Mercy's Guardian Angel Changes

General Discussion
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Level 204 Mercy main here.

I would simply like to join the many other players who are voicing their grievances with the recent changes to Mercy’s Guardian Angel, in hopes that these changes may be reverted.

I agree with much of the sentiment of the rest of the mercy player base.

My first game with Mercy felt physically painful as it really does mess with the muscle memory. She just feels too heavy and slow now in my opinion and after the match my hands were sore from how much more effort it required to execute the same level of agility as before.

Additionally, because of these changes the hero just does not feel fun to play anymore in my opinion. It is also my personal opinion that this change made an already competitively weak hero even less viable.

I understand that not everyone shares this opinion but I believe that enough of us do and that merits at least some type of acknowledgement from the devs.

I usually do not take to online forums to voice my opinion but I feel strongly enough about this that I had to try in case there is any chance the devs will listen to us.

My ask: Simply revert the changes made to guardian angel. I am okay with the rest of the nerfs, but this one goes too far.

I want to add that the Devs say they want the heroes’ changes and abilities to feel in line with the heroes’ identities… This change directly goes against Mercy’s identity as a hero and ultimately does not align with the dev’s goals. They should change this in a hot fix update please.

If you agree please comment and also make a post of your own as well. We want to keep the discussion respectful but hard to ignore.

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The only problem is that the balance team is REALLY good at ignoring people. That might actually be their REAL job. They ain’t pay them to nerf Mercy. They get the check for ignoring Mercy players.

:flexed_biceps::rofl:

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I think the whole mercy thing is…..exaggerated….

like if it was 30% or something maybe I could get it more…she’s still very mobile…and I like the flash heal change…overall I’d say I’m ok with the changes :man_shrugging:t2:

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baja, i’d expect you of all people to know that 10% can still be noticeably impactful. all the times sombra’s stealth speed in OW1 got adjusted, the speed percentage was always tweaked by either 10 or 15 (like having it go from 45 to 60, or that on ExC i think where it increased her speed from 50% to 65%? it’s been awhile).

the healing nerfs are fine, they’re truly whatever. flash heal being basekit will make up for a decent amount of the healing she’s lost, but the movement nerf was entirely avoidable and unneeded. it like tying sombra in with the mobility heroes and nerfing her speed again just cause, or nerfing her stealth speed but giving her a perk to revert that nerf so she’s somewhat fun again.

i don’t see why they couldn’t have just left GA alone and replaced divine momentum entirely, it would have saved them from this whole ordeal. hell give me winged reach back if it means giving up divine momentum for the GA speed nerf to be reverted.

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Emphasis on can be noticeable…don’t really think it’s very noticeable in this case

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Perhaps Mercy mains simply have better awareness?

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I noticed it enough to post on here when I normally don’t lol. Respectfully. I understand you don’t agree but myself and many others feel differently.

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It IS noticeable. When you’ve played her for 10 years and have hundreds to thousands of hours on her, you would and SHOULD notice any type of change especially one related to movement. If you don’t, you have got to be lying or I feel bad that you don’t have that much awareness and knowledge. 10 seems like a small number on paper, but when applied to something like Mercy’s movement, it’s a hit that you can feel. You know when you could have and should have been able to make a jump on a ledge or make it to a teammate in time. There’s been so many intense team fights where I know I would have been able to escape/survive a dive if the nerf didn’t happen. Let’s be real, please.

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and the salt mine crew is working over hours…can you stop now? Thank you

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Agree with everything stated here. Further more if the change was that miniscule/unnoticeable then it should be no trouble to just revert it back to keep a good portion of the community happy.

If the change didn’t feel impactful there would be no point in doing it. The issue is the impact is far too negative in many players opinion and it simply wasn’t needed.

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Same , I would prefer if they removed FH altogether. Guardian Angel is the most fun part of her kit, and the only part that all Mercy players ask them not to touch.

It seems like a small amount, but it’s VERY noticeable. She accumulates much less momentum, without the perk it’s like you’re just dragging along.

hue hue, no.

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I’m a support main QP warrior and I am glad she got a movement nerf AND a flash heal. Good change for Mercy. [ Also, the Flash Heal reminds me of raid healing in WoW with disc priest!]

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Respectfully I disagree. But you’re entitled to your opinion.

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Yes exactly. Also, they let us keep the perk that’s supposed to help. Why not just leave her movement alone and give us a different perk refresh? Are they that incompetent and unable to be creative? I’m thankful they’re trying with flash heal being in her base kit, but there’s no way they didn’t know that her movement is the most fun part about playing her. We’ve only been saying that for years. So what do they do? Nerf exactly that because we wanted her to have more of an impact. The healing nerf is whatever, but let’s wrap weights around her ankles and sit back and watch her struggle while we add a new hero that has auto-lock aim. LOL. The people who hate Mercy can sit here and give us hell over complaining but we have the right to just like any other person who plays their game.

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Full agree. Couldn’t have said it better. The addition of the new hero is another factor that plays into this further weakening Mercy’s current state in the game. I would have preferred to give up the mobility perk instead.

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She also feels different in a competitive setting compared to casual. You can’t entirely judge off of QP. Sure, people are (hopefully) still trying and not throwing in QP, but you see less sweats and more practicing.

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respectfully, that wouldn’t be the case if you played mercy a ton now would it?

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I mean they can revert it back…wasn’t saying they shouldn’t….just think it’s overblown (nothing new when it comes to OW community)

I play everybody a ton (last I checked she was my 9th hero with over 100 hrs). And I also play against her a ton as well. She’s still zooming all over the place

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Level 14xx something Mercy main here

… I really don’t know the exact number. One of my 5 accounts is +720 progression level alone xD

First of

love that word xD

Second,

Is not really about muscle memory

Because we are using that argument when facing a brutal mass nerf for the ability

When in reality, the same could be said for when the Divine Momentum Perk was introduced

… as you would now over jump, or go much further than expected

And of course that is a lot more fun, yes; but when you are Playing Pixel Perfect around those mechanics… you will encounter that it can be extremely disruptive

So no, is not about muscle memory. At least not exactly

Because what really is at stake here, is the way the character interacts with the Geometry of the maps

And as we all know by now, you can no longer reach the high ground from the Practice Range

But even if you do, with the minor perk, you are, still, launching at a much slower speed.
What makes you, obviously a much easier target, and of course, a complete garbo for the first stages of the match; until you unlock that perk

… and yet, after getting the perk, all these changes result in s a Zero Sum give and take situation, where you actually got a monumental nerf from GA on previous Seasons

Because where you had 115% speed, (and this is not how it works, but an example for us to understand what we are talking about) with these changes you are now back to Square 1

And to wrap this up

I simply stopped playing

Because… I know the results, and I know why this changes can only be reverted

Back in Season 2 when OW2 was launched, perhaps this is a coincidence xD

GA got obliterated

… and everyone in the community, and myself included, made a huge rant about it

But the thing is, that back then, what was different is that it was the Frequency of the ability, what was actually modified

The Cooldown. And its behavior for the entire chain for what it is a very complex ability

But even then, muscle memory remained untouched. Because, even Devs acknowledged that doing so, would be going too far

The end result, was keeping the same geometric interactions, but at slower cycles

and it is quite obvious by now, that they just blew it up

The same thing Devs tried to pull on Doomfist a few years ago

And they simply broke the entire character

Because… most of his interaction still rely on 1 single and very complex ability

In the end, Devs had to sit with the most experienced members of the community, and talk about what happened, why it wasn’t working, and what could be done

… and most changes received a rollback

Mercy is at the exact same situation

Fun Fact, this was also, a very sweaty, and even violent discussion, when GA was being reworked for the upcoming release of OW2

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Thank you for the very insightful feedback. I agree with what you stated about the map geometry. And I believe you are correct in highlighting that this is the true issue we are having with it but just labeling it as muscle memory. -lightbulb moment- moving around the map feels clunky and that’s the geometry you pointed out.

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