I really hate that Jeff’s dev update when the rework happened he really stressed how they needed something for mercy that matches the impact of mass rez. Then nerfed it 9 or ten times. Obviously they are far from what they originally intended. These are bandaids on top of bandaids.
So now we are on the fifth mega thread with like 50,000 total comments but they say they want our feedback. No, no you don’t.
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They change their minds, and currently are working hard to erase any chances of “comeback” for losing teams.
That is fine, if they don’t want to have something to reverse a fight outside of the saving ults we have, but that doesn’t mean it is okay for her ult to completely defy the core design of her base kit.
They need to communicate it better, bevause Mercy does not reflect what they were trying to change her to and she will never feel satisfactory if they make her that way.
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I meant whole tendency. D.va is currently another hero, that had this “comeback” potential, by using DM to eat ultimate, that was supposed to be final nail in the coffin of other team.
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I have something to contribute on this.
What attracted me to Mercy in the first place, and what pushed me away from her current design comes down to:
1: Mental multitasking and creative problem solving. Classic Mercy had a lot of it, and the better you were at it the better value you got out of Mercy - it was her premier method of skill expression. This engendered a very “chessmaster” like playstyle/mindset, and it employed a good amount of on-the-fly puzzle solving because the “best” way to use ult-rez was rarely the same thing twice.
2: The powerfantasy of “the savior”. Classic Mercy’s big “power moment” was rescuing her teammates when they thought all hope was lost - or alternatively, being a beacon of hope to your team even in their darkest hour.
What pushed me away from Mercy:
The destruction of the “flow state” achieved from tight compression of mental multitasking: In her current form, the amount of mental multitasking Mercy can employ to improve her performance is a shadow of its former self. It’s not enough to keep me engaged anymore.
The destruction of the “chessmaser” skill curve: There is no significant puzzle-solving (by my standards) involved in deciding the best way to use Mercy’s E/Q. Being really good at multitasking only translates into better Mercy value up to a point that’s reached very early compared to any other hero.
Once that point is reached, Mercy experiences a hard limit (that is unique to her) on how value she can provide, and how much skill she can express as an individual.
What “huge plays” mercy has left available to her no longer come down to the Mercy player themself having a “galaxy brain” moment and being 5 steps ahead of everyone else to make a scalpel strike at exactly the right place at exactly the right time when “it’s time to shine”. Her kit doesn’t really have anything that can take advantage of that kind of skill-set.
The destruction of the “savior” power fantasty: There is nothing Mercy can do to significantly hinder an alert, competent enemy’s effort’s to kill her teammate.
She can’t out-heal any enemy’s damage if they can aim worth a darn (even with Valkryie),
Her ult can’t even save one ally from a single enemy’s primary fire,
She can’t deploy any shields or other protective measures,
She doesn’t have access to any status effects that can hinder an enemy’s attacks (either by buffing an ally or debuffing an enemy). Damage boost does not qualify in this regard, because it’s only useful if your ally is already winning the duel,
And E rez doesn’t work against alert, competent enemies, because they will kill Mercy during her long self-imposed stun.
Seeing a teammate get focused down by a lone enemy and killed, knowing that there’s nothing Mercy could have done to stop it (she can’t even rez them without getting killed for trying) makes me feel helpless, useless, and overall emasculated.
To add insult to injury, I know that literally any other healer in the same situation could have saved that teammate where Mercy failed. Mercy - the dedicated healer, the guardian angel, the quintessential support - is the worst possible choice when you need someone to come to your rescue.
It’s like buying a racing car that has sacrificed nearly everything for “moar speed”. It doesn’t have comfortable seats, heating/ac, side mirrors, a radio, or even any other seats other than the driver’s seat. But then you find out that the standard family car has all of those things and is faster than your bare-bones racer. What was the point in all of those sacrifices, then?
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I view Mercy’s E rez and Valkyrie as moves that detract from player agency instead of add to it. E rez for obvious reasons - the long cast time/slow makes it paramount to a self-stun - but I include Valkyrie because it takes away what little multitasking Mercy has left and automates it for the duration of her ult.
I want more mental multitasking, and I want more skill expression that scales with the player’s RTS (real-time-strategy) capabilities.
Some Valkyrie bashing: Valkyrie may be a “swiss army knife”, but you don’t bring a pocket knife to a gunfight. Sure, it can do many things, but most of them aren’t relevant to the situation and the remaining few that are aren’t anywhere near enough powerful to make a real difference.
I’d rather Mercy be more like bringing a set of throwing knives to a gunfight. They can make a huge difference - but you have to out-smart your enemy, deploy your tools with scalpel-like precision, and use a lot of creative problem solving in order to win the day.
There’s not as much pressure on a knife-user in a fight where everyone’s a beginner - it’s way easier for a newbie to wave a knife around than it is for a noob to get the hang of aiming a gun -but there’s no room for error with throwing knives against highly skilled enemies.
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I wish I could give more types of upvotes.
Like I wish I could love this post because you have expressed in another way exactly how I feel with Mercy.
And this line here is a nice explanation on how we want Mercy to feel if they ever change her again.
It’s like the same 2-3 people raising it back to continue their echo chamber to oblivion. Give it a rest, Mercy is probably the most balanced hero currently in Overwatch. She is fine, she is viable, Mass Rez isn’t coming back.
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Except we don’t want Mass Rez, which proves no one reads or listens.
We want a hero that is engaging which means having an ult that doesn’t baby sit you.
We want an ult that can give a player agency instead of taking it away.
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Yeah, yeah. Sorry, not interested in engaging in an echo chamber with 2-3 people. I’m out. Have fun.
Then why come back? Why interact at all and make your comment about “they want mass rez back” when clearly the people who have been most vocal on this post currently haven’t been asking for Mass Rez but have been asking for a more engaging Mercy.?
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Wow. This fossil is still around? It has almost been a year since this was made. I cannot believe they got away with ignoring all of that feedback. Crazy to think about.
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They make it sound as if Mercy has been completely changed right from her original design. I mean, there is Symmetra where none of her kit is even the same as her previous state.
I can sympathize for Symmetra’s 2.0 mains but Mercy isn’t even changed that much. Her GA, heals and damage boost is still the same. For whatever reason her heals do get nerfed but she is still as competent as ever.
I understand how they feel but the way they overexagerated it makes me feel a little weird about it.
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Isn’t Mercy’s character design is to baby sit her teammate? It was always been like that since day one it’s basically her core design.
Mercy has had adjustments to her entire kit to make room for parts of her kit that just don’t work and it makes the rest of her kit feel rather bad to play with because of it.
Mercy may not have had those things changed, but they have had adjustments or various additions and over hauls.
Her GA now has bunny hop which is actually an improvement, however it is too good because of how frequently you can use it. I dare say it is actually OP while she is with a team and yet still gives her very little self agency.
Heals have been lowered to accommodate E Rez and Chain Healing.
Damage boosts of all kind have been adjusted, but it has a greater impact on Mercy’s agency because she can’t just quickly switch to boost an attack when she can make time for a strong attack. The old damage boost was particularly important for lower ranks because it allowed a Mercy with a team that does not communicate or use optimal team work, to have the choice to damage boost abilities rather than speaking to the team and hope they will tell you when they are going to use their big abilities.
The issue isn’t that we have an issue with her base kit, our issue is that the moment you press Q you are doing the same thing you were already doing but it is easier. And sure, you can say “but Soldier is the same” but it isn’t really when you are at least having a more challenging experience prior to pressing Q and at lower ranks it does challenge the Soldier because it teaches them to pay attention to buildables and open moments to make sure they don’t waste time on their ult. EG. I saw a Soldier activate his ult solo and he had to run away with it, he didn’t pay attention and therefore wasted his ult.
Mercy is already a character who has a fairly low mechanical skill requirement at all times, which means it is crucial that she is provided with challenges. Sil worded the issues pretty clearly and it definitely makes clear why people still want changes.
I don’t want an ult that baby sits me. I don’t want an ult that is the same thing I am doing except it is doing nearly all of the work for me. I don’t want an ult that makes so many of my already basic skill sets easier. I want to be able to express myself as a player. I have played a lot of characters and I can still feel joy in the core way I try and use Mercy but there is nothing more underwhelming than pressing Q and dealing with Valkyrie and watching as it juggles and prioritizes for you, as it makes you GA/positioning meaningless, while it makes your understanding of ammo management meaningless.
I want an ult that lets me provide something else to my team when we are on the brink of failure. It doesn’t have to be huge, but it has to feel like it is noticed and means something. EG. I like the idea of Mercy’s ult lowering enemies damage in an area. It has the potential to increase the chance of her heals being successful but can also severely punish a team, not to the level of a sleep dart but still can shift the fight slightly.
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I will personally keep necroing it until they give me 60 hps back
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It’s not about babysitting.
It’s about supporting a team.
But there is no skill or joy in supporting a team what is supposed to be her most powerful and impactful ability is literally the same thing as her regular left and right click for the player but it takes all the work and skill out of it by adding chain beams, free flight, infinite ammo, hugely increased range, etc.
Ana is supposed to support her team, right?
Ana gets to do this through extremely high player agency all game and thus her ult is very fire and forget with a very easy success rate when put on a worthy player.
But Ana’s self agency is sleep dart and grenade and therefore makes her very engaging.
Mass Rez while impacting her team, only really needed her which meant the success of it was her one moment of high and total player agency that usually came from good planning. Yes, it became less successful higher up the ranks but in general those players needed less healing as well, it is why she is really good in higher ranks.
Mass Rez however, is simultaneously too strong and too weak, but it was always engaging and surprising if you were using it right.
They need to replace both Mass Rez and Valkyrie for good, by providing an ultimate that isn’t so volatile but also actually provides a player with a moment that they feel like they truly felt like they mattered in, like they saw something and planned and reacted and did something.
Valkyrie doesn’t provide a moment where a player feels like they did anything to change a situation, it only secured one that was already possibly going to happen.
If Ana has the potential to have a regular ability that sabotages and ultimate and has a grenade that completely sabotage whilst saving her own team as a regular ability and can swing fights all game, it would be reasonable enough to ask that Mercy has an ultimate that can just shift the momentum of a fight through the possibility of just weakening an enemy push (not stopping or negating but just slowing it, like if you lowered the damage of a pharah ult, it would still hurt but that difference in damage could have saved your tank after a shield went down or even saved the shield, etc.)
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Mercy has always did this, everything about her is supporting her team. And Mercy has never been an a high mechanical skill hero thus it might not be engaging to play as Mercy. And Valkyrie makes Mercy even more easier to play.
But this is also apply to Mercy. In a different way. In lower ranks, your ally hardly stays together in one place within 10 meters. It still needs Mercy to prioritize. And not to mention that Valkyrie is also the easiest ultimate to not get value out of. It’s power lays on it’s duration and if used poorly it can feel very useless but if used properly it can be very usefull.
A very unnecessary and wrong overexageration. Literally the only healer that can save a teammate (ex: D.Va) while underfire by three different people is Moira. Not even Ana can save them.
Mercy has always been like this since day one. Even with 60 hps, when she heals them everything is out of her hand now. It will be decided if the teammate that is being healed can use the advantage or not.
That is Mercy. Since the very beginning, she provided support to her team and then it’s always about if her team can use her support properly or not. Because when an ally is dead while they are assisted by a Mercy, it is never the Mercy’s fault. It’s the ally’s fault for not being able to perform as well even when support is provided.
Mechanically Mercy has never been engaging. She is engaging due to the fact that she needs to stay within 15 meters away from the battle. A good positioning can turn to bad in a matter of seconds and that is where playing as Mercy is engaging.
Valkyrie does improve Mercy’s ability and survivability, but it will all come down to a situation where a Mercy will get into. Sometimes it will benefits Mercy more thus making her less engaging to play and sometimes it will not benefits Mercy thus making her more engaging to play.
And about Valkyrie impact as an ultimate, is about the same as Mass rez is.
Like you said, it can be too strong or too weak. Valkyrie is exactly like that. Both ultimates in the end will be decided if they are useful or not if your teammate is good or not.
I have never use Mass rez in OW, but I have played a cheap copy of OW that has Mass rez. It works differently as Mass rez is about burst of impact while Valkyrie is about slow and consistent impact. In the end both ultimate will be decided by your teammates.
As much as I hope for such things to happen, Blizzard clearly aims to remove any chance for one player to save the day on their own.
Slow and steady doesn’t work in fast-paced games.
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I have never seen or experienced Valkyrie as strong, ever.
I have only ever seen it turn a maybe even but mostly winning no ultimate fight, into a winning fight, it does nothing when it matters.
Unless I am shooting and destroying people, Valkyrie doesn’t change the fight.
Low Ranks will never play or experience games like higher level players and therefore the character design NEEDS TO BE RELEVANT AT ALL LEVELS OF PLAY. To be relevant at all levels of play, you need player agency.
You can support your team without being a baby sitting pocket B.
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If this were true, then we wouldn’t still see people complaining that it was “unhealthy” or saying “good riddance”.
This is 100% wrong.
At the highest level, the best Mercy players were able to use Mass Rez to greatly impact a fight, regardless of what their teammates were doing. That’s because they were using the utility of the Rez, such as the invulnerability, to its greatest value, and using Tempo Rezzes to turn around a fight instead of always trying to go for huge Rezzes.
The fact that you think that Mass Rez was “decided by teammates” because that’s how Valkyrie works perfectly encapsulates everything that I hate about what Mercy has become.
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