I’m a support player who uses mainly Ana and mercy. These characters are very different, and are enjoyable for different reasons. One of the things that makes mercy fun is her super jumping. Making her super jump a simple ability button would destroy her gameplay.
Mercy’s super jump is not very hard to do. This is not a matter of opinion, it’s a simple sequence of buttons. However, the players that main mercy (me) get satisfaction from mastering the technique. Successful execution of the ability in really sensitive team fights feels similar to pulling off a combo in a fighting game. Reducing this to a single button press would not only feel less satisfying, but would take away any small advantage a skilled mercy player might have.
Sure, blizzard might want to narrow the gap between serious mercy mains and casual mercy mains. My argument is that this is a bad thing. First, it’s betraying players who spend more time on the game. Second, it’s playing into all the mercy memes that reduce her gameplay to sitting a corner and holding right click - in the same way that aiming is a sniper’s main distinguishing skill, timing of abilities/keystrokes and game sense are mercy’s distinguishing skills; in the same way that snipers adjust sensitivity and modify buttons for the best ways to dodge bullets and aim properly, adjusting key binds for mercy abilities gives an advantage to the players who use her the most. Third, it’s taking away from the “esport” ambition of the game - sports are supposed to be competitive so that the higher skilled players are rewarded. If all mercy players become the same, there’ll be very little reason to main her and she will likely become a boring hero that’s only used out of necessity, not because people enjoy using her. Fourth, if we’re trying to make characters “accessible” in the sense of reducing the skill needed to play them, there are arguably many other things that could be done to many other characters that would be more effective (but also ruin the fun in those characters; see: doomfist physics, widowmaker’s aim, Reinhardt charges off the map, mei wall placements, Lucio wall rides (still), etc.)
In summary: learning to use this ability is a mercy mains only real job, and I say that as a mercy main. It’s what makes her fun to play. If this simple-to-use ability gets overly simplified, I don’t imagine I’ll be using her anymore because I expect her to become very boring to play. Thus I would probably play a lot less, especially since there aren’t very many other fun supports to play. I don’t think I’m alone in this sentiment. I don’t post this as a way to whine, but in hopes that blizzard considers what long-time players think about these changes.
This is missing the point. Mercy’s main skill is knowing how and when to move with guardian angel, and it’s very nuanced. Reducing this to a button press is going to make it less fun, and probably far less nuanced.
Also, it’s not an exploit. Blizzard said so themselves, and it’s really just a result of game physics (like doomfist movement)z
Considering the game is on a shooting flatform, rapid pressing buttons in precise sequence is not considered a main skill. She should either lose it, or has it accessible without awkwards keystroke.
And iirc, they did say they would eventually make it accessible when they decided to keep sj as a feature instead of patching it out.
True, the devs are killing Mercy more and more in OW2, this hatred towards her is not understood, it is totally absurd and not fair at all, she needs buffs and they’re just giving her nerfs, it’s absurd.
I mean you cannot say on the one hand its an easy maneuver, then be bothered that it might become a key press. Geoff was asked about this in an AMA last year, liked it, then we’ve been waiting for it. The time to get upset has passed.
How so exactly, like to discuss this assertion?
They did. I mean Mercy mains were terrified the ability would be patched away, no upset it’s a key press so what, an hour of your life learning it was lost? Come on, Mercy has other issues to be concerned about.
Making it baseline is them embracing it. Just like Lucio wallriding. Where pc players had an advantage of being able to keybind it to the mousewheel. That wasn’t something you can do on console.
Making it baseline also allows for them to use it and modify it for pve talents.
it hasnt truly been an “exploit” in years though. The devs have numerously acknowledged it and are okay with it staying in the game. Although unintended, it is not game breaking nor unfair to play against. Nor is it difficult to pull off in its current form. It’s a fairly consistent tech that is now being dumbed down to cater to those who for some reason have difficulties pressing crouch+GA and then knowing when to jump. You wanna talk about real exploits talk about Doom parkour, Sombra translocating INSIDE walls to become unkillable yet still being able to damage/hack, Sym putting turrets in walls to become unbreakable yet continue to damage/slow, Mei wall on a slant roof + Sym TP, THOSE are all exploits in my book NOT Mercy jumping 15m vertically in the air lmao. You ain’t ever seen superjump restart an OWL match for breaking the rules and abusing an exploit, just saying
I respectfully disagree. I classify it as what was once a bug turned into official tech as soon as it was acknowledged by Team 4 and they decided to keep it in not only the live game but in OW2 alpha & beta as well. You are entitled to your opinion though. Let’s just agree to disagree
It’s a tech, like the genji wallclimb one which was quickly patched out. They decided to keep it because mercy wasn’t considered good for a while. And it effectively increased her power budget via having evasive maneuvers that increased her survivability.
Anyways having it baseline will also be a boost to her normal mobility if she can still guardian angel… because it would be like getting a bastion charged jump.
I don’t mean to offend anyone. But I’m really hoping that it’s just a vocal minority that is so strongly against the official implementation of Mercy’s, unintended, superjump tech.
I literally see no downsides in enabling broader accessibility to SJ. It would be one thing if Blizzard announced they were removing the maneuver altogether, but complaining about increasing its consistency is honestly absurd.
Right – I remember changing my bindings on console to jump with the R trigger button (and eventually mousewheel) because I studied DSPStanky and wanted to learn how to wallride efficiently
Me going through that effort didnt make me feel like a “boss” it just highlighted that the devs didn’t fully embrace what the character was capable of in the beginning (just rewatch Lucio’s ability breakdown vid from 6 years ago). I’m glad that they could go back and really make wall riding feel even more fun/integral to his kit while leaving plenty of room for good players to experiment with (and also explore ideas like increasing his speed during wall riding or wall jumps and all the other experiments they did)
I don’t know what they will do with Mercy in the end but I’d rather see them try something to improve it vs just ignoring her out of fear. We can’t want Overwatch to change and improve and yet be wary of the devs touching anything more than “+2 healing, +2m Defense matrix, +2 damage, -2 Soldier damage”. At least with GA, it sounds like the devs are excited to make it ‘better’ vs other change announcements that start with ‘____ has been seeing too much success lately so we are planning some changes… *pulls out hammer’
“gap between serious mercy mains and casual mercy mains”
Please tell me you’re trolling… Gap in pressing E or holding mouse buttons more efficently?
Mercy always was an easiest character for casuals, if you want to actually master something then play dps or tank
It’s a good change. No ability in the game should be hard to be executed.
But it’s not perfect currently.
Why can’t Mercy jump while holding space? This confused me a lot times ingame.
Why does Mercy even jump with crouch and not with…jump?
