Mercy’s rework is causing headaches for the Overwatch pros. Mercy is now more powerful than ever.
A few days ago, the latest Overwatch patch was implemented, which has completely revamped the healer Mercy in Overwatch. Once a mostly passive healer who kept away from the action only to rush in with a massive resurrection, she has become a strong and more active healer.
Too strong, as a large part of the community believes. Extensive discussions about Mercy’s increased skill cap, meaning it’s now harder to master, are constantly ignited in the official forums and on Reddit. However, this effectiveness is seen by some as far too high – a match without Mercy is hardly thinkable.
Resurrection nerf was a buff
The main problem for most players seems to be the resurrection. Although there was a big outcry a few weeks ago that Mercy would lose her mass resurrection, the change has turned out to be a buff. The targeted single resurrection can now be used much more frequently.
Mercy is still the only character who can undo a good play by the opponent while all other healers have to act preventively. This is also reflected in her pick rate – no supporter is chosen even remotely as often as dear Angela Ziegler.
On the analysis site OmnicMeta, Switch writes that the changes to Mercy’s resurrection were clearly a buff, even if this was not seen before. On average, Mercy players resurrect almost twice as many characters as before.
This is hardly surprising, as the cooldown time of 30 seconds (10 seconds during Valkyrie) significantly lowers the threshold to immediately revive someone.
Mercy is an “overachiever”
Another problem Mercy currently faces in ranked play is that she benefits from a significantly increased skill rating gain. In the past, the opposite was the case, but that has changed: While other characters gain 15 to 20 skill rating points for good performance, Mercy usually goes home with 30 – and loses less in a defeat than her colleagues.
Another criticism is the ultimate Valkyrie. This gives Mercy massive freedom for 20 seconds, such as the ability to fly or zip to allies much faster. With this, Mercy temporarily becomes a solid offensive character who can attack from all directions and also gets a significant boost to her healing and enhancement abilities. Especially Orisa players are wondering what their ultimate is still good for when Mercy can do almost the same – only that she can switch to healing when needed.
What do you think of the new Mercy? Too powerful? Or is she just right now?
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