Edited to add QP stats in parenthesis.
Edit: I’d just like to remind everyone that things like anecdotal evidence of how high or low rank players play are not necessarily irrelevant to the stats provided, but there’s no real way to quantify the plethora of differences in game play to the stats here. The stats are just averages, the point isn’t to show one way or another that Mercy is the worst or best healer but that there are discrepancies in the objective and quantifiable elements of game play between her and the other Supports, and that these discrepancies are important for the reasons I’ve listed.
Saying things like “damage doesn’t matter” when there’s between a 700% - 1900% difference in damage between her and the other Supports is extremely dismissive and is a non-argument.
I had made this comment regarding a post asking why so many are under the impression that Mercy is no longer a main healer and I wanted to see if I could start a broader dialogue regarding Mercy. TLDR at the bottom. Stats are from Overbuff (I know it’s not perfect but should be representative enough for this purpose).
The State Of Mercy
So, is she still a main healer or not? Well I think that all comes down to reliability as a healer in the current state of Overwatch, and I think solo potential is a big indicator of “main” status.
Can Mercy reliably solo heal? That’s seems debatable. Mercy’s healing is certainly consistent but being able consistently heal isn’t as valuable as being able to heal through all the burst damage. Since burst damage is so strong and so prominent, I would say being able to heal through burst damage would make for a more reliable support than consistent (but lower). I always see a lot of people citing Mercy’s overall healing in comparison to the other healers to show that she’s fine, but I think this simplistic comparison can be misleading, let’s take a look:
Average Healing
- Moira: 11500 (11100 QP)
- Mercy: 11100 (12815 QP)
- Ana: 9700 (9800 QP)
- Lucio: 9200 (10200 QP)
- Brigitte: 8500 (7000 QP)
- Zen: 7400 (7300 QP)
So, Mercy’s healing isn’t the worst, but it’s not the best. However, it’s important to remember that the majority of her healing is single target healing. It’s also important to remember that healing potential alone doesn’t determine how reliable that healing is. There’s another key element that often goes ignored, because it’s Mercy, regarding solo potential and reliability, and that’s damage.
Average Damage:
- Zen: 9700 (8300 QP)
- Lucio: 6800 (5700 QP)
- Moira: 6800 (7900 QP)
- Brigitte: 5800 (6000 QP)
- Ana: 4100 (4600 QP)
- Mercy: 471 and 817 damage boosted (838 and 427 damage boosted)
Normally, Mercy’s low damage wouldn’t be that much of an issue specifically because her healing was strong enough to compensate for the low damage output. However, due to the HPS nerf, she now has to spend much more of her time healing, which means on top of doing less damage and less healing, she’s also now unable to damage boost as much as she used to. How big of a deal is that extra supplemental damage? It’s a huge deal. Let’s look at why:
Average Eliminations:
Moira: 24 (30 QP)
Brigitte: 18 (19 QP)
Zenyatta: 17 (20 QP)
Lucio: 16 (19 QP)
Ana: 12 (15 QP)
Mercy: 1 (3 QP)
Healers are only necessary because of the enemies doing damage. In every scenario, eliminating the enemy is always going to be more valuable than healing itself because you’ve completely stopped the source of the damage. It’s like treating the cause instead of the symptom. And being able to not only help bust shields and eliminate enemies but reliably kill them yourself is a huge boon to a healer’s survive-ability, which in turn greatly affects their reliability as a solo healer. Healers can’t heal if they’re dead, and directly fighting back is always going to be a better option than hoping one of your team mates will save you.
So, just a quick recap on some stats real quick:
- Mercy’s healing is only 3.5% less than the highest healing and 33% higher than the lowest healing .
- Mercy’s damage is 1960% less than the highest healing and 770% less than the lowest healing.
- Mercy’s eliminations are 1200% less than the lowest eliminations and 2400% less than the highest eliminations.
So let’s remember, Mercy is not only unable to keep up with burst damage, but because of her low HPS she’s unable to provide any utility to her team *and she’s unable to provide hardly any damage or eliminations.
"But she’s got Rez!"
Indeed she does, but if we can put the hyperbole aside for a moment, Rez is not the game winning panacea it’s made out to be. Remember, Mercy has the ability to revive her entire team for almost a year after launch, and despite the HPS buff, was widely considered useless until the invulnerability buff that made her into a problem. Rez in a vaccuum or on paper sounds incredibly strong, but the reality is that it’s only strong in the most optimal of conditions. Since these optimal conditions are so few and far between, the reality is that the players being resurrected often die right after they’re revived, Mercy dies trying to revive them, or both.
In any case, being able to keep a team mate healed is always going to be more reliable than trying to revive them, and being able to kill an aggressor is always going to be more valuable to your team than letting the aggressor secure a kill and trying to revive.
In short, Rez isn’t strong enough to compensate for the extreme lack of support Mercy provides in comparison to the other Supports. You have to wait for someone to die for it to be of any use, while the other Supports’ utility is nowhere near as limited.
So, can Mercy still be used as a main healer? Yes, but it is almost always better to go with another Support. Just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done.
What does all this mean for Mercy?
That’s what I’m interested to hear from y’all.
Does Mercy necessarily need to be a main healer? I’m of the opinion that she does, since that’s what she was always designed to be, and even Blizzard stated that “she is intended to provide more healing than the other Supports”.
Should we keep Rez? I’ve always been a staunch defender of Rez. If a hero can wipe an enemy team with their ult, then I don’t see why reviving someone would be out of the question. I don’t think Rez is unblanceable, rather, I think Blizzard is reluctant to try anything due to the strong negative perception around it. Many of us just want Mercy to be fun to play again, and I think that might ultimately mean giving up on Rez.
What would we replace it with? Well, something more engaging, something to help Mercy feel like less of a “heal-bot”. One of the most enjoyable and engaging elements of the game is the combat (duh it’s an FPS), but Mercy in particular is probably one of the most excluded heroes from combat. Perhaps we could find a way to allow her to dual wield her pistol and her staff? This would allow her to make more significant contributions in areas like supplemental damage and eliminations.
Sorry for the huge post, Mercy was my first love with Overwatch and I’m just dying for the community (and hopefully the devs) to finally have a meaningful conversation around her. Please let me know what you think and please be gentle.
TLDR; Mercy’s healing might not be too different from the other Supports, but things like her damage, eliminations and utility are severely lacking, making her one of the least valuable choices for a healer despite her overall healing.