Mercy is the perfect support

[DLTechy-2249]

EDIT: A few days have passed since I made this post and I’ve been reading more topics about Mercy in the forums. Right now my view about attacking the “whining” Mercy players which I have changed. Though I still stand about everything else that I’ve said above in my post. I, and maybe a lot of others, still regard Mercy as the perfect support and enjoy playing as her.

Mercy HAS have her impact greatly reduced after the rework and all the nerfs. No one can really deny that statement. Even I experience more instances where I can’t save my teammates no matter what I do.

So now, just take this post as as love letter to Mercy and all players who still main her, despite her nerfs.

I want more players to like Mercy and if the devs improve her gameplay, then I’m all for it. And as I’ve also said before, I do support the other Mercy suggestion threads to improve her gameplay. Valk is very much like spectator mode, and although it’s subjectively “fun” for me, I understand the hate and a change to it is fine with me.

Now that’s out of the way, I want to say a few more things that might make a few more players like Mercy better, even in her current state:

I see a lot of people saying that Mercy is not able to zip off anymore because of the reduced healing. But I think that’s just not true.

• You don’t have to keep everyone in 100% health during a team fight.
• Contrary to popular belief (based on my experience), “TICKLING” all critical teammates with a bit of heals each is usually enough in most circumstances.
  • Focusing a single teammate with all your heals MIGHT save that person but that’s useless when the rest of your team is dead.
    • 1 person dying is better than 2, especially since Mercy has Rez and can revive that 1 person.
    • A lot of times, focus healing won’t even work, and you’d end up with no living teammates left.
    • An exception to this is focus healing the critical Rein to at least half health even when everybody else is critical, as long as everybody else is behind the Rein shield.
  • If that’s not enough and everyone dies anyway, then what makes you sure that the other healers can help you win that fight anyway.
    • NOTE: I acknowledge that the other supports could, I’m just saying that it also depends, please don’t just blame the Mercy.

And finally:

• I also hate the idea of EXCLUSIVE pocketing as much as the next Mercy main.

  • A bit of exclusive pocketing is fine in certain situations, like when your Pharah wants to do a sick flank play behind the enemy.
  • I DO agree that pocketing is boring as well.
  • But my main issue is that I think exclusive pocketing goes against what makes Mercy the perfect support.
    • Keeping 1 person in perfect condition while the rest of your team is dying is the exact opposite to what a support should do.

• What I do instead:

  1. Keep your key target alive and in perfect condition (i.e. heal and damage boost depending on the situation).
     • In most cases, it’s the sniper or the Pharah.
  2. Keep track of the situation and support the rest of your team when needed.
     • But still keep an eye on your key target.
       • If you leave your Pharah to heal your main tank, you should be able to return to her in a moment’s notice.
  3. You can return to your key target depending on the situation:
     a. The rest of your team becomes safe.
     b. The rest of your team has died (R.I.P.)
     c. Your key target gets in danger.

• And guess what. I win more games with this method than when I exclusively pocket someone.