Mercy is still not enjoyable nor viable

General Discussion
1

A little bit of info before I start with my thoughts
Hey,

I’m a Mercy main who’s played Overwatch since season 3 and worked my way up to GM in season 5, been holding on there since then. The reason why I main Mercy is not because I like her character or anything like that, it’s very much about what my PC does and doesn’t allow me to play. A lot of heroes with high mechanical skills required, where every moment of consciousness (that’s what I like to call the opposite of frame drops) is needed, was a no-no for me.

When Mercy got her rework and became a mustpick, I started to hate my favorite hero. Not because she was OP or that her playstyle completely changed, but because I was treated like a piece of garbage by my teammates (much more than before, lol). So I didn’t play competitive as much for some time up to the end of January 2018, when the hard Valkyrie nerfs hit.

What I have to say
I liked the place where Mercy was after that. She was not a mustpick, but she had her spot in the double sniper meta because of damage boost and Hanzo’s rework.

And then the support balance changes came, and the only thing that came to my mind was… why? I agreed with all the support changes except the one for Mercy. Why would you revert Mercy back to her trash state in which she was when she was the only main healer in the game?

She wasn’t overpowered with 60hp/s, the meta just didn’t favor other supports. All they needed were the buffs they got, but Mercy didn’t need that last nerf that made her a piece of trash for 2 months.

A few weeks ago, Mercy’s ultimate Valkyrie has recieved minor buffs, but even with these changes, she’s still not a good pick with any composition.

She wasn’t overpowered with 60hp/s, the meta just didn’t favor other supports.

Couldn’t this be said about Mercy in today’s meta too? Well, no… No matter your team’s composition, Mercy just doesn’t work.

Why isn’t she a good pick?

IT'S BECAUSE OF HER HEALING OUTPUT

I’m sorry, it had to be said.

Mercy can’t keep tanks alive in teamfights. Mercy doesn’t have burst healing. Mercy’s healing during Valkyrie is not much different in terms of the amount of healing recieved by one target.

Valkyrie is used only for damage boosting. Chain damage boost provides much more value than you think. Chain healing doesn’t do much, it only gives your teammates more time to defend themselves against ultimate combos before they have to face their inevitable fate.

Things what I think can be done to make Mercy as viable as her pre-rework self

  • Revert her base healing back to 60 hp/s.
  • Keep chain damage boost
  • Remove chain healing beams, give her a single target healing beam which provides 80 hp/s.
  • Shorten Valkyrie’s duration to 10-12 seconds.
43 Likes
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Why keep chain damage boost? Make it a single-target beam during Valkyrie that gives a 50% boost. Reward Mercy for picking the right target at the right time instead of just targeting anyone and letting the chain beams do the rest.

4 Likes
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Because that’s the most impactful thing Mercy can do. 50% single target damage boost would make Nanoboost only good for its defensive usage.

This should be the case with healing, not damage boosting.

3 Likes
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I disagree, because 50% damage boost from Mercy requires Mercy’s full attention. Nanoboost is set-and-forget, leaving Ana free to use other tools in her kit simultaneously for the duration.

The overall idea of reducing Valkyrie’s duration in exchange for higher impact during Valkyrie, though, is something we agree on.

1 Like
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Of course, but Nanoboost has more defensive than offensive values. Using it offensively wouldn’t make sense when there’s a Mercy who can do Nanoboost’s job better.

With chain damage boost, you can still boost your ulting ally + everyone else around that ally.

1 Like
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Honestly, this is the best mercy has felt since her rework.

Not too dominant but not useless.

Coming from a season 3 mercy main who is also gm/masters and still plays her.

34 Likes
7

I do think her healing definitely needs to be 60 and that’s about it but mercy is viable

8

To OP

I and many other Mercy players I know find Mercy fun/engaging to play, effective, and balanced in her current state.

Given that I see her as a fully viable character, I hope that no further changes are forthcoming

7 Likes
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Honestly? I think Mercy mains need to stop complaining. The healing is still viable, especially with the nice middle ground healing amount for Valk. You still have the Res, which is one of the most powerful abilities in the game to basically just say nah to someone dying every 30 seconds. She is fine where she’s at, I think a lot of people are just angry that she is no longer a fully must pick. It had gotten to the point that if you didn’t choose Mercy, you were throwing.

7 Likes
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I don’t think you’ve read the post.

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Oh, no. I read the post just fine. Her healing is fine where its at. You want burst healing, you PICK A DIFFERENT HEALER. That’s all there is to it. It’s no longer that Mercy is the only viable healer. She’s not a burst healer. That’s why you have 2 supports to help with healing. One healer isn’t supposed to be able to keep her entire team alive.

4 Likes
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This statement says you haven’t.

Have a nice day.

Her healing is not effective and definitely not balanced, it’s underpowered.

But everyone defines fun differently, I can’t tell you otherwise.

She definitely feels much better than any of her post-rework versions. But she still isn’t good with many compositions.

And hello, fellow GM Mercy :slight_smile:

2 Likes
13

I agree with a lot of what you said (though I’ve always found Mercy to be much more enjoyable than the other characters, and I still do). I think she needs 60 hps to fulfill her central role properly as a main healer. I think the change to 50 hps was a bad mistake. It’s bad for Mercy, it will eventually prove to be bad for Ana, and it’s bad for the game. It was also predicated on easily contradicted and nonsensical logic.

That being said, I am very pessimistic that they’re going to back on it any time soon if at all. I like your solution with Valkyrie, as it involves a compromise to her previous state in terms of healing. I would propose the following alternative solution.

  1. Mercy’s healing goes back up to 60 hps.

  2. Using res exhausts Mercy. While res is on cooldown her healing goes down to 50 hps.

  3. Res cast time is now only 1 second (and maybe doesn’t involve a slow).

3 Likes
14

Mercy’s average number of rezzes per game across all ranks is 6. Mercy does not get a free rez every 30 seconds, because that would imply games are only 3 minutes long with her getting 6 rezzes per game. Rez is strong yes, but considering she only gets about 6 off per game, and most are when teamfights are already ended…

I think Mercy needs 55 or 60 HPS to be in a good spot. 50 is just not it, chief. I’d be fine with them nerfing Valk’s duration, and even removing rez entirely if she got 60 HPS back.

She’s supposed to be a main healer with strong heals and useful utility, but right now she is a subpar healer with too strong utility (rez).

6 Likes
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Maybe, but thats an average. Averages are well and good, but its subjective. An average of 6 means that bronze Mercy that doesn’t know how to look at anything nor watch the match and got that one good rez in the entire game. Then that master mercy that knows how to watch the game and when the right time in a fight is goes and revives their teammate every 30 seconds in a fight to get off 10 or 15 revives. I don’t live averages, but they do serve a purpose. But yeah. I will agree that she has to sacrifice something to have the rez. She can’t be both the strongest healer in the game, and able to rewind a death. Something has to give.

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Tho the above is stated as if it was fact, I do not believe it to be factual. I believe it to be opinion, and I respectfully disagree with the opinion

I and many other Mercy players find her healing to be effective and balanced.

I do not find her to be underpowered, and I have seen a well played Mercy (even before the most recent set of two buffs) absolutely dominate games

3 Likes
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That’s the biggest issue, I think. If you ask most Mercy players, they would rather have strong healing than rez (it feels way more engaging and skillful to keep people alive rather than press a button to undo death) but the Devs seem to be obsessed with keeping rez in it’s current form.

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50 hp/s healing alone doesn’t dominate games.

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Rez on E pretty much requires the rest of her kit to be watered down that’s why i want to move rez to only during valk or another ult idc but having rez on e is more of a handicap to her then making her fun and impactful

In a dream world valk would have 2 instant rez’s but the rez’d target is at 40% hp and can only be healed by outside sources not mercy, valk itself would have a single target beam that both heals and damage boosts 70 healing/40% damage boost while lasting 10 sec. While valk itself would be a bit slower but ga speed boost is returned and regen is lessened rez would be on left click and mercy would have a new e

new E: Angelic halo mercy throws a projectile with a 8 meter aoe cleanse and slight healing effect that lasts for 3 sec

just my two cents

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She can work with any composition except maybe goats.

She’s built to be flexible. I can literally pick her every game and work with every comp I’m presented with.

Also hello! It’s been a while since Ive spoke to someone that isn’t in gold.

3 Likes