My Thoughts on Mercy and How to Balance her

General Discussion
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Hi everyone, this is my first post on the forums but I think I’ve delayed the inevitable enough. I am going to put out my opinion on Mercy even though a lot of the community thinks hatefully towards her. Anyway,

Mercy has been a hard hero to balance from the devs stand point and after 14 nerfs and a so called “buff” (which is simply a half a** revert to something that was unnecessarily changed) she seems to still be in a controversial state. Some think she’s perfect, some say she’s still strong and some think she’s not fun at all. I happen to be on the side of her not being fun at all but I do think she is “ok” and even that is almost giving too much. I wanted to post here to express my opinion on Mercy and what I think could be done for her. Let’s begin shall we.

In my opinion Mercy is in a boring state. Valkyrie is a glorified spectator and not engaging at all. Resurrect feels like a chore to use and her healing isn’t enough to keep her team alive or even to compete with other supports like Ana or Moira. I do see what the devs were doing and trying to make her “fun and engaging” and let me tell you, Mercy was fun when the rework first went live. 4 Resurrects total when using her ultimate, 20 seconds of chain beams, free flying, constant health regen and everything. But this was outrageous, Mercy became too good and shot up straight to S tier. Ana and Moira were nothing compared to Mercy. She outshone them in all areas. So here it comes, the Moth Meta as most of you know. The Mercy community told the devs the rework was overpowered and it should be revised but no, the devs went through with it and then came… non-stop bombarding of nerfs till Mercy became almost a troll pick. Valkyrie became a literal joke, resurrect still being a strong ability but now feeling like a chore to use. Mercy was dead, pro players promoted HATE towards Mercy along with the OWL by making a actual skit on Mercy’s reaction to her nerfs and then one of the OWL commentators said “Ding Dong the Witch is dead”. The time of Mercy being fun, had come to an end. The once beloved angel was now a troll pick and a boring hero overall. I watched my once favourite hero go from literally Hero to Zero. I never asked for the rework… and I don’t think many Mercy players even asked for it. Streamers such as XQC and his thousands of followers complained over and over about Mercy and the devs listened to them. It was a sad time for all us Mercy lovers. We recieve hate on the daily for playing her and getting comments such as “Braindead Mercy main” “Boosted bronze Mercy” and those are only a few of the ones I’ve heard. I don’t speak for all Mercy’s but that’s what I hear. I wanna see Mercy be loved again and fun to play but not overpowered like everyone thinks. So here are some changes I’d like to see made.

Resurrect : Ressurect removed from E and is now tied to Valkyrie. Mercy will be given 3 resurrects during Valkyrie’s duration (or 2. this can be tweaked if too strong) Resurrect will have a 0.5 second cast time and will be on a 2 second cooldown after each casting.

Valkyrie : Valkyrie’s duration is decreased from 15 seconds to 10 seconds. Healing while in Valkyrie becomes 65HP/s.

Angel’s Hope : Angel’s Hope is Mercy’s new E ability where it acts as a cleansing heal. Mercy will shoot a bolt of healing out at a single target and will heal them for 55HP Angel’s hope also denies Ana’s anti grenade, Ashe’s burn affect, and zenyatta’s discord orb. Angel’s Hope is on a 12 second cooldown after each use.

Mercy’s healing beam : Mercy’s healing is buffed to 55HP/s

Mercy’s Ultimate Cost : Mercy’s ultimate cost is increased by 10% to balance out the changes to her healing

Those are the changes I would love to see Mercy have, they are not overpowered but neither are they underpowered. The numbers can be tweaked and adjusted depending on how strong everything is once in play. I would like the devs to not just put it on PTR and act like it’s “testing” and then shove it to live. I’d like them to experiment with the changes and see how everything feels with Mercy. I honestly can’t say that I am the best when it comes to balancing games but one thing I can say is, rather than nerfing a hero to the ground, maybe buff other heroes or add new ones. This version of Mercy I have spoken about above has counterplay while also being fun to play. She wouldn’t be insanely meta but she wouldn’t be trash. Ana and Moira both can still be used instead of this Mercy or even along side her.

To wrap this up quickly I wanna just say that I am not here as a Mercy “cultist” but I am here to advocate for a hero I love and deeply care about the state of. Honestly if you can look at her from my perspective and not just a competitive E-sports stand point then maybe you can understand where I’m coming from. After recieving hatred in many of my games from players because I play Mercy, I believe it’s my turn to take my shot at the Overwatch Forums. I don’t expect anyone to even care what I think since most may think I am a “braindead Mercy player” but I am glad that I got this out there and it can now be seen by others. Don’t be afraid to speak out about something you’re passionate about or love. I know other mains like Bastion mains, Torbjorn mains, and Symmetra mains have dealt with their hero in a worse state for a lot longer but I still think that after over a year of Mercy mains advocating for her, we should be heard. Lets all make Overwatch a better game together, not tear it apart because we may disagree. Jesus I’m starting to sound like some kind of mountain guru. Why am I still going…anyway that’s it. Love you all! Enjoy Overwatch for what it is!

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I like Mercy as she is now

I find playing her to be fun, engaging, and effective

I hope no changes are made

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Who wants to tell this guy that mercy is now in a very good spot and completely balanced?

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I think you just did?

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Yeah but the way I phrased my comment allows me to be snide and condescending, and i feel like that right now

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I respect that opinion and I can see why you’d think that :heart:️

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I may have misunderstood but I don’t get this? She only had 2 resurrects when she Valks.

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When she was first changed you could use rez then pop valk and have rez again. Then it was on a 10 second cooldown and you could get 2 more.

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:thinking: two or one? Cause you still need to pop valk again to get the reset? I think my memory sucks tbh.

Also this… I think you guys take things way tok seriously… it was a joke… you know at blizzcon jeff kaplan made a joke about deleting Moira… yet I never saw any Moira mains being upset about it on the forums because they know it’s a joke… imagine if we switched Moira with Mercy in that joke… I can assure you will see a lot of angry Mercy posts about it.

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The intent was a joke of course I know that. The way people took it though was not well. It may be just a joke but it did promote toxicity in a way. Not as much as other things, but it did. Forgot to add. Mercy could use 1 rez then pop valk and have another, then because valk was 20 seconds mercy had another rez in 10 seconds and then another just as valk ended.

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sometimes it really just do be like that I don’t play mercy so take my words with a grain of NaCl those changes sound pretty good but blizz probably won’t change it

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Instead of forcing my opinion and telling you “I think she’s balanced, mercy is in a good spot” as a canned-response, I will say that I like some of the thoughts you’ve given. Namely tying Res to her Ultimate.

While I have my own preferences on what I believe Mercy would need, I think some of my suggestions for a kit like this, without completely changing it, would be the following.

  • I would make Valk 70hp/s, but would compensate by making her beam a single target instead of chain healing. I believe that this way, the need to switch between targets in Valk, will make her more engaging, and less of a spectator with chain beams healing her entire team at one time.
  • To add to Res, I would give Mercy the ability to earn Rez charges through her normal healing / damage boost outside of ulting. For example, 1950hp could earn her 1 rez charge, 3900 for two rez charges, etc. and that rez charge is then used in her Valkyrie exclusively when she ults. I would raise that limit to 4 rez charges, that could be earned at one time, give her 1 free rez charge to start off with when she Ults, and to compensate make it so that each time she dies, she spends a Rez charge which is deducted from her Rez count. So if you have 4 rezzes, and you die, you will then end up with 3, if that makes sense. I would also add LOS, and a 30% damage reduction to her resses, with a 1.25s cast time (around the same length as her voiceline) just to add more counter-play.
  • The cool thing about your Kit is that you are able to use Valk, Res, and still have room for a third ability. I like that. Your Angel’s hope may benefit though from being bumped up to 60hp/s, merely to give it a bit more value than just her healing which is already at 55hp/s. Other than that I would make her “cleanse ability” also work on stuns and CC, including things like Roadhog’s hook, Mei’s freeze, and Rein’s charge (which can still be pinned, but their damage is negated), and poison from venom mine. How this could work is similar to Zarya’s bubble, with of course the added benefit of being able to heal her target a bit and remove any status ailments. I’d personally love to add that if she hits an enemy, that enemy would have a “Pacified!” status effect and do 30% less damage for a short 6 second duration, which can give her some indirect escape against flankers / prevent one-shot kills on herself - granted if she actually hits the target (working kind of like sleep dart in a sense).

Other than that, I think this would be a pretty fun kit to see made live for a Valkyrie-centered toolset, and something I think would solve the problem of her being unengaging and unrewarding to play. :blush:

~Sincerely Yours xoxo,
a Lover of True, Fair, and Fun Balance.
xavvypls :blue_heart:

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I definitely like some of your ideas about making valkyrie single target so it’s less spectator like. The cleanse would be quite strong if you can do all of what you’ve said (basically giving mercy a zarya bubble without the actual bubble) but I can actually see that working. The rez charge idea is definitely a interesting idea and I believe it could work. Trial and error is what the devs should be doing. Not just fully pushing through or just a total failure. Again, thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate you’re constructive thoughts and not just a simple “I think Mercy’s fine”. Really means a lot

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This lady was writing this for two days help her out plz give her some hearts so that devs can see her post more even if you disagreee or agree because in that case everyones opinion on mercy will be shown to the dev as more efferently as well as her post since the devs are blind these days

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I dont think Mercy needs anymore changes, I feel she is truly in a much better spot, she’s not OP, shes not a must pick nor is she a troll pick. She’s got her niche that is appropriate at times. I really hope we dont see anymore changes at this time :slight_smile:

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That’s if you like mercy people. your team won’t love you just for liking the character. it more based on team play her role etc and it might not be a trol pick but its more likly to be a most hated pick since its a team game and its not like just because you guys like the character so its all good. i hate when people pick mercy instead of ana or moria tbh since her team role is so bad all she does is heal but not able to save or protect her self unlike any other healer which ana and moria is more effiencent. Its not based on if you guys like it or not its more based on how great the character can be based om helping the team or how which she fail to acomplish even when she is balance and she is in a good position. So stop saying you like the character since to other its not even when you think it effierent enough. Rein ana tank main she is so annoying to play with since i have to be with her all the to provent her from getting her head cut off by genji.

You people says she is balance she is but we hate her! Why! Why do i have to see her when she complain to her team about dying because she get her head cut off by genji all the time in the back line?? Tbh they say they will add anther support soon anyway so i don’t think we will ever use her anyway. What a nice way to get boosted since her team role is to just stick with good team member that will protect her and just sit there. Trust me you guys say all of you have meaningful time with your team but in our view thats really not true reallt like really if i see mercy as a tank player idk about dpa but idk all i see is ana throwing her e and mercy just heal me for 2 sec and thinks she saved me instead of ana

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I believe as I said she’s in a “ok” spot but in my opinion she’s not fun. I don’t enjoy her anymore so I want to try and make her fun.

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I’ve been having a blast :smiley: Ive gotten play of the game 3 times now with her since this buff! Im finally feeling impactful and meaningful to the team ^.^

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