Mercy is undoubtedly one of the most iconic support heroes in all of the Overwatch franchise. Now in Overwatch 2, equipped with her Caduceus staff and Guardian Angel, Mercy flies throughout the battlefield giving aid to allies in need.
Arguably the easiest support in Overwatch 2, Mercy is often considered the go-to pick for bad players who can't play the game. However, she has a surprising amount of depth added into her kit in Overwatch 2 that can differentiate between a good and a bad Mercy player.
Playstyle
Mercy's main role in Overwatch 2 is to heal her teammates. She's often found using her Guardian Angel ability to dash from teammate to teammate, topping up their health. Alongside this, her Caduceus staff allows her to damage boost a player she is targeting, which can make an adept DPS player into a fantastic one. Finally, Mercy's most iconic ability is her resurrection, which allows her to bring an ally back from the dead which makes her a great addition to any team.
Abilities
Caduceus Staff
- Left Click: Hold to heal an ally
- Right Click: Hold to increase an ally's damage inflicted
Mercy's Caduceus Staff is the only way she is able to heal her allies. Mercy will have this equipped on her most of the time, as her other weapon is only used for dealing damage and defending herself. The Caduceus Staff also allows Mercy to damage boost her allies by 30%, which can help certain DPS heroes like Ashe break important damage thresholds.
Caduceus Blaster
- Left Click: Automatic Blaster
This is Mercy's main way of defending herself. It doesn't deal heaps of damage or fire quickly, so it should only be used if Mercy is unable to fly to another ally or have someone else defend her.
Guardian Angel
- Fly towards an ally. While in flight, Jump launches you forward, and Crouch launches you upwards.
Mercy's Guardian Angel is her most skill-expressive ability. It gives her the mobility that allows her to survive in fights while also allowing her to quickly dash to allies to heal them up when they're in danger.
The main skill expression that comes with this ability is the option to either launch upwards or forward, which can really let the player mix up their movement
Resurrect
- Revive a dead teammate.
Mercy's Revive is what sets her apart from the rest of the healers in Overwatch 2. Being able to bring back a teammate from the dead can prove to be invaluable in the middle of a fight, and can really help her team set the tempo of a team fight.
Angelic Descent
- Fall very slowly
Angelic Descent causes Mercy to fall slowly while she is holding down her space key. This allows her to gracefully descend from great heights if she needs to and allows her to stay in the air for longer, making her harder to hit.
Ultimate: Valkyrie
- Gain the ability to fly. Abilities are enhanced.
Valkyrie makes all of Mercy's abilities go absolutely haywire. Her Caduceus Staff now spreads her healing/ damage beam to other allies. Her Guardian Angel is much faster, and her Caduceus Blaster has infinite ammo. During this time, Mercy's passive regeneration is greatly enhanced and allows her to go for Resurrections that she would normally die for.
Tips and Tricks
Guardian Angel Mixups
Guardian Angel causes Mercy to fly towards her target. While a rather basic ability, most Overwatch 2 players are accustomed to this and will be able to track Mercy or chase her throughout her flight. Using Crouch or Jump to launch in either direction allows players to mix up their movement, which can potentially save them or make them harder to tracer
Flight Time
Guardian Angel with Crouch can be used alongside Angelic Descent to allow Mercy to essentially fly above the battlefield. This can be useful as it throws off certain heroes as well as the player's aim, as Mercy can now move in more potential directions instead of just left or right.
Damage Boost Uptime
While Mercy is more well-known for her healing beam. Her damage beam is criminally underused. Players should look to try and utilize Mercy's damage beam on teammates when there isn't a dire need for healing or if the other support on the team is healing sufficiently. A Mercy that can damage boost well will separate them from the average Mercy.
Safety with Caduceus Staff
Caduceus Staff is rather simple to use. A point-and-hold weapon that creates a beam/ tether to the ally she is currently healing. This tether can break if the player loses line of sight with their target, however, the tether will remain for a little while before disappearing meaning players can duck in and out of cover to maintain the beam while keeping themselves safe.
Combos
Pharah
Pharah Mercy or Pharmercy is a classic combo known by the community. Pharah is able to fly up into the air and maintain air time, this allows Mercy to hop along for the ride, dispensing healing and damage boosts for the Pharah.
Echo
Like Pharah, Echo also can maintain a decent flight time, making her a great pairing with Mercy.
Brigitte
Brigitte is a great support pairing with Mercy due to her role as a mini frontline. Brigitte's shield allows her to stand up the front and cover Mercy while she heals allies. On top of this, Brigitte does really well with characters like Genji and Tracer, who can dive and eliminate Mercy.
Advantages and Counters
Advantages
Junkrat
As Mercy tends to be a pretty airborne hero, Junkrat struggles to keep up against her vertical mobility. Mercy is able to pretty easily fly over most of his spam, making him rather irrelevant to her.
Reaper
Along a similar vein as Junkrat, Reaper isn't able to keep up with Mercy's sheer mobility and struggles to find value with his Hellfire Shotguns with the pace at which Mercy can move.
Brigitte
While Brigitte works well with Mercy, she can also be countered by her pretty hard. Mercy's damage boost allows for DPS heroes to break through her fragile shield easily. And Mercy is easily able to escape from Brigitte's short range with her Guardian Angel.
Hanzo
Hanzo's low rate of fire and general inaccuracy will cause him to struggle against Mercy's mobility. Alongside this, he can struggle to fire upwards towards the sky, where Mercy tends to play.
Reinhardt
Reinhardt finds himself struggling against Mercy, similarly to Brigitte. Mercy's damage boost helps DPS heroes break shields, while her mobility is just so much higher than his.
Counter
Ana
Ana is a pretty heavy counter for Mercy due to her Biotic Grenade canceling any of Mercy's healing. Ana can also cancel Mercy's Resurrection by landing a sleep dart on her.
Ashe
Ashe can counter Mercy via her dynamite. As her Dynamite deals ticks of damage it stops Mercy's natural regeneration from kicking in, which takes her out of the fight for longer.
Winston
Unlike Reinhardt and Brigitte, Winston has far more mobility to chase down Mercy. On top of this, he can place down his shield to isolate Mercy from her teammates and eliminate her.
Tracer
Tracer is similar to Winston; her mobility and high damage makes her perfect for being able to chase down Mercy, even if she uses Guardian Angel to get away.
Sombra
Sombra's entire kit revolving around flanking and hacking can cause Mercy quite a headache. Her hack is able to completely stop Mercy's Resurrection ability, as well as prevent her from escaping with Guardian Angel, and without Guardian Angel, Mercy is easy pickings.
Overwatch 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.