Hello. I know everyone is gonna say “Oh, another mercy rant, bruh, go kill your thread in the megathread”. What I wanna say is, this is not gonna be rant-like, I have put a bit of time trying to think of the perfect way of me showing why the current mercy is bad. I’m not using OWL/ GM/ T500 statistics as all of those 3 combined are probably less than 10% of the community.
Let’s start.
First lets discuss why I think Mercy is bad in her current state (her 50 hps state).
First of all Mercy always was and will always be this mostly single targeted healer who put out good amounts of healing every match. Of course the compensation for having such strong heals is her being single targeted. That was until Valkyrie came along. The appearence of this ultimate was the first sign of the incoming Mercy meta. Why you may ask? Remember Mercy 2.0, she could res about the same amount of people she could res with Mass Ress, but she could also go into unkillable moth form with the ability to heal/dmg boost her whole team. At first the rework seemed fine, but here we are today having mercy eaten 12 nerfs and as far as I know blizzard is discussing the 13th nerf, something again to her ressurect (which is finally gonna address the issue with mercy.)
Question is, why did Mercy eat so much nerfs in a row. It’s because of valk. Lets admit is Valkyrie removed all of Mercy’s weaknesses. Before the rework she couldn’t tempo res 1 target every 30 seconds, or if she did so she potentially wasted an ult she could save a fight with. Before the rework she couldnt AOE heal and she was almost never safe from genji’s tracing her. This was no more a weakness of her ever sicne the arrival of Valkyrie. This ultimate… istg. This ultimate made Mercy O P A F. She could heal or dmg boost her whole team, she could res 4 people while Valk active (1 before valk + 1 reseted by valk + 1 after 10 sec + 1 after 10 more sec). This ultimate was one of the most broken ults to be used in overtimes OR 2cp maps as it denied picks for 20 seconds straight. People would say “Just kill the mercy first” but valkyrie made her hitbox look bigger, gave her free flight as well as SUPERSONIC speed within GA.
Soon enough the first nerf arrived, and Valk no longer resseted or reduced res’s CD, Res outside of valk also had a cast time. Valk just gave mercy 2 charges of insta res and thats it. It seemed like a pretty solid but needed nerf to Mercy. She still had her strong heals on Valk and still could res 2 people so it was still pretty good ult.
1-2 months after that we get another nerf. The valk duration was decreased, no longer buffed GA’s movespeed and didnt grant res extra charge, nor did it grant it and insta cast. This nerf is what I call the “breaking point”. This nerf just showed how the rework has taken the form of a complete failure. She still had her chain healing in valk but with nothing else to do in her ultimate, it felt like she was going pure spectator camera, healing her team while hitting the skybox. Even if she dove for a res it would mean that she will be stunned for 2 seconds and will stop her healing (which’s potential is 4x60x1.75 = 420 hp) was that worth? No. You would much rather have res before or after valk so that you dont waste your heal.
This just took the fun away from mercy. Her res was still O P A F, but most of the times it was a death wish as allies usually die in the most random places without any walls around (oh guess what “hide and res was dumb” people, SHE NEEDS TO HIDE TO RES NOW). Her valkyrie didnt feel like an ultimate, it was feeling underwhelming, as it comes fast and doesnt “turn around a teamfight” it just “helps close up a teamfight u have already won”. She has an ultimate on E with a 30 s CD and an E ability as her ult, which also came like every 40-50 sec.
30th of January was the last time she got nerfs so I thought “They are done with mercy, right?” Nope. I heard she got nerfed and I hoped it was her ressurect so that the mercy meta would stop and I wouldnt have to be forced into mercy anymore. She was still the msot boring character to play so I really wanted a res nerf. But nope, they nerfed her healing. HER HEALING. This will do nothing but bring up moira/zen/mercy nerfs as zen and moira will provide dmg and healing at both close and long range, while mercy will provide that utility from dmg boost and the ressurect. Which is also a big buff to winston as FIRST winston will outdmg mercy’s beam and SECOND having 2 out of 3 supports on the neemy being dive-able is just heaven for any dive tank… right?
Why I hate Mercy’s state?
Because she is the msot boring, unengaging hero that could literally be played by a drunk 3 year old and still be effective. Her ressurect is powerful, yet it feels like a self punishment since it stops your healing, stuns you and if you fail to pull off the ress, guess what… It doesnt matter you have another one in 30 seconds. Her Valkyrie has gotten a HUGE nerf with this heals nerf. It will come more rare, its effect will get completely denied by a winston just holding LMB. Her ult still feels underwhelming, even more so than usual, her ressurect is still OP. Low bronze player and a high master player can res about the same amount not because they are both participating in the fights and healing actively, its because its a CD ability and this nerf addressed NONE OF HER PROBLEMS. It just made mercy mains feel like devs dont listen to our feedback (which is not what they claim to be doing). She will change the meta around her ressurect yet again and the devs will do nothing about it.
Changes I’d like to see made to Mercy:
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Ressurect - Ultimate ability.
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Has LoS check.
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Cast time decreased from 1.75 sec to 0.7 sec
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Cost increased by 20% (So it goes from around 2200 to around 2640)
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Doesn’t grant invulnerability, but rather 20% dmg reduction during cast
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Valkyrie - Removed.
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Guardian Angel - Normal Ability 1
- Remains as it is, save the BHop.
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New Ability Overdrive - Normal Ability 2 (on E)
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Mercy enters an Overdrive state, lasting 7 seconds, upgrading her Caduceus Blaster and Staff. CD 15 sec, starting after the ability ends.
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Staff:
- Mercy’s staff upgrades after 0.5s cast time (in which she cant heal but can use GA and Ult). Her staff goes ham and recieves a ramp going from 60 to 70 to 90. Ramp goes as following:
60 to 70 - takes 1.5 sec of healing
70 to 90 - takes 2.5 sec of healing
People that PASS thru the beam get healed for 20% of the healing done to the beam target (60 to 12, 70 to 14, 90 to 18).
While this may seem powerful, changing beam target OR switching to pistol will reset the ramp, but not the duration of the ability. Damage Boost is not available to mercy while this ability is active. After overdrive ends mercy gets a debuff decreasing her healing to 45hp/s for 3 seconds.
- Mercy’s staff upgrades after 0.5s cast time (in which she cant heal but can use GA and Ult). Her staff goes ham and recieves a ramp going from 60 to 70 to 90. Ramp goes as following:
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Blaster
- Mercy’s Caduceus Blaster gets upgraded, she gets her ammo increased from 20 to 30, fire rate increased by 25%, reloading takes 0.5 sec more. The debuff after overdrive affects the blaster by decreasing its dmg from 20 to 10 for 3 seconds.
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While these changes may increase the numbers of battle mercys, the pistol buffs can be numbed, thus suggesting players to swoosh thru the battlefield keeping them being active in the teamfight so that they heal their teammates and try their best to not let them die. If they do however they have the chance of bringing them back in the fight without the fear of getting instakilled by widow/hanzo but still being able to die when casting the ultimate.
TL;DR - sorry for typos and such, if you have other changes I’d love to hear them ^^
