HERO UPDATES

Ana

Biotic Rifle

• Damage increased from 60 to 70. //Can 3 tap 200 HP Heroes, Still 3 taps Tracer.

Developer Comment: Ana has been outshined by other support heroes lately. Boosting her damage will help her defend herself and make her more threatening to the enemy team.

Mercy

Resurrect

• Cast time increased from 0 seconds to 1.75 seconds. //Little over double Hack's Casting Time

• Mercy’s movement speed is now reduced by 75% while casting. //Easier to focus down, keeps res if died whilst casting.

• Can now be interrupted when Mercy is knocked back, stunned, or hacked. //Any form of CC.

Valkyrie

• When activated, Resurrection no longer has a cast time.

Developer Comment: We feel that Mercy’s recent rework has been successful, but her Resurrect ability still feels too strong and frustrating to play against. Now that it has a cast time, there is more room for enemies to counter the ability. However, casting Resurrect happens instantly when Valkyrie is active. This should make her feel powerful when she transforms on the battlefield.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed several issues that prevented the announcer voice lines from playing correctly in Competitive, Elimination, and Capture the Flag game modes.

• Fixed an issue causing Roadhog’s Chain Hook to latch on to enemy players for longer than intended.

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(// are my comments)

I tried Mercy out on the PTR and is basically feels like you're stationary while rezzing. This make it extremely risky to attempt when not benefiting from the protection of your allies so rezzing deep into the enemy team will no longer be a thing.

One hero that might benefit from this change is Zarya. Her bubbles last up to 2 seconds if not broken early so I think she'll see more play because of this. D.Va might also need to always make sure to have her DM up if Mercy needs to rez but Zarya requires less ability micro management to get value with a Mercy.

I look forward to doing some more testing from a Soldier 76 point of view to see if I can now prevent her from rezzing more often instead of desperately trying to kill her before and after her rez.

A Mercy main friend of mine is very upset with these changes so Blizz will probably get a sizable amount of pushback from the Mercy players of the community..but I quite like this change. It adds a considerable amount of risk to the ability and rightfully so, it's impact is way to big to be that easy to pull off.

Ana has to comeback I think these changes on Mercy is what is necessary, after all, if a game forces you to have a Mercy to guarantee a chance in winning as opposed to a team without one. That is a gameplay problem because it is forcing one person to go a hero when you have other supports, Blizzard didn't want this, but I am sure the Mercy mains were the one who don't want this change. For once, I am happy that Blizzard is taking suggestions against Mercy meta and bringing back Ana (hopefully) so that somehow all healers have a consistent pickrate and win percentage. After all the game cannot revolve around heroes, but rather revolve around a team's composition or role in a game. That is what Blizzard wants.

This will reduce the ridiculous fights a lot, and is overall a positive change. Mercy can no longer always reverse a teammate's mistake, but still undoes opponents' outplays pretty well. This places more emphasis on teamplay, and makes it harder to solo-carry on ladder. I think it will bring back the more stationary comps, which can safely take space for mercy to res securely.

Ana's increased damage will just make her viable in more places. This will hopefully limit the number of pharmercy-only teams we see pop up in NA.

Good job, blizz.

Ayyy the res thing is good.

I suggested something similar when someone was complaining about res on twitter. Might have been montecristo or pestoenthusiast. Either way it's what I had in mind and a good idea.

god the uproar on the forums is hilarious. Its as if they are waging war against supports in a patch where they literally BUFFED a support lolol. eevee is quitting OW over it. Completely ridiculous.

seems a bit harsh on mercy at first glance. but a step in the right direction for sure.

adibit [#7]

seems a bit harsh on mercy at first glance. but a step in the right direction for sure.

It might be a bit TOO long but overall it's the right choice. It will no longer forgive stupidity but could help your team regain some ground. I still think they should just try to remove rez entirely and replace it but I think that's wishful thinking

Generation1 [#8]

It might be a bit TOO long but overall it's the right choice. It will no longer forgive stupidity but could help your team regain some ground. I still think they should just try to remove rez entirely and replace it but I think that's wishful thinking

Yeah I think 1.75 seconds may be a little too much. At least it is more difficult to pull it off, it may require team cooperation to work, as your tanks would need to protect you while you res.

However Valkyrie is still so broken that the fact that res is less powerful doesn't hinder that much the usability of the hero.
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We'll have to wait and see if these changes actually make a big impact, Mercy can still res just as often as she could before.

Farsil [#9]

Yeah I think 1.75 seconds may be a little too much. At least it is more difficult to pull it off, it may require team cooperation to work, as your tanks would need to protect you while you res.

However Valkyrie is still so broken that the fact that res is less powerful doesn't hinder that much the usability of the hero.
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i agree i think they overnerfed the regular res and didnt really change valkary where mercy becomes too hard to kill and moves wayyy too fast in my opinion

Finally

Too harsh for Mercy at first glance, but she needs to go down the Roadhog path to see better days in the future.

Might be enough for me to want to play ranked again. Mercy is so frustrating.

She will 100% still be viable, she can move while casting the Rezz as it Looks like and her Ult is still op af. In best case that means that outplays are now possible again and picks are not getting undone too easily at least within enemy lines. Maybe even provides more playstyles besides Basic dive (more Reinhardt + zarya to make sure rezzes are secured etc.) which would make the whole game more interesting. I have high hopes for that nerf but i still fear she might STILL be a mustpick :<
Also, Mercymains quitting the game because of nerfs etc. is the dumbest Thing ever

Ideally, mercy needs to be nerfed so much that she becomes unusable for a couple of seasons, and then get buffed again. For too long she has been the dominant support in ranked, people need to learn how to play with other supports.