Mercy Rework Suggestions - How can we make a better Mercy?

Overview:

Mercy has become a hero that is both unfun to play and unfun to play against. A rework is desperately needed to bring life back to the hero and make her what she used to be.

There are a lot of different ideas being thrown around from every side of the argument about Mercy, and that's a good thing! She is definitely a character that needs some work.

Mercy's resurrect is simply an overpowered ability. If your team is running a Mercy and the enemy team is not, the fight is essentially a 6v5 right out of the gate. Teams should not be forced to run a Mercy for this reason. Resurrect devalues any early pick and makes the fight unfair from the start.

Mercy's old resurrect was not any better in my opinion. Playing DPS and getting an amazing play only for Mercy to eliminate all your hard work... it just felt frustrating and annoying. Mercy needs to be changed so that huge resurrect plays feel more skillful.

One character should not be better or worse than the other. This is something that Blizzard just doesn't seem to get. Mercy used to be overpowered and a must pick, but now she's so nerfed that many people would argue that any other healer is better than her.

Mercy needs to be fun to play again, but not overpowered. Mercy players want to feel like they are making an impact, not that they are just healbots.

Keep in mind that I am not the best Mercy in the world, nor the most experienced. I only have about 80 hours on Mercy and I'm not a high ranked player. However, I feel like high ranked Mercy players and low ranked Mercy players are all feeling the blows to her. I'm just saying, I'm no pro so take this with a grain of salt!

Changes:

> Healing changed from 50hps to 65hps

Mercy's healing desperately needs to be changed back. With 50hps (healing per second) she is outclassed by every healer in the game. Why would you ever run a Mercy then over an Ana or a Moira?

I do agree that Mercy's healing is very reliable. Mercy doesn't have to reload, she doesn't need to aim, her healing is endless, dependable, and easy to use. For this reason her healing should only be increased to 65hps.

If this seems overpowered, here are stats for Ana and Moira:

Ana: 75 healing per shot, 1.25 shots per sec

Moira: 80hps, 16hps residue for 3 sec

> Resurrect removed as E ability

Resurrect cannot be a normal ability. It just can't be. It's way too powerful. Devaluing a pick every 30 seconds is insane. It makes Mercy unfun to play against. Your sniping skills as Widowmaker helped you take out the enemy Zenyatta? No matter, here comes Mercy to devalue your pick and ruin your push. Your expert flank as Sombra helped you eliminate the low health Genji who was trying to run? Better camp the body or else Mercy will make it all for nothing. Every 30 seconds Mercy can do this and even if she isn't able to successfully pull it off, it's still just plain dumb.

As much as a lot of players super super super hate resurrect, it won't ever be completely removed from the game. Blizzard would never do such a thing. Resurrect is an ability that defines Mercy. It's in her art, it's in her merchandise, it's in her highlight intro, it's in her achievement. It's everywhere and removing it would make Mercy, well, no longer Mercy. She would be a completely different character. I understand this and I don't expect Blizzard to just completely get rid of Resurrect.

I have plans to incorporate Resurrect into Mercy's ultimate, but more on that later. Let's get into my idea for Mercy's new E ability.

> Healing Pulse / Damage Pulse

Ana has her Grenade. Lucio has Amp It Up. Moira has an Orb. So what about Mercy?

Mercy already has her Guardian Angel. This is her escape ability. When you look at other healers, they also have a "Get Out of Jail Free" card. Ana's sleep dart, Lucio's Wallride, Moira's Fade, Zenyatta's raw DPS power (he doesn't need to run away, he can just protect himself!). But a lot of the other healers also have a sort of "healing helper" like previously mentioned.

This ability helps with the blows to Mercy's healing and gives her a reliable option to heal up low health targets.

Another aspect of this ability would be applied to Mercy's damage boost. She could use the Pulse while damage boosting instead of healing to give her target a quick boost of damage!

Visually, this ability would have Mercy gripping her healing staff tightly as the staff beam thickens.

Technically, this ability would give Mercy's staff 90 healing per second for 2 seconds. During damage boost, it would give +60% damage dealt for 2 seconds. The ability has an 11 second cooldown. While using Pulse, Mercy cannot switch beam targets or switch from healing to damage boost (or vise versa). She can use her ultimate and Guardian Angel during Pulse. Pulse will continue if Mercy loses line of sight of the target (meaning the target moves behind a wall or Mercy turns so she can no longer see the target).

If an important character like a Tank is low, Mercy could use this ability occasionally to help her keep that teammate alive. Pulse could make Mercy a main healer again and make her viable to solo heal once more.

Here are stats from the other healers' abilities which I discussed in this segment:

Ana: Biotic Grenade - 100 healing, +50% healing for 4 sec, 10 sec cooldown

Lucio: Amp It Up - 46hps for 3 sec (138 total), 12 sec cooldown

Moira: Biotic Orb - 75hps, 300 healing max, 10 sec cooldown

> Super Jump

Did you know that you can super jump up into the air as Mercy?

A lot of high tier Mercy players use this to accelerate themselves high up into the air away from danger. To do this, Guardian Angel and Crouch to a target at the same time, then press space a second after. You will launch high up into the air!

This Super Jump ability is considered a bug in the game, but it's a super useful movement technique. What if we could make Super Jump an actual ability for Mercy and make it easier to use?

Super Jump is a bug no longer! The GA/Crouch + Space bug is fixed and the new Super Jump is here to stay. Every 1.5 seconds (same cooldown as Guardian Angel), Mercy can launch herself into the air. However, Mercy can only use this ability when her feet are on solid ground. Mercy can Super Jump off of certain objects such as the Payload though. To activate Super Jump, just double tap spacebar (or set it as a custom key bind).

The ability to Super Jump is already something Mercy can do, but most new players don't know about it. The combination of buttons you must press also makes it difficult to pull off. There is no drawback to making this a real, easier to use ability!

> Valkyrie: Huge changes!

You know what the main problem with Mercy is? It's not that she is overpowered, it's that she's boring! What's fun about flying up into the air and doing absolutely nothing? You can practically go AFK in Valkyrie. Sure, you can whip out your pistol for some cool kills, but that's about all that you can do. The chain healing and damage boost does your job for you. There's no critical thinking or strategy, just left and right mouse button.

What if we could make Mercy's ultimate feel fun and impactful again? This is where resurrect comes in.

Making Mercy's resurrect tie into her ultimate would make it less common and would take away the aspect of denying single picks and instead give Mercy the ability to make game changing plays. One issue with old 5 man resurrect is that it was easy to pull off and could not be stopped. Let's make it so a 5 man resurrect only comes to those Mercy players skilled enough to pull it off.

Firstly, Mercy will be able to spread her wings and fly around as a moth, just like normal.

Secondly, Mercy will keep her infinite ammo. Getting a pick as Mercy is rare but not uncalled for. If you can pick off the enemy , you can make a huge difference - just ask Neptuno!

Third, this new Valkyrie will only last for 10 seconds. The ability currently lasts for 20 seconds.

Fourth, Mercy's ability Pulse will be able to be used every 2 seconds in her ultimate. If you don't want to resurrect, new Valkyrie could also be an option to help keep the team alive.

Fifth, and most important, Mercy will get the ability to resurrect during her ultimate! She can resurrect as many times as she wants. However, she does resurrect at her current slow speed (at a cast time of 1.75 seconds, Mercy is able to preform a 5 man resurrect at the max). If a Mercy can survive and outsmart the enemy, she can resurrect key targets to aid her team. This will make a Mercy player feel like her ultimate is actually making an impact. Maybe she'll even get Play of the Game for her amazing efforts!

Here are the ultimate stats for the other healers:

Ana: Nano Boost - +50% damage for 8 sec, one ally

Lucio: Sound Barrier - +500 shields for 6.25 sec, all allies

Moira: Coalescence - 140hps for 8 sec, 70 damage per sec, all allies and enemies

Zenyatta: Transcendence - 300hps for 6 sec

> Quality of Life

I'd like to include here some simple changes to Mercy that would improve the ease of playing her. Most of these were first discussed on a Reddit thread by EeveeA.

:black_small_square: Separate key binds for Mercy's Guardian Angel to beam target / Guardian Angel to target you are currently looking at

:black_small_square: Mercy cannot have her beam lock onto a friendly Zenyatta while he is using Transcendence

:black_small_square: Mercy's beam stays tethered to a Tracer after she recalls instead of breaking

:black_small_square: Mercy can Guardian Angel to a Mei in Cryofreeze

:black_small_square: When healing/damage boosting Sombra, the beam will break when Sombra goes into invisibility

:black_small_square: You can change sensitivity for staff and pistol separately in the settings

Conclusion:

Mercy can definitely be better. The many suggestions from the community have proved this. Anything would be better than how she currently is today.

There is hope for Mercy. If Blizzard listens to our , we can make a change! The most liked forum post in the Overwatch Forums right now is actually a post about Mercy changes. It is only a matter of time before Blizzard takes notice!

Threads and Sources

"Why I Have Yet to Despise Mercy's Current State" by Titanium

"I Have 1200+ Hours on Mercy....Here is My List of Suggested Changes" by EeveeA

"Suggestions for Mercy From Someone With Too Much Time on Her" by EeveeA

Feel free to discuss in the comments below. I'd love to hear your opinions on Mercy! :) What are your ideas?

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