I have been trying to be a great / even good mercy. But my team seems to die fast…I can do good rezes but I cant seem to keep my team alive long enough for them to do anything.
I watch other mercy just carry their team, and I am amazed. I just wish I could be half as good )=
Mercy becomes easier with the rank. In higher ranks ppl actually try not to die.
Use your Glock more.
I am a very very good Lucio and Brig. I bet if I own tricked Mercy, I’d be at least 2 full divisions lower.
She isn’t hard to play good, it’s more so that she has no carry potential to rank up as easily as other supports. There is only so much you can do with her kit to carry a game.
I would just focus on keeping your deaths per 10 as low as possible and using your glock to defend yourself or play more aggressive if given the opportunity.
Unironically yes. This is how you climb out of metal ranks as Mercy.
Well, I not often agree with bella, but they are right here:
Basically it boils down to really simple principle… Good Mercy can carry if their team is good and know how to utilize her. But even good Mercy can’t carry bad team.
Rules for Mercy…
Mercy’s game is mainly about beam up-time. If you’re dead, your beam is too, and you’re not saving anyone. A dead healer can’t heal (or boost, or rez). You’ll start to notice that other supports can die a bit more than you, and still remain competitive. Mery doesn’t have this luxury. You’re healing is “more” consistent, but it relies on you being consistently alive. Keep your deaths below 3 for an entire match. Aim for 0 deaths.
For me Mercy is there to triage her entire team. Use your movement to top people up, and move on to the next. Keep your head on a swivel and watch your entire team. Give them ALL what they need, when they need it.
Don’t stall out healing a tank unless you can tell they are going to die. Doing so steals ult charge gain for your other supports (Hi Ana!), and there is always someone else in need of a little help (heal or boost).
At the end of a match, my (your) assists should match or better the best elims in a match for your team.
You’re watching out for everyone, BUT, you need to keep a special eye on certain players on your team. #1 Keep your other support alive. If they are in trouble, SAVE them (Hi Ana!). They are a high priority target. #2a Your tank. They are the tip of the spear, so do what you can to keep them going, BUT your other support should be doing the lions share there. If the tank is a suicide tank though, do what you can, but see Rule 1. #2b A high quality player (someone who is just doing work for the team, no matter their role). Keep…them…alive, or boosted. #3, everyone else.
Just keep rotating mentally through your priority list and change targets as the fight moves and changes.
Watch everything and everyone. Watch the fight as a whole and learn how to move with it in a way that you stay safe, so you can serve your team and keep them alive…and you have as many options for movement as possible.
As you are GAing to one target to escape from danger, you should already be looking for your next escape GA target. The moment you have none, you’re getting closer to dying. (See Rule #1)
Reaper is noisey when he teleports in. Tracer has loud cloppy feet. Sombra talks too much, ults have a certain sound, weapons have a certain sound. Know the fight just by listening too it. It will help you follow Rule #1.
The whole point of Resurrect is to serve your team. So only do it if it serves a purpose. And don’t do it if it means you’ll die in the process (See Rule #1), UNLESS by doing so your team might benefit from it (Your tank goes down, but has ult, and your other support is alive and well, and it’s a last ditch fight…maybe do the trade (I <3 Rein).
Suicide resurrects can be fun if you pull them off. I get the attraction and have succumb to that siren’s call many times. BUT, if you die in the process, and then your target dies (again), it’s a massive negative for your team.
Resurrect, but follow Rule #1.
Even if your aim stinks, use your pistol. If you’ve no one to heal or boost, or rez, fire some of those slow shots at a corner like Hanzo does, and you might get lucky. Just don’t lose your mind with it.
Unlike Ana, Bap, Weaver, Kiriko, Zen, your healing only happens at close/medium range. So you need to be in the fight, BUT not too “in” the fight. Learn to live on the edge of a fight, where you’re just in range to heal/boost and/or GA off of someone. Get too close, and your in the kill zone, too close to GA effectively away, and might die…don’t die (See Rule #1).
There are more, but getting those down will help you’re Mercy play. And remember…don’t die.
I’d add to all this
Because Mercy doesn’t need to look at whoever she is beaming you can take this time and look around for flankers and other stuff. If you see Genji going on the flank, ping him! Or call it out on voice if you and your team are in voice!
Truth be told, there are heroes in each role which can be called “Low impact heroes”. These are heroes that regardless of how well you play in a teamfight it relies 90% on your team to make the plays happen, or capitalize on any openings, (Rez), or picks you may get. Unfortunately Mercy typically falls under this category, especially if you are a solo player. You can get a massive rez and valk heal/boost your whole team while not being shot at all and yet if your team is uncoordinated or worse then the enemy team there is still a high likelihood you could lose the fight.
Lifeweaver also suffers from this problem but its even worse for lw. Mercy atleast you can identify who your “Star player” is and pretty much just pocket them and usually as long as that player is better than any of the enemy players its gg. As for Lifeweaver you could have twice the healing of anyone else, pull your teammates away from death, use your petal to assist your dps or dodge enemies, and use tree to get some huge healing output… but it just doesn’t matter many times. The first player to hit GM with Lifeweaver only if I recall had to play hundreds of hours of competitive if not a thousand and had to make a couple new accounts for the new account MMR boost just to hit GM5.
I’ve seen matches where a widow can get 60+ kills and still lose because their tank/supports had the iq of hamsters.
Many heroes can be this way in certain situations, but Mercy and Lifeweaver are probably the two most notable ones due to their kits. Obviously if you want to continue to play Mercy because you like her, or she’s your main that is perfectly acceptable, just know that if you want to have more impact in the game you have quite a few choices, and a few of them aren’t any harder to learn.
If shhe has a good DPS like Soldier, Ashe, Pharah, Echo then she takes no skill or effort to win. A pocketed DPS with good aim is extremely hard to beat
I’m no mercy main i would recommend watching njandra or skietsi on yt.
That said if you don’t want to play the boring pocket the best dps mercy.
Play her like tracer but to your team and your beams as weapons.
So it means dmg boosting your tank abilities like fire strike Winston doom jump, participating and assisting any duels taking place, also learn to bait people.
If you are always standing pocketing a widowmaker that sombra won’t dive her and probably go for you or the other support.
But if you act like you are engaged with main fight she might attack the widow and you can now help the widow and negate sombra dive.
Stuff like that.
Also when sombra tps immediately glock and shoot her, your pistols have the largest projectile i think, it will easily hit sombra on tp, making her visible will help your dps or others finish her off.
Being like a dive hero helps mercy a lot, something people don’t talk about is disruptor value of mercy, if you can make that enemy hanzo or soldier waste 4-5 secs shooting at you and you come out alive and still enabling your team, you add so much more value than dmg boosting your soldier and telling him why not kill enemy hanzo.
Be a constant distraction, almost like a bait, enemy team should feel frustrated about you only then you have done your job, the enemy team supports or tanks should yell at their dps to kill you, while you keep evading them.
Evading be the key word, not hiding you should always be like you give them a chance to shooot you so they take the bait and waste time.
You don’t just protec your team by healing and boosting cause them it’s effectively 4v5 and your team will die fast.
You need to play in a way so that enemy team feel your impact and atleast one person is targeting you all the time, only then it’s a 5v5 and you succeed.
I’d say take a season off from mercy and only play dps. Then go back and your timing for damage boost will get substantially better. Because you now know when a dps wants it.
I got a pro tip, set your crouch to the button on the side of your mouse (if you have that ability) This function allows you to jump into the sky without doing the looking trip which is super helpful. (im not entirely sure if this works with everyone but this is how I use mercy)
how do i stop dying generally? should i take less ego 1v1’s?
I dont know how to get a better sense of the teamfight like if my supports are busy healing the tank, or on cooldown. Like I’m tunnelvisioned and I dont know how to widen my scope of the battle. Visual tips would help since im playing deaf 
I am gold and bad and I know she’s not hard to play good in any capacity. It’s actually really easy I could probably do it with the monitor unplugged.
I’m not a mercy player, but I love playing Mercy parkour. People who say mercy takes no skill don’t play mercy.
not at all
no one could possibly play any character - including but not limited to Mercy - decently with the monitor off
However, I invite you to test this. Have a friend over who also knows how to play Overwatch, open the training area (so you dont ruin anyones match with this experiment) , and select any character you wish. Then turn your monitor towards the friend so that you cannot see it. Begin play. Ask the friend to comment honestly on how well you are doing, and report back to us with your friends comments
Yeah, 1v1ing as Mercy should be a last best option, when you can’t do anything else, heal, boost, rez, GA. Then flick to your pistol and pop off a few rounds. But once you reload, if they aren’t dead, you’re “generally” just wasting time. (Unless you’re trapped without a GA target…or simply must kill that Widow as you Valk with your infinite ammo.) Heal, Boost, Rez, GA…those are your main tools. Pistol only when you have no need to do any of those things, or if it makes more sense to add your dps in that moment, than heal or boost.
Every now and again look at your team through a wall. You can tell where they are, and how they’re doing.
Other than that, you should always be GAing around the edge of the fight, so you’ll constantly have a view of your team, and who needs what and when. All while keeping an eye out for the enemy DPS that will be coming for you. Always keep a mental note of where they are, and keep your distance, so you never need to 1v1. Try to put yourself in a spot where they will have to come to you to get you.
I have mine on mouse wheel for that purpose…
That way you can also “flap wings” when you glide without mashing buttons like a maniac.
It’s fun, I agree!