I just wanted to have a discussion about reworking Mercy that doesn’t involve a rez ability, and that instead replaces her ultimate with a Pushback/Cleanse/Heal.
I think rez should NOT be in her kit at all. It’s too difficult to balance and incorporate properly, and brings hate to the hero. I would absolutely love a cleanse of some sort. There’s enough CC in the game now (and i’m sure there’s more to come) that a cleanse would be very valuable to a team when used well, and also add a layer of difficultly and skill to Mercy. I’d love to see cleanse as an ult, and the best example/description I can think of is Janna’s ult from League of Legends (she has an AOE ult that pushes back enemies and then has a heal duration for a fixed amount of time that she can cancel sooner if desired). This inspires me to want to see a similar ult where you could fly to your team, ult, enemies are pushed back in a large radius, any CC’d teammates are back to normal, and then if the mercy decides, she can remain standing still for a short time with a healing aura in the radius she created. With this, i don’t even think she’d need an E ability, but I would like to see her single target healing increased since that is her primary ability. Mercy even has the emote “Caduceus” that would be a perfect ult animation! (minus the fancy staff flipping) She could fly in, slam her staff on the ground, the other team is pushed back by the wind from her outstretching wings, and the golden mist that emerges from her is a blessing that cleanses and heals! I’m so excited thinking about it! I just wish this could happen!
I don’t really like hyper-focusing on how a mercy rework would effect Goats comps, but I believe this would certainly counter it, and not enable it, since the push-back part of her ult could clear all enemies off your teammates, and the cleanse could free teammates from Reinhardt ult, for example.
I would love to see a discussion about a cleanse ultimate instead of all this “bring rez back”. Rez was fun, but it causes too much controversy and hate to the hero and i can see why it shouldn’t be in the game at all. Could you guys maybe brainstorm and discuss a cleanse? I think it’d be too powerful for E, and even the ult i described above is probably too powerful, but at the end of the day, mercy does need a rework, but rez shouldn’t be involved. She needs to either have an actual impactful ult, or greatly increased single target healing. Mercy’s whole kit is single target healing, and rewarding mobility. I lover her mobility right now and don’t think it should be touched.
Another idea to help increase her healing is that maybe after her beam is detached from someone (or after attaching? idk) she could have a passive that leaves a “blessing” of some sort that has a lingering heal over time (kinda like moira). I know people have discussed a potential skill shot that could also be a blessing on a teammate, perhaps similar to damage boost, where she could toss it, and then attach bean to heal them while they go in, that way she can do a couple things at once. But again, i actually don’t think mercy would need a “E” ability with how good her ult would be.
Thanks for listening! I hope we can have a positive discussion about a rework that doesn’t involve rez, that makes Mercy more impactful, skillful, and fun.
Thoughts on how “Cleanse” would work
Overwatch has a lot of different abilities that could be considered Crowd Control. Here is a list i found of all of them: List of all CC abilities
The “Cleanse” could not only remove all Incapacitate, Stun, and Slow abilities, but also give each teammate within the ult a “blessing of invulnerability” of some sort for about a second. This could be like how mercy gave herself invulnerability while casting mass rez (which honestly would probably be way too strong here). Or perhaps give teammates something similar to Orisa’s Fortify, so teammate takes greatly reduced damage and are heavier so they cannot be displaced. The 2 root abilities, junkrat’s trap, and zarya ult, are the two i don’t think would be effected. However, if you team is in a zarya ult, and you fly in and ult, you’d push-back the enemy team that was trying to get in close to attack, and you would give your team a brief “fortify” effect plus some residual healing, so you could hopefully save them. (keep in mind that unless it’s essentially zarya ult/Hanzo ult, that your team can stay alive if your moira fades out, heal orbs, and then left clicks. I’ve saved my team from zarya ults so many times this way, and adding moira ult on top is even better.)
More of my thoughts
Theses are just some rough ideas, but I truly do think that if what i described was incorporated as her ultimate that she would be a valuable hero that is comp dependent and map dependent., because I don’t believe any hero in this game should be a must pick in every situation. Huge Rez made mercy a must pick, and didn’t bring much decision making to the table, especially at lower ranks. This new ult I’ve proposed would make mercy viable at all ranks, and make her very impactful in skilled and aware hands.
