the exact opposite of what should be happening when a player presses Q.
Skill Ceiling:
To put this bluntly, Valkyrie does just about everything the player normally needs to do for them. To illustrate this, we should to declare a few things.
Mercy’s two main priorities for the entire game are:
- Sustain and empower her team.
- Keep herself alive.
With these two priorities and the given tools within Mercy’s base kit, the player needs to learn healing prioritization, Guardian Angel discipline, positioning, utilization of damage boost, and awareness.
A brief summary of each:
Healing prioritization is how and when the player uses Mercy’s beams; who they choose to heal under certain circumstances, how well they can juggle their team’s health, who they choose to save in scenarios in which they cannot save everyone. A Mercy with good healing prioritization is more capable of sustaining a team than a Mercy who does not know how to prioritize.
GA discipline is how good the player is at selecting GA targets and controlling their flight. A Mercy with good GA discipline will be able to flow from location to location easily, seeming to fly independently if their allies are in good positions relative to the Mercy. Simultaneously, that Mercy is less likely to fly to allies who are in situations that are too dangerous for the Mercy to survive.
Positioning is self-explanatory. It’s how the Mercy places themselves spatially so they can influence the battlefield while making it difficult for the enemy to hit them. This includes cutting line of sight entirely with the enemy team around corners, taking the high ground or staying in enclosed spaces to allow for more advantageous fighting locations, and peeking around corners to heal teammates by utilizing the 2 second decay time on Mercy’s beams. A Mercy with good positioning is less dependent upon GA discipline, but it is impossible to eliminate the need for GA discipline entirely.
Utilization of damage boost is how often/effectively the player amplifies their team’s damage. Its how well they recognize opportunities to use it and how efficient they are with its timing, allowing for both maximum damage and healing output. For example, a Mercy who knows how to use damage boost effectively will amplify a Roadhog when he hooks a target a split second before he fires his shotgun. This allows the Mercy to help secure a kill without leaving much of a pause between healing allies, granting both herself and the Roadhog more ultimate charge.
Awareness is how well the player identifies threats/opportunities and how well they capitalize on them. Good awareness is needed to use the above skills.
These skills led to a nearly limitless skill ceiling in Mercy’s base kit; there were always ways for the player to improve in any or all of these areas.
With that in mind, let’s consider what Valkyrie does:
- Beams now split to connect to all allies within 10 meters at full strength.
- Mercy is granted free flight at an increased movement speed.
- Beam range is extended to 30 meters.
- Mercy now has uninterrupted self-regeneration.
And with that, we have almost entirely removed the need for any of the skills mentioned before.
AoE beams means the player hardly needs to worry about healing prioritization; all allies are already receiving the full benefits of Mercy’s healing at once. Switching targets is both pointless and puts a very slight pause in healing, and isn’t at all necessary unless the team splits up a lot.
GA discipline and actual positioning skill isn’t needed when Mercy can fly wherever she wants at a speed of 9 meters/second. Fly up and away to minimize risk, and stay there for the rest of the fight. Her uninterrupted passive regeneration will cover for any chip damage the enemy manages to deal to her at that distance.
Utilization of damage boost is still somewhat needed, but it no longer requires that the player worry about who they amplify. The only thing the player really needs to consider when using Valkyrie is whether or not they should be using their healing stream or their damage amplification stream.
Awareness is significantly less important in Valkyrie, as there are fewer threats to worry about and Mercy’s beams affect her entire team at once.
If the player is flying at the skybox and healing/amplifying their entire team with a 30 meter long tether, they have reached their maximum capacity for the duration of Valkyrie. No amount of skill is going to increase their effectiveness for the following 14 seconds.
There lies the problem. The player is no longer limited by their own skill, but by the ability itself. The player can be an absolute god when it comes to playing Mercy’s base kit, but as soon as they activate Valkyrie, they have the same influence over the fight as a Gold Mercy who is also using Valkyrie.
Combine this with how underwhelming the ultimate already feels because of how diluted it is over a 15 second duration, and a particular adjective works perfectly to describe how the player feels in this situation:
Useless.
This is why I and many others refer to Valkyrie as a glorified spectator mode. It’s 10% hitting buttons to make a difference in the fight, and 90% watching to see what happens. There is no rush of adrenaline, no “in the zone” moment, no feeling of self-gratification while using Valkyrie to its fullest potential. It’s just watching to see what the team will do.
“I will watch over you!” is a very fitting line for this ultimate. Remove the preposition, and you have Mercy saying exactly what the player will be doing for the next 15 seconds:
“I will watch you!”
Commitment:
This section is pretty straight forward. The activation as Resurrect in Mercy’s 1.x versions meant that Mercy was there for the rest of the fight, regardless as to how bad things might look. Using it effectively required that she be in the middle of the battlefield when it activated, placing her directly in the action. The following fight was typically very intense, and Mercy just expended her greatest asset. The Mercy was both in the position physically and mentally where they were committed to the fight, even if it seemed to be going south.
Valkyrie on the other hand, doesn’t seem like much of an asset, and the player is 29 meters from the fight while it’s active. If things go south…
Meh. Whatever. I’m already halfway back to the spawn location. No point in getting myself killed too.
Valkyrie doesn’t mean “I am here with you until this fight ends one way or another” like Resurrect did. It means “I’ll be over here. Have fun”.
___________________________________________________________________________________
"You have already been addressed."
This is often said as a reaction to someone who inquires as to whether or not our concerns about Mercy are going to be addressed. The person saying it then refers to this post by Jeff Kaplan on the previous Overwatch Forums:
"We have no plans to revert Mercy. We also feel like she’s not in a horrible place or unplayable.
It’s still to be determined if she is exactly where she should be because it has been too soon and the dust needs to settle. Her playtime in QP and Comp is still incredibly high. Her winrate is still above 50% but more in line with what we’d expect.
But I’d like to put the notion that Mercy is going to be reverted to rest.
Also, we don’t agree with the statement that all supports are weak. Support heroes are extremely powerful and impactful in OW."
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20761616811#post-7
Before I focus on the quote specifically, let’s refine the word “address” into something that is easier to apply in this circumstance.
In order for Jeff Kaplan (or any developer, for that matter) to address a group of individuals that have a common complaint, they must first A) know what the complaint is. After they have been made aware of that complaint, they must B) publicly acknowledge that they are aware of what complaint of that particular group is. Once they have done A and B, they must C) express that action, or no action, will be taken to make amends and fix the problem.
By this point, I’m betting that you, the reader, know where I’m going with this and love me for it, know where I’m going with this and hate me for it, or you do not know where I’m going with this. I’m also betting that one of you is in the process of locking this thread and tossing it into that place to be forgotten along with everything else.
Now that we’ve reduced “address” to more workable parts, let’s see how well that quote holds up.
Did Jeff Kaplan know what the complaint was and still is? We can’t really tell. Supposedly he does, being that he said this in the previous megathread on the old forums:
“Thanks to everyone for taking the time to write up thoughtful feedback here. We’re reading the responses daily.”
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20761088072?page=77#post-1523
Although “we” is pretty vague and could simply mean “someone at Blizzard” which doesn’t provide us with any additional information. We know that moderators are reading the posts; “we are reading it” =/= “someone with authority in balance is reading it”.
The fact that we can’t really tell if Jeff is aware of Mercy’s problems shows that he obviously failed with B. Looking at the quote, we can see why:
"We also feel like she’s not in a horrible place or unplayable.
It’s still to be determined if she is exactly where she should be because it has been too soon and the dust needs to settle. Her playtime in QP and Comp is still incredibly high. Her winrate is still above 50% but more in line with what we’d expect."
Nothing he said in that quote is related to our complaints. He’s talking about balance, not how fun Mercy is to play or how she’s practically had her identity removed and replaced. So far, we don’t know if Jeff has done A, and we know that he has not done B. Has he done C?
Kind of… Sort of… Not really…
No.
“We have no plans to revert Mercy… I’d like to put the notion that Mercy is going to be reverted to rest.”
They don’t want to revert Mercy. That’s great to know, but what are they going to do? Rework her again? Modify her from where she currently is? Sit around and look pretty?
Knowing what they don’t want to do isn’t helpful.
- “What’s your favorite color?”
- “It’s not purple.”
I’m bored, so I’m going to make another analogy. Let’s pretend that I ask my parents if we can get a pet cat. My parents then reply with “We need more dog food for our dogs”.
The reply doesn’t address the request. It’s irrelevant. They are both about pets, but the similarities stop there. This is where we are with communication between us and the developers.
The developers haven’t truly addressed us because they refuse to acknowledge our concerns. Rather than acknowledging our concerns, they constructed a straw-man argument and acknowledged that in an attempt to make it seem as though they have addressed us without actually doing so. Seeing how many people fell for it, I’d say that the charade worked.