So I saw yet more people complain about Mercy damage boost being all Mercy is good for, and it got me thinking:
What if we replaced damage boost, with damage mitigation at the very least, or maybe even some knockback resistance as well if it was needed. The idea is, instead of keeping someone topped off, you can mitigate damage that is more effective than the heal, as you can’t outheal damage.
This would make her great alongside tanks, helping them push up, and her low HPS wouldn’t matter if it’s used at the end of fights, while the damage mitigation is used in fights.
Obviously, you’d lose the damage boost, but I think that actually makes balance easier.
A Mercy rework is a terrible idea. I remember what happened during the last one, and while the end result was a net positive for sure, I never want to go through it again. Mercy is great enough as is and doesn’t need any major changes.
The thing is she’s only viable if there’s teamwork. below plat and probably even low plat teamwork is often lacking. Damage mitigation would be far more usefull in the low ranks, or else make her self relient. Baptiste’s abilities can be used by the team or himself, so if your team are doing their own thing and not performing you still have the option to lay down amp matrix and provided you have the aim you can make a play. Mercy however can’t use damage amp on herself and frankly at my level the dps just don’t hit the target.
The reason I went with damage mitigation over your idea, is that my idea is more recognizably Mercy, and less ‘controversial’. Obviously, some will disagree with the change, some always do. But, here’s why my idea is the best one to ease the divide:
-It’s not drastically different to Mercy’s kit now. She won’t be meta with this change.
-However, it solidifies her role as main healer, as it focuses her less of playing with DPS, and more on tanks, who rely more on a main healer.
-Also, it’s less frustrating, as it doesn’t rely on your DPS to do well. You aren’t doing much more than now, but when you mitigate damage, you feel like you are at least doing something yourself, and that feels good.
not a bad idea but perhaps suited for a new different hero
Damage reduction can be comparable to healing and Mercy’s reliability makes her healing good enough, giving her dmg mitigation would probably turn her above and beyond
This was also a suggestion on someone else’s thread about Zen, a dmg reduction debuff for enemies… it could be interesting if a new hero had both ideas on the same kit, the goal is always to have a signature move (except for Moira I guess)
I guess that’s subjective, not everyone sees Mercy’s end result as a net positive, especially those who main (or mained) her. There are an unknown number of people like Mercy, sure, for whatever reason that is and I respect that. But there are equally an unknown number who don’t. Those who generally see Mercy’s end result as a net positive, on a large scale, are those not maining Mercy or are playing against Mercy in some aspect.
On to the rework though, are we saying no hero (or at least Mercy) should be reworked again, even if a hero may appear to need a bit further work, simply because of how horrific the balancing/hero design team have handled the initial rework? It’s not the community’s fault, or particularly those who mained Mercy and subsequently warned about her state (overpowered) while her rework was initially on PTR, that their feedback was ignored in favor of potentially primarily listening to opinions of the pros (thanks to the initial rework) and then observing how things played out in eSports such as OWL.
How? What would Mercy lose in this scenario? She can still support her team pushing up, just in a different way that relies less on her team being good.
It’s a core part of her kit. I’d keep damage boost over ressurect any day.
There are plenty of other parts of her kit they could touch or change, leave damage boost in it. In fact Geoff was even talking about buffing her damage boost a few months ago:
I feel like changing her damage boost into anything defensive will be a bad idea.
A) she is one of few healers that synergizes better with dps than tanks, which imo is a good thing
B) shifting her more toward tanks/defense forces her to compete with the likes of Ana more directly, which I think will hurt her pick rates
A simple rework i like is switching rez and valk. Ult becomes a quick, pulse bomb style ult, you have to think about when to use it because it won’t just come back on its own. Maybe make it instant again but still melee range.
Valk lasts 4s, 12s CD starts after it ends. Allows for quick, purposeful uses of it instead of floating out of sight forever. Quick aoe heal after dynamite, quick boost for an ult push, reposition somewhere you have no allies (the free flying might be too strong, maybe just extended and faster GAs)