The Rise and Fall of Mercy (Overwatch)

[@AlexanderGarcia-uv7in]

OW2 devs just don't undestand Mercy, we are talking about a dev team that buffed her ammo... while nerfing what makes Mercy fun, her GA, the moment they changed GA's cooldown broke her, super jump res now are basically a 3 second cast time because doing any GA tech puts it on a 3 sec cooldown making super jump res pointless and more dangerous (superjump res are supposed to make a res less risky or help to take cover while casting it) they kept nerfing the fun aspects of her kit and removing skill expression to a point where she is frustating to play her.

[@bigfudge2031]

I used to main Mercy in OW1 and she actually felt amazing at the start of OW2 and was really fun to play, but then Blizzard nerfed her GA into the ground and she hasn't been the same since (I don't even play her anymore) Most Mercy players will agree with me that GA is the most important part of her kit and her main skill expression. Nobody cares about Rez we would happily trade it for something that we get to use more than 5 times a game. Valk is such a boring ult and it's even more useless now that Juno ult is just an upgraded Valk. Damage boost doesn't even feel like it's a big difference maker when most support will output more than double the damage that Mercy amps across a game, I would be willing to try out some alternatives to damage boost. The fundamental problem is that Blizzard doesn't understand the character, they see her as a "beginner" character, all they seem to do is dumb her down and remove skill expression, when they should be adding a skill curve instead, they don't understand that Mercy players actually want to set themselves apart from other mercy players and have some agency in games. I have 7-8 different ideas for reworks and directions they could go, but Blizzard would never do any of them because they are scared to change her because they think they will upset people, when in reality it would do way more good for the character.

[@pcrxz]

it's sad how i find myself having to be forced off mercy more and more, i love using her but sometimes it just doesn't work out

[@revenge3265]

I feel there's an important detail missing with the 5-man rez era, and that's the fact that Mercy wasn't considered good in higher ranks (even referred to as a throw pick) back then until they gave her the invincibility her teammates got.

[@beesh9810]

small correction to 7:10 where you said it was reverted to how it was before, it wasnt. using any movement tech still to this day has the same increased cooldown even now. it was only reverted for non tech GAs which almost never happen (except for that 0.5 second change later on which doesnt change anything really)

[@JamezJ]

ah right thank you for letting me know, i did think it felt weird when i played as her that explains it

[@Iloveminkatt]

Nice video! It reminded me of Skiesti's video of ideas she had for mercy so she can be viable but not overpowered. I think it's kinda sad that one of the most popular heroes since she came out is basically just left in the dust :(

[@JamezJ]

thanks! i was thinking of doing a “one change to each support hero” but idk if people want so see that

[@-NoNo.]

ever since the dreaded patch that gutted her movement, i began to enjoy overwatch less and less. Now i don’t even play the game anymore which makes me really sad. not just how the devs treated her but also how the community treats mercy and mercy players. so sad

[@dankdilly]

Yes and she is really the only hero I enjoy playing lol and the comp modes just feel worse and worse over time.

[@hannonx]

I just wanted to point out that her GA is currently bugged The "active state" (The CD on top of GA when you perform a superjump or a slingshot) stays active for longer than intended (1.5s instead of 1s) making the ability feel clunky and slow Great video!

[@JamezJ]

thank you! mercy’s GA is always bugged tbf

[@thiefpotato2759]

I am a support player that despises Mercy. Despite how I feel about Mercy, I really think that the dev team has absolutely failed to make her compatible with 5v5. The main issue I have always had with OW2 Mercy is that stupid change where they put the really hard bug that Mercy has with GA in OW1. It was so impactful and it wasn't always available, even for the best Mercy players. And it was at a rank where hitscan could pop Mercy out of the sky for doing it too much. Then they removed the bug and added it to her base kit, which absolutely destroyed Mercy's chances of being balanced. They had to gut her healing, gut her GA, and gut damage boost because of how they dropped Mercy's skill floor. And tbh with it still being the way it is after almost 2 years, i dont think they are gonna change it to give Mercy leeway to flourish outside of the metal tiers. Ofc they buffed that all back, but then they made her have the susceptible to every 1 shot in order to bring it back. They just won't make the ability harder to use and would rather make every Mercy have to deal with the CD increase, which sucks for good Mercy players.

[@SimonPetrikov12]

Honestly why didn't they just keep the resurrect refresh when she ults? Don't reduce the cooldown during the ult, but give her the instant refresh of rez.

[@l8on675]

yeah, her ressurect ult would make her ult actually useful and unique. As is, I don't know what her ult is supposed to be.

[@brandon2117]

Because nobody wants a double res from an Ult she gets really fast from literally hiding behind a wall with Damage boost on hold...

[@brandon2117]

@@l8on675it's supposed to be Area healing

[@l8on675]

@@brandon2117 so she does what Lucio does as a normal cooldown ability and makes her self more vulnerable. There's never a good reason to pop it.

[@opal8243]

Can they revert the mercy movement I’m so tired of that superjump punishment cooldown

[@magicjaycee97]

Mercy is the reason I bought OW1 and she's the reason why I still play, no matter what nerfs or buffs she gets.

[@scorpiux123]

I love mercy I'm in love with her ❤

[@Archy_The-Wizard]

Main thing I want to correct is when you said her first reworked as seen as a nerf. The vast majority of mercy players (especially the loud ones on YT) screamed about how op it was just from reading the patch notes. The optimal way to use her old ultimate was to rez 1-3 players, anymore than that and turning the fight around would likely be too difficult, meaning her changes were: - Old ultimate is now on a 30 seconds cooldown - Bran new ultimate that ==> Lets her heal everyone (when one of her weakness was her lack of AOE healing) ==> Made her impossible to kill ==> Let her use her previous ultimate multiple times. For the 5 man rez strat to work, you would need to hide outside of the fight, effectively betting that you'll loose a 5v6 in order to have an other chance at a fight, .... Loosing that dumb play was an extremely cheap price when compared to all the buffs she got. We didn't need to see it in action to realize how broken it was. Mercy players didn't want it. And as other players learned pretty quickly, nobody else did.

[@bigfudge2031]

Mercy just doesn't contribute enough offensively with 30% damage boost, I expect my supports to be doing 40-50% of my DPS's damage and you're lucky if you get 2k damage boosted in a game as Mercy.

[@sideeswipe]

Amen, she’s supposed to make up for it with damage boost changing some TTK but since the crybabies on the forums can’t understand that a mercy plus a dps is inherently a 2v1 and is supposed to be in the favor of the pocketed dps now we’re stuck with mediocre damage boost and a messily 60hps single target heal

[@Wolfzinazul]

@@sideeswipe 60 hps healing that you dont need to aim or reload, you can heal through shields and through walls for 1 second, girlies really are trash in this game lol

[@andirmiga]

Dude I play almost every support hero and believe me, apart from ana none of them have to have good aim to heal. Maybe bap for flyers (he still has aoe heal as well) but apart from that you can just throw the heal in their general direction. And no Juno doesn't need good aim the hitbox of her primary fire is so big u rarely miss any shots and her missiles auto lock

[@moonlightceleste]

What makes her really difficult to balance is also that she fills the niche of a pocket healer and pocket healers in video games usually perform/ranked mediocre in general because of their controversial nature. Another example of this is Yuumi from League of Legends. They’re really unfun to play against especially when paired with an above average DPS and I don’t blame Blizzard for struggling to appease both sides. That being said it’s very sad to see her state now as someone who used to main her back in OW1, I don’t see her being meta anytime soon unless they rework her shifting away from damage boost and maybe giving more power onto her other abilities. I thought the “triage” direction was interesting before they nerfed it.

[@JamezJ]

problem with pocket heals is it relies on what the rest of the team is doing, and there’s a lot less carry potential compared to a bap or ana etc.

[@chibikya_selch4699]

I used to love mercy, and blizzard absolutely gutted her to the point of any healer doing a better job anyday. Mercy constantly gets nerfed into the wrong direction. Any skill expressed gameplay gets removed. A mercy being smart super jumping while rezzing? Nerfed, cause why? Dps players kept crying that they cant kill her. Moth Meta was horrible yes, her Rezz Meta while annoying you could tell a good team wouldnt just blow all their ults anyway if a mercy was on the team. Either you got a 5k rezz or you tempo rezzed. They tried to make her more appealing giving her the invuln in rezz which was just bonkers and a bad idea, and then ranked changed so when you did a 5k rezz was better than a tempo rezz for climbing ranks you only had mercys hiding away while the good mercys c ontributed thats what led to the whole rework in the first place blizzard just decided to make her useless

[@gilmulth]

My thought: Mercy is the only healer who can´t attack and heal at the same time (haven't played it a long time so correct me if i'm wrong): Zenyatta gives others a ball of healing (beside the ball of more dmg input), Lucian has a passive healing/speedboost aura with a quick switch, Moira can throw a ball of healing beside her healblast Brigitte throwing shields around and Ana can attack enemies or heal allies with the same ammo and can throw a healing grenate which denies healing for the enemies in the blast and heal allies (Baptiste, Illari, Kiriko and Lifeweaver I have no idea of their kit). Every one called out may attack at the same time and heal their mates but Mercy... So either way she has always to switch to her gun or gives the attack boost at the cost of healing the teammates which reduce her impact. And I think this is a bad trade beside the others kits...

[@JamezJ]

only other healer *technically* that can’t heal and damage (outside their ult) is lifeweaver, and shock horror, he is very low on most tier lists. i think you’re 100% right

[@gilmulth]

@@JamezJ Yeah like I said, I don't know the kits from the latest ones. So thanks for the info. :D And it looks like it is really kind of a problem with this kind of kit, the "Mercy-Kit" I will call it now. '^^ xD

[@Jamessy65]

I stopped playing OW many years ago, but I still go back just to buy Mercy skins. Maybe if Mercy ever gets a buff or if they ever give her a complete rework like they did with Symmetra, I'd return to the game.

[@artimist0315]

It's even more of a shame that Mercy is one of the rare hero where the community agrees pretty unanimously on a change for her. Reducing GA cool-down to bring back her skill expression, making her healing decrease the longer she keeps her beam on a target to force her switch target and change her damage boosting effect to an attack rate boosting effect to avoid the frustration of being bursted down by an Ashe while keeping her effectiveness. All of these are relatively easy to implement, requiring no new abilities or mechanics to be created, would be very easy to balance and would make Mercy both way more fun for the Mercy mains, and way less frustrating and problematic on the receiving end.

[@yoshihammerbro435]

tbh I'm sorta glad. It means people can choose different supports instead of what has normally always been mercy

[@Mlynkxx]

Mercy in the hands of someone who really knows how to use her can hold her own in higher ranks (master and above). The big problem with Mercy is that she just exists, period. The devs listen to any complaints from professional players (and by complaints, I mean mostly from DPS players) where ANY change that makes Mercy come out of the limbo of uselessness pushes her even further down. People who don’t play Mercy simply hate the fact that the character doesn’t need to aim to be useful in the game - considering the appeal of Overwatch is precisely not being a conventional shooter. The fun of playing with her is precisely the mobility and pocketing, playing alongside a DPS. Forget about her healing (as long as it’s enough to keep someone from dying, it’s enough) and the rez, which is practically useless these days. A 48-hour cooldown on an ability you almost never use because it’s easily countered. They should rework her, but if they remove rez and guardian angel, Blizzard would explode the next day. She is top 5 most famous characters in the franchise easily; they haven’t deleted her from the game just because of that. Oh, and also because any skin of hers, women and gays will buy no matter how much it costs.

[@AlexanderGarcia-uv7in]

@@Mlynkxx They didnt nerf the triage, they didnt brother to try to balance it, after 1 season It just got removed.

[@sagolius]

I'm thriving as a zenyatta player (we ballin), my condolences to the mercy mains

[@JamezJ]

LUCKY YOU AHHHH

[@revenge3265]

Surprising. Zens get ran over by Jun/Ram and Juno/Orisa comps in my games. Guessing it might be a rank thing where different ranks are playing different compsh

[@JamezJ]

@@revenge3265 idk if juno is being played at like high high ranks but she does stomp a zen icl

[@dobrogeaaa]

idc wut anyone says im still playing mercy

[@MarksmanSpecialist]

The Rise and Fall of Widowmaker (Overwatch)

[@JamezJ]

was there ever a rise?

[@autiso]

Guys I think it MAY be safe to assume he likes Persona a tad

[@JamezJ]

how ddid you know

[@a_personhola8846]

Realmente me gustaría que buffen al menos un poco a Mercy, ha sido mi primer main y le tengo mucho cariño, pero jugarla ahora es una experiencia lamentable :(

[@dorrianbrooks9408]

Imma be real, Mercy dead to me at this point. She just doesnt feel fun anymore, and Juno has provided me a support that has the same thing I found fun about Mercy(the mobility) with added utility. Mercy doesnt feel effective anymore, and quite frankly, Im kinda at the point where I dont want to see Mercys on my team either(obviously Imma deal tho. All of my mains have been "throw picks" at some point in Overwatchs lifespan. Im not gonna shit one someone playing a character I dont like, not unless they themselves are playing like shit. Plus Im getting into my onetrick bag where I play who I want instead of that annoying counterswap shit, so I really cant shit on others for playing who they want)

[@prysm2599]

rip mercy 2024

[@JamezJ]

she will be missed (or will she...?)

[@silvermoon849]

The hardest part about balancing Mercy is that nobody knows what's actually wrong with her. Everybody has a different reason why they hate mercy, dmg boost, resurrect, GA, it's different for most people. And it's hard to know what is and isn’t a problem when no one can hear actual criticism amidst the continuous storm of toxic dps players with anger issues complaining about 'skilless' mercy players. In my opinion, I think they just need to make her GA 2 secs again and make her tech more difficult. They also need to change resurrect, maybe replace it with something else, then have that something else turn into a single charge resurrect when she ults. As for blue beam, it's less broken then people think it is, yes, it enables certain characters to become extremely powerful, but it costs a whole damn team slot. So I think blue beam is okay. Honestly, mercy is far from the most broken character or even support in the game, she's just a target for toxic players who are just salty that you don't have aim with her beams and that the majority of her players are either women or gay men. Seriously, so much Mercy hate is tinged with misogyny and homophobia it's not even funny.

[@JamezJ]

🔥🔥🔥

[@TheUnseenKrab]

I was there for the whole thing she got downed just for doing her job. -_-

[@biorvsthebots]

Im down for a battle mercy patch

[@Tymloo]

We are compassion

[@JamezJ]

i was waiting for someone to pick up on this i am sorry

[@AlexTheHorrid]

5v5 issue tbh. She was fun in OW1. My friends who were pretty casual don’t even like playing mercy anymore. Now they just made her even more annoying. I could re work mercy easy

[@alexmaganda5827]

another reason i stopped playing overwatch

[@SocialExperiment232]

Listen… her GA was annoying… I think yall already forgot how annoying it was and how much dps players complained about that. Not only that but that’s just what you get with a character that is meant to be a dps pocket. I don’t understand what mercy players want. They want to spend the whole match flying while they hold left click and let their dps carry them. You can’t get that much value out of a character that requires cero aim and can simply avoid engaging all game long.

[@leiferikson4279]

Why damage boost for 30% of 7000 damage, when you can just do 9000 damage on Illari? Mercy should stay a beginner only character.

[@TheAustin216]

I have 3000 hrs in the game and do indeed play other heroes now. I generally just enjoy the game less because none of them scratch the same itch for someone who came in as Medic main from TF2 who really likes traversal games. So I'm very against her being just a beginner character. With the nature of Overwatch, I think it's a mistake to not have viable options in every role with alternatives to the aim based heroes

[@PurpleMoon799]

illari is boring

[@ruka9700]

Honestly good. Hate the hero conceptually anyway.

[@PurpleMoon799]

nobody asked

[@ruka9700]

@@PurpleMoon799 stay mad

[@PurpleMoon799]

@@ruka9700 no you. hope you get mothing but mercies on you team!

[@caterpillar1936]

I don't get why they can't just focus on her damage boost and res. They are the most strategic parts of her kit. Nerf her mobility and healing and make her a damage booster.

[@TheAustin216]

That would take away strategic expression. It would make the sit back around a corner boosting a solider playstyle the only viable one because it wouldn't be safe to move around the field as much and triage or follow divers. And the skill expression that's to be found with rez comes from how counterable it is combined with movement techs

[@caterpillar1936]

@@TheAustin216 True. I guess I would just nerf her healing, or maybe make it really conditional, and buff her damage boost. She can keep her mobility and res as is.

[@TheAustin216]

@@caterpillar1936 I don't hate that as much. It'd make her more frustrating to play against but it would also make her more situational. So one trick Mercys would be less healthy for the game but it would gatekeep them better too

[@caterpillar1936]

@@TheAustin216 The thing I like about mercy is about autistically selecting exactly the person that is doing the most damage at any one time. The amount of complexity that goes into the decision of who to boost at any one time is endless. Do they have sight lines? Are they reloading? Can the player hit their shots? Are they using a high damaging cooldown? I will flick onto a sigma only while he's firing his projectiles and then someone else inbetween each volley, stuff like that. I wish this was rewarded more. Plus if her healing is reworked/nerfed it would stop her most boring playstyle - healbotting.

[@TheAustin216]

@@caterpillar1936 I find that fun too, but I also don't mind healing. I don't really care too much about which direction of threat analysis I'm running. If it's based around healing you're watching for danger rather than value potential and either way you're gonna be basing your focus on the aggression and vulnerabilities of each team. I find assisting in picks to be just as satisfying as saves. The issue is that with Mercy's identity and healing output you won't get as much value out of focusing on trialing which ofc makes it much less satisfying. Also listening to the feedback of dmg boost is incredibly satisfying as well and you get more of that by focusing on blue beam efficiency than heal efficiency

[@WindowsFullHD]

This character deserve to be bad for eternity , people that play her need to know there place : Kitchen or Laundry Room. The fact this character break the concept of the game itsef by resurrecting is insane. I hope they will nerf her again and again remove her stupid res out of line of sight will be perfect. You want her to be buff again ? fine remove res and you can buff her to top healer no one will ever complain.

[@awora_nanne]

you have some unresolved issues, my deepest condolences to people in your life, I hope you get better soon ♥

[@-Blueness-]

As someone who plays Mercy, just camp the fucking body dude. Literally easiest way to counter her ever

[@JamezJ]

literally tho