Mercy mains frustrated by Overwatch 2 devs’ “disheartening” plans for hero
Blizzard EntertainmentMercy players are not happy with the recent direction the Overwatch 2 devs have taken the hero, despite changes made to the support resulting in what some perceive to be a net buff.
Overwatch 2’s third season began with a bang and a big patch that saw numerous heroes being updated including Mercy.
Her new passive heals her for 25% of healing done to her allies and her healing increases by 50% when healing low-health allies. To balance this, however, Mercy’s Guardian Angel cooldown and normal healing per second were nerfed.
Now that players have had time to try out the changes and provide feedback, Mercy mains were hoping that the devs would make some adjustments, but comments in a recent AMA suggest otherwise.
Overwatch 2 devs frustrate Mercy mains with new comments
During a recent Reddit AMA, Lead Balance Designer Josh Noh claimed that the changes were “neutral” with her stats staying largely the same as they were prior to the patch.
“We don’t have further changes planned for Mercy at the moment. We feel it would be good to let this one settle and see how players adjust to the changes since it can take some time, and then evaluate if more adjustments are necessary,” he remarked.
“There has been positive sentiment around players feeling like they can more fairly try to counter Mercy in ways that were difficult with her extreme mobility before as well as Mercy players having more agency in their ability to save low health allies. However, at the same time the reduction in mobility is going to feel bad for Mercy players needing to adjust to the new timing.”
These comments didn’t sit well with Mercy players who lambasted the devs on social media, accusing them of not listening to their concerns.
“I guess they still aren’t listening when it comes to Mercy!” Twitch streamer Skiesti said. “It’s just all about the stats and non-Mercy players.”
On one hand, I’m very glad her healing isn’t being nerfed which was my main worry
— Niandra! (@Niandra_) February 22, 2023
On the other, this response is a lil bit frustrating
“On one hand, I’m very glad her healing isn’t being nerfed which was my main worry,” remarked another. “On the other, this response is a lil bit frustrating.”
“What’s frustrating isn’t even the changes themselves but that they seem to refuse to listen to high rated Mercys as if we aren’t the ones that understand her the most,” said someone else.
What’s frustrating isn’t even the changes themselves but that they seem to refuse to listen to high rated Mercys as if we aren’t the ones that understand her the most
— Andriatic cx (@Andriatic) February 22, 2023
Not expecting them use all our ideas but I like to think a lot of Mercy CCs have been pretty fair with our ideas
“It’s pretty disheartening to give feedback and just be told ‘stats look good! Not gonna change a thing!’ After saying that they would keep a close eye out and listen to feedback,” the streamer added.
While it may seem unlikely that more Mercy updates will be coming in the mid-season patch, by the time Season 4 rolls around, there might be more data that leads Blizzard to implement some additional buffs or nerfs to the popular support.