We’ve discussed this before. In order to account for the current precipitous drop in win rates in higher ranks, you’d have to assume that the bulk of Mercy players in high ranks were carried above their SR. While this might be true for some small population of Mercy players, the data for your claim just isn’t there.
In February Mercy’s pick rates dropped steeply and fed Moira’s pick rates. Over the course of season 9, Moira’s pick rates dropped and fed Mercy’s. You can see from the numbers that players were shifting whole sale from Mercy to Moira and back again. During that time Mercy and Moira’s win rates at high ranks were essentially identical. Mercy players were doing just as well with Mercy as they were with Moira. If they were carried too high by one, then they were carried too high by the other. No one thinks Moira is OP.
Mercy’s rise in pick rates was not preceded by a rise in win rates. Throughout her rise in pick rates Mercy players were maintaining the average win rates for her tier in every tier. This isn’t what you’d expect from an overpowered character that was carrying people above their ranks.
It’s possible that Mercy’s win rates will stabilize close to tier averages eventually, but the numbers we have right now don’t point there at all. By all means let’s wait and see, but let’s stop pretending that everything currently looks fine.
Also, regarding your lower than diamond chart - Mercy’s win rates below diamond were not a concern prior to the nerf either. If the game were balanced around low ranks then she wouldn’t have been nerfed in the first place.
You are very active on the anti Mercy side. I see you make a lot of good points, and I see you try hard to engage in serious discourse. In my mind, that makes you one of the key voices on that side.
Just as I think our side has the responsibility to agree that more time is needed, and that care is needed in her balance, I think your position comes with the responsibility to be clearer here: The current data does not look good. It might be better at some point, there might be some other explanation for it, but it currently looks bad.
The problem she has as an off healer, is that all other healers can deal damage while they heal, and Mercy can’t.
10k healing and 10k damage out of Moira is far better than 12k healing out of Mercy.
The rez is what is supposed to make up for that, but with how neutered it is, that’s a tough sell.
I agree Mercy could thrive in an off healer role, but they need to make sure she’s providing enough regular utility to make the pick worth it.
(Compare to Brig for example. Way more healing than brig, but brig can stunlock-kill flankers, which eliminates their ability to deal damage, which can be interpreted as ““healing”” in the sense that it is “health that your team mates have that they wouldn’t otherwise have”. Brig’s pick potential, combined with stunning people out of ults, is where her strength is and she’s great at it. Mercy has higher healing and a rez on a really long CD, but nothing else. Her kit makes her FEEL like she’s supposed to be a main healer because your primary gameplay loop is: Heal, and nothing else).
I still think 60hp/s was fine but Lucio is capable of main heals in a dive context with Zen, and Mercy clearly does more. She’s def capable of main heals in comps that play at range and avoid damage, and in most comps if there’s a Lucio to pick up the slack.
Her current win rates are utterly abysmal. She has the lowest win rate of all healers plat-gm. In all those tiers it’s well below the tier average. In diamond - gm the difference between her and the next healer is quite large. It’s been hovering around 3% all month long. This is a big number - it’s about half the spread of all character’s win rates and about the difference between Mercy and Ana when Mercy was the best healer and Ana was bad.
I also view myself as being on that side. My ideal world is one where all the main healers have similar pick rates and all healers have win rates that are close to the tier averages in every tier. Is that your ideal world as well? If so, can you see that there’s currently a problem with that vision?
I just looked–her winrate is above 50% in GM and Diamond, and 49.33% in masters this week. That’s not abysmal in the slightest. Winston had an even lower winrate during dive and was more than fine. It’s not a basis for change, especially when they’re reflecting as normal. Having the lowest winrate of the supports is irrelevant if that winrate is acceptable. I’d be more worried about Brig’s 56% wr in gm and she’s picked only .7% more than mercy.
I only have one thing to add: She can main heal in a dive comp. She’s just bad now if you want a long drawn out brawl.
The way I look at it, Moira is the ultimate sustain main healer, Ana is the ultimate burst main healer, and Mercy is the ultimate mobility main healer.
She also still does have the best ability in the game on a 30s cooldown.
That I can agree. Mercy does do her job well in dive.
Although, personally, I would pick up Lucio over Mercy for sheer enjoyment in a Dive comp. I know he’s not needed since they’re already fast, but hey, he’s just a little bundle of joy!
First off - you need to maintain about 53% win rate to stay in GM, about 52.5% to stay in masters, slightly lower in diamond. Having anything lower than that means that you are dropping rank on average if you play the character.
Second of all - if all of your direct competitors don’t have this problem and are significantly higher than you, that causes further issues. By the way in diamond - gm she’s not just the lowest healer, she’s also in the bottom 3 lowest characters period, and usually has the bottom or the second to last spot in some of them.
I think you might be concealing something pernicious in this statement, depending on how much of a difference you actually think is reasonable. I wouldn’t find a 9%-6% split in lower ranks vs. a 6%-9% split in higher ranks problematic at all (assuming both had reasonable win rates) but I would a 12-1 vs. 1-12.
In any case, this is somewhat tangential. Do you think that the current data points to some cause for concern regarding Mercy’s viability, and that something should be done if this problem persists?
But Mercy main heals… even with 50 h/s she has high numbers. She’s a weaker one post nerf for obvious reasons but still has numbers on a sibgle target that boast keeping even tanks alive.
I mean… not really. Mercy is used for Res but res in its own way a super heal but to also pocket someone and keep them up. At high levels she’d damage boost. By your logic Ana is an off healer as she has a super strong CC to secure kills and can shut off healing an enemy target. An “off” hybridizes another role; the pure support character cannot be an off support. Zen is an off healer hybrid with DPS while Brig is with a tank. They have some aspects of both classes but a main of their role outdoes them at that role.
Cool… a hero that was designed for the main healing role and was the go to pick for solo healing for two years is relegated to being an off healer with no defensive ult.
Oh yeah I totally want a mercy on my team with Ana totally not a horrible combo at all. I am sorry but I am out healing mercy’s on my team as Ana or Moira and if I am providing so much healing then what the f is the mercy’s role? Dmg boost? She could be doing dmg with zen/lucio. Valk? Don’t make me laugh sound barrier and trance are better. Oh right she has res, oh yeah that ability man I love res lets pick mercy for res yeah 10/10 Off healer would pick everytime.
aoisydaiusyhdasiluokhdas delete res, get her back to 60 hps, she becomes a main healer again without being OP problem solved.