If Mercy were to get ONE of the two following buffs in exchange for a shorter ult duration, which one would you pick?
Both beams become roughly 50% more powerful during Valkyrie (90hps, 50% damage boost) & ignore DPS passive
OR
Successfully resurrecting a teammate during Valkyrie triggers a chain reaction, rezzing additional teammates in the area
The first buff is ideal for pushing into a teamfight, but still can’t do much to protect Mercy’s team against enemy ults.
The second provides actual counterplay to enemy ults & is a solid “comeback mechanic” against snowball-y teamwipes in general, but is far more situational.
The second Mercy passive seems like a great addition to her kit. However, I would restrict it a bit: make it one other teammate, maybe two, and complete RNG. The passive including an option to resurrect the tank, say, would make Mercy too much of a game changer.
“Too much of a game-changer”??? Dude, it’s an ULTIMATE ability. Other heroes are already allowed to have massive game-changer ults… Zen’s ult deals 500hps in a massive AoE, Mei’s ult freezes the entire screen solid, Dva’s ult literally deals 1,000 explosion damage.
It’s hypocritical to say that Mercy shouldn’t be allowed to have a game-changer ult, too.
Yeah, ok, my apologies. I totally forgot about Zen’s ult. In that case, sure, Mercy’s Valkyrie rez passive would be fantastic, especially as an infrequent Mercy player.
I’d like to add another rather overpowered Ultimate - Illari’s Captive Sun. When it works well, it literally steamrolls entire teams.
A 50% damage boost is a bit crazy. It’s even crazier if you have it during Valk when you can damage boost the entire team. I know it’s the same value Supercharger used to have but Supercharger was a stationary turret with 200hp. Mercy is a highly mobile target that gets even more mobility options opened up for her during Valk.
I don’t think most people want the return of moth meta. This just pushes Mercy further in that direction. Having multiple resurrects was deemed too strong in a 6v6 environment and will be even stronger in a 5v5 one - targeted or not.
It feels to me like both of these are a little ridiculous in their own way.
Transcendence also lasts only 6 seconds vs 15 seconds. We could turn Valk into transcendence if you want. This would mean significantly nerfing the duration.
Damage boosting the entire time at once with the current values for up to 15 seconds is strong. It’s just not flashy in the same way something like Transcendence or Self Destruct can be.
I’ll take both of these buffs if during Kiri’s ult team also gets a minor 25% damage buff and any teammate who is about to die gets an instant suzu effect.
I mentioned in the very first sentence of my OP that either option would result in Valkyrie having a shorter duration.
As for the suggested resurrect change: Moth Meta only came about when Mercy was allowed multiple SINGLE-TARGET resurrects. I’m not suggesting bringing that back. Mercy would only get one shot at rez, which is a lot more fair to play against than dealing with a “moth” frequently rezzing kills.
When you only have four targets you can resurrect it’s way less likely to matter that the “chain” is random. It’ll just move back towards being a Mercy Rez meta while having less time to react to it because she doesn’t have to cast the ability multiple times.
She would need more then that to justify a 50% damage boost. She would need her wings clipped. As I said Supercharger is the only other ultimate in the game that has ever given a 50% damage boost. A 200hp stationary turret.
Going AFK and not playing the game is throwing. That’s always going to be less effective than actually playing the game.
Source: I actually played during the so-called “Mass Rez Mercy” era. Most of the rezzes performed back then were 2-3 man tempo rezzes, NOT “mass rezzes.”
If your Mercy was throwing fights to try and get a “Mass Rez,” then you had a troll on your hands. Which nearly always resulted in losing the match.
For crying out loud, who started the myth that this troll strat was in any way effective? You may as well claim that the most effective way to play Symmetra 1.0 was tricking teammates into killing themselves via placing her teleporter at the edge of cliffs.
Bap is tied to one location and is a big window type of deal so it doesn’t even extend like old orisa ult.
Hell, we can even use old orisa ult as an example. Was also a 50% team wide damage boost that extended farther out. But it was also 200 hp and stuck in that location you put it in, so you could destroy it.
Now imagine that but tied to a character flying at mach 80, with more HP than the stagnant object. Sure it’s one less person getting value out of it (well technically 2 since we’re in 5v5 now but regardless) but that’s still a 50% damage boost that isn’t going to go away unlike old orisa ult which was much more manageable to destroy and couldn’t push / follow the team around it was benefitting.
I played then too. It was horrible for the game. People didn’t like playing into it, and mercy players didn’t like playing it. It absolutely promoted afk behavior. Your idea #2 is just not great.
Rez should eventually be removed completely. Making it stronger is not the answer. Between the two options you gave, I’d much rather have option #1