Let’s face it. Mercy got the short end of the stick and She really isn’t what she used to be , but we can’t deny that Mercy had her moments. She was a pretty solid pick for a good chunk of the game, and when blizzard first buffed(nerfed?) her she was really strong with her quick rezes.
I would like some honest answers from mercy mains… (or anyone willing to share their opinion on the matter really)
No offence, but is it bad to just switch and move on? Isn’t that what every OW player should do? Ana’s great atm. Brig was solid and is still not a bad pick.
Back then, wouldn’t it be a good time to speak out and at least try to prevent this from happening? Forgive my ignorance, but I didn’t see too many people defending mercy.
This is coming from someone who plays mercy btw. Do you feel like the real problem with mercy (and supports in general) is her reliance on her teammates? How, in your opinion, can we increase the outplay potential of supports without making them dps that heal?
yes, everyone should be able to flex, but everyone also is allowed to have one hero they enjoy the most and want to play. It’s not fair to just say “get over it and play someone else”
we did… for a year and ever since the rework hit. It has been one of the most talked about things on the forums but it’s done nothing to help Mercy.
she’s just so outshined in every aspect by every other support. Her one ability that gives her impact is Rez, which is on a strict CD and not usually worth it. Mercy rn is only as strong as her team allows her to be. And her Valk is so unegaging because it eliminates everything in her kit that gives her a skill floor/ ceiling. You’re not rewarded for being a good and veteran Ed mercy.
Hii! I have just over 200 hours so I think I’m qualified to answer
I personally have, but I want Mercy to be good. I have the most fun playing her. I’m probably just bad, but I want her to be effective (I would feel bad if I let my team down).
You got me there. There were a small portion of Mercy players that were defending her and wanted her to be great. I thought the rework was a great idea, and when it ended up being too powerful, I wanted it nerfed. I really just think they took it the wrong direction, but they are doing a really good job of bringing her back. The valk buffs are amazing!
I think her reliance on teammates is a huge problem with her kit. I personally want to buff her movement (I’ve advocated for giving her a vertical movement ability like Pharah’s boost), as that would give her more room to either escape danger if her teammates aren’t there or catch up with her teammates if she falls behind.
She does have her super jump, but that can be really inconsistent and buggy (understandable given that it’s a bug).
I think giving her that extra movement would allow for some really cool outplay maneuvers and make her less of a sitting duck if she’s alone.
Edit: I do think most of Mercy’s problems lie in her bugs. They really inhibit the player from functioning the way they want to, which can end up killing you no matter how good you are.
I’m a tank and sup flex, I play most of the tank/sup roster, particularly Rein. I don’t sit on my hands worrying about Mercy. She’s great overall also, I like her very much, among my favorites heroes, I just believe she has significant design issues.
I’m sorry, defend what from what? Defend Mass Res from rework? Defende Valkyrie from nerfs? Defend nerfed Valkyrie from even more nerfs? Defend even more nerfed Valkyrie from even more nerfs?
I couldn’t defend mass ress because I didn’t play the game back then, nor do I defend it now. Valkyrie needed nerfs for obvious reasons. She’s just fine-ish balance wise I think.
That can be bothersome but it’s the conceit of her kit. I’m fine with that. It could be said that she is a bit overly-reliant, apart from her pistol, everything else cannot the valuable without teammates, but I’ll go with that as a hero concept.
My main issue relates with Valkyrie’s design and how it ruins Mercy’s skill gap.
I think Mercy is pretty okay compared to the other supports (minus ana). I do agree, however, that how well you perform can be extremely limited. There are times where I feel I’ve done all I reasonably can as mercy. Perhaps that says something about my skill level, but I think Mercy is definitely a part of it. There’s little room for skill expression outside of her movement.
I have like 800 hours on her or something, used to be a one trick up until like season 5 and really only started playing her again once the rework hit. I’m actually usually on the opposite side of arguments with most forum Mercy players so I’ll weigh in.
It isn’t. Flexing should be preferable. I actually found I enjoy the game more when I play different heroes every game. But, and this is just my guess, for some Mercy has a very unique play style compared to anyone else in the game, so perhaps it’s the only type of style they like. Personally, I don’t think you should be playing a game like OW if that’s the case, but to each their own.
They definitely did. You just missed it. People were complaining as soon as she got her rework, even when Mercy was OP and required in every game. Again, I think it’s about the play style more than the balance.
Mercy has always relied on her teammates. You could have the number 1 Mercy on the world and if your team isn’t showing up, then you probably lose anyway. It’s just that her job as team enabler has never been more exposed than it is now. I think Mercy works fine as is, even though some think she’s more sidekick than hero. I like to think of her as more the unsung hero, helping others to reach their fullest potential.
The problem with Mercy is just that the fanbase will always be divided now. There will always be those who want big rez Mercy and always be those who want Valkyrie Mercy. There will be those who prefer her to be the jack of all trades able to fit with any team comp and those, like myself, that prefer her as is with her own specific strength and weaknesses in team comps (for example, you don’t want her in a tank heavy comp, but in a dps heavy comp she shines.)
The problem is, on paper, Mercy is balanced. It’s just that people have different ideas of what makes her fun, so no one will ever agree again lol.
I typically don’t enjoy FPS games but Mercy does not play like a typical FPS hero. Her playstyle is the sole reason that I got into playing Overwatch, and enjoyable team-play alone was not enough to keep me playing Overwatch after she got boring to play (I have not played the game since January of 2018). I see no reason why I should pick up another hero that I don’t enjoy playing. And I know people don’t like one-tricks but I did not play competitive, only quickplay (apart from placement games in 3 seasons).
My first complaint about Mercy being boring is from November 2017 (when she was a must-pick), some almost 14 months ago (this is documented on the old forums). Back then it was a hot topic and there were already a lot of complaints about the rework, not only for people who thought she was overpowered but also from people who thought her new kit was dreadfully boring.
It never bothered me that my role was to support my team. I enjoyed the swoosh swoosh style of mobility, the beam juggling, and looking around to predict enemy movements and pre-empting flanking movements etc. Mercy’s playstyle made it very enjoyable, until they introduced an ultimate that does most things for you for over 10% of your total playtime, and they gave her concrete shoes whenever she tries to use her ability. Anything that prevents me from the swoosh swoosh is horrible and does not belong in Mercy’s kit.
That’s the biggest problem is you can work your absolute hardest on Mercy and you aren’t rewarded for it.
You’re completely tied to how good your team is.
Obviously I don’t mean in the sense of carrying, but every hero should have a chance to change the trajectory of the fight.
Mainly because the questions revolve around people who do play her and have experience in her.
There’s thousands of posts where you can voice your opinion, or even make a post yourself.
OP isn’t trying to be exclusive, it’s simply a question aimed at Mercy players
I think that my opinion of supports can best be described by how it feels to play the engineer in tf2.
Imagine you find a team without an engineer. You pick engineer, suddenly the entire game is your sandbox. You are the one who decides where frontlines are defined, you are the one healing your entire team, you are the one changing the course of every single fight with your constantly active teleporter. You are, without a doubt, the core of your team and the most impactful player.
Now imagine you find a team with three engineers, and you pick engineer. Suddenly everything rails against you. Everyone is playing classes to counter you, your personal impact feels greatly diminished, you get less decision making to do and you’re far too safe until suddenly your entire setup gets steamrolled without you having any power to stop it.
The issue with supports in OW isn’t their reliance on their team mates, it’s the lack of individual impact and feeling of agency you get when the game is setup like it is. I think if there were less supports needed per team, but the supports were even more powerful than they are currently at operating alone, then people would be dying to play Mercy again. She SHOULD feel impactful and like the core of her team, but she doesn’t because she’s no more impactful nor more of the core of her team than the other two supports, she sucks when playing solo and her gameplay without that feeling of impact is worse now that they’ve removed her play-making mass res.
It is generally a good idea to not one trick in Overwatch. However… if you can point me to the other support who can fly, I’m all ears. Mercy has a very distinct play style that no other hero has… formerly enjoying it and wanting to enjoy it again isn’t weird.
I absolutely did speak out about it. So did a lot of other people. We all generally got ignored.
No. I wrote out a fairly substantial post with my issues with current Mercy. It was… long. I’ll link it so this post doesn’t get huge. Why Mercy needs another rework
Well, Brig is about to be in the same position in terms of how much impact it feels you’re providing and while yes, switching is something that’s part of the game skill set, sometimes you want to play a certain character, and if that characters feels awful to play, that tends to default to not wanting to play at all. Plus, there’s the people who don’t handle the twitch reflexes required for Ana and Brig all that well due to health concerns and are better able to play via Mercy. At this point there’s a whole list of reasons as to why being told to “Just switch and move on” feels dismissive of player concerns. To say nothing of the loss aversion that’s happened as a result of all the nerfs.
Yes, it’s bad. We play heroes because we find them fun and we’re attached to their themes and play style. The fact that Mercy was drastically changed means we’ve lost her as a character. It’s not all about balance. Some of it is about Mercy not being Mercy anymore.
Their were tens of thousands of posts saying what was wrong with the Mercy rework and their are still post created today, over a year later, discussing why Mercy is broken.
I like that she has some dependency on other teammates as it works well with her kit. I dislike that her whole character hinges on that dependency. To make a large impact with her at the moment the player has to use their pistol and murder people in Valkyrie. She used to have a large impact on the game as a healer with a unique ability. She needs that type of play to be restored and not be a side kick or substitute DPS.
I’m not a big fan. I liked playing Mercy, she was fun. Now i’ve switched to Moira and Birgette and heal more than Mercy can do with her 50hps as well as often claiming Gold elims
I honestly miss 60hps and mass res on ULT. I feel like Mercy should work like how Moira does, she should have to balance healing/damage boosting output with her res pool. They should cut mass ress off at 3x to prevent the “hurry up and die” plays with her. Or, if she chooses to mass res 3x then she won’t be able to res for awhile again because she must fill her res pool.
I feel like some balance between Valk ULT and Res on a pool type mechanic is the right way to go. I allows for good Mercy to be measured and rewarded properly while conversely a bad Mercy would be easy to compare to a good one. Valk lets her charge her res pool faster, allowing her to get those big res plays on point but ONLY IF her res pool is max. It also allows a good enemy team to deny/mitigate Mercy gaining res pool; she isn’t simply granted res for being fielded
IMO Granting a Mercy res for being fielded and then punishing her severely if she uses it poorly is wrong.
It should be that the Mercy must earn the res by using healing and damage boosting output to fill her res pool, to a maximum of three. I know some of you will say “That sounds like an ULT, Healbus” and i’m aware of that but hey considering it’s already on a 30 sec cooldown and not on a pool mechanic, why would moving to a pool type mechanic similar to Moira’s hurt anything?
I was thinking this makes so the Mercy will throw up trash stats if her team is playing very well, not taking much damage or getting picked, but I suppose as long as they balance damage boost with heals in terms of pool charging, I think it would work okay
Personally, I don’t mind switching. However, that doesn’t mean that a hero should be left in a bad state if they are in a bad state. I don’t think she’s unplayable, but her hps are absolute trash.
And no, I don’t think that having to rely on your team is a problem for any support. It just comes with the territory, regardless of the game you’re playing. Support characters are usually the most vulnerable players on a team. So when it comes to Mercy and outplaying the enemy, she’s designed to do it with her movement, not brute force. And imo, that’s okay.
As a support main and mercy player since launch, I can tell you that nowadays I only pick Mercy when I want a relaxing match with no aiming stress involved. I also pick her for specific 2cp maps when we’re defending first point because getting a single cheeky rez off can really help
I don’t pick her for her healing prowess though as we all know it’s very mediocre with zero burst healing. I don’t pick her for killing potential because her pistol is underwhelming too. I just pick her when I wanna feel that playstyle that only comes with her kit, the fly around everywhere to be fast evasive, and heal people with zero mechanical sweaty palm skill needed
I dunno if that answered your question or not, but if we need a serious healer then I go Ana or Moira 100% of course
For some of us this isn’t the first character that’s gotten the short end of the stick in one way or another. I started Overwatch playing as three different support heroes: Ana, Lucio, and Mercy. At this time you had a total of four supports that healed so I was literally playing 75% of the support cast only to have them all get changed on me.
Ana got a massive nerf because she was dominating at the top of the ladder in competitive which made her completely non-viable at the mid to bottom where I personally played (Before the nerf she was actually my lowest winrate support).
Lucio had his aura massively changed because players were being passive in competitive play and that change significantly reduced my enjoyment playing the character as it was a royal pain to keep people in the circle as QP teammates are at times like a herd of cats.
Mercy then got hit with a rework because of competitive players hiding that changed what I liked about the character.
The changes didn’t really have a great record balance wise. Lucio remained a must pick until Mercy’s rework at the top. Ana fell out of the meta for a year + at most skill levels. Mercy became a must pick for an extended period of time.
How many times is one supposed to adapt in a product that one has paid for when those designing it clearly are struggling to hit good results?
(Ana is currently really hit and miss and lower skill levels and has the lowest winrate of the supports at most skill levels.)
#2.
Some of us have been relatively consistent in our feedback on the changes.
Here’s me from Sept 2nd, 2017 while the Mercy Rework was originally on the PTR:
#3
I don’t think supports relying on teammates is a problem on it’s own.
As a support I help my team out and my team helps me out. I don’t need to always massively carry or outplay the other team. I’m perfectly happy doing small things to tap the scale in my favor with the occasional big moment mixed in. It was fun in TF2 as Medic and it was fun in Overwatch as Mercy before they changed it.
That was one of my favorite games as Mercy. I didn’t have a huge rez in it or a big moment where I slaughtered the whole team but I did lots of little things and a few medium ones that tipped the scales.
If you wanted to increase the outplay potential of supports you could make healing harder but more powerful or add utility (buff, cc (yuck), debuff, ect).
For example, Team Fortress 2 has a medigun called the Vaccinator.
If you had it on the correct resistance to the incoming damage it would block 10% of the damage of that type.
![:frowning:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/frowning.png?v=6" ":frowning:")
, but we can’t deny that Mercy had her moments. She was a pretty solid pick for a good chunk of the game, and when blizzard first buffed(nerfed?) her she was really strong with her quick rezes.
