Mercy is hurting new player populations

[Boshy-11500]

What universe did you type this from

[IsTheMedia-1302]

Same one where even non-OW players feel like they can have a say on the matter.

Seriously…

[Feculator-2245]

I think you are severely underestimating the amount of new players that Mercy is incredibly suitable for, and who indeed enjoy playing her.

[beeters-11301]

@HarrySack-11448

hey hop on overwatch with their friends. Someone decides to play support amongst the group of friends.

And…… the other team has a mercy.
BUT. Your team doesn’t have a mercy. Or nobody in the friend group wants to play mercy. SMH

Bro what is this 2016-ahh schizopost

[LuckyDucky12-11252]

@ĆħiŷöņǾŞåĸę-1194

so when you have heroes like mercy, moira, ana, bap, kiriko, rein, winston, dva, ect ect that can block, prevent or heal dmg the new players just get bored and leave.

Sounds like those players just don’t like Overwatch. If I played Fortnite, and didn’t like the game, I’d leave. With that in mind:

@ĆħiŷöņǾŞåĸę-1194

believe it or not, you are actually somewhat correct here.

but its not because she’s oppressive to play against or because she’s OP or anything like that. its because she completely changes how the game is played

And your patently wrong here. Mercy doesn’t change the way the game is played. At least, not any more than any other character. The Engineer in TF2 is a unique kind of character, yet Valve didn’t rush to make him a typical gun guy.

And finally

@ĆħiŷöņǾŞåĸę-1194

people come into an fps to shooty shooty but this game both requires insanely good aim but doesnt reward it properly.

Anyone who picked up overwatch to play shooty shooty needs to get humbled. I don’t play Call of Duty for some tactical team based shooter, and for that reason alone, we shouldn’t tolerate cod kids coming here and ruining the game because they want to play shooty shooty.

Also, I forgot to mention:

@HarrySack-11448

However if you have played games before and you’re looking for a new fps. Mercy will directly ruin your experience and discourage you from playing.

@AKJ-11308

rez/ damage boost making a dps a super soldier, flying monster does make people leave

You two have absolutely no evidence that people are leaving Overwatch because of Mercy. Honestly, we as a community should reject people like you who’d lie to get the game changed for the worse.

[HarrySack-11448]

Why not just nerf her for one season. And see if player engagement and population improves.

If not just hard commit back into mercy.

[FFirebrandd-1844]

Weird moment… reading this and Mercy has literally been directly responsible for the most healthy metas the game has ever seen.

[Malbosiiq-1808]

The logical stride of a titan.

[LRP24-2420]

@HarrySack-11448

And…… the other team has a mercy.
BUT. Your team doesn’t have a mercy. Or nobody in the friend group wants to play mercy. SMH

It is much more likely players will just stop playing and stay away from overwatch.

Bro is cooking NOTHING
If you are playing with friends in modes for fun… you ain’t picking mercy unless you want to play her.

You could make this argument about any hero when they’re strong

[TidesofMercy-1353]

First and foremost, because people who have decided to stop playing, likely didn’t just quit because of one character, who mind you wasn’t even meta for the first three seasons of OW2. Second, everyone that enjoys her will be angry about the nerf, and may not get some of those players back either. This is not a game where sledgehammering characters does not go over well. That’s also why people leave and don’t come back, because it feels bad, and feels out of touch. Finally, Mercy is the only character that plays like Mercy, who do you suggest that those players move to that feels similarly?

I think that many of your statements are vastly overgeneralized and lack any data apart from your own feelings. It would be just as fruitful to just say that you don’t like her and end it there because that’s all that I’m seeing. For example, I never liked Fortnite, I played it once and was done. I don’t like traditional FPS, but I really fell in love with Overwatch with Mercy being one of the primary draws for me. Why turn people away that still want to play for people that may play a game or two before being done again? It’s just not logical or frugal for that matter.

Next season will likely be the biggest season that OW2 has. If it flops, good luck… That has about .1% to do with Mercy or any other character for that matter. This game has some significant issues, which mostly come down to overpromising without delivery, the new gameplay structure, matchmaking, and the lack of buy in to the new monetization strategy. The idea that some players dislike Mercy and are unable to shut her down is only one of those issues. Some of the above reasons may also be why you and your friends did not enjoy matches with Mercy. The matchmaker is not great and you may have been playing against one that was significantly higher MMR than you. For example, I am pretty solidly plat for the most part and I often get placed into games with masters level players or games vs bronze players. It’s stomp or be stomped.

Also, if you struggle with Mercy, my suggestion is to take up space. Mercy struggles significantly if there is a lack of space, because she can do very little to defend herself. She thrives on space. If you give Mercy space, you deserve to be outplayed by her. That is my opinion on the matter.

[Akary-1113]

@HarrySack-11448

Mercy is great for people that have never played an fps or video game before.

However if you have played games before and you’re looking for a new fps. Mercy will directly ruin your experience and discourage you from playing.

95% of people that try overwatch for the first time. Will have played other games. Probably have at least played Fortnite.

However they hop on overwatch with their friends. Someone decides to play support amongst the group of friends.

And…… the other team has a mercy.
BUT. Your team doesn’t have a mercy. Or nobody in the friend group wants to play mercy. SMH

It is much more likely players will just stop playing and stay away from overwatch. Instead of “buying in” to grinding out all the skills needed to outplay her at higher tiers

Just gonna say people, that can’t aim shouldn’t be dps, if you can aim mercy is a joke… If they are looking for a new FPS then they should know how to aim… Most hit scans can kill a mercy pocket fairly easily.

I know from personal experience some can aim but most can’t… The problem with mercy is that most don’t play law of averages and pick appropriate healers to deal with her, mostly relying on someone else to do it…

[RINA-22281]

@HarrySack-11448

Most of my friends stopped playing due to mercy.

i’m sorry but if you stopped playing a whole game cause of one character, you really should check on yourself.

[righthere-11972]

@HarrySack-11448

Mercy works well in dive, poke and brawl

Since when? Mercy works in poke. She is completely outclassed by other supports in dive and brawl.

[Char-12590]

It will hurt more new players on August 10th. lmao

I’m sad for the Steam players. They will get so much stomp and deal with cancer characters like Phamercy, Widow…

[HarrySack-11448]

@Šãdþëêþö-1413

I’m kind of new to this forum thing, but I’ve never really felt the need to post here until now, and it’s because of Mercy.

Here’s a thread a new player just started lol

Guy/gal was so frustrated they came to the forums. Prob has no idea how to post or talk

[Ihanin-2778]

If they’re new players they’re thankful of seeing Mercy in their games. It’s because Mercy is one of the most healthy supports in the games for 2 simple reasons:

1. Consistent healing feels really good as a teammate. If a new player is on Ana or Bapo they just miss their shots all the time. If they’re on Brig, Zen or Lucio then they’re on a flex support that they will have difficulty of utilizing or realizing their help. So Mercy is their best teammate, with a healbot Kiriko being a 2nd best choice
2. Mercy has 0 intrusive abilities. Every other healer has some intrusive abilities in their kit besides Kiriko. So as an opponent she’s a perfect hero for them. They don’t get slept, naded, booped, blocked, ran over, discorded or any of that garbage. It feels a lot better to play against an opponent that is doing 0 intrusive things and is only supporting their team

So overall a 0/5 take. The noob Mercies don’t even know how to use GA properly so they just stand and beam and have very simple movement. The whole notion of her being problematic at this stage is complete bs. The only real players that are complaining about her are just malding that everyone else wishes they were on Mercy instead of Ana, Bapo or something else that makes them feel bad because of the skill issues

[Janitor-11103]

@DoctorWaffle-11820

I’d say Overwatch goes for a different audience than a typical FPS. It aims to attract casual players who are drawn in by a large variety of different character designs, weapons, and archetypes.

That was the original objective but that’s not true anymore.
EX: OWL rapid fire panicked balancing made for a few pro players + Coop stuff.

[ĆħiŷöņǾŞåĸę-1194]

@DoctorWaffle-11820

I’d say Overwatch goes for a different audience than a typical FPS.

it tries too appeal to one but there isnt a different audience. keep in mind that early overwatch exclusively appealed to a typical fps player thats why it was so popular. blizzard changed that when they started to nerf the dps role while buffing tank/support and the game started to die.

but overall the moba players dont want to aim and the fps players want aim to be the main focus. hero shooters as a sub genre is actually really small with only 1 “successful” game: overwatch.

dont get me wrong, i too thought OW was this unique thing that could be balanced and everyone would be happy. but after years of playing in masters then taking breaks to play other things (all on repeat) its become very clear that the problem with overwatch is exactly the things that made it unique.

you cant have a game where you need csgo/valorant level aim but then also make it so that aim is only 40% of the game. paladins has shown us that a less aim intensive overwatch doesnt do so well either because the people that tend to go to this type of game are the same people that play apex, cs, cod or valorant.

this is why overwatch is so irrelevant, the playerbase that is most attracted to the game doesnt get to enjoy it for long.

people enjoy OW in short bursts then they go to the more popular games. people like us (the ones on these forums) are an oddity. we are the people that’ll play this game for years if we could but we are a minority.

we have seen blizzards total active monthly user count that they released recently and its down to pre OW2 era WITH diablo 4 having been released. meaning that ow2 probably has fewer players now then it did in ow1.

thats why they are pushing OW onto steam.

you cant have a game thats a shooter and then not heavily reward the shooting. (in most major fps’s the aim element is 90-95% of the game with overwatch that focus is 30-40% but you still need the same level of mechanical skill to compete against people. this makes the game too complex for the average player and thus they quit and go play the more popular games)

[IsTheMedia-1302]

Hey guess what at the start of OW2 Moira was the complaint for new players.

Cause they’re new.

[DoctorWaffle-11820]

Yeah, it’s a shame that games like Val or CS are more popular in my eyes. They don’t have the flair or unique wacky stuff and it’s overall just not as interesting. I’d much rather a game lean into its niche rather than just homogenize to reach popular status.