Eailer today we got an update on the balancing on the supports:
I wanted to mostly address the Mercy changes since she’s the “hot topic” right now but I thought I might as well address the other supports since I am a support player and play most of the characters listed. Well let’s get to it then!
Ana
I personally like this change. I don’t think it will be a MASSIVE buff to her but I think it will definitely help because it can be good to boost someone low on HP without having to worry about healing them up first. Like I said, I don’t think it will be a huge buff because it doesn’t fix Ana consistency problem but it’s a good buff regardless so I’ll take it.
Brigette
I mean… eh. It’s another second on her sheildbash. I honestly don’t see this changing people’s opinion on Brigette maybe it will make her less annoying but she still has her 600hp sheild, her self sustain and she’s still a beast in 1v1s so I don’t really see this harming her too much.
Lucio
Honestly, not the buff I was expecting but it’s still much appreciated. I was expecting the aura to be increased but I didn’t think they would increase the power of the shields. To me I feel what was killing Lucio was when the new ultimate changes came a while back (the one that cancles ults while they are being cast). Yeah the shields power is better but what’s the point when Lucio has trouble getting the ult off. In the middle of a fight it’s easy for Lucio to get flashbanged/sheild bashed/hacked/EMP and the list goes on and the sad part is that it can sometimes be by accident. I don’t have extensive hours on Lucio so maybe I don’t see the full picture of these changes and while I think they will help I think Lucio should get the cast time reduced while their experimenting with these buffs.
Moira
Can we even call this a buff? I agree Moira doesn’t need anything drastic changed about her because since launch she’s been probably one of the more we’ll balanced characters. I persoanlly don’t care for this and would rather they revert her bug so she can heal through shields agian.
Mercy
And lastly…Mercy. Oh boy…
First off let me say that this nerf is both a yes and no for me. I think it’s a step in the right direction because healing in the game lately has been incredibly powerful so it makes sense to tone down Mercy’s because she was filling roles that Ana or Moira should have been filling. I think this is a good change to help with the healer meta but it doesn’t address what is really wrong with her in my opinion. Mercy’s problems stem from her Valk and her Res which no one likes playing with or against. Moth is still a thing and it’s still hard for people to kill Mercy while she’s ulting because of how she’s able to zip around the map from long distances. Res is also unfun because it undoes a first pick that would otherwise help a push and win a teamfight. In my opinion they should be looking at changing those abilities. Make res earnable, similar to how Torb earns his armor make res be something the player earns so it’s still powerful and it doesn’t undo picks at the start of a match so they now have more value to them. Change Valk to be 10 or 12 seconds and to repeat an idea EeveeA had:
- Remove chained beams, Make healing / Damage beams do double from base values
She can earn and cast res faster and it makes Valk more interesting because you need to switch between targets and not just floating in the skybox healing everyone without really thinking.
All in all the nerf is ok, it’s not the end of the world and I think it’s the right thing to do because of this healer meta we’ve been having but Mercy NEEDS to have her res and ult changed if they truely what to make her more balanced. To shed some light on this situation, Mercy has been nerfed 10 times and she’s still not balanced.
What are your opinions on the support changes? Do you like them, on the fence, or should Blizz go back to the drawing board?