The mercy nerf feels AWFUL

General Discussion
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Should we give Bastion invincibility frames to decrease his death-rate? Or should Widow be 350 hp to decrease her death-rate?
No. This is a stupid way of balancing. A hero that does have a lot of impact on the battlefield should have a higher death-rate than a hero that has almost no impact on the game.
What impact does Mercy have?

  • Her healing is low, so she can’t keep her teammates alive.
  • Damage Boost is usually weaker than actually doing damage on any hero or putting a discord orb on a tank.
  • You can spend a whole game without using rez and no one would even notice.
  • Valk is forgettable.

There is no reason Mercy should have a high death rate. None.
It’s just people hating Mercy because they can’t kill her. Therefor, the devs must make sure Mercy is very easy to kill.
And it bled into the support role in general. Look at Lifeweaver. Huge hitbox, hardly any mobility, a movement debuff while healing. It’s harder to stay alive on Lifeweaver than it is on Bap, Ana, or even Zen.
But hey, I’m sure DPS loves killing him. So he’s fine.

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142

“If you want GA reverted as a buff that would lower her death rate, what nerf would you trade to keep the death rate the same”.
“OMG you’re asking for Mercy to get nerfed and die more”

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They already reverted mercy’s crit healing. She’s already weak.

People aren’t complaining about being unable to kill mercy’s targets now. Almost like it’s easier to do so, almost like she was bloody nerfed.

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She’s a support, she’s supposed to be focused, supports probably run the highest deaths over all (Maybe).

Gas light much? This is why you can’t be taken serious.

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145

Preach.

What’s funny is, if the tables were turned supports would be told to “get gud”. We’ve seen this when it comes to discussions regarding supports having to fend for themselves instead of unanimously agreeing as a community that team coordination and peel for their supports are important and in fact are a couple of their responsibilities.

So, I ask, for a role that constantly likes to belittle Mercy players for their lack of mechanical skill and aim, when do we tell them to get better at aiming then? You should be able to shoot that Mercy out of the sky. Get gud. :sunglasses:

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146

Do what I do then?

Example: “HOW ARE YOU BAD AT SUPPORT?!” “Because you can’t land a shot when you peel?”

Watch them rage and move on.

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147

The problem with the “hide and pocket” playstyle isn’t that it’s being incentivized by the nerfing of mobility (if anything, good movement decreases your opportunity to get punished when your hiding spot is found), it’s that it’s always been incentivized by the nature of her primary method of support.

The reason that Heal Guns like Mercy’s are designed like that was to promote that style of play from the start. That’s why you’re allowed to move/look independently of it without losing any effectiveness and be given leeway in LOS positioning without breaking the chain. Hiding around corners and looking for anyone that could threaten your/your pocket’s position is in the gun’s DNA.

The main ways I see to really move away from that style without changing the gun at the core (Which I would never want, it’s iconic and historically appreciated in games. Also this was the problem with Mind Energy in S4L lol) are to reward new pockets or punish old ones, forcing the support to switch who they latch on to more frequently.

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148

Theoretically yes though I believe a lot of hardcore Mercy players get the thrill of playing her through her mobility. Weaving in and out of battle making the seemingly impossible happen and hearing your teammates thank you for it is the fun part of Mercy.

I think OW has always had an issue with how Mercy was intended to be played versus how players actually play her and want to play her.

There’s always going to be an identity crisis with Mercy I think. I’ve always felt that that was the case with all these Mercy forums. It’s not that the Mercy community is a special breed that constantly complains but rather I believe there’s a major disconnect between how the devs envision her and how the players envision her.

The other factor is, it appears that a lot of people who don’t play her make a lot of assumptions based on their own biases and how her kit is built instead of recognizing the play style in their actual games. I’ve come to realize that Mercy is the most mischaracterized hero and has the most indecisive identity in the game. That’s why there’s always seemingly some unrest regarding her.

(You brought up a point that made me go on tangents - not all of this was at you btw)

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149

That’s not quite the same as hiding was back then. The “hiding” thing meant no one was getting pocketed. They were literally hiding somewhere to allow team mates to die and then swoop in for ressurection. What you’re describing is just staying out of LOS from enemies, while supporting a team, because you can’t just pop in and out frequently with the sling or bunny hop to dodge or bait shots, or for some others, just a habit of spamming keys. But that sounds to me that the player is bored with pocketing? Honestly, there are times where I would prefer my Mercy to not peek and get themselves killed, which does happen and I question why it happened instead of allowing the pocketed player do their thing. I guess it’s sometimes out of boredom, desperation, impatience, etc. I don’t find anything wrong with staying back and doing the simple job. If it’s boring, then maybe that should be addressed(?).

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150

Oh, Bliz gets this wrong a LOT lol

Remember how they hyped up Kiriko as this aggressive support, then gave her one of the worst guns and best defensive kits in the game?

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151

They dont care anymore about Mercy or Mercy mains for that matter. Deal or quit, I chose the later.

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152

I completely agree it’s not the same thing. There is always a balance between knowing when to go in and when to stay back. I definitely don’t encourage being reckless lol. You are right though.

I will say there is a lot of boredom that arises when playing her now. It’s a weird adjustment playing her now after experiencing her previous mobility. That mobility felt really thrilling and felt way more proactive. Stripping that away feels very uneventful and “meh” for lack of a better word.

I’m at the point where I wouldn’t mind a complete rework. I’ve adapted all these years, what’s another change? :joy:

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153

Again, why is it ok for Mercy to have low stats on all these other things like HPS, range, damage, and kills, but then make a big deal about her deaths?

Mercy should be statistically better at something if she’s worse at all these other things.

Somehow you don’t understand that the support that has virtually no significant offensive threat should be hard to kill.

Moira has better damage, kills, HPS, actually becomes completely invincible and cleansed in fade, and doesn’t require a teammate to use her mobility CD.

Mercy is allowed to have good things too.

Mercy cannot control space due to her lack of offensive ability. So she must go through space threatened and controlled by others.

Compared to other supports, she’s also required to remain close to her target. So she has to take risks to get across the battlefield to heal.

And how often do you think it’s fair for Mercy to be fired upon when she dares to fly around? On what interval?

So considering all that, I’d say she should be able to change directions pretty damn often.

1.5 seconds worked well for the longest time.

Yes, she has more mobility options now in 5v5. But she also lost a teammate which is a nerf to GA, and she’s also the least offensive character in the game that has less protection due to the loss of a tank.

Statistically, other supports blow her out of the water.

Considering her lack of damage, kills, space control, HPS, and autonomy, she should be really good at what she does.

For example, if X has the same ouput as Y, but X lacks autonomy and is more team dependent, Y is fundamentally a better choice.

If X sacrifices autonomy, it should have a higher output than Y.

What exactly does Mercy get for all her sacrifices?

And it’s completely reliant on the presence and position of a teammate.

You can’t just look at one part of an ability or a character.

Yes, the CD is low. But it’s on a character that is extremely limited in a lot of ways others aren’t.

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154

It’s weird. I DO want the mobility and the power fantasy of the angel swooping in across the battlefield to who needs aid, but something about it isn’t clicking when it translates to players staying on the same pocket and hitting 2 buttons on cooldown to become functionally untargetable for a large amount of the cast.

I’d probably have less problems with it conceptually if the second dash was strictly horizontal.

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Nothing, absolutely nothing.

She just keeps losing and losing and losing. Lost her mass rez, lost her instant single rez, lost her mobility, lost her healing which was compensation for her mobility lose. She’s just a sad sorry excuse for a “hero” now.

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156

No they don’t. That’s the opposite. Supports usually have the least amount of death.
And you think we’re the ones that shouldn’t be taken seriously? Learn to play.

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157

Exactly, I think I understand what you mean. Unfortunately, I can’t even suggest what they could do for her. Her inherent base design is personally one of the reasons I don’t really play her much. I feel she isn’t as you say proactive enough for me either. Even with all the GA mobility she may have had or other abilities at one point or another, her kit just never felt I could do something without reliance on others. Of course, that’s probably the goal developers intend and want to maintain, keeping her simplicity and strictly supportive. So, balancing numbers with simple gameplay is hard.

They could give her more flexibility and higher/better numbers in one area or another, the players of that hero will always enjoy that, but everyone else will get frustrated when it sees more play, particularly at the lower and higher ends skill levels. It’s happened with Moira for instance with regards to perception of simple hero to effectiveness.

Another example of how hard it is to adjust may be the simple 55 heal rate. Some say it’s balanced, others prefer a higher rate because they think it’s too low or not competitive with burst healers. Some might mention the rounded up 60 number thinking it’s a sweet spot for balance, or it harkens to older builds of Mercy early in the game. Few I heard would like to see another variation of the burst heals like last season, just tinkered a bit, etc. It’s hard to find something satisfactory for most players even on something basic as that.

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159

Yeah it baffles how we are supposed to come up with yet another change. Reverts aren’t inherently bad.

Heck they reverted her healing to be awful again.

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I don’t call it a nerf because then you get legions of dps mains laughing at a change they do not even understand. All they care about is Mercy players disliking it.

I view this more a change that is wildly inconsistent. Please name another ability that has such a variable cooldown and results.

It again, shows that Blizz has no idea what to do with this hero.

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161

The irony is that all Mercy changes started with the perception of Mercy players hiding, and now we’ve come full circle to where that’s her actual gameplay.

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