You would be hard-pressed to find a competitive match lacking a Mercy. The Swiss support is picked in tournament matches 81-99% of the time, and she holds the third highest pick rate in both the quick play and competitive formats. Most would attribute her popularity to the necessity of a healer, along with the power of her Ultimate; however, many people don't even recognize how ridiculously impactful Mercy – and her Ultimate ability – can actually be.
Mercy's Strengths
Mercy has a few strong points that keep her at the top of the tier list. Notably, her single target healing is unmatched; at a rate of 50 HP/sec, she beats out Zenyatta's 30 HP/sec and Lucio's 12.5 HP/sec. Of course, Lucio's HP/sec is provided as an aura, so he does have a greater net heal if his entire team is grouped up and in line of sight.
Mercy additionally has more maneuverability to distinguish herself from the rest of the healers. She can stay in the air for long periods of time and she can dash to allies on an extremely low cooldown (2 seconds). Mercy also can buff her allies' damage, which is especially important with long-range heroes such as Pharah and Soldier: 76 being very common, with the occasional Widowmaker as well. Mercy also forms a part of the feared aerial assault crew when paired with Pharah, as the pair can stay in the air for long periods of time and control the map from above.
With a good understanding of Mercy's strengths other than her Ultimate, we can now analyze one of the most powerful abilities in the game.
Heroes Never Die!
Mercy's Ultimate is clearly one of the strongest abilities in the game – does anything sound more powerful than a team-wide resurrection? However, there are a few intricacies that go alongside the ability, that can change just how impactful her Ultimate is. Situational awareness is the key to amazing resurrections, and this skill alone determines whether you were a detriment to the team or the literal savior of the game.
The most obvious thing to keep in mind is the position of dead allies. If they died between a group of enemies, resurrecting them might be a waste, and could potentially cost your own life on top of that. Of course, this is one of the easier factors to keep in mind because Mercy players will see the dead bodies through walls and structures, giving them knowledge of their allies' potential spawn positions even without voice comms.
The second factor is a big one: Ultimate advantage. If your team just died quickly at the first point without doing much damage, and thus without gaining a lot of Ultimate progress, but you were able to charge up Ultimate yourself, you should not necessarily resurrect the team to defend the point. In fact, doing so might even be a detriment, given that stalling is only meaningful in tournament play with stopwatch as a rule. By resurrecting your team in unorganized play like this, you are generally taking a bad fight.
NOTE: This advice does not apply if resurrecting your team will grant you a reasonable numbers advantage. A 6v4 is favorable despite an Ultimate disadvantage.
In a more concrete sense, let's imagine a defense at point A on Hollywood. Perhaps the opponent was able to push the capture to two-thirds of the way through before your own team decided to fight over control of the point, rather than skirmish off the objective. However, the offense prevailed, and because the game is still in its earlier phases, only you – the Mercy – have access to your Ultimate, while the entire enemy team is fully charged after dominating the first fight. You could attempt to stall
The most obvious thing to keep in mind is the position of dead allies.
the final one-third of the capture by resurrecting your team, but doing so is almost certain to result in another lost fight due to the Ultimate disadvantage. If you choose not to resurrect your team, they will respawn from the first spawn point, and can gain the high ground on the streets phase of Hollywood for a more advantageous fight. However, by using your resurrection, some of your teammates are likely to spawn in the outer-space set after the failed fight, which is a much longer distance from the streets, and additionally grants the opponent all control of the high ground.
The Ultimate advantage issue is clearly a two-sided coin, though. If the opposing team just burned all their Ultimates to kill five teammates and you are somehow still alive, then you should absolutely go in to revive your team. Without their Ultimates, the opponents will be on their back foot, and you can reset the fight in your team's favor. This reset alone is what makes Mercy's Ultimate so strong – and what makes her the priority target for the enemy at all times.
While it occurs off-screen, in the above clip, Cloud9 makes use of the Mercy Ultimate shortly after Reinhardt and Pharah die. They know that once Adam can provide the resurrection, the fight against Northern Gaming Red will be in their favor, as Soldier: 76, Reinhardt, Roadhog, and Pharah all have their Ultimate abilities up. With some of NGR's Ultimates already used, Mercy resets the fight and Cloud9 comes out victorious with an easy team wipe.
There are of course exceptions to the Ultimate rule. If taking the objective will grant the opponent a win, such as through sudden death or stopwatch, then you should be far more liberal with your Ultimate. However, the rules stated apply to usage in general, when not under duress.
Given that almost every team will carry a Mercy, you will likely have to face situations where the opponent might be able to pull of a resurrection as well. Without going into the infinite possibilities, a general rule of thumb is that you should always keep the opposing Mercy in mind before doing anything, regardless of the hero you are using. This means that you have to keep the possibility of trading Ultimates, resulting in an uneven fight, in the back of your mind while you play, despite an apparent numbers advantage if you go for the resurrection.
Let's get you back out there
The rules all boil down to one idea, basically: a good Ultimate can singlehandedly save a game; a bad one can lose it. Mercy's strengths are abundant and her weaknesses are few and far between, but her Ultimate is where her real power lies. She is incredibly impactful in the right hands, and any Overwatch player should know her limits. There is a reason, after all, that any professional will tell you to focus the Mercy first!
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