As a flex player with almost 500 hours on Mercy – the vast majority of that time in a support role – I've seen Overwatch the heroine has gone through many peaks and valleys since 2016. She had to choose Overwatch's early days due to her ability to resurrect an entire team with her Ultimate, with even unskilled Mercy players able to find value by hiding in a corner and waiting for the rest of the team to be wiped out. Obviously, the practically obligatory hero goes against it Overwatch's design philosophy, so the team rust has been removed in favor of the Valkyrie Ultimate and single target rust that has been standard for over eight years. That was the end of Mercy's first golden age, but it wasn't the last.
While Battle Mercys, pockets with a skilled DPS duo, and talented move users were able to make Mercy work in the time since the end of this era, she wasn't truly OP again until launch. OverwatchStadium mode. Here she shined for the first few weeks of the mod's life thanks to the since-removed Crepuscular Circle ability. Even though Mercy was considered broken, much like her old Ultimate, Mercy's net was filled with this special power. When equipped, they could use their pistol and heal in Valkyrie at the same time. Coupled with Valkyrie's five seconds of resurrection granted by Renaissance, Mercy mains constantly fought in a way she never had before, making her an active character instead of a passive one. Unfortunately, after complaints, this ability was removed in Season 18, ending Mercy's second golden era. And while she hasn't been as fun to play since then, I'm excited about the potential for another golden era of Mercy that has a chance to begin whenever the mid-season update arrives.
OverwatchThe midseason patch for Season 1 currently lacks a release date. However, it is expected either on March 10 with NieR collab or March 17 with the conclusion of the Overwatch vs. Talon.
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Why The Midseason Patch for Overwatch Season 1 Is a Game Changer for Mercy
The absolute worst case scenario for Mercy is that she gets a small but meaningful boost to her viability with the mid-season patch. That's because Blizzard has confirmed that one of Mercy's most requested changes — the addition of her Flash Heal perk to her base set — will happen when the midseason update arrives. Whenever Mercy's rework is discussed, it's often the first thing players mention as a move worth making, as Flash Heal is very useful, but far from overpowered.
For anyone unfamiliar with what Flash Heal does, it's a simple heal from her staff. Flash Heal targets that are activated by pressing the square button on PlayStation and the equivalent button on other platforms will instantly receive a 150 HP beam, which can be a game-changer for crumpled targets and can help keep tanks focused on by the enemy team. Although it initially consumed the resurrection charge, Blizzard realized that this made the ability too weak and later gave it an independent charge because of it. Still, while this tweak made her a solid Tier 3 Perk option for Mercy, her kit remains so simple that including her in the core skill set always seemed like the next logical step, as it would give her players a bit more work to do while also helping her compete more against supports that can do as much as Kiriko.
Fortunately, Blizzard heard those requests, and while the Flash Heal included in the Mercy base set won't immediately break it again, it does open the door to that possibility for one reason. Since Flash Heal is currently a core perk, being part of Mercy's base skill pool means she will need a new core perk to replace it. And with this necessary addition comes the potential for the new Major Perk to be extremely powerful, which combined with Flash Heal could make Mercy feel the best she has in a long, long time.
Lifeweaver, another struggling Support, gets a similar mid-season buff. His Life Grip now clears drawn targets by default, making his signature ability a bit more useful without having to power it up with perks.
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Hopefully Mercy's next golden era is her longest yet
While Mercy's Reign of Terror (which reappeared briefly in Overwatch Classic) was memorable, it didn't last that long because classic Rez was removed about 15 months after launch. Her stadium dominance was even shorter, lasting about five months. Whenever Mercy feels powerful again, I'd like to see it be a change that sticks. Don't get me wrong, the old style of resurrections had to go, even if they were fun. And while I think Crepuscular Circle could have been nerfed instead of being removed entirely, I can see why it wasn't popular with non-Mercy players. Still, I'd like to see an era where Mercy was just very, very good without being broken. Kiriko has been pretty much meta since its release, so it's frustrating to see what it's meant to be OverwatchThe most accessible character goes through whiplash periods where he feels either incredibly funny/impressive or boring/weak.
As for what Mercy's new main perk could be, there are a lot of possibilities, just a few of which are:
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Flash Damage Boost like Flash Heal, where Mercy can choose a target and hit them with a beam that has damage boosting effects for five seconds, but doesn't require her to hold the beam on the target. This way it can effectively do two full damage boosts at once, but sporadically since Flash Boost would have a decently long cooldown.
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A buff to Valkyrie Ultimate that makes Mercy's chained beam heal while increasing damage, instantly making her an Ulta to fear.
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One of her stadium abilities like Triage Unit which allows players to boost healing on low health targets via Guardian Angel.
In the end, regardless of what it is, the idea of Mercy getting a potentially great new main ability along with the addition of Flash Heal is exciting to me, and certainly to the other Mercy mains as well. Sure, it's great that we're getting another Mercy skin with NieR collab, but cosmetics can only go so far. Making Mercy's core gameplay loop more satisfying is something that's been a long time coming, and it's finally happening. That being said, the worst case scenario is that the main perk fails and Mercy goes from a C-level healer to a viable B-level option thanks to Flash Heal. And the best case? Mercy's new main perk when used in conjunction with Flash Heal is strong enough to enter the Golden Era as team rez or Crepuscular Circle. In a perfect world, Mercy will finally feel great without being painful to play against, and hopefully that will happen when the midseason update arrives.
- Released
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August 10, 2023
- ESRB
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Teen / Violence, Blood, Mild Language, Tobacco Use, User Interaction, In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items)
