I’d have to graph it out on a time series graph, but TBH for a lot of those. +30% attack speed is easier to heal against than +30% burst damage.
with the amount you post
So what if I make 8 posts in a short amount of time around the same topic, and 5 of them get put into the game a month or so later?
Also raw volume of posts doesn’t really matter if the idea is unique and unintuitive enough.
So Kiriko ult with no cooldown.
So Kiriko ult with no cooldown.
Lol sure, in the same way that Mercy current has an Ana Ult with no cooldown.
Attack speed buffs still decrease TTK. Its still a damage boost, but with extra steps.
It’d also just make Mercy a pocket bot for tanks, specifically Ramattra and Reinhardt, and make her an even better pairing with heroes she already pockets. Imagine a Pharah with a near permanent fire rate boost.
It solves nothing. In fact, all it does is make Mercy synergies even stronger, making her even more of a pocket bot.
This guy is constantly suggesting poor changes(though this one is not technically his suggestion) trying to fix things that aren’t broken. If it were someone else, I wouldn’t make the remark.
The most important factor I haven’t seen brought up is how will this affect Ultimate charge?
Mercy players know the #1 reason you want to always be damage boosting instead of healing or shooting is that boosted damage counts twice in the ult economy: once for the boosted character and once for Mercy. I think a lot of Mercy players would welcome getting rid of damage breakpoints because it forces them to pocket specific heroes, which is boring. But I imagine most of us really like the ult charge value of damage boost because it feels like we’re getting a lot of strategic value out of boost and it actually encourages us to boost the whole team. I keep an eye on my teammates’ ult charges with the scoreboard and I try to boost the characters who don’t already have ult, until the people with ult are ready to use theirs. There can be even more nuance as I prioritize the characters with the strongest ults like Junkrat and Reaper.
An attack speed/reload boost instead of a damage boost is a really sensible change IMO, but it means I’ll either have to get a percentage of their damage dealt as ult charge or no ult charge. It would be terrible to get no ult charge, it would mean I would be incentivized to be greedy for unnecessary healing and battle mercy-ing to get ult charge. Getting a percentage equivalent to the attack speed boost would be mostly fine, but it’s not quite as simple as the 1-1 damage boost equivalent I get back now. In situations where multiple people are shooting the target the decision making will be a bit different than it is now.
Also:
How would attack speed buff work on heroes like Winston and Zarya tho? And does that also work with abilites? Like hog can throw his hook faster so that it messes up with his aim so he can have more opportunities to scream at Mercy players?
It would work on beam characters/Winston the same way Kiriko’s ult does. Idk if it currently increases the tick rate or just increases the damage per tick, but it will be an easy implementation.
I doubt it will affect abilities at all, only fire rate and reload speed, which is what attack speed buffs usually do. At most, it could potentially reduce “cast time”, which depending on the ability is often just the startup frames before travel time comes into play. This would change the decision making for Mercy because she won’t be incentivized to boost heroes momentarily for specific CDs and ults, and it would be an overall nerf to her boost. Linking to what others have said though, this could actually be a good thing by freeing up Mercy’s “power budget” for other buffs.
If it doesn’t affect abilities though, will I get ult charge when my boosted hero hits somebody with an ability? I assume not, which will make the nerf even more severe.
Yeah, which is why changing her significantly is possibly catastrophic for queue times, the exact thing this thread seeks to address
Rework her to be a high skill hero, not reliant on holding right click and pressing shift when needed, being boosted by a DPS who actually plays the game, then it wont matter so much
Attack speed buffs still decrease TTK. Its still a damage boost, but with extra steps.
That’s the beauty of it. It’s really not that much different for the vast majority of heroes.
But it’s very different on heroes like Widow, Sojourn, Roadhog.
Yeah, it makes them even more frustrating and annoying to deal with than they do with a damage boost.
Rework her to be
Gotta free up some “power budget” to work with first. And that’s hard to do if she’s hard meta, or really close to it.
more frustrating and annoying to deal with
I’m interested in the specifics on that. Could you give me an example? Or even better a few examples?
Certain ults and abilities are fire rate benefitted. S76 again is unphased either way. His reload is so short during his ult that a 30% fire rate or 30% dmg bst is exactly the same thing effectively.
However, it is a net overall nerf when you consider you can’t boost a ton of damage sources. Buffing Widow does absolutely nothing since she’s restricted by charge time.
Overall, I’m very much against fire rate increases unless it had some other perk like increased reload speed or something.
Another example of it being a net nerf is looking at the math /w S76 primary fire.
Dmg Bst 1.3x
144.3 dps /w reload
210.6 dps before reload
Fire Rate 1.3x
210.6 dps w/o reload
2.5sec fire + 1.5sec reload
135 dps /w reload
Its an overall net nerf when it lowers his sustain dmg and can’t even boost things like helix rocket. Dmg Bst is flat out just the better mechanic to go with.
Her power budget has always been tied to E-Rez, start with that. Its so simple, idk why this is such a huge debate over the course of literal years, the devs dont help this at all obviously
The most important factor I haven’t seen brought up is how will this affect Ultimate charge?
Thanks, hadn’t really thought about that.
It might not be a problem at all, given 30% more shooting is similar to 30% more ult charge. But it is going to be less.
There’s a couple ways they could solve that.
- Could just lower her Ult charge cost
- Could increase the amount of Ult charge she gains during boosted damage by ??? percent.
Soldier 76, Hammond, Pharah, Reinhardt, Brigitte, Ramattra, Sojourn, Junkrat, Echo, Orisa, Sigma, Baptiste, Roadhog.
Imagine their primary fire.
Now, imagine them with a permanent Kitsune Rush, whenever they want and need it. From a hyper mobile support, who has instant access to it whenever she wants it.
And to put the icing on this delectable cake of destruction, now combine that with Valkyrie. A much longer, much more versatile Kitsune Rush on all of Mercy’s allies.
Need I say more?
The reddit post said “attack speed” boost, not “fire rate” boost.
I think it’s safe to assume that if this change were to be implemented it would affect reload speed, melee speed and possibly cast time. That would be the most 1-to-1 with current damage boost, although I think it’s up for debate how it should affect abilities.
Soldier 76, Hammond, Pharah, Reinhardt, Brigitte, Ramattra, Sojourn, Junkrat, Echo, Orisa, Sigma, Baptiste, Roadhog.
Need I say more?
Well, it would be nice if you described why those heroes would be a problem, cause I’m not seeing it. In a lot of those cases it would actually be weaker.
The problem I have with Mercy is that she often becomes a walking accessory that boosts a DPS player. Comparing the fast pace gameplay I get in Quick Play to how I often see Comp games use her makes me never want to play Comp with her. I do not want to sit in a corner holding right-click on a Sojourn or Ashe or follow around a Pharah. Changing to an attack speed boost would just shift which heroes Mercy becomes an accessory to.
I think the game and hero would be far more healthy if damage boosting abilities were just ordinary abilities that had cooldowns. I generally have more fun finding moments of opportunity where Damage Boost is quickly used to secure a kill than I do just holding the ability down on someone for an entire fight.