Watching the Midseason Madness OWL tournament today and ATL runs Pharah Mercy… I was shocked because I haven’t really seen Mercy picked at all in the past 3 OWL Tournaments but was excited to see her get a minute of playtime finally
Yet what was even funnier was hearing the casters go “Pharah is backed up by Mercy, that’s actually a little bit strange, typically you don’t play the Mercy with her anymore, you just play the Zen, we’ll see how this works without support for the other players on the ground”
And they lost the round, but regardless, I found it hilarious that people are now shocked if Mercy gets picked even with a PHARAH? Pharah Mercy has always been her one constant niche since launch, the last standing stone pillar of viability the hero had no matter what her balance state. And now she’s so bad compared to the other supports in OW2 that she’s not even getting played with Pharah anymore?
She really needed that self heal nerfs that she got this beta, Devs !! /s
I mean to be fair they are now 2 balance patches behind (3 if you count Mercy/Moira changes as separate patch) and so it is hard to glean anything.
I would say though I am not sure what is more surprising, a DPS not named Sojour/Tracer/Echo/Hanzo being played or a Support not named Zen/Bap/Ana being played.
Fair but I don’t see any of Mercy’s GA changes changing this lol, especially considering she had 0 playtime in the tournament where she had perma-freeflight which was probably as “broken” as her GA is going to get
Fundamentally changing her movement is not going to affect her balance much as it’s already good and these changes have either just been making it worse or work clunkily, none of which will make her see more playtime
I mean, this is why. Mercy isn’t bad, she’s just not as good as Zen in terms of the total comp. Mercy can’t afford to be permanently in the skybox with Pharah because she doesn’t contribute much doing that, and if she’s staying on the ground you may as well pick Zen because he can heal and do damage.
Mercy didn’t see any playtime in the first OWL tournament which had 200 HP Zen with no kick, Zen wasn’t played at all either
Mercy and Zen fundamentally don’t really compete for a spot on the team in any comp normally in OW1, so if he eats up her remaining niches in OW2 that should be a red flag for her balance/design
Then why was Mercy better with her for the entirety of OW1 tho?
That’s my point, Pharamercy has always been her consistent niche, even with Mass Rez that’s the only time she saw playtime in pro play, even with 50 HPS that’s the only place you ever really saw her, etc.
Now even Pharahmercy is no longer even her strongsuit, so what IS?
Even if being Pharah’s accessory in a comp isn’t that fun, at least it was something she was picked for. If she doesn’t even have that, what is the point of her as a hero right now?
You can afford to have a purely passive player doing nothing but being Pharah’s girlfriend in 6v6, and you can’t in 5v5. It’s a big shift in how the game is played, and since Mercy’s kit hasn’t really adjusted to 5v5, her kit is being shoved out of relevance.
Like, I’m agreeing with you, but Mercy’s kit is fundamentally doomed as long as she can’t multitask. All of the “good” supports in OW2 can do damage and heal, or provide utility while healing–Mercy can only do one of those things at a time.
Ah, well I 100% agree with you too, I think her kit needs fundamental changes/reworks to how things work. Hopefully one that raises her skill ceiling and makes her more fun instead of dumbing her down
I worry that they’re going to take Mercy’s current passive design to heart and make more heroes like her, given the vague statement that they want to make more “Mercy-like” heroes.
Pharah Mercy has always been her one constant niche since launch, the last standing stone pillar of viability the hero had no matter what her balance state. And now she’s so bad compared to the other supports in OW2 that she’s not even getting played with Pharah anymore? 