Mercy has become something of an underappreciated Hero in “Overwatch” over the past season as many players believe that those who use her are “one trickers.” This essentially means that they only know how to play Mercy, and on top of that, aren’t even good with using her. Not to mention that this winged warrior manages to get overshadowed by other healers like Ana and Lucio who have more utility, survivability, and better buffs. Meanwhile, other players are complaining that her ultimate ability is a bit too strong and that she doesn’t take much skill to use.
In line with all of these complaints, Blizzard will finally be making some changes to the “Overwatch” Support hero.
Possible rework?
Blizzard has been thinking about Mercy over the past few months, evident by game director Jeff Kaplan’s previous post about addressing the heroes in the game. They believed that her ultimate ability was a bit too powerful and unfun for both the player and the enemy team. The overall strategy for the hero would be maintaining a healing beam and weaving through enemies. If things look too hot, Mercy players would hide behind cover and wait for their team to die before diving in for a Ressurection.
According to Dot Esports, “Overwatch” principal designer Scott Mercer was at Gamescom 2017 in Germany along with Brandon “Seagull” Larned.
The latter was holding a stream where Mercer claimed that they had some “interesting and sweet changes” for Mercy. However, they haven’t mentioned the finer details about her change, but it could seem like they’re making a slight rework to her kit.
Her current state
At the moment, Mercy feels a bit underpowered for some and too powerful for others.
A good Support player knows how to position themselves around the field so they can take cover while still provide optimal healing. Many DPS players have been raging over her ultimate ability as it can pretty much cancel out almost every other ultimate ability in the game. If somebody doesn’t kill Mercy first in a team fight, you can be certain that she’s taking cover and waiting for the right moment to rez.
However, it’s pretty much an unspoken rule that healers should always be the first to die. Flankers, like Genji and Tracer, should prioritize in taking her out as she can do very little against them. Even tank heroes like Winston are a good counter against her. It all boils down to how good the DPS character is if they want to prioritize Mercy or not.