Ok, first of all, someone go get Mercy from under the table, give her a glass of water and try to stop her from shaking and fainting… poor girl… Anyway, Mercy have been plagued with so many reworks, nerfs and “bug fixes” that she had been warped being recognition, and many fans of this hero are now feeling hollowed out or even betrayed, so, here is a proposition:
INSIDE THE TEST SERVER, revert Mercy to her 1.0 state. The mass rez ultimate, the 60hp/s heal, etc. Give a little one-two on her current state and flip it back to 1.0 to see if it’s not a good idea to get there after all, perhaps see if players would accept it back now that she went through so many reworks or come up with better balancing ideas. The test server is a great place to try virtualy anything even the beyond absurd because there is no consequence to the main game if it goes horribly wrong. Put it back to Mercy 1.0 and pay attention to the players’s feedback. Emphasis on THE PLAYERS! If the Overwatch League says something, I DON’T CARE! With all due respect to their commitment and dedication to Overwatch, they are a tiny number of players with beyond casual skills that can’t represent the playerbase AT ALL. Otherwise they would be hired by Blizzard to work with the developers, not just play Overwatch in competitions every year.
Now, back to Mercy… Reverting her back to 1.0 in the test server could be a better way to approach her balancing, quoting Mercy herself, “Starting over, from the beggining”. This is a healthy approach to go towards a better way. And again, if it goes wrong, it was inside the test server, no damage done to the main game.
If I may suggest something, her mass rez could be limited to 3 players. Would give the team a CHANCE to change the tide as after a team kill, you would have a 6x4 battle while the two allies that couldn’t be picked come back. That wouldn’t be a huge reverse of the team’s situation to be unfair, but also would make her ultimate worth of it’s name. Ultimates are supposed to be a little overpowered, that’s what they do. Attempt (thats the keyword, attempt, not being 100% sure it will work) to change the game with the click of a button once in a while, making you wary of the bearers of these ultimates to prepare yourself when it’s triggered.
Your post was going pretty well up until this point. That’s a no from me. The maximum impact of Resurrect never needed to be limited in its original state. At best, an argument could have been made for increasing the risk required to obtain the reward.
In Masters rank where I play, this scenario is also known by another name: Lost Cause. If you’re 2 down in a fight and you have the option to not contest the objective for a bit, you back away. That’s simply not worth fighting.
Resurrecting even all 5 of your teammates was exactly that: an attempt to change the game. It was not a guarantee, and all of Mercy’s best laid plans could be easily ruined with the proper application of High Noon as just one of many examples of possible Resurrect counters or counter-play.
Now that I’ve addressed your last suggestion, I will comment on the first: I am absolutely for the idea that Blizzard should bring Mercy 1.0 back to the PTR and, in general, get a little bit crazy with the things they test there. They definitely subscribe to the philosophy of “measure twice, cut once”, but they need to give the community an opportunity to help them measure before they cut with future changes.
It became a problem when it’s counterplay was removed with the addition of invulnerability.
Mercy mass Rez would do worked if she just had damage resistance and LOS checks. This would stop the whole behind a wall Rez, I also believe if they were truly worried about the mercy player running off and hiding. Add a ultimate decay timer on mercy. If she spends 5 seconds out of the fight (or less idk example) her ultimate charge will decay until healing or damaging is dealt at which it will charge back up. This completely counters the hide and Rez bevause
Can’t hide behind a wall
Can’t run away because decay.
I think mercy needs tweaks to her kit not a full rework. But if you want my honest opinion, they reworked her because overwatch league was planned and pro players ,such as seagull, showed a disliking to mass Rez that they thought a rework would be suited to stop a ultimate pros didn’t want seen in their games while keeping mercy useable.
They messed it up but hey ho, pros now have the mercy they wanted. A pocket machine to a widowmaker. (Who don’t get me started on needs changes along with hanzo)
You have a fine argument, but here is the thing: a 5-players wipe (a 6-players wipe would mean Mercy was killed to, so, duh, lets not count that) is quite rare, depending on the team composition, you will have, aside from Mercy, someone else that wasn’t caught into the fire, usualy someone who dies LATER since the fight becomes a 6x2 or even 6x1. Especialy nowadays with heroes like Sombra, Moira, Torbjorn, Phara, Reaper and such that can eitehr evade ultimates or will be already away from the fight, so basicaly, a mercy will much rarely have to rez more than 4 players, some that are not even vital ot keep the point safe (lets say, you rezzed a reaper, a reinhard and a Moira, but couldn’t rez the Phara. No problem, the rest of the team handles it).