Make the most out of your next support game in Overwatch with our guide to one of the best supports in the game; Mercy.
Every support hero in Overwatch is fun to play and essential for a given team’s success. However, some heroes are much stronger than others, especially when used in combination with specific DPS and tanks.
When talking about strong support, the first name that comes to mind is Mercy. This is one of the most popular and unique heroes in Overwatch that gets tons of action among casual and professional players. Even though she might not have the best AoE healing in the game, Mercy is a fantastic option for specific lineups.
There are many unique things about Mercy that make the hero overpowered in many scenarios. Even though she only has 200 HP, she is hard to kill because of the abilities that often allow her to fly around.
Mercy is one of the support heroes you would want to master to gain rating. So, let’s take a look at some of the most important things we need to know about her.
Passive Abilities
Like most heroes in Overwatch, Mercy has several interesting abilities that users need to learn how to use. The first one is a passive ability that goes by the name of Regeneration. As its name suggests, it allows Mercy to gain 20 HP per second if she hasn’t taken damage for one second. This is a fantastic tool to keep her alive in tricky situations.
Interestingly, this is one of the few heroes in Overwatch that has a second passive ability. This one is called Angelic Descent and it gives the hero the ability to slow down her descent speed. This can work well when she plays with heroes like Pharah.
Caduceus Staff
Mercy’s primary ability is called Caduceus Staff and it lets the hero give a given ally bonus damage or healing. Interestingly, Mercy can switch between this option’s effect with just a press of a button.
The first option gives the hero + 30% damage, whereas the second one restores 55 HP per second. Regardless of what Mercy focuses on, she doesn’t need to look at her target to use this ability.
The damage boost can be used to amplify specific abilities by “connecting” to her ally when the projectile was fired. Even though this is easier said than done, it could do wonders in many situations because your enemies wouldn’t expect the extra damage.
Caduceus Blaster
Aside from healing/providing damage, Mercy also has a weapon that allows her to shoot 5 rounds per second. This gun deals 20 damage, has a 1.4-second reload time and can hit headshots. Interestingly, this weapon will be automatically reloaded if Mercy hasn’t used it for 1.4 seconds.
Guardian Angel
Mercy’s second essential active ability is Guardian Angel. When used, it allows the hero to move toward a given ally really quickly. In other words, she can use her damage or heal boost.
Some people might not know, but Guardian Angel can be used on living and dead allies. In other words, she can either provide damage/heal or use her resurrect. Speaking of the devil, this is the second option on the list.
Resurrect
This is one of the unique abilities in Overwatch because Mercy is the only hero in the game that can resurrect a target. When used, the hero receives a -75% movement speed penalty, but after 1.75s (the casting time), one of her allies will be restored to full HP.
This ability has a 30 seconds cooldown, which means Mercy could use it a couple of times during a fight. What’s even more impressive is that the hero does not need to maintain a line of sight.
Once a given hero is resurrected, he has 2.25 seconds of invulnerability. This means the target can’t receive damage from any sources.
Valkyrie
Mercy’s ultimate is called Valkyrie and it gives the hero the ability to fly for 15 seconds. During that time, the hero she is “connected” with receives a 30% damage boost and a 60 hp/s healing. The hero also receives additional range to some of her abilities and her Blaster has infinite ammo.
While Valkyrie is on, Mercy’s passive ability Regeneration can’t be interrupted by damage. What’s more, the hero can check her opponents’ health bars if they have taken damage.
Interestingly, if you attach your beam to a given ally, everyone in Mercy’s LoS will also receive the same buffs. This makes the hero incredibly dangerous because she can provide tons of damage or healing to her team.
Things to be aware of
Even though Mercy might seem like one of the most complicated heroes in Overwatch because there are loads of things you need to think about, this isn’t the case. In fact, this is probably one of the easiest supports to pick up.
Since her abilities are focused on helping her allies, you don’t need to fight or interact with your opponents unless needed. Therefore, you should try to avoid as much damage as possible.
Another thing you should be aware of when using Mercy is to balance between providing damage and healing your allies. This can be easier said than done and will require some practice. There are some situations where providing damage is the better option, but it all comes down to your team’s composition.
Speaking of teams, Mercy is a part of one of the most popular combos in Overwatch because she is often paired with Pharah. These two heroes can fly around and deal insane amounts of damage.
The counters
People in Overwatch rarely pick a given hero to counter support, but there are some exceptions and Mercy is one of them. The hero struggles against agile opponents who can kill her in seconds. Needless to say, the first name that comes to play is Genji because he can easily reach her and land his deadly shurikens.
Another hero that works surprisingly well against Mercy is Tracer. Despite being the hero with the lowest HP in the game, she is swift and can deal insane amounts of damage from a close distance. So, unless Mercy is in the air, Tracer can kill her in seconds.
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