Is Mercy overpowered? The short answer to this is “probably”.
I’m not one for half-measures, so I’m giving you a longer answer as well. Let’s head over to Overbuff to check out Mercy’s statistics.
Starting simple, Mercy’s overall competitive pickrate for this month is 11.08%. What does that mean? Nothing. Statistics without context or precision don’t indicate anything.
To throw in some context, Mercy’s competitive pickrate before her latest nerf in was around 15%. You can see this by looking at Mercy’s trends for the past 6 months. I don’t think I need to tell you when the nerfs hit.
As for Mercy’s competitive pickrates from the months leading up to the rework, they hung around 13-14%. Going further back in time, her competitive pickrate was around 10-11% in season 3. This statistic outclassed Ana’s competitive pickrate by a long shot, despite Ana’s objective dominance at that time; a dominance powerful enough to generate the Tank Meta around it.
With the data I have presented so far, it would appear as though Mercy is actually less powerful now than she was prior to the rework; her popularity has dropped since then.
So far. Even with the context I have provided, there’s still a lot of the picture missing. Scrutinizing the data even more, let’s take a look at Mercy’s current pickrate for each competitive rank:
- Mercy’s current pickrate in Bronze is 10.44%.
- Mercy’s current pickrate in Silver is 11.14%.
- Mercy’s current pickrate in Gold is 11.16%.
- Mercy’s current pickrate in Platinum is 10.69%.
- Mercy’s current pickrate in Diamond is 10.94%.
- Mercy’s current pickrate in Master is 12.75%.
- Mercy’s current pickrate in Grandmaster is 13.68%.
If you’re a normal person with a variety of ways to spend your free time and a variety of people to spend it with, these pickrates are probably meaningless to you. If you have been analyzing Mercy’s pickrate for a year now, you should find this set of data alarming.
Allow me to enlighten you normal people. Mercy’s overall pickrate prior to her rework was high, but she was never meta; her high pickrate came from her popularity alone, not an irregularity in balance. This is why Mercy’s pickrate was higher than Ana’s in season 3 despite being pushed out of the meta by her.
Why is this alarming, you might ask? Take the above set of data and compare it to the same set of data back in early August of 2017 (before the rework):
- Bronze: 13.68%
- Silver: 13.92%
- Gold: 13.51%
- Platinum: 12.46%
- Diamond: 11.14%
- Master: 9.16%
- Grandmaster: 5.14%
No, I didn’t pull these from memory. I pulled them from one of my older threads.
Consider that Grandmaster is the most accurate portrayal of what is viable and meta in the ladder. Most players who get there are serious enough about winning that they will use the most effective compositions even if they aren’t that fun to play.
And… Mercy’s pickrate in GM today is more than 2.5 times what it was pre-rework.
Taking this even further, the current balance state is far more exclusive regarding healers than it was before Mercy’s rework. Prior to Mercy’s rework, Lucio and Zenyatta were the meta healers, both of whom had higher GM pickrates than Mercy or Ana (I don’t have Lucio or Zenyatta’s GM pickrates from the time documented). Third place for healer pickrate in GM was Ana at 5.63%. Last place was Mercy, which I already stated to be 5.14%.
Go back to Overbuff and contrast that to the difference in healer pickrates in GM this past month.
- Mercy: 13.68%.
- Zenyatta: 12.93%.
- Brigitte: 3.21%.
- Ana: 2.43%.
- Lucio: 1.36%.
- Moira: 0.80%.
The gap is far larger than before. Mercy/Zenyatta is completely dominating the support stage. The Dive meta may have favored Lucio/Zenyatta, but it never pushed Mercy or Ana as far under as Mercy/Zenyatta are now to other healers.
The statistics point to Mercy being overpowered, and the forums are once again calling for Mercy nerfs. All I can say to that is: I TOLD YOU SO.
I’m referring to this thread. Okay, maybe I got the time frame way off, but I wasn’t incorrect in my overall prediction. Yes, I’m bragging.
"Mercy isn’t overpowered; the other supports are just underpowered. Mercy is the only viable main healer."
This is a throwback to some of my first megaposts…
If Mercy hasn’t become more powerful through the rework, why has she risen in dominance since then? Mercy was never in the meta before then, and now she completely dominates one.
Of course, the typical reaction to this is “All of the other healers have been nerfed repeatedly”, which simply isn’t true.
- Ana has received two buffs and no nerfs since August of 2017, and yet her pickrate dropped from 5.63% to 2.43% in GM.
- Brigitte is clearly very strong, as her introduction killed the Dive Meta, and she has kept it dead since then. She’s sitting at a 3.21% pickrate in GM.
- Lucio was shafted pretty hard by the Ultimate Changes that went live in October of 2017, but has since received a buff to his Wall-Ride. Some changes to Sombra indirectly nerfed Lucio, but Sombra is still flaming garbage, so that didn’t make much of a difference. The few changes he has received cannot explain being replaced in the Dive Meta by a “balanced” hero and dropping to a 1.36% GM pickrate. Raises questions as to just how balanced the “balanced” hero is.
- Moira just got shafted by the “bug fix” that came through this most recent patch. So the assertion that the other healers are garbage works out for her. 0.80% GM pickrate.
- Zenyatta has been meta for over a year now and no one seems to care. Whatever.
Being that most of the other healers have either remained in roughly the same spot or have been buffed since season 5, Mercy’s rise to power can only be explained by her own imbalance.
Now that that has been established, what about Mercy’s kit makes her overpowered?
"It’s her healing!"
You mean the healing that has barely changed since season 5, mechanically and statistically? The only mechanical change in regards to her healing since the rework was the introduction of Valkyrie, and her average healing is actually lower than it was before the rework despite this:
Average healing/game as of June 28th, 2017 (pre-rework): 11905.
Average healing/game as of August 12, 2017 (pre-rework): 11912.
Average healing/game as of March 21st, 2018 (post-rework): 11926.
Average healing/game as of May 31st, 2018 (post-rework): 11603.
Average healing/game as of June 30th, 2018 (post-rework): 11752.
"It’s her damage boost!"
You mean the other thing that hasn’t changed much since the rework? Again, the only mechanical change to this was Valkyrie. The statistical difference between then and now is noticeable, but it still isn’t enough to explain anything.
Average damage amplified/game as of July 28th, 2017 (pre-rework): 593.
Average damage amplified/game as of August 12th, 2017 (pre-rework): 542.
Average damage amplified/game as of June 30th, 2018 (post-rework): 752.
Does an increase of 200 damage amplified seem like a lot? It’s not. Before you get latched on “Wow Valkyrie so powerful!”, you might want to know that Orisa currently gets 874 damage amplified/game, and she doesn’t even have a damage amplifier on her alternate fire. Clearly, she’s not picked because her ultimate is so good.
"It’s her mobility with Guardian Angel!"
The only change this has received since season 5 was the Angel Hop, which was partially functional before the rework anyway. The rework made it better, but it also now includes it as part of GA’s cast, delaying the beginning of the ability’s cooldown. By using it, the player is increasing the duration between GA uses.
"It’s her pistol!"
This is a joke. I have yet to see someone say her pistol is the source of her dominance.
If you think it it is, you are a joke.
The source of Mercy’s dominance?
Mercy didn’t become overpowered because of something that barely changed, if at all. She became overpowered because of something that was changed drastically: Resurrect.
Resurrect is no longer paced by the player’s performance; it is paced by a static 30 second cooldown. Despite the numerous nerfs to it, it is still more powerful than Resurrect when it was an ultimate. It’s availability can no longer by influenced by eliminating the Mercy, and Mercy players will now use it much earlier in the fight, making counterplay only feasible within the 1.75 second duration in which it is being cast. That would be assuming that the Mercy is vulnerable to attack while casting Resurrect; she often isn’t.
A version of Resurrect that is available on a consistent basis and is always used for tempo-Resurrections is far more powerful than a version of Resurrect that isn’t available on a consistent basis, isn’t available at the beginning of the game, and has variety in numerical value.
You want Mercy to be balanced? Take Resurrect off Mercy’s E ability. Put it where it belongs as her ultimate, or don’t put it in Mercy’s kit at all.
![:popcorn:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/popcorn.png?v=5" ":popcorn:")
