So… Mercy players here have said Mercy feels lackluster/not enjoyable/doesn’t provide enough room for skill expression, and I couldn’t agree more!
I decided to rework Mercy.
Not entirely rework Mercy as she is, just her Resurrect ability, which has proven to be the most problematic ability in the game ever and the core problem of Mercy’s balance.
Let’s start with Resurrect’s issues.
Is freely given at the start of the round, which allows Mercy to revert key eliminations for free.
Cooldown recharges even if Mercy is doing nothing.
No matter how well Mercy performs, she is still stuck with a 30 second cooldown.
To eliminate those issues, I decided to place Resurrect on a resource meter. This gets rid of the issue of having a key engagement pick reverted by Mercy who was given the ability to do so for free.
Here is how it works.
The only way to gain resources for Resurrect is to heal
With that in mind, Mercy with this rework gains 4.75% per second of total resources needed for Resurrect outside of Valkyrie and 6% per second of total resources needed for Resurrect during Valkyrie. Once Mercy hits 100% of resources, Resurrect becomes available. If Resurrect is used or Mercy dies, resources go back to 0.
With some simple math, Mercy needs to spend approx. 21 secondsoutside of Valkyrie to charge up Resurrect OR approx. 17 seconds with the help of Valkyrie.
Resource gain doesn’t stack with chain beams.
To justify the low charge times
There is no passive charge for Resurrect
Mercy does a lot more than just healing so she won’t be charging up Resurrect all the time
WORKSHOP CODE: 9BD50
Video showcase of how Resurrect on a resource meter works. Can’t post links so this will have to do, sorry. https://streamable.com/gz2du
This would be an interesting dynamic. I think it has more implications than you realize, and I don’t mean that in a bad way.
For example, the longer Mercy is spent damage boosting means the less time she’s spent preparing for a rez. Pocketing a widow or a pharah marks itself as a significant pick oriented decision (you aren’t building rez, you’re doublign down on damage), whereas pocketing a tank offers itself as a very sustain oriented pick because you’re building rez a lot faster.
I’m not a fan of putting hard numbers in balance suggestions because people will always tear you apart for it. Though I do like the idea.
The numbers don’t have to be the same if Mercy were to get a resource meter on Resurrect, since resource meter has been the most wanted change for Mercy in a while and many people would be much happier with it than what we have now, but I see your point.
I don’t mind rez on a meter, but dying shouldn’t reset it. It would turn the game into a “hunt and destroy the Mercy so she can never rez anyone”. I feel she’s already the most hunted healer in the game (maybe because she’s usually so close to the team, maybe because people still remember OP Mercy days) and this would make it worse.
I think that’s a very nice idea that answers the most problematic aspects of rez.
This idea of meter actually gives me an additional idea : Giving her another ability that’s a burst aoe heal which also uses part of this meter.
That’d give another dimension to her gameplay : rez a single person sooner or use this aoe heal that might actually save a few mates.
That’d also be a very good reason not to play rez rush all the time.
While I get your point, I think that having it reset upon death is the only way to balance out the charge times.
Having it reset upon death also allows for more skill expression, namely being able to stay alive for as long as possible during tough teamfights.
Thanks for the feedback.
I’m not entirely sure if Mercy was inteded to be an AoE healer. I do like your idea, I just don’t think it fits well with Mercy’s concept. Additionally, a lot of the supports have AoE healing in some way, so in my opinion it would be for the better to leave that to the professionals and let Mercy be the single target healer she is.
Another AoE also adds onto the healing creep we have in the game right now, so I would refrain from adding another AoE heal ability.
It would be a skill expression, but I still don’t think it should reset upon death. It makes Mercy too valuable of a target to the enemy team. It also would punish holding onto a rez until it was useful. It would basically force her to use it right away, which isn’t usually ideal. Yes, I can rez that McCree, but I’d rather save it for a more critical time.
Maybe make it that instead of resetting she loses something like 30% of the charge upon death. It would still hurt, but it wouldn’t take away everything just because Widow got off a lucky shot.
I get what you mean. I’m not sure if it’s part of her core concept to be “single target support”, but that might be the case and that’s actually part of the reason I found the concept interesting :
What interests me in this concept is the “tough choice” mechanic, where at all times Mercy can push back her rez availability to gain something else she lacks in her kit.
But hey, that’s an idea found on top of my head while reading your post. For sure pros are in a much better spot than me to create this kind of stuff.
When Mercy had Resurrect as her ultimate, she was forced to hide a lot, but under those given circumstances with this rework, hiding would be basically meaningless as you still have to get out there and wait out the 1.75s cast time, which makes you an easy target. You don’t have to use rez right away. It’s just the same as it is now, you are not regaining your cooldown even if you have it up already, are you?
So, adding a risk factor also allows for skill expression. Knowing when to go out and rez, who to save rez for, etc. are all ways to express skill.
Ah, yes, the decision making. There is a lot just when it comes to rez imho, and there would be a lot more with rez on a resource meter.
Definitely same. I’m not a pro either, so the changes I proposed aren’t totally perfect.
Darn it. I can’t for the life of me find it, (because I have no idea how to search the forums) but Silawatsi posted an excellent single res ultimate idea last night.
Those two things alone simultaneously make Resurrect clash with the entire rest of her kit and takes what is one of Mercy’s most powerful abilities and makes the Mercy player’s choice of when, where, and how to use it nearly inconsequential because almost everyone else on the map has more power than Mercy does about deciding if the Resurrect goes off or not.
Let enemies see and shoot the souls. 200 HP, popped souls can’t be revived. BOOM! Counter play.
Have Resurrect cut Mercy’s max HP temporarily. BOOM! Counter play.
Have GA put Resurrect on a 2 second CD so she can’t dash and res and if you don’t notice Mercy sulking around a dead body… that’s on you. BOOM!
Counter play.
If you are creative enough you can absolutely add counter play to instant cast Resurrect.