This is salt but I did post a non salt thread about why I like her.
This is just my opinion on her overall so… Nah. I’m not replying to defend my thoughts. Feel free to disagree. That’s totally fine and fair. But I will mod this if it gets too nasty. I admire the ride or die aspect of mercy players but sometimes, it’s a pain. I really thought about… Mellowing the hate but… I’m pretty mellow in the forums and the worst I get is snarky at best. Or tired. This is genuinely my opinion in a rant format.
Might get 404d for it but… I just want to voice my thoughts. Just hitting create is good for me.
I wouldn’t post this if I basically weren’t going to leave the forums in a bit. But I have some thoughts and you know… sometimes… you think a thing and you just gotta… Make people mad.
So… I hate Mercy. It’s… really not a secret.
However, I am in many a mercy thread because well, I like supports and balance and guess what? Mercy be a support. And she affects balance. But I usually leave it as a quick side note, usually in regards to someone claiming that my bias for her blinds me. I have to explain that no… my hate for her is deep and the vitriol is nasty. But I can’t say I have ever… fully detailed what it is that bothers me about her.
And so here it is. The play by play of my hate of mercy, and everything about her. You really won’t get a response from me on this. It’s literally my opinion and I can respect that plenty of people like her. I don’t blame you. But just like plenty of people like her… I am allowed to not. It’s entirely valid to not like a thing. Mercy isn’t a real person. I’m not hurting her feelings. I’m not saying you’re a bad person for liking her. But I DON’T.
Moreover, I HATE her. And I genuinely, 100% believe the game would have been better off had they not made Angela Zeigler, Aka the hero Mercy. And I feel like my view isn’t merely a “wahh she no aim so she should be bad” which most hate for her is.
I’m not some weird tank streamer who just, screeches when a support isn’t diveable. But I do have salt. And the salt is spreading as the game goes along. So yeah, this will be a salty thread. Unlike when I am reserved because I’m not ranting about mercy… This is a rant. This is my salt. I do in fact get mad over her. I am not exaggerating when I say… I HATE MERCY.
designing a character: The Honey Trap Awakens
Ever seen the concept art of Mercy? Now THAT’S a hero imo. Literally everything around him was as the counter to what the stereotype of a healer was. So much of who mercy is, is immediately changed when given to a dark skinned black man. Now of course, this isn’t inherent. You wouldn’t have such a contrast if it weren’t just that… a stereotype. Social rules and trends are what make counterculture. But here’s the things, counterculture, imo is what defined overwatch to start. A knight in the future. A race of people that aren’t seen as human because they aren’t, ninjas, archers, building… There are aspects of the game not only not standard to the concepts and trends of fps games, but of what people consider to be the future in general. It’s often bleak, dark and gritty. Overwatch was explicitly against the grain in its development for this reason. It wanted to be positive and happy and bright.
Imo, concept Mercy fits because the counterculture of the world aligned better with such a concept. Our stereotypes made him non-stereotypical. And that’s super great. The choice to instead make an explicit honey trap is honestly… disappointing. But also something I think marked the beginnings of what influence being popular would have on balance, gameplay, and hero kits.
I don’t mean it as a intentional bias for all mercy players. But honestly, hearing some people explicitly say that they love their “gentle, fair skinned, pretty healer” just…. Creeps me out with the racist rhetoric undertones. And I do mean that. Because no one finds moira, also a skinny fair skinned lady, as “pretty.”
I know this isn’t all mercy players. But it is an intentional choice from design. And it’s one that I know many a mercy player falls for. Mercy doesn’t go against the grain with her role and lore. She plays into it. And for me, should have been a sign that the popularity of a hero would define the game.
A Main Healer Role Starts
There were 3 healers at launch. 3. And Mercy was not a main healer. Because NO ONE was. There were THREE healers. Symm wasn’t an “Off healer.” She wasn’t a healer at all. There were no main healers at launch. And then we got ana.
And there were STILL no main healers. This is because Ana wasn’t launched as a main healer. She launched as a support. 100% heal nade is a lot less obnoxious when you only have 8 shots a clip. It’s fine when you only have 10 shots on launch. But the game was slower, we weren’t as good, and Ana launched and people didn’t heal on her. That’s not on Ana. But it did give her a buff. Ana imo, was the first hero I would consider to have earned the title “main healer.” But at the time of her buff, she was not deemed one. And then we buffed Mercy.
THE WHINING NEVER CEASED. Ana was blamed for poor mercy never being used. Poor mercy didn’t bring enough because of ana. Ana pushed her out. Ana hurt mercy. Not like Ana also made zen much less relevant but noooo. Or how mercy wasn’t ever really meta beyond the fact that there were only 3 healers. Or how symm literally was never meta. But ya know… We gotta focus on poor pitiful mercy. And not only do we need to buff her, but we need to buff her in healing because healing is all mercy wants to do. We can’t give her an ability, or work with dmg boost. Noooooo. Poor mercy is a “pure healer and that’s why she’s good.” So we buff mercy. And she STILL wasn’t good. And so we need to buff her MORE. Poor mercy isn’t doing as good as ana. Ana is too strong. Mercy needs to compete with ana. This narrative around Ana V Mercy existed even tho mercy had and has more in common with lucio and zen than she does Ana.
This narrative never should have existed. Why wasn’t mercy given a better ult to compete with zen and lucio? Why wasn’t ana brought in line to zen and lucio like she was to start. Catering to the whining demands of mercy players and her poorly thought out play made her weaker and weaker and changed the fundamental design of the game. We went from Supports to Healers and imo it wasn’t needed. Mercy’s “pure healer angelic” design makes heal beam her focus and it never should have been. And makes her play bad in game design and bad for the game overall
Pure Healer Support is a Bunch of BS
Say what you want about Mercy Raids, and the leader’s deplorable actions, but they definitely got people talking. Just like Trump, you get people talking and sometimes that insight would have never been seen.
I didn’t realize that to many a mercy player prior to her rework, they saw her as a “pure healer.” Maybe because in my head… she wasn’t. And isn’t. Ya know who be? Moira. Iz Moira.
“Moira is a Dps hybrid” what a bunch of nonsense. Ana has higher dps and isn’t a “dps hybrid” Every time I hear or see requests for a “pure healer” I roll my eyes back in time to ye olden days when mercy had NO way to increase her base kit value for allies beyond her pistol and how her healing was limited. Moira was released and lo and behold… turns out, high healing and a heal focus isn’t… actually what mercy players want. They want MERCY. If it’s not ANGELA and her soft face and gentle voice… it doesn’t count.
MOIRA is the heal woman. It’s the only non dmg ability she can even do, and she does 150% more heals than dmg at any given moment to a SINGLE player. Let alone how she heals MULTIPLE ALLIES. But moira isn’t a pretty cute angel lady. She isn’t cute and pink and flowery. Which shows me that rhetoric about a “pure healer” is nothing but excuses to keep mercy played one way. Can’t remove dmg boost because god forbid she lose anything. But you also need to buff that heal beam. That;s what we want. And nothing else matters.
It’s so annoying. You literally have the pure support and chose not to use her until everything else mercy synergizes with was pushed out of meta, and agentively, looking at mercys pick rates to win rates…. Didn’t. Now, when I argue for balance, I do think Mercy needs to be viable. As a … kit and asset to your team and the game, yes, mercy needs to be viable. At all ranks.
I realize that one tricking is the real issue with people sticking to a hero no matter what. That isn’t a mercy issue. But I do think, that unlike every other hero who has to switch with counters, or else they know they are throwing/ not doing as well, Mercy s huge population of players allowed such a thing to become acceptable.
“I only play mercy” “I can only play mercy” and it was like that until it became negative. “No aim no brain mercy main” And #shock when it became negative. NO DUH it would turn sour. And heres the thing, I am fine with lower aim heroes. I am fine with Autolock 100%. I do think it can be balanced. But unlike widow or mccree who will switch to soldier or tracer or pharah etc because of aim requirements, Mercy players hide behind her.
“wah I can’t aim”
“then play lucio”
“But we need healing :<”
“Then play moira”
“:O”
Like, god forbid the beam woman switch to the ACTUAL HEAL WOMAN.
You don’t want a pure, healer, support. You want MERCY with moira’s kit. Or even easier, because spray is so hard and god forbid you cant float “like an angel.” People mock moiras aim requirements but, nah. She needs aim to do her basic job. Basic aim for a basic job. And Many a mercy REFUSES to. Good on moira for finding a meta, and I have seen some mercy players #shocked that moira is “so fun actually!” Like yeah. Shes a heal woman. That be what you literally wanted. #eyeroll Mercy is NOT a pure healer. No launch healer was a pure healer. Her utility was part of her design. Her lethality is part of what goes in her balance.
Like… I just imagine Jeff in the rework meetings like “okay, so … when we rework her, we need a healer to replace her. But like… what they want… So what about a healer…. Who only heals? And like, that’s it? And dmg… like what if we gave her baby dmg. And like, not make it her main kit? And like, with limited range so you only want to use it if you’re already being hurt. Like an actual pacifist? Wouldn’t that be nice? A pure pacifist support who only engages when she has to. Guys… the support mains are gonna be so happy.” No jeff. Not unless she was sunny and blonde. Sorry.
The Rework MONSTER
Turns out… utility is how this game is won. And emphasizing her utility has made mercy leagues better than mass rez mercy ever was. Heres the thing, Im not against mass rez. And I think it would be more viable now than before. I wouldn’t want it because I Don’t like rez as it is in game, but. Im not against it in theory. What I do think, is that mass rez mercy was less viable. And that’s because Rez is niche (see my other thread). But I think mass rez or something like it works…. FOR AN OFF HEALER. Lucio zen… like… idk… what mercy launched as?
She wasn’t a main healer . No launch healer was. But we FORCED this narrative to make her more like ana. And it worked. They got their blueprint of making a hero viable and it spread to heroes beyond mercy. Why bother making symm work? Why bother having a niche? Rework Why bother making torb armor work? Armor is a pain to get and play against. Rework Why have anything that makes any streamer upset to use? If Owl wont use it… it’s not good. Rework. Let’s split the effort needed to think about making abilities count.
Things are more viable in short bursts. Just make each thing tie to time instead of having any need to have a consequence for using an action. Torb sombra symm brig…. All these reworks can be seen and found in mercys rise to power. And it is gross. And ai am so mad at mercy players for ruining other heroes all because they didn’t want to use their secondary fire.
A Hero to Counter Metas- It wasn’t Brig
Brig oh Brig, who gets the brunt of the “222” argument. I don’t blame brig tho.
I BLAME MERCY. Mercy and the DAMN ana v mercy rhetoric.
“ana and mercy ana and mercy ana and mercy” good GOD.
If mercy wasn’t so trash at using her actual kit, none of this would have happened. Oh, I agree, ana was overtuned. But they didn’t just revert her ammo buff. No. We buffed MERCY. And Buffed her and buffed her. We needed mercy to counter ana. Mercy needed to be the new meta. Mercy mercy mercy. Triple tank? Mercy. Dive? Mercy. Here we are, ages later… Moira? MERCY. Had we just…. Let mercy stay as she had been and tuned ana down once we figured out that LMAO a healer HEALS well, it would have been fine. But instead we brought mercy UP instead of bringing ana down. And this is where we started this idea of a hero to counter. Enter Sombra. A hero the devs didn’t even WANT. But felt was NEEDED for balance and the game. Everyone acts like it was about dive that we got brig. But really, it was mercy. Its not about adding a hero to the game, but that there IS a hero in the game. So tracer wasn’t nerfed. Ana wasn’t nerfed. Instead we buff mercy. And from there, when sombra failed to reel in dive, and orisa, and moira… we get Brig. Who was the result of ages of heroes launching underwhelming. You wanna stop dive? Let’s see… how did we make a new meta from triple tank… OP mercy? What about a strong tank healer?
THAT’S GONNA DO THE TRICK.
If mercy just… stayed in her damn lane, I don’t feel any of these reworks would have been needed or wanted. But she got viable. And that was worth a damn meta. And that meta led to more and more nonsense for metas. Until we realize… fine. 222. Now I am fine with 222. But I think this was an issue LONG before Brig.
Imo, had we kept ana to her launch and beta state, triple tank wouldn’t have been an issue. it’s the incessant need to keep heal beam mercy meta, that did us in. rather than what works best for the design, and goal of the hero and game.
Yikes, this is already 2.5k words of hate. And I really have so much more. From her skins to her voice lines to her cinematic screen time… Call me the Pacific cuz man… My salt is vast and deep. But I think this covers my view on her fairly well. At least the major gripes I have. I have issues regarding rez, and the “shes a go to for raw healing” and such AND I DO I REALLY DO AND I COULD WRITE ON but I think 2.5k of salt is…. Quite enough for this as it is merely just… sharing my view and not really saying how to fix anything nor giving a place to change my mind.
Because imo the damage is done. You can’t undo the point we have gotten to. Mercy killed the game before it ever took off. Her history and popularity can never be erased. There is no fix to the stain she poured on this game. Moreover, she already exists. Its not fair to take a hero away from people who genuinely like what was made.
They already like her and its not toxic or anything to like a thing. Is mercy a stereotypical western waifu bait? Yeah. But people can still enjoy bait. Who cares? It’s just a game. Mercy as it stands has every right to be viable and good even tho she isn’t an AIM QUEEN. Aim shouldn’t be the end all be all in the game as it stands. It could change. I hope not. I think her playerbase is in fact hated for liking her and they shouldn’t. its not fair imo how they are seen overall and its bad for the game to exclude them. But that doesn’t mean I have to like her. Nor that shes popular.
The changes already made on her behalf are done. And I don’t feel we can really go back. And imo it hurt the game. She hurt the game. And…
it’s tragic.