As a flex player with nearly 500 hours on Mercy — a vast majority of my time in the Support role — I’ve seen the Overwatch hero traverse many peaks and valleys since 2016. She was a must-pick in 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. Obviously, a hero being practically mandatory goes against Overwatch’s design philosophy, so the team rez was removed in favor of the Valkyrie Ultimate and single target rez, which has been the norm for over eight years now. That was the end of Mercy’s first golden age, but it wasn’t her last.
While Battle Mercys, pockets with a skilled DPS duo, and talented movement users have managed to make Mercy work in the time since this era ended, she wasn’t truly OP again until the launch of Overwatch’s Stadium mode. Here, she shined for the first several weeks of the mode’s life because of the since-removed Crepuscular Circle ability. While considered broken, much like her old Ultimate, Mercy mains had a blast with this special power. With it equipped, they could use their pistol and heal at the same time while in Valkyrie. When paired with the five seconds of Valkyrie from resurrections granted by Renaissance, Mercy mains were constantly in a fight in a way that they had never been, making her an active character instead of a passive one. Unfortunately, following complaints, this ability was removed in Season 18, bringing Mercy’s second golden era to an end. And while playing her hasn’t been as fun ever since, I’m excited about the potential of Mercy’s next golden era, which has a chance to begin whenever the midseason update arrives.
Overwatch’s midseason patch for Season 1 currently lacks a release date. However, it’s expected on either March 10 with the NieR collab or March 17 with the conclusion of the Overwatch vs. Talon event.
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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 midseason patch. This is because Blizzard has confirmed that one of the most requested Mercy changes — adding her Flash Heal perk to her base kit — will be happening when the midseason update arrives. Whenever a Mercy rework is discussed, this is often the first thing that players mention as being a step worth taking, as Flash Heal is very useful but far from overpowered.
For anyone unfamiliar with what Flash Heal does, it’s a simple bit of burst healing from her staff. Activated by the press of the square button on PlayStation, and the equivalent button on other platforms, Flash Heal targets instantly receive a beam of 150 HP, which can be a game changer for squishy targets and can help sustain Tanks that are being focused by the opposing team. While it initially used up a resurrection charge, Blizzard realized this made the ability far too weak, and it was given an independent charge later on because of that. Yet while this adjustment made it a solid Tier 3 Perk choice for Mercy, her kit remains so simple that making it part of her base ability lineup always seemed like a logical next step, as it would give her players a bit more to do while helping her compete more with Supports that can do so much, like Kiriko.
Fortunately, Blizzard has heard these requests, and while Flash Heal being made part of Mercy’s base kit doesn’t instantly make her overpowered again, it opens the door to that possibility for one reason. Because Flash Heal is currently a Major Perk, it being made part of Mercy’s base ability pool means that she’ll need a new Major Perk to replace it. And with that necessary addition comes the potential for the new Major Perk to be extremely strong, which, combined with Flash Heal, could make Mercy feel the best she has in a long, long time.
Lifeweaver, another struggling Support, is receiving a similar midseason buff. His Life Grip will now cleanse pulled targets by default, making his signature ability a bit more useful without requiring Perks to boost it.
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Hopefully, Mercy’s Next Golden Era is Her Longest Yet
While Mercy’s reign of terror (which briefly reappeared in Overwatch Classic) was memorable, it didn’t last all that long, as the classic Rez was removed around 15 months after launch. Her Stadium dominance was even shorter, lasting around five months. Whenever Mercy feels powerful again, I’d love 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 outright removed, I get why it was unpopular with non-Mercy players. Still, I’d love to see an era where Mercy was just very, very good without being broken. Kiriko has essentially been meta since she released, so it’s frustrating to see what’s meant to be Overwatch’s most accessible character go through whiplash periods where she feels either incredibly fun/impactful or boring/weak.
As for what Mercy’s new Major Perk could be, there are plenty of options, with just a few being:
- A Flash Damage Boost like Flash Heal, where Mercy can pick a target and hit them with a beam that has the effects of a Damage boost for five seconds, but doesn’t require her to keep the beam on the target. This way, she can effectively do two full damage boosts at a time, but sporadically, since the Flash Boost would have a decently long cooldown.
- A buff to the Valkyrie Ultimate that makes it so that Mercy’s chained beam heals and damage boosts at the same time, instantly making it an Ult to be feared.
- One of her Stadium powers, like Triage Unit, which sees players boosting healing on low-health targets through Guardian Angel.
Ultimately, regardless of what it is, the idea that Mercy is getting a potentially great new major ability alongside the Flash Heal addition is exciting to me, and surely to other Mercy mains as well. Sure, it’s cool that we’re getting yet another Mercy skin with the NieR collab, but cosmetics can only go so far. Making Mercy’s core gameplay loop more satisfying is something that’s been long overdue, and it’s finally about to happen. As previously stated, the worst-case scenario is that the Major Perk disappoints and Mercy goes from a C-tier healer to a viable B-tier option due to Flash Heal. And best case? Mercy’s new major Perk is strong enough when used in conjunction with Flash Heal that she enters a golden era like team rez or Crepuscular Circle. In a perfect world, Mercy will finally feel great to play without being a pain to play against, and hopefully, that’s what happens when the midseason update arrives.
- Released
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August 10, 2023
- ESRB
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Teen / Violence, Blood, Mild Language, Use of Tobacco, Users Interact, In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items)
