Mercy Salt- I Hate this Hero

General Discussion
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I see both sides of the argument tbh. I understand why ppl obsess over her and why some are irritated by her. I guess it has to do with the fact that blizzard really didnt know how to make her fun and appealing as she was already advertised as (her rez) but also no op, its like the concept that taking away something you’ve already given the people will get a nasty response. It’s no secret that mercy went from extremely overpowered and engaging/game changing, to, averagely balanced and ok like most. I can see why people were enraged and angry with this because people got a taste of how abusable and powerful she was and for those who mained her and enjoyed using her that way, it was fun and she’s well a beautiful flying angel. It also didn’t help that SOME people… (the face of the #reworkmercy movement) made a hideous impression on mercy mains and also the fact that some ppl just sh*t on mercy mains even if they’re being civil and respectful simply bc they play mercy. I can understand the frustration of wanting change because they see issues and giving input/opinions and having someone invalidate it and disrespect them because they play her.

On the other hand, there’s people who dont play her or main her and sit in the position of watching their efforts get reversed because of a mass rez or even worse (double rez + 10sec cd in valk) and she was extremely frustrating to play with bc you had to expect the rez to come. The other fact of her being a must pick for so long to the point to where it was an absolute throw if you didn’t have her. No hero should be that powerful. Mercy is my most played support because I still find her fun to play personally and despite the hard nerf, i think she’s in a pretty good spot but shes not exactly where I want her to be (just some quality of life changes would make her a bit nicer to play as) but I’m not completely unsatisfied with her like many mercy mains are.

Mercy getes A LOT of special attention whether Mercy mains want to admit that or not. They literally changed a skin specific ult line bc so many ppl complained for years about it, and when they finally change it, they then demand for more. Where as other heroes get little to no love like that in cosmetics, let alone quality of life changes. I’m p sure ana has no skin exclusive ult lines like some heroes do. I’ve come to the conclusion after watching Mercy mains demand more from the devs right after they gave them what they want, that Mercy mains will always be “Mercy hungry” and demand more, and simply arent content with what they’re given because there’s always something to fix or do better.

well…thats my opinion on the matter-

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I’ve played… a lot of mercy. And I do understand a lot of the dislike toward her. I’ve personally never liked the god complex that came with mass rez, nor the “you need to protect me” mindset. And I won’t even get into how much the “rework Mercy” movement made my blood boil.

However, I do find your dislike of her for being a bit of a stereotypical healer interesting. A lot of people feel that way, so I won’t fault you for it. However, I don’t necessarily see anything wrong with it. It’s a trope many people like, both women and men, and people of all different races. She’s unabashedly a trope, and I think that’s ok. The healer roster has so much diversity, that I think there’s room for a trope or two. Not your cup of tea? That’s totally fine. I for one love the angelic healer aesthetic. But it’s all down to personality.

Also, Overwatch seems to be trying to go through a diversity checklist so to speak. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because it allows for more culturally and ethnically interesting characters. My point there is, had mercy kept her original design, we may not have gotten Lucio or Baptiste in their current forms, and that would have been a tragedy.

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just a friendly reminder that the developers who make the skins are not the same as the ones who design and balance gameplay

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A bank gets a lot of attention from its bank robbers too. A lot of attention does not mean it’s a good thing. I wish Blizzard had stopped developing the game in December of 2016 as I feel the game has gone downhill since then. Of course there have been some ups, some additions, etc. that I know people enjoy, but for me it has not been worth it. I feel that the worst thing for Overwatch is that Blizzard insists on working on it… I sincerely wish that Blizzard would cease to exist and split into a number of indie studios that once more developed fun games for gamers rather than games for investors.

3 Likes
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I don’t mind the angelic healer.
I mind the honey trap healer.

I know. But that’s still part of mercy. When I say “Jeff , get to work! Torb needs to wall climb” I don’t actually envision Jeff himself at a computer typing away with a photo of me on his desk saying “I must make forum user n7warrior happy!”

It’s not any individual aspect that bothers me. I don’t care for bastion much either. Nor zarya. But my distaste for mercy is one aspect on another on another from multiple Angles across the board. So that’s why I take issue with her

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I really liked your post as well. It was well thought out, and completely understandable.

I think a lot of this is people DO want a pure support. Mercy isn’t what the idea people have been grasping for but she is kinda the closest we had.

I’ll see if I can put what her mains saw in her, and why they made the comments they did.

The idea of Mercy was a support which you gave up everything else to help your team. You become totally team dependent, but, in return, you are the best support the team could ask for.

You have mobility to get you to where you need to be faster, but, as you are completely giving up anything not for your team, it ONLY gets to you team members. That is it, even in the most basic of powers, it is only in the service and is totally reliant of the team.

You have your healing beam. It is personal, and your primary, it literally can’t do anything apart from helping another team member.

Your damage boost beam, again, it is personal, and it literally requires someone else to even make it effective.

You have a pistol, but, it is for defense, it is not balanced so you go on screaming runs at the enemy.

Ok, on to her ult. It can’t be used offensively. Even Zens trance can - all you can do, is help team members. Without a dead team member, you can’t even use the ult. It is utterly reliant on your team for it even to be able to be used. You can’t even save yourself with it.

You give up EVERYTHING in the service of your team, but…

In doing so, you provide the best healing the team can get. It is the extreme version of the support archetype.

Where it broke down with Ana, was, the concept was of this “give up everything for your team for best healing / supporting” was the social contract, but, Ana provided better healing, which is a problem.

And, so, the whole archetype collapses. Sure, you COULD give up everything in the service of your team, but, it was meant to have meaning.

And yet, it didn’t.

That is why people talk about the purity of the hero. It is a concept that Blizzard went for, and then abandoned. But they never replaced it with another support which could take up that role, and people WANTED to play that role.

So, they lost the hero they wanted to play, even before changes were made it to. Which kinda give a WHY to the fighting between Ana and Mercy.

They should have just nerfed Rez a bit, and make her healing better, Or make Ana better at combat, and worse as a healer.

Give them the space between them, so that the hero they signed up for, was the hero they were playing.

Hopefully it makes sense.

TL:DR: codependency! Not just a lifestyle choice!

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I absolutely despise rez, when you encounter someone with a pocket Mercy and you finally kill them 1vs2 but Mercy presses E to rez them it’s so annoying.

I respect Mercy players that play like a good teammate and try to heal everyone but god I hate pocket Mercy players.

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But… blizzard want Mercy was pocket, you know.

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Why I personally hate mercy as well:
-Healbot gameplay
-Super jump bug abuse
-Ridiculously short cooldown on escape ability
-One of the smallest hitbox in the game
-Pharmercy on console still broken

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These are leftovers from the rework.

People used to play pinball Mercy back when she had a healing rate, so, she was a LOT more active. Superjump is also a side effect of the rework.

The rest of the problems are console issues.

Controllers make it too hard to shoot her as she escapes, it happens on PC though.

Yeah, on console it is an issue. On PC it is easier to flick, and hit her.

Again, it is the console aiming issue.

They need to crank up aim assist on the consoles until the stats from the console games are better matched with the stats from the PC games.

There will be a balancing point, but, Blizzard treats consoles as kinda second class citizens, as you well know.

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This was closed for about 30 minutes :sob::sob: I’m glad they reviewed it but still. I got flagged

A fair point. It’s why in a vacuum I don’t mind. Which is where I hate that the response to Ana was to buff mercy up.

Ana on launch wasn’t being used for heals and it wasn’t warranted imo to buff mercy and change her in the name of viability over Ana.

Yep. I agree. The Ana v mercy dichotomy imo is what helped solidify the 'healers heal ’ change for the game.

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All I gotta say is that the rework was ridiculously rushed and that’s where the big decline started. The devs didn’t seem to take their time on it and instead just rushed it as soon as that SR calculation bug for Rez count showed up and got complaints, them even worse it was also rushed off PTR in an extremely broken state so we ended up with Moth meta for numerous seasons all because a hero was “annoying.”

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Is that what happened?

Damn your post is one of the best posts I’ve seen on the forums, well, ever. It is crazy good.

I’m not sure why people would flag it, unless they never read it, and if they didn’t it is their loss. I’d love to see more content like this.

As It is, I REALLY hope that Echo will take up the “purity in supports” position. But, in my heart of hearts, I think it won’t happen.

It would have been REALLY interesting to see what other path it could have taken if this didn’t happen.

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I agree. But what bothers me more is what happened after.

Others have pointed out that mercy wasn’t the first rework. But she was of her type. That which puts viability and annoyance as higher value than players, ideals, and themes.

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Yes. And all while I was in a meeting . So props to mods for reviewing it. I didn’t request the review . And fully expected that once it closed… It was done for. I don’t see many threads get reopened.

I’m surprised. This thread in general has been more well received than I expected. I appreciate the feedback

A struggle

The overwatch au with 8 clip Ana lol

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She has always been a healbot though? A played the beta and it wasn’t that different.

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Question for you N7. How many MMORPG’s have you played?

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Hmmm… 3 or 4?

I am initially an RPG person. Any rpg.