The Hypocrisy with Mercy/Why a Rework would be healthier for the game

General Discussion
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Locking: Hey, y’all. Looks like this thread’s become a bit negative and has derailed a bit. Gonna go ahead n’ lock this down. Let’s be sure to keep our topics friendly and constructive. - Forum Mod

I’m sure everyone is sick of Mercy threads, but Mercy mains are sick of how she’s being treated and the blatant hypocrisy and negligence towards the hero.

So, we take a look back at the initial notes for Mercy’s Valkyrie rework. In the notes, Kaplan explains that Mercy’s old Resurrect felt disheartening to play against and the changes were supposed to open her up to making more big plays.

Let’s start with the ‘disheartening to play against’ part.

All ultimates feel cheap and disheartening to play against. Can you tell me that you’ve cheered or went “Wow that was awesome!” when your team gets sucked into a Grav and blown away by Dragonstrike? Or how about when the enemy Reaper was hiding away waiting for your team to pass by just to jump down and kill everyone? When Sombra shuts down your entire team’s ability to use… abilities? Brigitte’s Rally Armor that feels like a chore to burn through? Having ults negated by Sound Barrier or Transcendence? Getting a Pulse Bomb stuck to your back randomly or having a tank stuck by it back up into you and kill you? Can you tell me if there’s any ultimate that FEELS FUN to play against? No! They’re supposed to be powerful and extremely oppressive. They’re ultimate abilities for a reason. Do we need to tone down all ultimates to Valkyrie level so they don’t feel this way? No, so why is it that Mercy is the only exception?

What’s even funnier is there are standard CD abilities that feel just as oppressive or disheartening to play against and are outright annoying to deal with. Recall, Deflect, Defense Matrix, Hack, Shield Bash, Soundwave, Hook, Sentry Turrets, Projected Barrier, Discord Orb, etc… Do we need to touch these so it feels ‘fair’ to play against them? No! Those abilities work as intended and they provide burst power and utility to the specified hero.

The hypocrisy here is REAL. I’ve never had fun playing against any ultimate in this game, and it’s always annoying and disheartening to have your team wiped by one or see your combos negated. That’s just how ult economy works though. You do your job in the game and you’re rewarded with a shot to win team fights by saving your team or wiping the enemy. Resurrect worked in the former way, if you were healing you’d get it up frequently, which meant you could keep your team up and in the fight more often. People zero in on the whole “Rewards you for dying”, well… sometimes there’s absolutely NOTHING you can do about that. Especially when the enemy ult stacks, which is what Resurrect was countering, and that is what Zenyatta’s counters.

Speaking of, Transcendence is essentially the same thing as Resurrect. It negates combos and ult stacking, however, unlike Mercy’s his requires him to reactively use it. Mercy’s Resurrect required her to instinctively use it. Zenyatta normally uses Trans when ultimates are involved, he uses it as a reaction. Mercy used Resurrect when she thought it would turn the fight in her team’s favor for the better or help win a point. If Resurrect can’t be an ultimate, then Zenyatta’s shouldn’t for the exact same reason.

Now let’s talk about the infamous ‘Hide and Res’.

It did NOT happen as often as players pretended it did. There’s a big difference from hiding and taking cover. Hiding means you are leaving a fight entirely and NOT doing your job. Taking cover means you’re expecting something coming or you’re under fire so you move behind something or back off so you don’t die.

A large majority of Mercy’s STAYED in the fight to heal and damage boost, but a smart Mercy would take cover if she knew a key ultimate on the enemy team was coming such as Grav, Dragonblade, Earthshatter, etc… She would effectively remove herself from the equation VERY briefly and be back instantly to keep the fight going in her favor.

The Hide and Res was a situation where the Mercy would back off entirely and let her team die on point just to Resurrect them. This didn’t even require the enemy to use ults as her team was effectively down a healer. This Hide and Res tactic rarely worked in the Mercy’s teams favor as well. Usually the enemy wouldn’t expend many ults, and due to the lack of a healer on your team, they could mow through. Then your Mercy Resurrects and they’d just use their ultimates to wipe your team off the board again.

Now let’s move on to counterplays to Mercy’s old Resurrect.

  • Deadeye, when Mercy used Resurrect, McCree could charge the skulls on Deadeye while they were invulnerable. The scattered nature of a Mercy’s resurrect makes it harder for shield tanks to block it for their team, and now with Deadeye charging faster initially, it would better counter it even more.

  • Graviton Surge, while it might not have as much range now, it also disables mobility abilities except for Wraith Form + Fade. So this now better ensures enemies wouldn’t escape it. This further punishes the enemy for ‘dying together on point for Res’.

  • EMP/Hack, EMP’ing right after a Res disables the enemy team completely for 6 seconds, and since Res had the same range as EMP, there’s no reason why you don’t get everyone with it. Also, now that Hack has a shorter cast time, you can Hack Mercy before she executes it more consistently.

  • Minefield, with Hammond’s new Ultimate, he can drop it right where the Mercy may want to Resurrect resulting in her not using it or using it and causing deaths on her team instantly right after.

  • Self-Destruct, again with the scattered nature of a Res, it is harder for shield tanks to block their team from big AoE damage like this.

  • Blizzard, with it’s large radius, it can effectively prevent most of Mercy’s team from getting away or fighting back after the Res.

  • Rip-Tire, now with it’s faster speed it can very reliably take out most of Mercy’s resurrected teammates as well as Mercy herself.

There’s more that I could list, but I’m sure you get the point now.

What should change with Resurrect back on Q?

This is simple:

  • Requiring LoS to resurrect teammates. This further prevents and restricts the whole “Hide and Res” playstyle. This would further give Mercy the incentive to stay in the fight to Resurrect when things are looking bad for her team.
  • Reduce the Radius of Resurrect to 12.5 from 15. This tightens up the distance Mercy can Resurrect from and reduces the amount of ‘scattered’ multi resurrects.
  • Applying a brief period of vulnerability before she gains invulnerability. This allows for a little more counterplay to her kit. Few people remember that Sombra’s EMP can actually be cancelled and stunned before activation, it’s a VERY brief timeframe which would work with Resurrect.

What about Valkyrie or a possible E ability?

Valkyrie could be turned into her E ability if done correctly. It would provide the perfect burst utility she needed before. All that would need to be done is some severe nerfs to it. Reducing the chaining to may one or two extra allies, reduce the healing/damage boosting effect on chained targets, reduce mobility, reduce the duration, give her the standard passive regeneration, etc…

Or they could give her a new ability in general. There’s a BUNCH of possibilities that work with Mercy. One very liked and popular pick is a cleansing ability. This would mean she’d target a teammate and cure them of debuffs such as Hack, Freeze, Discord, Anti-Heal, Stun, and other CC abilities.

Now did Kaplan’s statement about what the changes were intended to do stay true to this day?

Initially, yes. However, Mercy provided WAY too much then, and over time her kit became watered down and lost a lot of effect to compensate for the power of Resurrect on E.

Now Mercy has no noticeable or worthy play making abilities. Valkyrie is a glorified spectator mode and provides low healing, which Moira’s primary heals actually heals more and even applies overhealing. Damage Boost might be the only reason you use it, which Orisa’s Supercharger does better, and it does nothing to reduce the effect of DPS ultimates. Resurrect doesn’t feel rewarding to pull off anymore and doesn’t really do much for ‘play making’.

What has been Nerfed since the rework?

This is something nobody brings up. If a rework is successful the least you need to do is bug fixes and maybe some nerfs or buffs to certain things.

Mercy has had nearly everything nerfed since her rework.

  • Caduceus Staff’s healing reduced from 60hps > 50hps
  • Caduceus Staff’s Damage boost no longer affects Self-Destruct + Dragonstrike
  • Guardian Angel’s speed nerfed in Valkyrie
  • Resurrect received a plethora of nerfs
  • Valkyrie also received a plethora of nerfs

What hasn’t been touched?

  • Passive Regeneration
  • Caduceus Blaster

Overall this Rework by definition is a failure. It has NOT been balanced yet and it won’t be. Resurrection abilities as cooldowns are impossible to balance. The healthiest thing for Mercy and the game is to put Resurrect back as her ultimate.

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The healthiest thing is to get rid of resurrect, period. It’s the only way to satisfy everyone.

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I agree that’s healthiest.

The devs stated they won’t do that though. So let’s settle for the second best outcome.

Also, if they remove Resurrect, then it’s also fair to remove one-shots. They go hand-in-hand.

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See, I’m of the opinion that resurrect isn’t even a big deal. The only time I hear people complain about it is on the forums.

I thought, Mercy was fine originally, I thought she was fine when she had Valkyrie and I still don’t think she’s OP now.

I have simply never had a personal a gripe about this character. So personally I am so surprised that so much of the forums is dedicated soley to this character.

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It’s purely because Resurrection in an FPS is very controversial.

She was fine pre-rework, but post-Valk was extremely overpowered initially.

I think people seem to miss the fact that this isn’t a traditional FPS like CoD or Battlefield.

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In COD you used to be able to revive yourself. Last Stand was very powerful.

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People probably complained about it incessantly though.

I’m not too versed on CoD history, so that fact was unknown to me.

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They did, after COD Black Ops 1 that ability was eradicated, but is was possible for two games.

So I guess, in retrospect, a lot of people complaining about resurrect may be the same people who complained about last stand.

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That’s probably exactly it. These players complaining are more than likely ones coming from other standard FPS games expecting this to effectively be just that.

Resurrect has a spot in the game, but it’s effect is so powerful it should only be available as an ultimate.

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I’m going to disagree, because that makes her entirely too powerful in the low ranks because the enemy team is so unlikely to stop it.

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Resurrect needs drawbacks, not an expansion. Put a confirmation box on it, if ressed, you return with all CD timers reset, your ult charge set to 0 and at half health. Res stays on E, has a place, but isnt OP and has drawbacks and can be turned down.

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That effectively makes it underpowered.

You cannot reasonably expect to balance it as a standard CD ability.

And in my post, if you would read it, I gave significant plausible drawbacks to the Res activation itself. Forcing you to be in LoS, giving the enemy time to disrupt it, and reducing it’s effective AoE.

The problem isn’t after using the ability. It’s before.

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No, it makes it a legitimate res, which mass res on ult never was. There is nothing underpowered about getting a body back on the battlefield.

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Nah, I don’t wanna fight a mass resurrection.

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That would be absolutely horrible ,I shouldn’t get punished that hard because our mercy made a stupid move

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A lot of heroes are underwhelming in higher ranks but stronger in lower ranks.

Like Symmetra and Reaper for example.

Higher ranking players shouldn’t be punished because lower ranking players don’t know how to deal with something. If they don’t, then they can never expect to actually climb the ladder.

EDIT:
@Jaxtaro

There actually can be if you’re just feeding the enemy more ult charge and you’re sacrificing your own Ultimate meter for it.

Did you actually put any thought process into your comment? Or did you just make it up?

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That is what the confirmation box is about. “Mercy wants to resurrect you, do you want this? (Yes/No)”. You just click “no”, she gets her res back and be on your merry way.

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Amusingly enough, they’ve said they’d be sad if they got to the point where they had to remove resurrect, but never said that they wouldn’t do it, unlike with a revert.

Not trying to be smarmy, just spreading that. I think we will get a mercy with no rez before we get a revert.

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Old Mercy was underpowered…

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Nope, I simply expect people to play at the level they are skilled for. There is no substantive difference between a stupid res now and a stupid res under a less effective res, other than feeding only half health to your enemies.