I love that picking the right healer for right situation gets rewarded.
All supports have their niche and the most skill demanding hero is best at the highest ranks.
For the longest time the game was stale at the support end and the community loves the change of pace.
Keep making skill and flexibility count and keep discouraging onetrick playstyle.
I like to thank the devs for making the game more versatile.
I would say that the off-supports are in a good place. They all have places where they are strong and places where one is better than the other. The main supports, however, have always been a mess. Ever since Ana’s release, it’s been like a pendulum. Either Mercy is a near-must pick, or Ana is a near-must pick. Ana was a must-pick in S3 with Triple Tank, and then after Mercy’s rework, she took the mantle of must-pick support. Now, Ana is back at that near-must pick status.
What we need now is to buff Mercy just a bit and give Moira some utility so she brings more to the table. Once they do that, then I think they will be in a good spot.
Moira is already amazing, especially in control maps.
I’d thank them for making the support category more versatile if Mercy at the moment was not mathematically a throw pick compared to the other supports and what they can bring.
I’ll actually provide a table of just how much more the other supports bring than Mercy does.
Due to this imbalance I humbly would say that supports are in no capacity balanced.
Evidence:
All percentages is showing HOW MUCH THE HERO TO THE LEFT (row) DOES COMPARED TO MERCY. Areas that the opposing hero does MORE than Mercy will be marked by a (+) and areas the opposing hero does LESS than Mercy will be marked by a (-).
Eg: Moira does 1395% MORE ELIMINATIONS THAN MERCY. (Yes, you read that right! ONE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY FIVE!)
HERO NAME------ ELIMS ----- OBJECTIVE ELIMS ----- DAMAGE% ----- HEALING%
Moira ---------------(+) 1395%----(+) 1406%---------------(+) 1455%-------(+) 5.5%
Zenyatta -----------(+) 1027%----(+) 871%-----------------(+) 2108%-------(-) 53%
Bridgette^1 -------(+) 1072%----(+) 931%-----------------(+) 1379%-------(-) 45%
Lucio^2 -------------(+) 940%------(+) 949%-----------------(+) 1438%-------(-) 19%
Ana -----------------(+) 717%------(+) 608%-----------------(+) 954%---------(-) 16.5%
^1 [If you look into the Bridgette vs. Mercy analysis below, you actually can see mathematical backing for the concept that Bridgette contributes more to “team sustain” than Mercy through her armor generation and healing.]
^2 [Lucio may offer “only” 19% less healing than Mercy. But this isn’t taking into account his shield barrier in any capacity. I couldn’t find average damage shielded by Lucio so I left this out because I wanted to keep this as mathematically relevant as possible. I’m quite sure it’s non-trivial.]
Note: Table does NOT account for armor, shield, healing increase or other utility
I’ll cite my own thread where I did the math.
Also the support category isn’t balanced even based upon pickrates where Ana is clearly reaching a nearly 100% pickrate.
When a hero has a nearly 100% pickrate across many ranks, we don’t have balance.
You are insane if you think Mercy is a throw pick to be honest.
Stats of this week proves enough.
mind = blown
/s
Mercy is more of a throw pick, though? At least in high ranks. We are essentially back to a S3 situation where Ana is a near-must pick in high ranks and Mercy is a throw pick in those same ranks. The main difference for Mercy is that the people that mained or one-tricked her in S3 still found her fun despite her standings compared to the other main support at the time. For the most part. Now, there are quite a few vocal forum goers here that are saying that Mercy is no longer fun. It’s not the entire Mercy community, but I’d say it’s enough to raise some alarm since you want the people playing the hero to enjoy playing that hero. At this point, she is mainly picked if you are running Pharmercy to counter GOATS or to pocket some other DPS. She can’t really keep up with all the tanks running around. She couldn’t even keep up with three tanks back when she had 60hps. Ana was still the better pick for that kind of comp back then.
I was suggesting giving her some utility mainly because of the complaints of my duo partner who plays much more support than I do. Their biggest complaint about Moira was that she felt too 1-dimensional because she was either healing or damaging whereas the other healers have some kind of utility on top of their healing. That may just be down to personal preference and she is fine (I’ll probably just take your word for it), but I figured it was still worth suggesting to see what others thought!
At the highest rank of the game (which only 1% of the player base is ) Mercy has 2% win rate more than Ana this week.
I think Ana is maybe a bit overtuned in terms of utility but because her skill ceiling is unlimited like Widowmaker.
so what are mercy and Moira’s niche? and why aren’t they used at all at gm level?
Who told you Mercy was a throw pick in higher ranks? They lied to you. I placed 4.3 last season on this account and my main account is 4.2 (Blade#13505)
Mercy is still the best healer for dive, a comp that’s still very much ran in GM. She has a purpose and fits certain team comps. Rez is still very good. She’s still insanely mobile. She still regens health after not taking damage for a mere second. She still has damage boost and a consistent stream of heals that happens to go through shields (Ana or Moira can’t relate), and her Q is a ‘’Get out of jail’’ card… Mercy is NOT a throw pick. She’s way more viable in gm now than she was with mass rez. I can testify. And before you try and say I don’t play mercy, #Blade13505.
Mercy is my most played hero. ![:slight_smile:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=5" ":slight_smile:")
Mercy has a healthy winrate and pickrate this season in GM according to overbuff. I also see her played often in my games. Moira offers no utility and has short ranged heals… meta doesn’t suit her.
Not for Mercy players.
overall, I think its like 12%/3.3%/1.2% pickrates
I don’t think that’s super healthy
I agree with op kinda, all the main healers should all be useful and have equal pickrate
this isn’t it
Wow, useful statistics.
Now if you were to compare the average “heroes resurrected”, you’d probably find that Mercy is FAR ahead in this category.
Seriously. “Mercy is a mathematical troll pick because Moira does 1000% more damage” Lol.