Highlights

  • Mercy's latest buffs in Overwatch 2 season 9 still fall short of restoring her former status as the top healing support hero.
  • Global self-healing changes and larger projectiles have made it harder for Mercy mains to keep up with other support heroes.
  • To make Mercy viable again, she may need increased healing capabilities or unique buffs that enhance her role as a single-target healer.

Overwatch 2 season 9 is one of the biggest patches in the game so far, with sweeping changes to its heroes, including Mercy. The patch buffs Mercy’s self-healing skill, Sympathetic Recovery, even more. The health she recovered from it increased from 25% to 40% of healing dealt. Her Guardian Angel super jump was also buffed, giving her better survivability overall, but some players feel that these buffs are not enough to restore her previous identity as the game’s premier healing support. Things only become more complicated when looking at the larger adjustments to the game as a whole, such as:

  • Self-healing for everyone: Healing over time outside of combat was a unique passive for supports. Now everyone regenerates 20 health per second after not taking damage. Supports get this perk earlier at 2.5 seconds out of combat while self-healing for tanks and damage dealers kick in after 5 seconds.
  • Larger bullets and projectiles: It’s now significantly easier for players to hit enemies.
  • Health pool increase: To offset the bullet and projectile changes, all heroes enjoyed a boost to their overall health pools, making some one-shot headshot kills in Overwatch 2 less effective without damage boosts.

Mercy used to be a must-have in competitive rosters back in the early days of Overwatch. This was mostly because the team resurrect she had at the time was overpowered. Plus, Doctor Ziegler had the most consistent healing output in the support category back then. Now, she has some tough competition, with heroes like Ana, Baptiste, and Moira being capable of providing massive healing to multiple allies at once. Mercy’s single-target healing became almost irrelevant, so the devs have tried to tweak her mobility, resurrect, and damage buff abilities to make her more viable. She’s still one of the most popular supports in OW2 for new players because of her accessibility and mobility, but the Overwatch 2 season 9 changes have made Mercy less viable overall.

Overwatch 2's Baptiste needs to get more skins, like Mercy
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Overwatch 2 Season 9 Leaves Mercy in a Bad State

overwatch-2-mercy-feature

Season 9 is one of the most controversial ones in the game so far because of its global self-healing and larger projectiles. Mercy mains feel it the most, as it makes the hero easier to hit in the air. Her style of healing can also seem redundant with the passive self-healing that tank and damage heroes got in S9. It’s even less effective during combat, as damage heroes now reduce the healing of their targets by 20% for two seconds. This leaves her relying more on her damage boost to make an impact in matches.

Increased Bullet Sizes in Overwatch 2 Season 9 Makes Life Hell for Mercy Mains

It’s more difficult for Mercy to take advantage of Overwatch 2's increased bullet sizes compared to other supports. She has to switch to her Caduceus Blaster to do so, which has a clip and fire rate that’s abysmal when she’s not in her ult. When comparing this to other supports like Ana, Kiriko, Baptiste, Zen, Lucio, and Moira, who can seamlessly weave damage with healing and other utility, it becomes clear that Mercy cannot keep up. This change also makes it easier for enemies to hit her, so Mercy mains have to try even harder to stay mobile.

How Overwatch 2 Can Restore Mercy’s Identity Post-Season 9

Season 9 puts the heat on Mercy mains, but there is a way out. The improved health pools, healing debuffs from damage heroes, and larger projectiles could justify an improvement in the German support’s healing capabilities for the next patch. A straightforward but effective change would be to just increase the healing per second of her Caduceus Staff.

The devs could even double down on her identity as a single-target healer and ramp up the healing per second she gives to a target the longer she stays with them. Using Guardian Angel could give burst healing to the targeted ally or make it easier to resurrect a downed one. Just about any buff to her capabilities to keep her allies alive is a must for her to be relevant again post-season 9, and the best route would be to lean into her role as a pure healer.