This is really, really cool actually! Iâm not sure if you know this but EeveeA actually suggested a similar idea of charging rez on a resource meter with healing to Geoff Goodman about, hm, 2 years ago and he said it was too âcomplexâ for Mercy but honestly I really wish theyâd reconsider this notion as itâd be a huge step in raising her skill ceiling and enjoyment factor. Static 30 second cooldown rez is kind ofâŚlame as it doesnât reward good play necessarily and also doesnât punish bad play. No matter how good or bad at Mercy you are, you get rez every 30 seconds. If it was tied to a resource meter in some way like you suggest, good mercy players could consciously and intentionally get more rezzes, while bad one wouldnât. But I also like the idea of tying it to her healing in that she has to make sacrafices and itâd be super interesting to manage and play around with in game!
Thanks so much for the super in depth and interesting feedback and idea, seriously!
I missed this. I think itâs a really nice idea. I know they want to keep Mercy simple and straightforward, but if they also want to keep her a main healer with a compelling game play style in higher levels then something has to give. I honestly think theyâre underestimating Mercy players.
Agreed. And also, the game has changed a lot in the last few years but more importantly the general playerbase has gotten a lot better at the games and the heroes. Itâs why characters like Widow have become progressively more powerful as players get better and better at them, whereas before she was considered a troll pick in many ranks due to her difficulty level. I think that they need to let us as players have heroes with high skill ceilings, capping a heroâs value and potential is frustrating and unfun, especially for popular heroes.
Besides, Moira is arguably more simple and forgiving than Mercy and Brig is also in the game, we already have lots of âeasierâ mechanical support options.
I agree with everything here. As a player base, weâve evolved and weâve learned, and the game should reflect that to some degree. New heroes should continue to come out, but itâs okay for the old ones to become more mature as long as itâs done correctly.
I disagree with people who say that Mercy is the hero thatâs built for people without much experience that are looking for a simplistic experience. Itâs true that a large portion of Mercyâs player base didnât come from an fps background. Iâm part of that group. But we do have experience with complex healing heroes in other games. Many Mercy players came here from healing in MOBAâS and MMOâs. Mercy is the hero that was meant to appeal them. Mercy players are not by and large unskilled neophytes looking for an easy experience. Theyâre simply looking for a different kind of experience. The game should give them more credit.
Her player base has lots of experience with resource management and with constant decision making.
Mercyâs dynamic main healer play style reflects the constant decision making part. It should reflect resource management as well.
I also agree that there are simpler healers in the game (Moira and Brig for example), and healers that require higher mechanical skill but a much lower rate of decision making (Ana for example).
Going back to the resource idea, I think that it might be necessary for the resource to slowly deplete over time (not just simply to halt its recharge rate) when Mercy is in enhanced healing mode. If we say that a full resource meter goes up to 30, maybe keeping enhanced healing up depletes it at a rate of 1 per second. That way you have to be judicious with it. Also, my initial proposal didnât include what enhanced healing does in Valkyrie, where I think it should give the main beam target 70 hps.
The first thing that comes to mind would be to give her a fairly long reload for a significant healing boost on a short resource bar.
As an example, imagine her channeling her staff on the ground (if it can be done in the air, itâll just make pharmercy much more oppressive at mid ranks) for 2s to get a resource bar that lasts for 3-4s of continuous healing, giving her 65 HPS until it runs out.
Alternatively, just have the resource bar recharge more the longer she channels her staff, giving her a higher resource cap but taking a relatively long time to fully charge.
An example for that could be:
Resource bar points capped at 100
Recharges 10 points per second of channeling
Drains 15-20 points per second of healing
Slows her considerably while channeling and requires her to be on the ground
Increases healing output to 65-70 hps while the resource bar isnât empty
Have it recharge somewhat when successfully boosting damage
That would easily last for a full teamfight, sounds a bit extreme.
In general I donât believe that 60 hps is extreme for Mercy even without limiting factors, but thatâs not what Iâm proposing in this discussion. The resource being proposed here is shared with her res cooldown. She can only use res when the resource is full, and it takes 30 seconds to fill up.
If Mercy heals for 60 hps for the whole team fight then she wonât be able to res.
I really dislike the argument of âMercy needs to be easy for new players!â
Sheâs not a tutorial character and never was. When I started, at the very beginning of the game, I was actually told to go Lucio for easy value. Mercy is not a character for new players, sheâs (supposed to be) a character for people who want to play a dedicated support, who likes ability management and game flow more than pew-pew, who likes seing the big picture of whatâs happening rather than focusing on singular duels.
When the rework happened people said Mercy would âfinallyâ become more skillful, so why did we drop that and went back to the old tired narrative of her being âez no aim no brainâ? And even worse, why do some insist that this is what sheâs supposed to be?
Agreed, itâs really frustrating having people insist on telling me that Mercy is âsupposed to be easy and low skill ceilingâ and âshouldnât ever have complex mechanicsâ like noâŚthe entire rework was to âmake her more skillfulâ according to the community and she now has a way more punishing and complex kit than before, Mercy is already 10x harder than Mercy 1.0, the idea of simplicity has gone out the window. Also hate the notion of limiting a heroâs potential and skill expression so much. Let us master heroes and have things to work on.
I also dislike this argument. Itâs not good for any character, but it makes even less sense for Mercy than for some of the others. A simple character should have a well defined and unambiguous role in the game and carry that role out well.
Weâve learned a lot about healing in Overwatch over the years, and weâve learned a lot about Mercy. We know what the devs intended her role to be. We know that she doesnât really function in that role right now. We also know that the role she currently has is anything but well defined and unambiguous.
At this point I just want her to have an actual place in the game. Sheâs unable to be ran as a main healer due to her low healing output, so you run her with Ana. But then you have no defensive ult because Mercy isnât the best designed off healer either. So her only âroleâ is to pocket Pharah and certain DPS at this point, and hope your team has enough healing and defense to make up for what she lacks.
It feels too risky playing her a lot of the time, which is funny considering sheâs âintended to be the go to pick for raw healing powerâ LOL
Hey I am such an advocate for this idea its amazing. In terms of numbers / description iâm thinking:
Caduceus Overcharge:
Mercy intensifies the revitalising capabilities of the biotic energy in her staff, buffing the caduceus staffâs healing output healing by 25% for 5 seconds. Beam will not break upon activation but immediately start to apply to tethered target.
(There should be visual change of the beam of her staff - perhaps glowing brighter / thicker for visual indication maybe?)
25% percent is a nice figure because onto of 50hps, it goes just above 60hps at 62.5hps
but alternatively 20% healing increase for 7 seconds instead may also be good too because it increases healing to a well rounded 60hps and adds a little length to her temporary buff.
I think itâs important to continue to insist in every forum available that the role they settle on for her not be a pocketing role. Itâs so much less compelling than running her as a main healer. I donât want them to pick a role for her and settle on one with such a passive play style. They need to make the role they initially designed her for work. Itâs frustrating, because sheâs so close to being in a great spot. She just needs more healing, either through an hps adjustment or a cooldown like the one discussed here.
I really miss the Mercy/Lucio and Mercy/Zen comps. They were an utter blast to run. I hope weâll see them again one day.
Agreed. The Mercy playerbase wants her to be an engaging main healer. The devs said multiple times they wanted her to be an engaging main healer, itâs literally Jeffâs reasoning for the rework:
"We think the direction sheâs moving in is better for everyone â Mercy mains and non-Mercy players. Having aprimary healerwho was hiding under a bridge telling people to âdie on the pointâ was not our idea of optimal. We think Valkyrie is a very engaging and dynamic ultimate andMercyâs role as a primary healeris very clear now. But resurrect is too powerful and needs to be toned down. Weâre not going to throw the baby out with the bath water on this one. Weâre iterating until sheâs in a good place. We appreciate your patience with us while we do that."
They reworked her to be a main healer who actively engages in the teamfight and HEALS. Now sheâs a damage boost bot which is poor gameplay and not what they want, which is the same reason they removed mass rez, because she was a hide and rez bot.
Exactly! Sheâd literally be perfect with more healing. Like, the most perfect sheâs been since the launch of the game.
LiterallyâŚso sad theyâre completely unviable now. Just really depressing tbh
Iâm sad that theyâre so reluctant to touch her now because of how imbalanced she was when the rework just released.
I know people donât like her rework, but Iâm a huge fan. Valkyrie, for me, is the gold standard of what a healer ult should be. I like it so much more than mass res. I was initially reluctant to like slow res, but I think in retrospect that it was an excellent decision as well. All of their decisions were, up to the 50 hps nerf. They overreacted there itâs a shame because the rework was right on the threshold of being a resounding success. They just needed to stick with it a little longer.
I donât think theyâll buff her hps back up (at least not in OW1), even though thatâs the simplest and most parsimonious solution. Theyâre too concerned that sheâll break the healer balance (I donât think we have good evidence that she will, but theyâre worried about it). Thatâs why Iâm so fond of ideas like the ones in this thread. Giving the good Mercy players the opportunity to heal more when they need it is exactly the idea that will make Mercy work.
YES YES YES I agree so much itâs flexible, engaging, moderate power level that can be used in many situations to swing the fight in your teamâs favor or make clutch plays. It gives Mercy a rare break from desperately trying to GA around to stay alive and allows her to focus fully on supporting her team and not worrying about herself. Itâs just Chefs kiss my favorite part of the rework tbh. I
Same! I say it all the time and I said it during the nerfs themselves, I supported every single nerf they made to her except the HPS nerf, which was misguided and overkill. Every nerf was fine except the HPS one, and I think slow rez really added depth and risk vs reward to the ability. It really upsets me because Mercy wasnât OP with 60 HPS, she was just meta for Grav Dragon and double sniper to damage boost Hanzo ult and to pocket snipers. And she literally fell out of meta in contenders and pro play before the HPS nerf even hit when these two metas died. If Blizzard had waited a few more weeks her pickrate would have sunk on itâs own without a nerf.
Moth Mercy was overpowered and a must pick from seasons 6-8 when she had instant rez in her ult, even through all the nerfs, and only became a non-must pick when slow rez was introduced to Valk. She fell out of meta to 2% pickrate for a few weeks, with Moira at the top, and then midway through season 9 became a meta-pick due to her interactions of damage boost with Hanzo ult, and her ability to damage boost and rez snipers during Double Sniper. She was entirely dictating and dominating the meta with instant rezzes, but was only a part of the meta with 60 HPS. People donât understand the difference. And apparently the devs donât either.
Itâs kind of sad and depressing. Literally you have pro OWL players saying sheâs bad and needs a healing buff. You have her stats showing her performly poorly for over a year. Sheâs been unviable, unmeta, and not ran as a main healer since the day of the HPS nerf. Anyone with logic can see it was overkill and unecessary, especially if you look at why she actually was meta in Season 9.
I really appreciate that, I just wish that the Devs would feel the same way. Ah, I guess all we can do is keep talking about it and hope they eventually listen.
It really is an excellent ult. I know many people dislike it, but I donât tend to agree with their reasoning.
People say that it doesnât require skill, but I think it absolutely does. More so than mass res. A bad Valkyrie does nothing, a good one is fight winning, and the decisions you make absolutely determine whether or not itâs good. People say itâs weak, but I think thatâs because either say that because itâs subtle or because theyâre trying to use it to outheal burst damage. Itâs an excellent ultimate that does so many useful things. People say that it takes the power out of Mercyâs hands, but I disagree with this as well. Mass res was good for one thing - fixing peopleâs mistakes. Valkyrie allows Mercy to make so many decisions about a match - it allows her team to engage, to push a tough corner, to properly disengage, to make up for a lost healer, to ensure a fight win when youâre one up, to manage the ult economy, to counter certain ults, to enable dive pushes, to take out a sniper, etc. etc.
I agree with this so much. Season 6-8 Mercy was OP. Season 10 Mercy was meta, just as every other season has meta healers. The symptoms were the same, but the cause was different. People only got them confused because they were in close proximity.
Thereâs a reason why she wasnât meta in season 9, or why she was already on the decline when the nerfs hit. She simply wasnât overpowered. Similarly, thereâs a reason why sheâs never been meta since the nerfs, why metas that require her never materialize, and why metas that should fit her well (like double shield) donât run her. Sheâs underpowered right now.
Honestly, I think the devs know this, just like the pros do, just like many Mercy players do. I think theyâre stuck in a difficult situation. I sympathize with their plight, but I also hope that theyâll eventually have the courage to do whatâs right for her and make her function in the way they designed her to function.
I appreciate the optimism and reasonable voice of experience you bring to these discussion. I got tired of the online Mercy discussions a while ago, but I really do think the devs read the forums and are influenced by peopleâs opinions. Especially when theyâre well argued. I hope they at least move the hero forward by the time OW2 comes out.
I repeat myself.
It is unrealistic and absurd because Blizzard will never rework Mercy again. Maybe after the launch of OW 2. But Kaplan said Mercyâs current kit is fine. If you put a new skill on R itâs a rework. They will never do. The only possible and realistic request is the 60 hps buff.
I like that idea sooo much
But I know too well that this will never happenâŚ
Can we by chance get the old valk voice lines back, but on Combat Medic instead?
I really miss âGemeinsam kämpfen wir!â and âI will watch over you!â wasnât bad either.
