Just reading the conversations here is…interesting.
My stances are as follows:
Mercy is an easy hero to pick up but there are nuances and things you need to do to master her. You can tell a bad Mercy vs. a good one, and a good one vs. a very good one
Mercy’s healing isn’t too high considering it’s single-target outside of her ultimate. I think it’s fine where it’s at
Mercy’s damage boost isn’t a breaking point IMO, it helps her be viable, otherwise her existence would easily become moot due to Zenyatta’s Discord doing what she does better (since it’s applicable to EVERYONE, not just the boosted target) and any other healer since they’re pretty much on par with her
But importantly:
She is not doing too much. She is not getting too much value for her efforts. She isn’t impeding on another support’s meta. She isn’t overpowered and isn’t swaying the tides of fights.
@ OP: Given that skill is an arbitrary word and there’s too many definitions/aspects that can constitute as skill, you haven’t actually defined what you consider skill. What are you hoping to add more skill into? Her getting value? That’s not skill, you’re hindering the rewards. Are you looking for more skill in terms of managing cooldowns, balancing targets? Requiring better positioning? Mechanical aim? What is it that you’re looking to increase?
What exactly do your proposed nerfs accomplish in terms of “requiring skill”? Because if you’re going to nerf a hero, requiring additional effort to get value isn’t necessarily skill. That’s what happens with underpowered heroes in general - they require additional effort to get value.
I agree with what you are saying for the most part, if you look at Mercy in mid to low SR. The issue is her gameplay at mid to high SR, imo. What you describe as ‘nuances’ on the hero, and being able to tell a good vs bad one…that is all out the window in high SR. You are encouraged to play her in the ‘bad’ braindead way at high SR. A 1 hour Mercy can get the same value as a 1000 hour Mercy in GM. That is a problem with the hero.
In lower SR, you notice the difference more, because your main support can’t solo-heal a team, and because your DPS are not as technically skillful as in GM, to where they become overbearing. So in lower SR, Mercy players do use more nuances of her kit, and you can see the difference between a good and bad Mercy.
So, in higher SR, Mercy absolutely is getting too much value for her efforts. There would be zero reason to pick, say, Zen (as the other damage boost support) over Mercy 99% of the time. He is much harder to play and get value out of, works in fewer comps, and has much less survivibility. He’s much more ‘high risk, low reward’ as compared (again, in higher SR) to a Mercy’s ‘low risk, high reward’. She does sway the fights simply by existing and her synergy with the DPS.
If you just add more thoughtful mechanics to damage boost, EeveeA suggested something like an overheat, which would affect lower SR Mercy players minimally but force higher SR players to play her thoughtfully again, using the full impact of her kit and not just hard pocketting, I think it would be helpful for the hero and balance of the game tremendously.
My way to nerf Mercy is removing Super-Jump. This will automatic make Winston, Dva, Genji, Tracer and Sombra hard-counter her again and she will be punished a lot more for bad “Pos”
What other support works well with Pharah, Ashe or Echo? Mercy isn’t picked with them because she’s OP with those heroes. She’s picked because she’s the only support that has any real synergy with them.
This is just wrong. Echo and Pharah have never been nerfed in connection with Mercy and Ashe was changed so her weapon acts the same as literally every other DPS when it’s damage boosted. No hero has ever been nerfed ‘because of mercy’.
Yes, Aaron, nerf mercy. Not the hero with a capital ‘M’, but rather the basic concept of human kindness, compassion, and sympathy towards the downtrodden.
If you and your team cant deal with a mercy and her boosting,Thats a YOU and whatever team you’re on’s problem…In the low ranks players wont even contest you when you have the high ground let alone switch to hitscan to handle Mercy Phara…Players in low SR are completely confused on how to deal with this situation.
ignore most of these people… these are all mercy mains who need a broken hero to be viable in any situation probably took a break when they removed mass rez and thought hiding and pressing q after their team died takes skill
People dont realise the skill ceiling on Mercy. Please look up Aquaboost on Youtube and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Her ult is relatively weak and her healing compensates for hero damage
she’s still broken her shift cooldown is insane she’s pretty unkillable and hard to hit when paired with any dps her healing is good and damage boost is op her kit generally is no skill but if you want to go into boosts ig that can raise the skill ceiling but for the most part nobody uses those types of abilities other than super jump HHHHHHH
i think she has been untouched for a while, cant remember the last time she was changed. wasnt it the 50 to 55 healing buff. cant remember.
i wouldnt be surprised if she gets nerfed someday tho i think baptiste or ana would get nerfed first. or if they have already. kind of behind on nerfs for supports