Mercy is now the only reliable main healer

3 months ago:

“Mercy sucks!!”
“Mercy worst healer!!! I’m quitting Overwatch.”
“Mercy’s nerfs made her the worst healer byfar.”
“Mercy’s ultimate sucks!”

Present time:
Mercy is the most used healer in competitive, has the most reliable stats, has highest pro pickrates.

Maybe she isn’t fun anymore, but here we are, seeing Mercy and Zenyatta being the strongest composition again. With Brigitte too*

4 Likes

Not every hero is suppose to viable at every given moment and a hero can be well balanced, but they’re aren’t picked because the meta is against their favor. Lucio is a strong and well balanced hero, but jts not his meta. Does he need more buffs and balances changes to force him into this meta? No

What is lucios meta then? Its not dive, its not all the shields in death ball, what would it be? Mercy has been the best support since her rework in sept, zen has been a top 2 support since season 4. Right now there is pretty much never a time to not want a zen and mercy on your team. Lucio is the result of power creep, he went from a go to support to being a bad choice with mercy rework and brig introduction.

2 Likes

It’s because the current meta favors damage amp, high burst damage for quick kills that she can Rez, and Valk is a, boring, yet offers more utility than other support ults. It’s the meta that’s making her stronger than other supports. More so than anything else.

2 Likes

Lucio was really strong up until the Mercy rework and the introduction of Brigitte. S1 was Lucio Zen, Lucio Mercy, S2 & 3 was Lucio Ana, All dive had Lucio up until Mercy rework. Heck he’s still a good support in the current meta. Especially with death ball slow tanks that can utilize his speedboost

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Although this bug has been a well known thing for some time, in that its been stated to be one long before this, It was probably the best accident the devs ever made.

Not every accident is a mistake. The greatest discoveries are often unintended, and while this obviously isn’t a great discovery, its still a good thing, and simply because it wasn’t intended, you killed it for not being part of the plan. Its very sad.

2 Likes

That proves my point. She still does not suck. And even take away the meta, she is still going to be good for her ressurect as it literally undoes a death unlike any other support ability. She still has incredibly consistent heals. High survivability.

While Blizzard has cited this as a bug since Moira’s release, and I’m happy it is being resolved (as Blizzard has said before they will never willingly leave a known bug in the game), I do agree that it is making Mercy, who is already in far too strong a place and has been in dire need of nerfs in an even stronger place.

I don’t know what beyond a ‘nearly 100% pick rate across most modes of play for ~9 months’ can convince the devs that Mercy is not balanced at all right now and that, in fact, she is the core problem with the balance of the game.

1 Like

They should have gone the other way and made it so all healers can heal through enemy barriers.

4 Likes

This change is absurd. If this was a bug that was in game for so long then it’s time to give Mercy, Zen and Brigitte the same change.

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In regards to the current meta, none of the top 3 supports are being picked because of their healing. A character who’s main focus is large amounts of raw healing isn’t going to be strong in the current meta. Mercy is picked for damage amp and Rez, Zen for discord and ult for grav counter, Brigitte for shield bash and armor.

The reason why Mercy and Zen are strong while all other supports are weak is because Brigitte is borderline OP and the meta is long range damage from widow and Hanzo. What two supports best prop up and counter long range damage?Mercy and Zen. What tank counters Brigitte and long range damage? Rein. Who synergizes best with rein? Zarya.

The issue isn’t Moira being too weak or Mercy and Zen being too strong. It’s Brigitte and new Hanzo that are too strong and widow is right their along side new Hanzo.

6 Likes

You said he is only bad now because of the meta, and that he is a strong hero, but its not his meta, im asking what his meta would be. As some1 who played lucio in top500 I know how great he was in seasons 1-5. I dont see any meta that he will be a better choice than other supports in, especially with brig doing his job but better, speed alone no longer warrants picking him.

2 Likes

Or the other healers aren’t good enough to compete. How would you go about nerfing Mercy, what aspect of her kit do you think needs adjusting?

Wooof, people use Mercy purely for the reason that she’s the most consistent and reliable healer, despite the lowest actual output of all main healers.

So then they nerf reliability and consistency on the other healers. Boy howdy, wonder why Mercy is so popular now.

12 Likes

Easiest healer/hero in the game is also the strongest support. Nice work Blizzard.

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60HPS beam vs 80HPS cloud?

Wat?

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You don’t understand the word application do you?

Mercy needs to require more effort to do what she does before I consider her to be even remotely balanced.

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No I do.
One is a beam that heals 60HPS, one is a cloud that heals 80HPS.
You wanna tell me how you apply them the same?

“Zenyatta and Ana are pretty much the exact same hero.”

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I really enjoy Moira and would like her to be a strong pick. In fact, I want all of the healers to be viable, because I end up playing a lot of support and I like variety.

But it makes a lot of sense to me that she can’t heal through barriers. In fact, I wouldn’t mind even if Mercy can’t lock onto someone on the other side of a barrier (i.e. if she’s already latched on, the healing stays linked, but she can’t target someone new on the other side of an enemy shield). I feel like the way to adapt to these kinds of restrictions is to be more careful and intentional about moving through/flanking enemy barriers as a team, which might help the shield tanks (especially Reinhardt) against a dive comp—it’s still possible to dive, but you have to think harder about being in position, and can’t just throw Genji/Winston/D.Va on the other side of a barrier and expect them to live via remote healing.

In other words, this:

…doesn’t sound like the end of the world to me. Because the DPS shouldn’t be weaving in and out of the enemy shield, even with a healer who can heal through barriers, because they are intermittently cutting off their ability to shoot the enemy, while remaining vulnerable to enemy fire the whole time. Moving through a Symmetra ult would either require your team to break or disable it, to use an alternate route of attack, or to commit to the fight and swarm through all at once.

Now, I’m not a game developer, so maybe this would mess the balance up to high heck, but I think it makes a great deal of sense that a shield would interrupt any projectile/spray/beam ability that doesn’t have specific shield-piercing properties.