Nerf mercy Aaron

General Discussion
22

I just dont get how anyone could complain about any Support that isnt Baptiste.

1 Like
23

? ummm have you seen the rest of the support healing? she has one of the worst heal per second out of the support role. do your research before crying about a hero that’s so easily counterable

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24

Because damage boost is just as broken.

25

In a way it really is not.

Ever since Ashe lost -5 dmg going from 80 → 75 dmg no character can 1HKO from headshot on say 200hp heroes with dmg bst assist. The ones that can never needed dmg bst.

Many of the other 2HKO and 3HKO break points are not even assisted by Mercy either. If you have a completely isolated 2v1 with mercy damage boosting she doesn’t help any character kill faster. Except reinhardt. His hammer damage is the only 3HKO turned 2HKO from dmg bst. No one likes pairing rein + mercy.

Given how game loves burst damage the reduction of break points to cross over into 2HKO or 1HKOs its what’s important. Any other advantage is sort of unimportant.

It even shows in top level play too. Mercy was 2nd most picked support in season 26 after zen. Ashe loses -5 dmg. Hammond gets knockback nerfs. Mercy plummets in her abnormal pick rate. She’s still only largely seen as being beneficial to units like Echo/Pharah due to synergy with flight.

3 Likes
26

You skill elitists should just stop playing…

Because apparently everything needs to cater to you.

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27

Can we all just agree that we should just play another game, like…Metal Gear Solid, instead of bickering amongst ourselves?

Think of the children, you heathens.

1 Like
28

How about No.

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29

Not that I endorse being toxic, but maybe the reason mercy players tend to be toxic is because the vast majority of posts about mercy tend to flame mercy players? Also, some have some subtext in them about mercy players that’s even worse.

Also, most posts on her that involve asking for nerfs(like this one) aren’t well made. Why does she need nerfs? Because someone thinks she’s easy to play? Why does that justify nerfs? Why does she need nerfs as severe as this?

2 Likes
30

This quote says it all

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31

Well apparently to a majority of the Forums, statistics from Overbuff always mean a hero is broken, besides Lucio or Ana, i’d say Mercy is the most balanced out of all supports.

I don’t think she needs a nerf, she just needs a Staff rework as of now to focus away from pocketing and more juggling so it’s actually engaging to play besides pocketing a DPS and hope you don’t die while rezzing, but as of now, she isn’t overpowered or causing problems lately.

Most healers can heal Tanks way faster than Mercy can, Mercy takes 7-11 seconds to fully heal a Tank, 4-5 seconds for a DPS or Support. Her healing is only good in DPS compositions, which is now impossible under Role Queue, which the developers said they are balancing around 2-2-2 composition, she needs changes, but not nerfs.

2 Likes
32

Agreed. Make mercy a training bot and the universe will be balanced.

33

I’m not a fan of mercy, but this is ridiculous. She is better to have in meta than bap or brig.

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34

If you are nerfing things based on value = ease of use then we are going to have to rework the game.

35

Did a moth pistol you?

3 Likes
36

This is the current predicament we are in; the game is becoming a nightmare to balance around Mercy. Already any balance changes, or any new hero released, has to have a balance check against Mercy’s damage boost threshold, and it is still starting to spiral. This idea of nerfing DPS to DPS that Mercy is viable with is just forcing Mercy pocketting even more.

The idea is not to flat nerf damage boost IMO. The idea is to rework how it works to stop the current iteration of hard pocketting, which is bad for the health of the game. Forgetting that it promotes a lot of toxicity in game -I’ve literally had people leave or throw games before for not going Mercy to pocket, I’ve been screamed at in comms, I’ve been called every slur in the book over it-, it rewards the worst playstyle with her kit.

Mercy has a fun and engaging kit. If you’re looking to climb -and certainly if you’re in high SR already-, you do not use that kit. You don’t play Mercy as intended; as this combat medic GA’ing around healing and damage boosting your team. The way to player her in high SR -the viable way- is to park it behind your DPS hero, edge around a corner (reminiscent of Mass Rez Mercy…) and right click them. You’re literally not even able to see the action. This is the braindead Mercy gameplay people talk about when they say she’s a hero pick for dummies. Can she be played in a skillful and interesting way? Yeah, but that is high risk low reward. If you want to climb with her, you are much better off playing the much easier low risk high reward playstyle. Taking all those extra risks gives you nothing extra. You’re increasing your chances of getting killed, and lowering your changes of getting picks by not pocketting -which is what she is strongest at, right now-. In lower SR, Mercy players sort of have to split their focus a little bit…but that’s simply not true in higher SR. She’s probably the only hero in the game who, the higher in SR you go, the less skillful the play of the hero needs to become.

Mercy has moderate healing. It’s a medium range with forgiving fall off and LOS checks, and requires no mechanical skill to use. Her mobility and survivibility are second to none of the supports…so, of the ‘off healers’, she does an average amount of healing by comparison but she is harder to kill, which is the pro to take her (as a healer) over more readily killed supports, like Zen. You have to look at a much broader picture than ‘HPS’.

I’m tired of Mercy players complaining that Valk does not feel impactful. Valk is a good ult. It’s not a defensive ult, it’s a sustain ult. Mercy charges Valk considerably faster than the defensive ults, and it is therefore useful to use as a ‘tempo ult’. Will it help against an enemy ult push? Yeah, of course it would. Will it definitely save everyone? No, positioning and gameplay help with that as well. It is smart to push when your Mercy is Valking because it’s great extra sustain for a strong period of time, just like it’s stupid to push against a Valking Mercy for the same reason. It’s a good ult.

Mercy is too good at exploiting heros that may already be in need of balance changes. She holds other heros balance hostage; Pharah on her own is a mediocre hero right now. If Mercy didn’t exist, Pharah would probably get buffed. But Mercy does exist, so she has to be useless, because if you buff a Pharah to feel more reliably strong without a Mercy…well, just +1 a Mercy onto that, and she’d become a nightmare.

When viewed in a vacuum, Mercy is reasonably balanced. But you can’t look at balance that way, particularly the support role. The support roster is all about synergies, and almost every support has been nerfed before, or reworked, specifically because they synergize too will with one or more other heros. This is where Mercy is right now. I can’t see how Blizzard doesn’t notice it and won’t work on correcting it…unless they are waiting for OW2.

OW2 will see balance changes for most likely the entire cast of heros. Obvious things, like 1 tank, means the tanks will all be buffed and means that things like double shields will no longer be possible. No double shields means snipers become stronger. Snipers becoming stronger means inherently Mercy becomes stronger. Having one less player on your team means your other healer can keep up with heals better, enabling Mercy to hard pocket even more, and tanks being so incredibly important means 30s Rez for your tank is a no-brainer…that’s just a tiny facet of how the even miniscule amount of knowledge we have about OW2 boils down to just Mercy. So I imagine Mercy is going to have significant changes likely already in place for OW2, we just haven’t been told. And as far as balancing right now goes…the OW1 devs are also the OW2 devs. They’re on a time crunch to get this game out ASAP -we’re likely ~1 year out from it. From Blizzard’s perspective…it doesn’t make much sense to use resources, time, and money to balance something people are grumbling about in OW1 when they assume it’s fixed in OW2 unless they have to. They’d rather just slap a bandaid on it and hope it fixes the problem (the hitscan nerf), and try to keep the game running on autopilot.

2 Likes
37

ana is quite ‘op’ but you actually need to be good at the game to use the kit

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38

This is something people don’t recognize as well. I’ve played in just about every SR; I’m a GM support player though. I personally think Ana does need a tiny nerf to her nade, (and Bap needs a slightly bigger nerf, tbh), but think about it. Ana needs much more technical skill than Mercy does. Mercy players can argue till they are blue in the face, but that’s a fact. And technical skill is something that can carry you a long way in this game.

In lower SR you still see a lot of players take Ana. She’s a good hero, and you’re told constantly by GM and streamers that you need an Ana. Fine…but they don’t have the ability of a high SR player. You’re not making those wild plays, and your aim is nowhere near as good. So you are healing much less. Your other support needs to help make up for that healing, particularly because in lower SR players take a lot more damage from nonsense they could dodge with good positioning and wall-checks.

This is where the Mercy difference comes into play. In lower SR, you see Mercy being played closer to how she was intended, because she has to. Your team is all dying; you have to ferry around healing them up and splitting your attention. Do you damage boost your Ashe also? Sure, when you’ve got a second. But you’ve got to keep your Rein up as well, and some of that duty falls on you as the Mercy, because your Ana’s mechanical skill isn’t up to snuff to do it all alone. You, as the Mercy player, are using a lot more of her kit’s intricacies. You’re playing a high risk, high reward style.

The higher in SR you go, the more skilled your teammates get also. They can avoid a lot of pointless damage, and your Ana (or even Bap) can keep the other players alive just fine because they’re able to aim and use their kit to its fullest. As an Ana player goes up in SR, they need to be able to eke more and more out of Ana’s kit with the players technical ability. This let’s Mercy focus on…hard pocketting. On putting 90% of her kit and gameplay to the side to just sit behind someone right-mousing.

This is the complaint; the higher in SR you go, the more braindead Mercy gameplay is the correct way to play. Can you still zip around like in lower SR and do multiple tasks? Well, yeah, but you’re putting yourself at high risk for lower reward. You don’t need to do that, and in fact you’re denying the most valuable part of your kit at higher SR, damage boost, meaning you’re lowering your chances of winning. So, in higher SR, low risk high reward becomes the way to go. The ‘braindead’ way of playing is the way to viably climb as Mercy in high SR.

This is the biggest complaint I see people having, particularly in high SR. I think if damage boost was fundamentally reworked, Mercy players at medium to lower SR would be relatively unaffected…and at higher SR you would see players have to engage with more of her kit. And there is precedent for this; Lucio was in the same scenario ~4 years ago, and got a rework for it. It barely affected lower SR Lucio players, but higher SR Lucio players were forced to use more of his kit, and he became a lot more fun to play, and the really good players were able to shine and rise above the heal bot players. Mercy needs this exact treatment.

4 Likes
39

Is there some form of drugs resereved only to mercy players? What are you smoking thinking mercy has bad healing.

2 Likes
40

mercy : 11433
bap : 11471
ana : 10266

you blind? or you just angry without doing research yourself? hypocrisy much?

41

Mercy’s healing is not bad. You need to look at more than just HPS. A hero like Bastion has insane DPS, but he’s seldom a good pick. It’s a lot more than that. Mercy’s mobility and survivibility is second to none in the support roster, and Rez is intended to help make up for any perceived shortcomings of her HPS. So, because she can survive a fight well, and because she can heal from a spot of relative safety with minimal technical skill on her part, that is the viability added to her heals.

A support is not just about flat HPS in any way whatsoever.