8.25.17 - After spending about two hours on the PTR, here’s how I feel about the tweaks to Mercy.
I like them; she’s far less team dependent when her Valkyrie is available. Overall, I feel like this is a buff, but the approach to playing Mercy changes as a result. As the dust settles, this will probably be the biggest issue - I certainly complained when Lucio’s rework went through and I had to relearn the hero.
The Rez
Since you can only rez once per every 30 seconds, Mercy’s rez is now a far more strategic ability. You’re essentially tempo rezzing. It’s still a very powerful tool and can turn the tide of a fight. You have to be so much more aware of the game, tracking ults on either side very acutely.
But Morty, how do we know if we’re rezzing the right person, then?
To accommodate the fact that you have to know which death marker is whose, the PTR has a feature that displays an icon for the specific hero, indicating where they died.
I feel like the strategy involved will make Mercy less of a pick at lower ELOs, where healers like Lucio or Zenyatta are easier to manage. She’s higher risk right now until we get some OP strats for that ult.
The Ult
At any given time in the game, Mercy can at most rez two people - rez one, ult to refresh cooldowns (yes, it behaves just like Dragonblade or Primal Rage in that regard), and rez again.
The part that shookt me most was that Mercy has a full 20 seconds when, if her team is in close enough proximity, her healing beam will chain across all of them, making Mercy the most effective healer in the game. Hands down. Full fucking stop.
I feel that this is can be ultilized offensively quite well (like a preemptive soundbarrier on a push). Imagine this: a team member dives, taking out one member of the enemy team, but you rez them and ult. Not only do you now have a numbers advantage, but your team has the chance to push up as you heal them all, basically rendering regular incoming damage negligible. If one of them does get focused and goes down, you can just solo rez.
The infinite ammo and just shooting from the sky with full directional control is insane. She’s up there by sheer force of salt from healing shitty overextending teammates for five seasons without thanks.
Also heads up to Mercy players, you aren’t invulnerable when rezzing anymore.
Counters
Ana is a way to snipe Mercy put of the air without sacrificing heals or DPS. Her anti-heal is also good at countering Mercy’s ult.
Hitscan players. Who can aim.
Sombra hacks. Make that long ass cool down even longer. ‘Nuff said.
Meta Changes
Assuming everything on PTR (two mine Junkrat, Roadhog buffs, D.Va rockets) goes live, dive meta will be as strong as ever. I do feel that the most significant push/pull factors for the meta will be Mercy’s kit.
Team wiping ults are more devastating than ever and with the changes to Graviton Surge, I think Zarya could be seeing more gameplay, especially to counter D.Va. The required proximity to chain heal during Valkyrie also asks for a team to get hit with a Grav, but I do note that Mercy’s ult lets her escape.
Winston and D.Va are probably the core tanks of choice. Pharmercy’s still probably going to be in. Hitscan like S76 will still have a place.
Other Notes
Didn’t see much Doomfist selection in the PTR. Orisa’s shield is HUGE. Roadhog is very, very thicc.
