Yet another Mercy rework idea

TL:DR swap Rez and Valkyrie’s positions (with multiple nerfs to both abilities). Give damage boost a small utility buff, and tweak some other things for QoL.

For the sake of thoroughness I’ll list ALL parts of Mercy’s kit, even the parts that aren’t getting changed.

Valkyrie

E ability.

  • Several seconds of free flight
  • Extended GA and Beam range
  • (No chain beams or uninterrupted regen)

Notes: This is pretty straightforward. Mercy can use this to reposition herself to high ground without the aid of a teammate acting as a GA anchor, and in other situations where Mercy’s need to go someplace isn’t matched by a teammate willing to go there first and get LoS on Mercy.

Resurrect

Ultimate ability.

  • SR exploit fixed
  • Cast time added
  • LoS check added
  • Affects living teammates with a burst heal
  • Mercy does not receive any benefit (either invincibity OR damage reduction, haven’t decided yet) until after the cast is completed

Notes: This tries to address the previous complaints with rez: the SR fix and LoS check banishes hide n rez. The vulnerability during cast time makes it interruptable, and further incentivises rezzing while at least one teammate is around to protect Mercy.

The burst heal to still-living teammates adresses the concern of Mercy “letting teammates die” in order to get the maximum effect from her ult.

Guardian Angel
  • New targeting option:
  • “Prefer beam target: Contextual”
  • Mercy flies to who she targets, but if no one’s in her crosshairs she flies to her beam target by default

Notes: this one is a QoL change. Mercy normally has to choose between “prefer beam target: on/off” for aiming her Guardian Angel, which drastically changes the ability’s behavior depending on the setting.

Once you get used to one mode, switching to the other feels like a completely different ability - it even demands that you re-learn how you position yourself, along with most of Mercy’s survival tactics. A hybrid GA targeting option offers the best of both worlds for veteran Mercy payers.

Healing Beam
  • No change
Damage Boost
  • reduces the duration of enemy debuff timers
  • effect is enhanced during Valkyrie

Notes: it doesn’t sound like much, but a lot of thought has been put into this buff. It brings the decision making and planning normally reserved for rez into Mercy’s base kit, and gives her a way to make a play without leaning on her ult.

It reinforces the damage boost’s theme of vitality (e.g. “I’m feeling spry”), as well as Mercy’s theme of being a Gaurdian Angel watching over her teammates and protecting them through defensive measures.

It’s also is worth mentioning that damage boost is normally only used when everyone is already topped off - since it’s vanilla utility isn’t enough to make it worth using over the healing beam - and that the only other anti-cc (for allies) ability in the game is a Zarya bubble. We need more cc counters than that…

Pistol
  • No changes
Jump
  • By holding the jump button down, Mercy can jump higher than normal

Notes: this one is a bit of a double-edged sword.

On one hand, the higher jump will deliberately be a terrible dodging tool: It’s slow moving, makes Mercy move in an easily predictable arc, and there will be a telegraphing animation that makes it clear when it’s about to be used.

On the other hand, Mercy will be able to glide across larger gaps than before (allowing her to switch between most ledges when needed), as well as gain LoS to an ally backed up on high ground. Mercy will have to carefully weigh the risk/reward ratio before using this ability, especially if there’s a hitscan enemy on the field.

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4 posts were merged into an existing topic: [Feedback Thread Continued] Mercy Updates - Jan 30, 2018

A post was merged into an existing topic: [Feedback Thread Continued] Mercy Updates - Jan 30, 2018