Serious Mercy change - how to balance Res/Valk (edited)

I think this is a change we can all agree on and we should really try to get the Overwatch team to highly consider this.


Caduceus Staff

  • I think the 50HPS should stay instead of 60HPS. I think that is a positive change for the game in general.

Caduceus Blaster

  • Increase projectile speed to 45 (up from 40)

Guardian Spirit (formerly Resurrect)

  • Resurrect becomes a new ability called “Guardian Spirit”. Mercy places a “buff” on a friendly target. Allies with Guardian Spirit receive a shiny halo over their hero.
  • Guardian Spirit:
    • Cast time: instant cast
    • Range: 20 meters
    • Cooldown: 20 seconds (cooldown starts after Guardian Spirit expires)
    • Duration: 5 seconds
    • Effect: While effected with this buff, all healing Mercy does on any target is also applied to the ally with Guardian Spirit at 1.5x the normal rate (75HPS). Healing the buffed ally directly will also heal at 75HPS. This buff only apllies to healing done by Mercy, unlike Biotic Grenade.
    • Applying Guardian Spirit does NOT BREAK beam tether on targets

Here are the new big changes with Mercy:

Valkyrie - upgrades Mercys other abilities (not passives)

  • Regeneration: can now be interrupted by taking damage
  • Caduceus Staff:
    • Now a SINGLE TARGET BEAM at 75HPS AND 30% Damage Boost (yellow and blue beam together)
  • Caduceus Blaster:
    • Ammo increased to 40 (up from 20)
  • Guardian Spirit: Mercy embodies the Guardian Spirit on herself
    • Instantly transforms Guardian Spirit ability to Resurrect
    • After you use your Resurrect, you can not use Guardian Spirit until Valkyrie is over. The cooldown on Guardian Spirit is reset after Valk ends.
      • Resurrect:
        • Cast time : Instant cast (down from 1.75s)
        • Charge: 1 Res
        • Range: 6 meters (up from 5)
        • Resurrect does break beam tether

I think this would be a unique way to tie Resurrect to the ultimate ability again without sacrificing much power to Mercy. There is more room with this version for some nice skillful plays.

This fixes the current problem of Valk feeling lackluster by increasing the healing and making your choices matter.

Also, there is more room to better balance this version of Mercy by changing cooldowns or Valk charge cost.

I think this is a fair way to balance Res, increase the fun level of Mercy, make her feel more engageing to play, decrease the power of Res and keep Res in her kit as a powerful ult ability.

The Mercy rework was a mess, but this solution can literally fix everything without going backwards!

10 Likes

I think they should just buff her pistol velocity and but make it a smaller hit box. It would be more consistent on flankers but it also wouldn’t have a lucky 5 headshots that were like a couple inches off target but still counted. Rez is always a part of mercy it’s in the cininatics and lore.

3 Likes

I agree. That is why I dont think just removing it is a good solution either. Mercy can be balanced and this is 100% the way to do it.

But from what I understand u proposed that mercy should have 1 res only during her ult. That would male mercy too similar to moira and ana in a way. People should pick mercy because she can res at the cost of less healing. People pick ana for more healing at the cost of missing. People pick moira for group healing at the cost no resource depletion.

2 Likes

and people pick mercy for consistent single target heals and rez. The ultimate, as proposed in the OP, would give her approximately 2 revives per 1.5-2 minutes (the time it would take to charge the ult) as well as giving her better single target heals.

1 Like

Not to mention it would be much easier to keep track of and to counterplay Mercy because when you hear Mercy ult, you know there is almost a 100% chance Mercy is going to Res someone unless you shut her down first.

It will be easier to prepare for this instead of always trying to track the kill feed.

Also, this will make her voice line of “Heroes Never Die!” actually make sense again.

2 Likes

Again, this suggestion is so much better than the live version of Mercy. I support this 100%

3 Likes

I think so… but Im obviously biased.

Didn’t you post this yesterday? Why not just bump your old one?

it does that now btw

I made some slight changes in this version and I can only bump so much before I feel like bumping is bad. This is a new version so I thought I would make a new post.

Its sad because other Mercy topics keep being bumped because they are filled with controversy, but when you post an idea that is decent, people dont argue in the thread and it just disappears. I was almost tempted to make a controversial title.

I know, I just wanted to put this in to clarify that Guardian Spirit does NOT break tether, while Res does

revert her healing nerf and im fine with this.

I am surprised by how much I like this idea. Its radical but I think its very well thought out.

3 Likes

I understand why you are saying this, but with Guardian Spirit you get the healing amp of 75HPS which is stronger than live right now and this will charge your ult quicker so you can have the 15 seconds of 75HPS+30% damage more often.

I dont actually think you would need the 60 over the 50 but this could be put on the PTR to test out and see how it feels right?

Thank you very much. I honestly do think it would solve so many problems with Mercy.

The main thing is I think it would make Mercy FUN and engaging again.

1 Like

love this idea. Finally a mercy thread suggesting changes that are not polluted by ‘revert’. Amazing.

5 Likes

Thank you very much. I just wish there was a way for a dev to see this because I truly believe this could fix Mercy

1 Like

it would DEFINITELY make her more interesting to play and it would solve the issue of ‘rez’ being a normal ability.

2 Likes

I agree. It would also finally give some good counter play to Mercy Res because you know when Mercy pops Vak, 99% chance there is going to be a Res included.

1 Like

Nah… I’d rather they revert Mercy. If it wasn’t broke, don’t fix it. They just needed to give her LOS tweaks and a cast time.

Valk on E, or some cleanse ability in it’s place and boom - problem solved. They should definitely go back to square one on her.

1 Like

but they said that’s never happening. So… move on. This idea what op has wrote is brilliant.

2 Likes