In our guide, we reveal how to keep the team alive with Mercy from Overwatch and become a real pain for the enemies.
Angela “Mercy” Ziegler – The Savior of the Injured
We continue our series of Overwatch guides and this time focus on the Swiss Angela Ziegler, who should be better known to players as Mercy. In Overwatch, she is a supporter and is responsible for the health of her team. However, we will tell you what special aspects you need to consider in order to be a “good” Mercy.
Mercy in Raw Numbers
- Mercy has 200 health points and regenerates 22 HP every second if she hasn’t been attacked in the last 2 seconds.
- Mercy’s Caduceus Staff (yellow beam) heals an ally for 50 health points per second.
- In the alternate fire mode (blue beam), it enhances the damage dealt by targeted allies by 30%.
- The Caduceus Pistol has 20 shots, each dealing 20 damage (40 on headshot), firing 5 shots per second.
Heal or Boost?
The difference between a good and a bad Mercy is the timely switch from healing to boosting. It is important to always keep in mind that it is not necessary to keep the entire team at 100% health all the time. The game’s audio cues are especially important as they give you valuable tips – provided you know all the other heroes at least roughly. Do you hear that Roadhog just threw his hook? After that, he will land a pretty safe headshot on the person he has pulled – so boost that damage! Did Widowmaker use her ultimate? Boost her, because she is sure to surprise some enemies.
An important tip to internalize: Every character functions independently of their current HP. As long as a character still has health points, they deal full damage. This may sound trivial, but it means in clear words: Only ensure that allies are rescued from the “deadly zone” where they will die from most abilities.
Revival – When the Whole Team Returns
Revival resurrects all fallen allies within 15 meters of Mercy.
- After revival, players are immune to damage for ~1 second but cannot shoot yet. However, they can still contest control points during this time! Use this knowledge to turn a game around at the very last second.
- Activating revival leaves Mercy motionless for about a second. Since the other characters are immune to damage, enemies will focus on you. So know that revival is almost always your own death sentence.
- Revival can be quickly filled by healing and boosting. Don’t wait for a “perfect” revival with 4 or 5 dead – that won’t happen often. Often, it is already sensible to let only one or two people resurrect.
When Do I Use the Caduceus Pistol?
In order not to leave Mercy completely defenseless, she can switch to her Caduceus Pistol if necessary. However, this should be avoided in 99% of all cases. Each shot does deal 20 damage, but the projectiles fly quite slowly. More importantly: While Mercy is shooting, she is not healing. The pistol should only be a last resort when you are either completely on your own or there is absolutely nothing to heal or boost – such as when you are behind Reinhardt’s shield and the rest of the team is absent. In general, it can be said: If Mercy pulls out the pistol, something is going wrong.
When is a Mercy Useful?
As with Lúcio and Zenyatta, it is generally always sensible to have at least one healing hero in the team to gain the upper hand in prolonged firefights. However, there are some heroes that harmonize better with Mercy than others. Particularly easy to boost group members are Soldier: 76, McCree, Pharah, Junkrat, Widowmaker, and Bastion.
A Pharah on the team proves particularly helpful since she can quickly ascend into the sky – and Mercy can follow her with “Guardian Angel” directly.
General Tips for Mercy
To conclude, we have a whole bunch of tips and tricks for you that can help you improve as Mercy.
- Don’t forget your melee attack! You can also strike with the Caduceus Staff in close combat. While this briefly interrupts healing/boosting, these 30 damage points can mean the difference between life and death, especially against weak characters like Tracer or Zenyatta.
- Healing and boosting require line of sight to be triggered. However, both beams remain active for a few seconds after line of sight is broken – use this knowledge to continue healing while hiding.
- Mercy’s mobility is her lifeline. Remember that you can also fly to “dead” players by targeting their souls.
- Both beams have a pretty high range of 15 meters. It is not necessary to stay right next to the player you are supporting, as this only invites both of you to be killed by area attacks.
- The boost increases damage only at the moment you buff the respective player. This is particularly important for Junkrat – he must be boosted when his grenades explode and not when he fires them. The same applies to Symmetra’s alternate fire and Reinhardt’s hammer strike.
You can find more guides and tips in our overview article on Overwatch. Do you have any tips for Mercy yourself? Then share your tips with us in the comments!
