When is a mercy skilled?

General Discussion
21

i’ll have you know i’m a pretty scary TDM Battle Mercy!

22

Moira is easier to play than Mercy imo. (From my experience)

6 Likes
23

I mean, I’d agree with that, but I think it’s more that people underestimate how hard it is to play Mercy well than anything bad about Moira.

4 Likes
24

tbf, a lot of characters get dumbed down when they become meta.

mercy has to worry about keeping people alive a lot more now than when she had to during moth meta cause she had two free rezzes. she also has to choose rezzes more carefully now than before cause they’re no longer instant.

doomfist used to be more about roll outs and bugs. but now he’s just a punch bot to combo with orisa pull.

hanzo got hella simplified to an ult farmer during grav dragon meta.

brig mains (the few that are left) got a lot more respect when goats ended.

probably only exception to this would be most characters during dive meta, they weren’t considered easy during the meta for the most part and that really didn’t change after dive had its run.

2 Likes
25

Mercy has also had a lot of movement mechanics added to her kit via adopted bugs, so her movement is a lot more nuanced and tricky now.

26

I’m not a mercy main so take my word as you will. What I find in a mercy skilled is when:

  1. They whip out the pistol on flankers and use the whambulance voice line.

  2. If they have a very little amount of deaths, from good use of GA and even super jump.

  3. When they have gold healing, despite having another main healer on their team.

Just my 2 cents.

27

I’d say gold healing is actually potentially a bad thing, when you have another main healer, let them take care of it, when push comes to shove, your hps won’t be enough anyway. Instead help out by damage boosting more. Imo a sad state for mercy to be in, but that’s definitely better than just trying to get to every damaged person first to get that gold.

2 Likes
28

If I am getting healed, she is skilled. It is that simple. And only a small fraction of them are skilled. Such a high skill gap hero, or her players think they are tank healers. Whatever.

29

Just to tweak your statement some to encompass all situations ever.

32

If

If you can keep your healing gold when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can meet with Torbjorn and Doom
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To Distract the Sniper long after they are Flanked upon
Or watch the players you gave your rez to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can wait in queue and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Yours is the Earth and SuperJump that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Mercy Main, my son!

(After Rudyard Kipling)

33

Mercy skill is her movement and game awareness. You watch a gold mercy in comparison to a master gm mercy. The way they move and navigate the map is completely different they far more confident and flud in there movement. Also they understand when and who to piroritise with damage boost. They can ult track. And when rezzing they understanding how to value risk and reward to determine whether rezzing that target is good enough in this moment in time in the team fight

1 Like
34

At the highest level of play she is probably extremely hard.
With people who are actually good knowing to focus her, mistakes must be minimized to almost 0 per match when playing Mercy.
Especially since the other supports are just better
Mercy is more of an enabler than anything else

2 Likes
35

I would agree with this, she has almost no margin for error.

In the context of healing, relatively low HPS means a mistake can lead to chain reaction that she doesn’t have the resources to stop.

In the context of positioning/mobility, every time you die her resource limitations compound and can lead to a snowball effect.

2 Likes
36
  1. They don’t waste their rez.
  2. They don’t do the “frontline suicide rez” unless it is absolutely necessary (overtime etc.)
  3. The are where their team needs them
  4. They aren’t where the enemy can get them
  5. They occasionally use their pistol
  6. They are always “on the fly”
  7. They use the “Hustle” emote after gunning you down :angel:
37

Mercy’s skill depends on the enemy’s willingness to acknowledge her existence. Apparently a lot harder than it sounds.

38

Playing mobile dps makes it obvious which mercy players are skilled. For example, If I’m playing genji the first sign would be if our mercy is always using GA to jump in and out of my fights with heals/boost. The amount of work i can get done is huge compared to having a mercy who positions herself like a Zenyatta.

The second sign is how well they prioritise targets. Are they dmg boosting the easiest target or are they boosting who needs it most at the time? Basically mercy’s who are always aware of whats going on around them and use their mobility actively are a different class of player then your usual healbot

39

when you don’t die, bc you have good positioning/awareness, know how and when to do supperjump, and your overall movement makes you become a tracer in world of supports. Res 1 person per teamfight, and enable your dps in between and don’t stick pocketing tanks.

40

When she can kill a Pharah during valk :laughing:

41

Healing with Mercy is an art, not a science. That’s like asking “When is a painting good?” Some just are and you know it when you see it.

2 Likes
42

Heroes are only ever skilled if you win with them.

If you die to them, they’re the least skilled heroes possible.

1 Like