But Mercy’s primary mechanics are easy and don’t suffer from the same interruptions that Ana and Moira suffer from.
And they still have to charge ultimates.
And they each have their own issues when ulting.
Moira’s is very good to heal with in non-ult team fights and can be used to deal damage at the same time because of piercing. That is good. But, the consequence is that she can be easily interrupted or killed because she is not able to use fade. She also suffers from not being able to heal through barriers, which she surely deserves to be able to especially with how much closer she has to be to the fights. Her aoe healing, comes because she has to control where it goes. She also has no utility which really could be put on her orbs (like she could have slows with damage on one and like firing speed increase and healing on the other but with the current heals and damage values lowered to make room) and her fade IMO needs 1 second taken off the cooldown so she can perhaps clutch save people as much as Mercy can so there is a “slightly” more mechanical support that contends with Mercy’s spot better. She would be able to be used as a slightly more offensive Mercy but still contending for her position in a different way. This wouldn’t be bad, especially if Mercy gets put in a good place.
Ana, the mechanical queen of supports. Can be hecking ranged, can tell her team to step back into LOS and blast them with heals, etc. She’s pretty good but I think the after heals Moira has could benefit her because Ana needs something to give her a little more consistency and better combination with her own grenade. Because if Mercy returns to a decent position, it is likely Mercy’s will still out-heal her because Mercy’s are consistent and good at managing it. After heals will give her the much needed forgiveness to people who want to learn her but still don’t hit all their healing shots, but will give her important time she needs to spread her focus around. And perhaps makes her more forgiving to be used in more than just tank heavy comps. Because, she can shoot a squishy and let after heals do the rest for a bit and the after heal with a grenade could perhaps hold a tank long enough for her to shoot a squish and then go back to the tank. Giving her a little more time to spread her shots around a little more could really benefit people trying to learn her. Would it make her OP? Idk, but it wouldn’t hurt to test because as it is there is no other way to gradually work your way up to Ana and using, what is IMO the hardest ability in the game of her sleep dart. If you can hardly hit shots normally, then sleep dart will cause your death on her and you are learning with no other options to get you slowly to her level. Her ultimate, she charges it up to give it away to practically turn someone into the hulk and even saving their life in the process too. It’s amazing but whether or not she gets the assists, well the lower you go, the less you get because people don’t make the most value out of your ult.
Mercy is consistent. This is her shtick. She gets a decent rate of healing but only one beam of it and she has to make the most of it. She needs to be challenged but without increasing the mechanical skill required. She doesn’t do damage much herself, but that can be a danger to the team because all other supports can and such loss in damage could make your team feel at a disadvantage so the DB is there to give someone enough power increase to make up for the fact she does so much less damage than other supports. Even her damage boost numbers with her damage match the other supports, but it isn’t necessarily about how much damage is done, but timing. When you do it, does it secure a kill? That is just as good, even if it isn’t listed in your stats. Her challenges do not come through mechanically, perhaps she needs an ability that does so but even Rez was not something that was about mechanical challenge, it was still about mind games and positioning and awareness. This was not bad and it was also easily countered by poor planning on the Mercy’s part. Being the easier character, the higher you climb the more of an uphill battle it is. You are easily countered and how you take control of a situation where people counter you is how you solidified that you deserved to be there. Mass Rez also forced her to work with the team, it solidified the mindset that “this is a team game and i need to help my team win”.
So much of her kit relied on empowering others by doing her job well to make up for the fact that she is not as active herself compared to other supports, but she has no choice in many cases to work to better her team whereas every other support can be used selfishly.
They can all go and be DPS if they want to, whether or not it is right or the most effective can be argued upon.
Moira, Lucio and Zen can all ult and use it selfishly. Moira to damage and not heal. Zen and Lucio to save themselves and literally not use it on anyone else if they don’t care and I see it happen frequently.
Ana’s ult is the only one who can’t be used selfishly, but even so they can still be DPS focused.
This is the issue I see with your changes, I see the concept of people activating the ult selfishly, to heal only them and go run around with her pistol because of extra damage. Battle Mercy is already possible, but I don’t necessarily think it is something we should be overly endorsing on her kit. Battle Mercy’s always will, they just take greater advantage of it by having Valk and likely will with your suggestion.
