Everything you need to know about the new-look Mercy that's on its way to the live game soon.
Details of all the changes being made to Mercy’s Resurrect ability in Overwatch, and details of her new Valkyrie Ultimate ability.
A new Mercy is currently undergoing testing on the Overwatch PTR server, and all in all you should expect a radically different version of the Support hero to hit the live game once the period of testing is over.
If you’re curious about what exactly those Mercy changes are, then we thought it might be an idea to highlight what’s new about one of our favourite Overwatch characters. If you’ve been playing around with her on the PTR, we’d also love to hear what you’re making of these changes as a Mercy main. Sound off in the comments!
Resurrect changes
Mercy’s Resurrect is no longer an Ultimate ability, and no longer provides the kind of mass heal that she’s become famous for. Instead, this ability now targets a single teammate, rather than every friendly fighter within a certain radius of her current location.
This new version of Resurrect is now on a 30 second cooldown, and she can only target a player that is within five metres of her. Not only that, Mercy has lost her invulnerability while casting this ability, and so it’s possible for the enemy team to pick her off.
A new Ultimate ability: Valkyrie
So, what replaces Resurrect as Mercy’s Ultimate then?
Well, the answer to this particular question is Valkyrie. Whenever this new Ultimate is activated, Mercy gains a series of weapon and ability buffs for a period of 30 seconds.
Here’s how it works:
- Caduceus Staff – Her healing and damage buffs now affect everyone who’s near to the current target. Note also that the range of the staff has been increased as well, making it easier to tap targets that are further away.
- Caduceus Blaster – Her non-healing pistol weapon now contains infinite ammo! In a previous PTR build the damage and fire-rate was also increased, but this has since been taken away. It remains to be seen whether Battle Mercy will become a true force to be reckoned with…
- Guardian Angel: This presumably passive buff now increases Mercy’s range and movement speed on the battlefield.
- Resurrect: Once Valkyrie is activated, Mercy’s Resurrect ability becomes immediately available for use, and can be used again after another ten seconds have passed.
- Hover: Mercy can now fly freely in the sky! Not only that, but she moves more quickly than ever before, making her a tricky target to pin down.
- Regeneration (Passive): This is no longer interrupted if Mercy takes damage.
The reason for these changes is pretty simple. The developers were not happy with the way Mercy was encouraged to hide from big fights, then pop up for a big resurrection after her team had been wiped out. It was frustrating for the other team to say the least.
The idea is that her targeted resurrect ability now makes her more active in battle, while Valkyrie opens up an opportunity for the Mercy player to make a very skilled impact during critical fights.
That’s everything we know about the Mercy changes that are heading to the live game in an upcoming patch. As soon as we have details of when that patch is due to go live, we’ll add a story to the front page.
