if that were the case, then changes like scatter and auto lock beam wouldnt have been changed. They literally said it was because it felt bad to play against so we are valuing the people not playing them more than those who do.
Ana was released with 6 ammo shots. SIX. Why didn’t they just tell the Ana communities to GET GUD with her ammo? She is a sniper not Mercy. But how she played and felt to play in her playbase mattered enough to more than double her ammo.
It’s not about catering to people. It’s about the balance and fun aspect of a game for people who play the game they purchased. Mercy is more usable now with her Valk than with Mass Rez and her numbers are more stable than with Mass Rez yet Mercy players are saying they are having so little fun, they’d rather Mercy be less consistent in her ultimate and have mass rez because Mercy was more fun.
If the players would rather risk losing more often just to have fun, I think that speaks to a problem. This applies to Mercy but also heroes like Symm, Torb, and Bastion. Symm is more applicable to more situations, yet her playerbase had more fun when she was explicitly more niche.
Excluding her playerbase didn’t make the game better because suddenly Sym is now not a troll pick. And it didnt increase her pick rates. All it did was push her players away from her.
That doesn’t make the game better.
If blizzard cared that much, then tell me why i’ve played with the same exact person, that consistently throws games for ‘‘fun’’ and he hasn’t been suspended or punished in any way, shape, or form. Wanna talk about how ‘‘bad’’ it is to play WITH someone that does that? They need to stop breaking the game, and worry about the throwers and hackers taking over. Periodt.
Honestly I would think switch Valk and Rez would do a lot for me.
Single-Target Rez as ultimate and balanced as accordingly.
Valk as short term boost like Torbjörn’s Overload without the tether beam, because that ability is just dreadful to use. (Powerful no question about that but killing the play experience.)
That would at least be my wish for Mercy. But I no longer play her since they introduced casting time and slow effect to rez, because after that the flow of the character was so fundamentally broken for me that I no longer see a point of picking her up.
I think it’s fine for people to advocate for things they want.
As for myself, I only play mass rez mercy as a healer in comp, unless another healer that i enjoy comes along or mercy is reverted/reworked my roster isn’t flexible enough to want to play comp.
As someone else who has played basically nothing but Mercy since day 1, I like to listen to other’s views and thoughts about Mercy as she currently is. Now, I admit, I’m not much of a forum reader because so much of it is drama filled BS but I’m stepping in for this whole “#reworkmercy” thing because I love the hero that much. (- stares lovingly at his Mercy Funko Pops, Nendroid Mercys, Mercy statuette, and framed commisioned artwork of Mercy- ) I’M NOT OBSESSED! YER OBSESSED!
Anyway…
Back in the Mercy 1.0 days, life was hard for the Mercy mains. We were expected to get our ult as fast as possible and then hide while our team went out and tried to win the game for us If one person died in a fight, we were yelled at if we didn’t heal them and yelled at if we came out of hiding… This was REALLY not fun. Did it feel good when we swooped in for that big res? Sure. But that was only for that one fight. Once it was over, we were back to Charge Ult > Hide > res when 3+ are dead > repeat. Impactful? Sure. Engaging? Not even close.
Mercy 2.5 is the opposite and I’m kind of okay with it. She’s more fun to play now than ever. Her only issue is that she doesn’t do anything as well as someone else. Her average HPS is lower than Moira and Ana (and Lucio if running GOATS), and she does negligible DPS unlike Moira, Lucio, and Zen.
That being said however, I don’t see a reason why people are calling her “not impactful.” The thing I don’t think a lot of people (including the pros) seem to understand is the fact that Mercy was always intended to be the game’s Primary Healer Hero. She doesn’t do pew pew. She helps others pew pew longer by healing or pew pew harder by damage amping. It is within these two things that makes her impactful. Yes, she has a pistol, but it simply there to act as a sidearm, a “uh oh…” or a “Everyone is healed? Awlright boys, chums up! Let’s do this! LEEEEROY—” button. It is to this extent that I argue against the “Give Mercy Impact” people.
In my opinion, because every other Support Hero in the game has damage dealing as part of their core kit, it would be more fair for either their overall HPS to be nerfed below Mercy’s or Mercy’s buffed above theirs simply because she doesn’t do the damage that a Moira, Ana, Brig or Lucio can do. Even if you Battle Mercy for an entire match, you still can’t out DPS anyone. Why is that? Because DPS ISN’T WHAT MERCY DOES! It’s simply not her job. Mercy is a Field Medic. Compare her to the Field Medic from any other FPS game and you’ll see the same thing. She saves lives… she doesn’t take them…
It’s because of people crying to Blizzard about how they feel like the whole other team can all press Q and then she swoops in and counters them all with her one Q that she was changed in the first place. Do I think Mercy is okay right now? No. She does need something, but not a complete rework. Base heal back up to 60 and make Valk do 70 to her target and 50 to each other and I would call that balanced. That would make Valk feel impactful and Mercy would become a main healer again.
Simply put, I feel like the reason people are upset about Mercy, as she is, is because she doesn’t do anything that another hero can’t do better. They want that feeling of “YAY! I’m helping!” but I don’t think they realize that just by putting your beam on the right targets at the right times, you are more than helping. You are healing. In fact, I would even go as far as challenging any of the Pro-Rework people to go into a game as Mercy but never heal. Just pistol people. Then, do another match after you lose (lawl) and go back to healing and see how long your match lasts. I’m willing to bet the impact will be much more clear to them.
PS: doing this challenge will likely result in the occasional comment of “WTF ARE YOU DOING, MERCY?! HEAL ME!!?!?” comments in chat as well as in voice.
tl;dr: Mercy doesn’t need anything reworked on her. She just needs a retuning again. The recent buff to her Valk was a step in that direction and I think we’ll see more like that in the near future when the OW team sees it wasn’t enough because I don’t think they want Mass res back either.
given your mention of a retuning, please take a look at
all are invited to vote and/or comment, all opinions & both sides welcome