“Overwatch” has a variety of characters to choose from each with their own useful abilities usually based on their class. Offense heroes specialize in taking down foes while Defense characters are good at locking down areas and controlling choke points. Tanks, on the other hand, help absorb all the damage for their team while Supports help keep the team alive with their heals and buffs.
In line with this, those who have been using Support hero Mercy have ben getting a lot of flak recently for a few reasons.
What’s the problem with 'maining' Mercy?
Blizzard’s first-person shooter game supports diversity and fairness, so while there isn’t anything wrong with “maining” a character per se, Mercy mains have been getting the short end of the stick. According to Dot Esports, one major reason why is because many people believe that she has a low skill cap and can do exceptionally well in combat without having great aim or reaction time. Meanwhile, other support characters like Ana and Zenyatta are much more popular in the fanbase because most fans believe that they actually require skill.
Most people play Mercy as a hide and heal hero where she takes cover as soon as a big fight ensues. Once the dust settles and her team has died, she swoops in to use her ultimate ability, giving her allies a second chance at winning a fight.
One-trick Mercy mains
Another reason why Mercy and the people who “main” her get a lot of hate is that of a large number of people only main the support hero. There is a certain expectation in a team game that all players should learn how to be versatile when it comes to picking heroes. However, there have been plenty of cases when Mercy mains only know how to play the said hero and no one else. When solo queueing, matchmaking is random and sometimes players will get paired with similar one-trick Mercy mains along the way.
These players don’t know how to “flex” for their team which would usually lead to a loss, especially in competitive matches.
Sadly, there are some Mercy mains who actually know how to use the hero and still receive a lot of flak just because they pick the character. To begin with, it isn’t fair for people to rage at others for playing a certain way, yet verbal abuse is still found in online games. “Overwatch” game director Jeff Kaplan has already mentioned that they are looking into Mercy's ultimate ability as it’s overpowered and not fun for both the player and her enemies. For now, fans will just have to wait for further news on what they plan to do with the healer.