Part of me often wonders what the reaction to mercy would have been if they went with the original concept design of a black male
can’t post links 
Would the stereotype of the boosted gril gamer, or the people only play her because ‘waifu’ still exist…and would the hate have been as strong
Easy there, it was just a friendly bet to see if this thread would become the most liked given yours was the current holder of the title. It wasn’t personal.
Also, I really would like for Lucio to play Mexican music when hacked, it would be hilarious!
Doubt it, it’s not like people think Widow mains are mostly females… the perception is rather “low skill = female player base” rather than “female character = female player base”.
well its good that we agree on something then amirite? 
For the record, I liked the OP in your thread. Probably have a post in there somewhere too. I don’t see why we can’t support both.
Still, you can’t deny that if they had stuck to their original design then more male players would be playing Mercy. There’s a reason why Overwatch is popular among both male and female playerbases, they have a large variety of heroes that most people can identify with no matter what their gender. Had they kept the old design black men would have had an easier time connecting with the character just like how many black men relate to Lucio and Doomfist (especially since “representation” of black men in popular media often portrays loud and aggressive behavior so a passive pacifist would be a fresh take on this demographic and likely something many black men could relate to).
Edit: Also misogyny is still very much present in gaming culture, glaringly so.
I get this feeling from others as well, and it bothers me a lot. The only way a certain character is acceptable is when they aren’t a threat or are insignificant? It’s irritating. Everyone else can make big plays, and Mercy gets to sit there and heal everyone making the bigs plays without being able to do so herself. It’s really stripped her of her hero status, in my eyes. This is why I say she is now a sidekick in a roster of heroes.
To tie this into the thread, she’d feel like a hero again with these changes, with and without her ult.
Honestly at this point i would be ok with One Res as Ultimate… 0.8 cast time, 10-15 m range.
Rezzing one soul will reset GA.
Rezzing the soul, will spread for 10 m a burst healing of 150 hp. SO rezzing one-> healing others
Absolutely agreed. She needs to have SOME sort of major impact on the game - that’s the point of her existing. But exclusively DPS mains don’t want that because she’s “no skill”.
Pretty much, look at Brig. She’s balanced when it comes to her skills and what she can do but everyone wants her nerfed into the ground over ‘muh skill’. She already got 3-4 nerfs and people are still complaining, when it’s more of a player problem then a Brig problem.
Why you have to be mad, is only a game. ¯\(ツ)/¯
maybe missing a forearm
Thank you, I fixed it. Don’t ask how you replace a forearm. >.>;;
Huh im not mad lol
Thats why i came back with a bet of my own
Your bet is heavily sided on you as adding music to play when lucio is hacked isn’t as resource intensive as a rework would be.
JS its a pretty rigged bet
Of course its rigged. Mass rez would never come back lol
Brawl buddy, lets get this discussion on ^^
That’s fine, I wrote a lot anyways
You have to forgive and understand that I am basically trying to be neutral at this point. I like Titanium’s idea but having been in the business I know that even the best idea gets turned down because of some random curveball that the idea guy or girl did not think about.
Therefore, what I am insisting on, is that we all look at the bigger picture and not solely what is best for Mercy. You have to consider potential composition, synergy and combo’s. Possible counters to her and the Pro’s and Con’s of each proposed idea.
In the creative industry, whether it is art, graphic designs, web or games… it is all about trial and error and refinement. One of the most annoying process is proposal and the ability to persuade others that this is a good idea.
If I was the person at the meeting hearing this idea, I would say no on the principle that this does not balance the game as a whole, it only benefits Mercy and the idea is nice but it needs refining. It benefits her and it does not meet the immediate goals of what Blizzard is looking for and that is to maintain her pick rate at a stable, but not dominant position/escalated rate and to satisfy both DPS and Mercy mains alike.
Pacify is nice but it doesn’t stop someone from going… hold on… what if this undoes all our efforts to reduce her pick rates? We want people to BE PLAYING OTHER SUPPORTS and WE WANT THE META TO CHANGE, SO THAT THERE IS MORE FLEXIBILITY wouldn’t this idea proposes a possibility Mercy will be picked more and more? We’ll be back to square one.
I will not kid you, this is usually what a Product Management/Community Management and leading game management meetings is like… there is a likelihood that someone who is not hardcore about the game or not completely familiar with the game will throw a wrench at the person with the proposal.
Also regarding those hero’s that can counter her… (there too much to read… so not sure which version of mass res Titanium suggested) but if it is the Effect Occurs at End of Resurrect with the standard 1 second cast time, then that in itself in a pretty big handicap and can lead to another of stupid ult failures… but at the end of the day… it is ideal since it allows us to stop her.
If it is the Res occurs at the Start of Animation then it means Res will never fail but Mercy has the chance of dying like pre-1.0
Whilst this is true, this is only in reference to ultimate interference. During an ultimate exchange/show down.
Whilst Mercy’s skill won’t have the same level of impact as Sleep Dart or Shield Bash, it is still an ability that will dampen the Damage dealt by damage dealing class like Tanks and DPS, Tanks who need to be able to apply pressure and push the front line and DPS who have to make their picks to progress the course of the engagement.
Not only is damage dampen, but DPS players will also suffer slower ult charge as they will be dealing less damage. Support ult won’t gain any faster as we won’t be healing more per se… but we do benefit from have better management over health.
Status effects is definitely something this game will progress towards in the future but it is a matter of whether or not this new feature should added to Mercy. Heck… if Res stayed as her E ability and Pacify was her ult instead of Valkyrie, it would still be a powerful ultimate, the ability to dampen damage up to 33% is insanely strong in its own right, but it isn’t really a ‘Healer Quality’.
To have both Mass Res and a powerful semi-ultimate or borderline towards ultimate level ability is way too much for Mercy. There is no compromise in the proposed idea to compensate for these two abilities.
Nerfing someone by a third of their damage output is too much, nerfing them by 25% might be ok but even that is quite a significant chunk… dropping it any further and the damage reduced could be quite minuscule to the point you might want to question it’s worth.
Not to mention, what value this will actually add to Mercy’s based performance stats. People are sprouting stuff like this will differentiate the Mercy’s from good and bad… but this BS was sprouted during 2.0 announcement.
Mercy’s core values are
Pacify would fall into Defensive Assist category, a value we already painfully get quite easily. The main differential status mentioned and noted during Megathread 1 were Eliminations, Damage Done, Resurrection Average and Offensive Assist and to this day these core values still differentiate the Mercy’s but the gap has gotten closer as Damage Boosting is easier in Valkyrie and Resurrection has slowed down.
Whilst E-Sports is important for the dev’s… it isn’t something we should be bitterly hung up on. The Dev’s DO NOT want a dominant trend, hero or Meta. If Mercy creeps up the pick rates again or if she becomes dominant the nerf hammer will come again and again… and again… until she drops and stays put for a while to allow for flexibility, changes and a new trend to settle in for a while before returning to fix her.
At the moment a lot of people are bragging how on a ‘Weekly’ statistic she is looking bad, how badly she is dropping. Do you know why I have not made a fuss about it… heck this is nothing more than a rehash of the debate I had with Nicolas in February. It is because Blizzard does not look at the stats the way people are interpreting the data.
Also whilst it is something that you guys have considered, did you look at it from a corporate perspective? From a Game Developer and business side of things?
I have been in the Gaming Industry for 5 years, I have been in a fair share of meetings going over gaming balance and ideas and suggestions proposed by players and by members of that games internal team. Yes, I will not deny that Titanium’s idea is good… but from experience, I know this the type of proposal that can be shot down due to one or two reasons that you guys can argue against to push forward, but from their perspective, it doesn’t address their immediate concerns.
To fix Mercy, we should not push her to greater heights or to make her potentially more powerful than before. This proposed version of Mercy (which I am going to called 4.0) will be more powerful than any past iteration of Mercy.
Blizzard has ANNOYINGLY dug their own grave by refusing to revert and rework Mercy. Mercy on a base level, is actually quite balance… Only resurrect needed fixing at the time. E was a give or take, it was something we would like to have but no matter how we looked at it… it was going to break Mercy or make her even more versatile and more of a must pick than her supposed ‘must pick state’
I am trying to be neutral and looking at the bigger picture here. Because it doesn’t benefit Mercy or the DPS players to stand on one side.
I will give constructive criticism because this idea needs further refinement to achieve an optimal level of persuasion so that there is no need to further rework or regret implementation.
As a Designer, I cannot accept this idea after simulating the Pro’s and Con’s.
In the Beta we know the Res occurring at the End (Like the current Skill) doesn’t work nor fit well with the ultimate
We know from 1 year of gameplay that Res occurring at the Start is unstoppable because the Res will ALWAYS go through.
Invulnerable denied too much because it prevents Mercy from dying and therefore there was no payment for Resurrect, yet ironically the Death on Res returns in the current Skill! This completely goes against the argument in early 2017 when Blizzard stated Mercy should not die for her Res and that potentially dying for a res is worthy price to pay.
Also I get that the proposed idea is great it is fantastic but from a DESGIN PERSPECTIVE you are literally forcing yourselves down a different path that is potentially as bad as Invulnerable if not worst.
Not only can you Mass Res which I agree, it should be her ultimate… but burst heal on top of also being able to churn out 60 consistent HPS and receiving additional support from her team mates as well as having a damage debuffer that can dampen damage and therefore reduce kills is far too much for 1 single Support.
Bare in mind Mercy with just 10 extra HPS and a disciplined team at her side… she alone can solo heal and if there is a gap between her team and the enemy, Mercy can actually fight without the expense of her ult. And we want to give this Hero more versatility.
Already the other supports are hitting a dead end at what can actually be added to them to make them rival Mercy.
Ok, let’s say this idea goes through, Blizzard have made the necessary adjustments… now what? Do we keep upping DPS damage? Do we introduce a Anti-Mercy Hero? Do we add new features to existing heroes to counter Mercy?
HOW DO YOU IMPROVE THE OTHER SUPPORTS SO THAT WE CHOOSE THEM OVER MERCY?
If this version of Mercy went live, I would choose her 95% of the time. There is no reason to go any other form of support unless someone is locked in as her.
As a Prime Healer, Mercy is the one and only choice, she is too good to pass up and there is no BS about skill or Rank… Mercy is as good as the player makes her out to be and as good as the team allows her to perform.
The only thing she can’t do with this proposal and in 1.0 is solo survive without a team mate to lock on to, or fight off a surprise 1 on 1 ambush.
Either there is further compromise to her Healing rate in Base Mode to make up for the frankly, powerful Pacify Skill and the strong Mass Res with Burst Healing ability… or Pacify is nerfed and Res doesn’t burst.
Because honestly… screw the Hide and Res rumour… disengagement is not an uncommon tactic… No Mercy in their right mind would knowingly jump into a wave of ultimates.
Area of Effect has it’s limitations because you are not actively trying to get everyone within your range and Humans don’t behave in such a way they will jump in and die in a neat pile for you to resurrect just within 15 metres from the other side of the war, not to mention taking into account the time it takes to get around said wall.
Changing it to line of sight is OK, but it will come with natural risk.
If Pacify goes through, then we cannot have Burst healing up to 150HPS… that is 2/3 of Mercy’s Health Pool and majority of the DPS’s as well as a quarter of tanks HP.
Yes a counter ult might undo the res… yes you could burst down the resurrected… these are all potential counters but it doesn’t change the fact we are offering too much to her.
Definitely my bad for leaving at the very start of the foundation of the Mercy Discord.
But at the end of the day, as someone who is a Gamer, Designer, Game Master that deals with Community relationship, interaction and feedback within the gaming industry, I have a certain pride to uphold by doing my best to remain neutral and non-bias.
As a Mercy player and Overwatch Gamer, I want what is best for Mercy, but as someone who works in said industry… I want what is best for the game and community as a whole. You cannot sacrifice any one aspect of the game, because it will risk alienation of your gaming community.
I know what it is like to stand on one side and support said side but doing doing so will not benefit the protesters because they refuse to the see the other side or the bigger picture.
The last thing we want is to fulfil the wishes of the haters by actually becoming a true Mercy cult, someone who thinks only about Mercy and not the game as a whole.
Also it is fine that you guys have discussed this for a month, but welcome to the world know as the Creative Industry where constructive criticism is a …
40+ of you have come up with the idea but the moment I throw a spanner your way, you can’t seem to work your way around it. Instead I get the sensation you wish to preserve EVERY aspect of this idea without acknowledging any pointed out flaws to then take, refine and represent.
As creative designers, we don’t strive for perfection. There is no such thing as a perfect end product. There is only refinement and trial and error.
Can you honestly, admit that Pacify as an ability that has a reasonable chance of hitting someone (despite barrier blocks) and nerfing them by 1/3 of their damage output if a justified and fair ability? Especially when paired with Mass res and Burst healing.
That the ability itself will not affect, not just affect Mercy standing within the game, but also the decision to select other supports due to the fact she can dampen damage of enemies, provide consistent healing, boost ally damage, burst heal and mass res and have great mobility.
This idea is no different than, for example giving Zenyatta a boost to viability by having Discord orb deal 10 Damage over Time, as well as causing people to take more damage. His healing orbs to burst heal 50 HP and heal over time and then Transcendence to Heal and Resurrect.
At the end of the day, are we looking to improve Mercy’s versatility? Or addressing her Balance whilst retaining Viability and allowing a form of so called counter/penalty.
Then in which case, you should should able to answer my question.
Do you have to have Burst Heal on Resurrect?
If Yes, then do we need Pacify?
If we have Pacify, should it reduce someone damage by a 1/3rd of their output?
Does this change justify the fact that Mercy will 100% not creep or receive ANY form of Pick Rate climbing?
Are all these proposed elements necessary?
Does this Benefit the game in the upcoming changes between now and mid 2018? When the next big changes/shift will change before the 2019 World Cup?
Are the other supports going to remain viable replacements to Mercy in the long run. Example… to choose handicapped Main Healers like Ana and Moira over Mercy.
Should other heroes receive buff to counter Mercy? Example improvements to Ana’s nade to counter the Burst heal wave… perhaps allowing Sombra’s Emp to affect Souls from being resurrected, more supports that will specialise in Damage Boosting or Heal Negation/dampening. Improvements to DPS damage… introducing more CC and status effects such as a Blindless and more Damage over Time Heroes that can deal poisons more potent than venom mine.
Yeah but the problem is that people are only seeing Overwatch as a DPS game.
People are turned off by this game because of drama and endless division between players.
Make Mercy Great Again
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