I mean, Ana was basically a secondary healer for almost a year after the Mercy rework, until she got her buffs. That sort of thing happens : characters change roles overtime.
I personally believe that Mercy could work well as an off-healer, let it be on attack or defense. However, she needs to have more stuff to do during the mid-fight to endorse that role, and I’ve listed ideas for them in my previous post. Two new abilities to stabilize the team and make them survive, and single-target Rez (instant cast) moved to Valk. That could work, imo.
I’m sorry, I must disagree.
The problem, is that Mercy isn’t designed to be an off healer. She’s designed to be a main healer, like Ana and Moira.
Making her an off healer doesn’t take away from the fact that her impact has a lot less than the other off healers.
- She doesn’t do nearly the amount of damage that the other off healers do.
- She cannot heal and do damage at the same time like the other off healers.
- She doesn’t have the kit to defend herself like the off healers can with a way to disengage (Stun / Boop) or simply out-dps her opponents with more damage (Discord Orb).
- She relies on single-target healing at close/medium range of her target. Every other off healer has either area-healing capabilities, or the ability to heal a target from an extremely long distance.
So, no… I think she’s in a grey area state right now. As an off healer she would still be filling the role of a main healer, with her dedicated healing… Except she’s a lot less engaging to play than any of them.
I think they should just cut their losses and do a revert. Keep her as a main healer by bringing Mass rez back on Q. Tweak it with LOS, give her a new E ability (like Pacify or Halo) and call it a day. This rework has been a huge failure, and the 11+ nerfs she’s received while still rising in win rates with a low pickrate, have done nothing but further proven it.
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I do agree she should remain a main healer, but woth Res on E she can’t keep that title for long, unless it’s the “Worst Main Healer”.
I would welcome a 1.0 revert or a 3.0 rework for her, taking Res off E and back into her Ult somehow, just to make her a Main Healer again… But right now we shpuld try to work with what we have. And what we have is not Main Healer material.
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I’ve been telling people this since the moment the nerf to her healing was released. She’s not good as a main heal. You have to play her like an off heal to get real value. Even then I wouldn’t suggest her outside of pocketing a dps like Pharah, Widow, Hanzo, etc. . .
Her design right now is so wonky. She isn’t like Symm where it’s an easy transition from one thing to another. Symm always had the kit that would make her fit easily into a dps slot. But Mercy’s design screams that she should be a main heal, not off heal. I think that’s why it’s so bad for Mercy right now. Her design conflicts with what her playstyle has to be after the nerf.
Blizzard are trying to fit an off heal into the body of a main heal. And it’s not going well at all as judged by numbers. I personally want to see Mercy reworked again at this rate. If they want her to be an off heal they can’t keep her current design and call it good enough. It’s not working.
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I think Ana was always designed as a hybrid healer. She does damage. She has debuffs and crowd control. She has an offensive ult. I think quite a large portion of Ana’s player base embraces that role. They’re playing a sniper healer because they like to shoot, and they want to hurt the enemy team as well as helping their own.
Putting that aside though, Ana wasn’t relegated to secondary healer status. She was relegated to bad status. That wasn’t an intentional design choice, it was a design error that the devs are currently trying to fix. There’s no need to repeat that process again. If a healer is designed to be a main healer, if her player base play her in order to main heal, then it’s incumbent on the devs to balance her accordingly.
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Is it possible that some Mercy players at high ranks can’t maintain their current rank with Mercy?
After a year Mercy being overpowered.
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Well that would be a discussion on Comp balancing, would it not?
The rework wasn’t a bad idea in itself. Mercy’s kit got fairly linear overtime, and Mercy 2.0. changed things up. It’s the fact that not only did Blizzard make her blatantly OP to make people less mad about her getting changed, she was also nerfed slowly but surely instead of swiftly. This rework wouldn’t have been nearly as bad had Blizz decided to make Mercy 2.0. more balanced upon release (similar to her state after her February/March nerfs to Rez and Valk) and to nerf accordingly instead of taking their time.
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I think most balance discussions use Comp as their measurement, not Quickplay.
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Well I’m more discussing the issue with one tricking and whatnot, rather than hero viability.
If they don’t belong there, and are not meant to be playing the same character over and over, why are they there?
Because Mercy was overpowered for a year, and the best choice healer for almost all situations.
Where as the skills gained on Mercy aren’t very transferable to Ana.
And Moira is a niche pick at high ranks.
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Mercy currently has one of the lowest win rates in Silver. Worse than Widow, Zarya, Genji and quite a few other high-skill floor heroes.
As someone who has so much reliable healing,yeah she’s better off as an off-healer.If she had the best healing(which for a while she did)she will/has had become a must-pick.
Mercy winrate isn’t really much concern below Diamond.
I could bring out the chart again, if I really need to…
At this rate in all honesty just take off res if you’re not going to do another rework or revert with tweaks. I’m tired of dealing with the complaints about it and with how it’s starting to chip away at her base kit.
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I think you’re missing my point.
With all of the one tricks out there, whether smurf accounts or anything else, you think Blizzard would push some incentive to switch heroes more often. Possibly even adding mechanics deturing them from playing the same hero for… Let’s say… Over 500 hours in one season.
In bronze to gold/plat she is still the go-to healer.But in GM Ana has taken her rightfull place as #1
I think creating a meta where you lose it’s you don’t pick the best healer for the situation is plenty of incentive.
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I don’t reallt agree with Mercy being an off healer, because her healing out put it still really good.
But I need to say, Moira is really bad, she gets little value in most comps, wheee massive healing isn’t even needed. Essentially her value comes from a bit of healing and a ton of tickle damage. There’s comps where she is good like goats and similar close quarter comps where healing output is just insane, but other than that she has nothing.
Last I checked, only Moira is outhealing her. And calling 49%–again, last I checked–abysmal is wrong. For all intents and purposes, that’s 50%.
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