Mercy’s Current State
Mercy is in a bad spot, and I know that everyone is going to get upset with “nO sKiLL sTooPiD MeRCy mAiN” but please hear me out. I’m almost certain that this post will be lost/forgotten in the forums but I at least wanted to put my opinion out there in case the devs or something could inspire a change. Mercy’s healing is weak and her previous raw healing was meant to make up for her lack of offensive capabilities. Her kit is very team reliant, hence why resurrect as an ultimate worked. Not only did it change the game, but it tipped the scales back in her favor if she was able to position herself properly and keep her teammates alive through poke damage and team fights, aka playing well. Resurrect as an ultimate also countered ult stacking and opponents that focused on kills rather than the objective. My proposal is to bring back resurrect as an ultimate that is not only effective for the Mercy player but can also be countered by the enemy team. Mercy is a single target healer, which is why Valkyrie doesn’t make sense as her ultimate. Despite being a staunch advocate for peace, she receives unlimited ammo which contradicts her character design. Valkyrie as an ultimate also has little impact, as anyone who can aim can shoot her out of the sky, and chain beams don’t do much in a team fight.
Possible New Mercy
My idea for a new Mercy would be to bring back the old Mass Rez, but with tweaks that make it more niche in its use, and more easily countered by the enemy team, so as to reduce the 5 man rez that (incorrectly) “plagued” games with Mercys.
- Caduceus Staff
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Healing reverted to 60 hps, 50 hps is very weak for someone meant to be a main healer. None of the main healers have hps this low, she is currently closer to an off-healer than the main healers. 60 hps is not strong, but 50 hps is far too weak.
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Damage boost, untouched at 30%. Damage boost applied once projectile is fired, so anything that is already shot will do normal damage.
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Cleanse Beam (New ability) Mercy’s staff has the ability to cleanse allies of debuffs (Sleep, Anti, etc.) and can prevent CC, but only after 1.5 seconds of continuous attachment from this third beam. This could be Mercy’s second ability, coupled with Guardian Angel, which will remain untouched. Once activated, it could possibly replaced damage boost for its duration, or be its own beam altogether. This would be good to counter the growing CC in OW and currently there are no ways of countering Ana’s anti 'nade or sleep dart or CC besides Zarya bubble and Orisa’s Fortify which only protects herself. Not certain about duration/CD but was considering 6 second duration with 10 second CD, tweaked for balancing as needed.
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Caduceus Blaster damage could be upped to 25 dps, rather than its current 20 dps. Only reason for this is to provide Mercy with a slightly easier time protecting herself when teammates don’t cooperate. Doesn’t shift the balance in her favor, but helps just a little bit with flankers/those diving support, when Mercy has no other options.
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Guardian Angel will remain untouched, possibly speed up Mercy’s flight if possible. Just a personal preference seeing as GA doesn’t always get me where I want to go in the time I need to get there but like with the blaster, change isn’t a necessity.
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Resurrect (Ultimate) Mercy’s Resurrect will function the same way as before her Valk Rework albeit with some windows for the team to counter/punish Mercy if she doesn’t act carefully. Mercy can resurrect her teammates in the usual radius, etc. but with a cast time of 0.75-1.00 seconds. Mercy herself will become invulnerable ONLY TO DAMAGE, but is still susceptible to CC. Not only is Mercy susceptible to CC, but so are the souls of the fallen teammates. These will become visible once Mercy activates Resurrect, and the enemy team could hack/stun the souls to prevent that specific soul’s resurrection, however the best CC/Hack would be Mercy herself to prevent all souls from resurrecting. The damage invulnerability would be there to help Mercy survive after initiating her ultimate, and can be forced out by flankers if she needs to survive. This invulnerability would only last for cast time and once the souls have risen, she can be damaged again, but should have her GA reset after the cast time is done so she isn’t left in the middle of the opposing team. Another limit to resurrect would be to only allow its activation if any of Mercy’s beams have been attached to a teammate within the previous 5 seconds, or if Mercy has damaged an opponent within the previous 5 seconds. Once 5 seconds have passed without healing a teammate, damage boosting a teammate, cleansing a teammate, or damaging the opponent with her blaster, the ultimate will become locked similar to the patch that blocked her from resurrecting while in her spawn room. The cast time along with the requirement to be engaged in the team stops Mercy from being able to (falsely) “Hide and Rez”, and requires much more planning from the Mercy. She will not only have to position herself to be active, but also give away her position due to the required beam/damage.
Overall, these changes to Mercy would allow for her to be impactful and balanced in both high and low ranks, while still allowing other supports to shine. The new Rez isn’t strong enough to force the other supports out of the role, but still strong enough that leaves Mercy open for consideration. You might ask why Mercy should have such an impactful ult for a character with such a low skill floor, but due to the only contribution from her character being healing and a body on the objective, she doesn’t have anything else to provide, which is why an impactful ultimate is required in order to make her a viable character. Valkyrie loses its impact around gold or platinum rank, speaking from experience as someone who has climbed from gold to masters playing Mercy, other supports, D.va, and some DPS. Mercy isn’t as simple as a point and click healer. Mercy’s character is the embodiment of pacifism, and so is her gameplay. Mercy players must heal their teammates, position themselves so as to not die by flankers or front line DPS, track and avoid ultimates, all while giving away their position due to the prominence of her staff beams. The ideology that this type of gameplay doesn’t take skill is pretentious and caters to the idea that mechanical skill is the only skill that exists in OW despite the presence of so many non aiming heroes that are seen in higher ranks.
I hope anyone who reads this enjoys my ideas, or if you don’t please feel free to leave critiques/improvements in the replies, not just insults or anything that doesn’t contribute to a discussion. I also hope the devs take some of this into consideration when looking at where Mercy is (please don’t just examine her pick rate, heroes are much more than that. Her healing, win rate, on fire rate, etc. have all dramatically dropped due to the 14 consecutive nerfs she received that left her the shadow of the character she once was) versus where she could be had her resurrect just been fixed rather than her rework which crippled OW’s main healer.
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