Support Hero Comparisons with Healing Output (Calculations and Rankings Included)

General Discussion
1

I decided to do some math and look at the healing output of each Support Hero. I play mostly support heroes and just wanted to see how the Support Heroes compare with each other. If I made any mathematical mistakes, let me know and I’ll be sure to fix it ASAP.

If you just want to see the ranks and not the calculations, scroll towards the bottom of this post!

Initial Conditions: 5 seconds of healing and all 5 teammates are within AOE. Self-healing was not included in the calculations. I bolded the highest hp restored for 1 teammate and all 5 teammates both without and with ultimate.
Mercy

  • Caduceus Staff for 1 teammate: 250 hp
    -50 * 5
  • Caduceus Staff for 5 teammates: N/A
  • Current Valkyrie for 1 teammate: 250 hp
  • Current Valkyrie for 5 teammates: 1,250 hp
  • Buffed Valkyrie for 1 teammate: 300 hp
    -60 * 5
  • Buffed Valkyrie for 5 teammates: 1,500 hp
    -300 * 5

Ana

  • Biotic Rifle for 1 teammate: 300 hp
    -4 shots in 5 seconds (1.25 shots per second): 75 * 4
  • Biotic Grenade+Biotic Rifle for 1 teammate: 412.5 hp
    -3 shots in 4 seconds with Biotic Grenade; initial +100 hp; 1 shot without Biotic Grenade: 100 + (3 * 75 * 1.5) + 75
  • Biotic Grenade+Biotic Rifle for 5 teammates: 812.5 hps
    -4 teammates get +100 hp: 412.5 + (4 * 100)
  • Nano Boost+Biotic Rifle for 1 teammate: 600 hp
    -300 + (4 * 75)
  • Nano Boost+Biotic Grenade+Biotic Rifle for 1 teammate: 962.5 hp
    -100 + (300 * 1.5) + (3 * 75 * 1.5) + 75
  • Nano Boost+Biotic Grenade+Biotic Rifle for 5 teammates: 1,362.5 hp
    -4 teammates hit with Biotic Grenade: 962.5 + 400

Brigitte
Disclaimer: Inspire lasts 5 seconds and does 16 hps for 1 attack with Rocket Flail. Brigitte can do more healing with more swings with her weapon but there is cool down with Inspire and the number of swings she can do in 5 seconds, so it will get too complicated so calculations were based on 1 swing of Rocket Flail. +75 armor from Armor Pack was not included in calculations due to it only being temporary

  • Inspire for 1 teammate: 80 hp
    -16 * 5
  • Inspire+Armor Pack for 1 teammate: 230 hp
    -80 + 150
  • Inspire for 5 teammates: 400 hp
    -80 * 5
    *Inspire for 5 teammates+Armor Pack: 550 hp
    -400 + 150
  • Rally+Inspire for 1 teammate: 180 hp
    -80 hp + 100 armor
  • Rally+Inspire+Armor Pack for 1 teammate: 330 hp (100 hp being armor)
    -180+150
  • Rally+Inspire for 5 teammates: 900 hp (500 hp being armor)
    -400 hp + (5 * 100 armor)
  • Rally+Inspire+Armor Pack for 5 teammates: 1,050 hp (500 hp being armor)
    -900 + 150
    Interesting to note: if armor in Rally wasn’t capped at 100 hp max, Brigitte would provide 150 armor in 5 seconds (30 armor per second).

Lucio

  • Crossfade with 1 teammate: 81.25 hp
    -16.25 * 5
  • Crossfade with 5 teammates: 406.25 hp
    -81.25 * 5
  • Amp It Up with 1 teammate: 172.9 hp
    -3 seconds of Amp It Up; 2 seconds without it: (46.8 * 3) + (2 * 16.25)
  • Amp It Up with 5 teammates: 864.5 hp
    -172.9 * 5
  • Sound Barrier+Crossfade for 1 teammate: 831.25 hp
    -81.25 + 750
  • Sound Barrier+Amp It Up for 1 teammate: 922.9 hp
    -172.9 + 750
  • Sound Barrier+Crossfade for 5 teammates: 4,156.25 hp
    -831.25 * 5
  • Sound Barrier+Amp It Up for 5 teammates: 4,614.5 hp
    -922.9 * 5

Moira
Disclaimer: This is assuming that Moira uses full duration of Biotic Grasp, so the 50 hps for 3 seconds afterwards are not included. Also Biotic Orb’s duration is 4 seconds, so it is assumed that all Biotic Orb’s hp was used.

  • Biotic Grasp for 1 teammate: 400 hp
    -80 * 5
  • Biotic Grasp for 5 teammates: 2,000 hp
    -400 * 5
  • Biotic Grasp+Biotic Orb for 1 teammate: 700 hp
    -400 + 300
  • Biotic Grasp+Biotic Orb for 5 teammates: 2,300 hp
    -2,000 + 300
  • Coalescence for 1 teammate: 700 hp
    -140 * 5
  • Coalescence for 5 teammates: 3,500 hp
    -700 * 5
  • Coalescence+Biotic Orb for 1 teammate: 1,000 hp
    -700 + 300
  • Coalescence+Biotic Orb for 5 teammates: 3,800 hp
    -3,500 + 300
    If including the 3 seconds of 50 hps after-effect with 5 seconds of Biotic Grasp, then these are the calculations
  • Biotic Grasp for 1 teammate: 550 hp
    -(80 * 5) + (50 * 3)
  • Biotic Grasp for 5 teammates: 2,750 hp
    -550 * 5
  • Biotic Grasp+Biotic Orb for 1 teammate: 850 hp
    -550 + 300
  • Biotic Grasp+Biotic Orb for 5 teammates: 3,050 hp
    -(550 * 5) + 300

Zenyatta

  • Harmony Orb for one teammate: 150 hp
    -30 * 5
  • Harmony Orb for 5 teammates: N/A
  • Transcendence for 1 teammate: 1,500 hps
    -300 * 5
  • Transcendence for 5 teammates: 7,500 hp
    -1,500 * 5
  • Transcendence+Harmony Orb for 1 teammate: 1650 hp
    -1,500 + 150
  • Transcendence+Harmony Orb for 5 teammates: 7,650 hp
    -7,500 + 150

Rankings
Single-Target Healing with No Burst Healing

  1. Moira–400 hp
  2. Ana–300 hp
  3. Mercy–250 hp
  4. Zenyatta–150 hp
  5. Lucio–81.25 hp
  6. Brigitte–80 hp

Group Healing with No Burst Healing

  1. Moira–2,000 hp
  2. Lucio–406.25 hp
  3. Brigitte–400 hp
  4. Ana–300 hp*
  5. Mercy–250 hp*
  6. Zenyatta–150 hp*
    *Same as single-target healing with no burst healing

Single-Target Healing with Burst Healing Abilities

  1. Moira–700 hp
  2. Ana–412.5 hp
  3. Mercy–250 hp*
  4. Brigitte–230 hp
  5. Lucio–172.9 hp
  6. Zenyatta–150 hp*

Group Healing with Burst Healing Abilities

  1. Moira–2,300 hp
  2. Lucio–864.5 hp
  3. Ana–812.5 hp
  4. Brigitte–550 hp
  5. Mercy–250 hp*
  6. Zenyatta–150 hp*

Single-Target Healing with Ultimate and Burst Healing Abilities

  1. Zenyatta–1,650 hp
  2. Moira–1,000 hp
  3. Ana–962.5 hp
  4. Lucio–922.9 hp
  5. Brigitte–330 hp (100 being armor)
  6. Mercy (with 60 hps)–300 hp
  7. Mercy (with 50 hps)–250 hp

Group Healing with Ultimate and Burst Healing Abilities

  1. Zenyatta–7,650 hp
  2. Lucio–4,614.5 hp
  3. Moira–3,800 hp
  4. Mercy (with 60 hps)–1,500 hp
  5. Ana–1,362.5 hp
  6. Mercy (with 50 hps)–1,250 hp
  7. Brigitte–1,050 hp (500 being armor)

Conclusion

  • Moira is the best single-target healer and group healer with and without burst healing abilities
  • Zenyatta is the worst single-target healer and group healer (which is expected due to Harmony Orb being his only way of healing teammates at 30 hps)
  • With ultimates included, Zenyatta is the best single-target healer and group healer
  • Mercy’s upcoming change to Valkyrie will put her ahead of Ana in terms of being a better group healer during ultimate by 137.5 hp (which makes sense because Nano Boost is only for 1 target)
  • Even with the changes to Valkyrie, Mercy is still the worst single-target healer (when factoring in ultimates).

Remember that these numbers are just looking at only healing output, so it does not include other things that can be useful for a team (resurrect, anti-nade, armor, speed boost, damage orb, discord, etc.).

2 Likes
2

Interesting but I doubt anything will change. Nice read though. Have a good day. :smile:

1 Like
3

I love how well put together this is. Excellent calculations in an even more astounding format. This is getting a bookmark.

It’s more opinionated, but if you do factor in nonhealing utility, Moira starts to fall to the wayside with Sleep Dart potentially disrupting massive ultimate damage or Boop dispatching potential damage dealers. I do apologize for muddying these clean statistics with unnecessary detail.

We’re all better off with plain white sauce.

Edit: Almost forgot, “Buff Symmetra’s Teleporter”.

1 Like
4

Numbers without context are meaningless. Moira’s healing is limited, puts her in compromising situations, and can be blocked with shields.

Ana’s healing also has similar restrictions, and her lack of self-sustain/mobility makes it less consistent overall.

Mercy’s healing has never been great, but it has always been the most consistent, allowing her to top charts even with lower raw numbers because she can afford to never stop healing.

These kind of posts don’t really mean anything. Just a bunch of math thrown at the wall with conclusions that don’t actually represent anything when put into real scenarios with all the variables of environments, players, and abilities thrown into it.

Ignoring all these things makes your concluding argument weaker. Yes, Mercy is in a bad place. Moira, while being the “best single-target healer” is irrelevant, she’s not touched at the highest ranks. Zenyatta isn’t picked for healing outside of his ultimate since it’s the sole ability that can counter most enemy ultimates.

The game isn’t played sitting still healing a training bot with an infinite lack of HP, and taking these statistics as any metric of a hero’s strength is doing yourself a disfavor.

5

Interesting numbers, but context can change things up a bit. One of the bigger ones being Lucio/Brig. On one hand Brig’s passive has a massive AoE compared to Lucio, and last for 5 seconds after your ally gets the effect even if they break LoS.

Lucio on the other hand is a constant effect that does require LoS at all times, but it also doesn’t have to worry about having an enemy to hit (shields and I think turrets don’t count).

But hands down Mercy is by far the worst healer right now in numbers and utility. Despite what people say I think rez is kind of lame. Super huge CD, limited situations in where people die but can be brought back without high risk. I’ve always looked at it like this. Mercy can rez maybe one hero every 30 seconds, but her more limited healing, lack of dmg and utility other wise makes is kind of worse than the effect Rez provides.

After all a better healer probably wouldn’t of had them die in the first place. If no one does die, or they all die in ways that can’t be saved Mercy’s use is in question.

6

Where do I say that Mercy is in a bad place? With what I have here is just if given the situation in which all 5 teammates are within AOE and only looking at a specific duration of time of 5 seconds, these are the numbers of the healing output. Think of this like a physics problem. If gravity is 9.8 m/s^2 and an object is dropped for 10 seconds with no initial velocity added to the object, how far does the object fall when you neglect air resistance (assume no air resistance what most physics problems will say)? So let me explain my analogy:

  • “neglect air resistance” = neglect that Ana misses some of her shots, assume Moira has her healing meter full, Brigitte is taking damage while using her flail, etc.
  • acceleration of gravity = the healing outputs of the support heroes
  • 10 second duration in the gravity problem = 5 second duration of how much healing output we are observing in that time frame

What I’m getting at is, like physics, we assume an ideal condition to make certain calculations. The answer to my physics problem given is 490 m but if we take into consideration other factors like air resistance, the displacement value will change, but we don’t know what the value of air resistance is, like how we are given the healing outputs of the support heroes but we are not given the values of factors like the things you mentioned that could change the values. If I were to conduct an experiment with my physics problem given, I will not get 490 meters every single time because of outside factors like human error of using a stopwatch, not placing object always the same way, etc. So this experiment is analogous to in-game match, the healing outputs will change because of outside factors influencing the numbers. That’s why I wrote in my conclusion that other things need to be considered like what the support heroes have to offer besides healing and that is also why I stated that I was looking at only 5 seconds with all teammates within AOE because beyond 5 seconds, the values will change and some rankings of the healers may change. I am not making any opinions on this post about specific heroes need buffs or nerfs. I’m just showing the calculations and what conclusions can be drawn from these numbers with the initial conditions I set up.