Overwatch‘s angelic healer Mercy got a massive makeover this month. The changes have turned her into the most popular hero across all levels of competitive play, according to data from hundreds of thousands of Overwatch player profiles collected by the fan-run site Omnic Meta.
The stats show that Mercy currently gets selected almost 100% of the time across all levels from Bronze to Grandmaster. Omnic Meta notes that this is the first time they have seen an Overwatch hero get so popular across every tier of play.
Blizzard told Compete that they “are unable to comment on data/stats on Heroes,” so it’s uncertain just how popular Mercy is, but she sure does seem to be popping up on every team lately.
Mercy’s massive rework comes courtesy of patch 1.5, which dropped on September 19 and made big changes to her resurrection ability. Mercy’s popularity has led to a drop in the usage of other healer characters.
According to Omnic Meta’s data, Ana’s pick rate has dropped the most, with only 20% of surveyed players opting for her nowadays.
Other healers like Lucio and Zenyatta hover around the 30% mark. Symmetra is the least popular support character, particularly for Grandmaster players, who only choose her 5% of the time.
The higher the tier, the more likely it is that Mercy will be selected. For Bronze players, Mercy has the lowest pick rate, but it’s still 87%. For Master and Grandmaster players, Mercy has skyrocketed to nearly 100% likelihood on all teams.
Again, this means that Ana’s popularity in the high tiers has waned, which is surprising given how essential she used to be. Last season in Overwatch, many teams took advantage of the “dive” meta with three tanks and an Ana in the mix.
Every team needs a healer, and now, it’s almost mandatory that the designated healer choose Mercy. Her newly patched Ultimate ability gives her speed, longer reach on her healing and damage beams, and the power of flight, so she’s strong enough now to stay close to the thick of battle.
Before this patch, Mercy had to hang back and avoid the heat, but now, her resurrection ability can only heal one character at a time, and those characters have to be within a 5 meter radius. This all requires Mercy to stay in the action.
It’s possible further changes will decrease her omnipresence in competitive play, but for now, her super-powered build makes her a must-have. That’s great news for fans of the “Battle Mercy” style of play, but it’s too bad for any Overwatch healer who doesn’t like Mercy or her new battle-friendly makeover.
Comments
8 responses to “Almost Everyone Is Playing Overwatch With A Mercy On Their Team Now”
She is still so easy to play and her sr gains are broken and mercy mains are a plenty because of her extremely low skill cap. I’ve legit seen GM mercy mains with lower than 30% win ratio. So yeah that is why she is in every game. I await the salty mercy mains telling me she takes skill. I am ready to laugh.
I agree she has a low entry skill cap. There is still quite a divide between a good and bad mercy though. Bad mercy’s res the wrong people or at the wrong times. Bad mercy’s dont give the damage buff and wait for the hero to take a few hits before switching to heal. Bad mercy’s can’t get kills as a battlemercy when the time is required.
All that said, she is pretty OP and needs a nerf. I love playing mercy, but she is such a force.
From what I have seen less than 1% of mercy players are good. I’ve seen too 500 mercy players that suck balls. Literally the hero is broken and that is why she is played so much. People want an easy climb into higher ranks and you can do it easy with mercy. A friend of mine is in Gm and barely has a 45% win ratio. I on the other hand as a flex player have to have 65% and higher to stay in GM that is as broken as it gets.
I’ve been seeing her/have friends playing her more, I just get annoyed how Mercy’s healing beam heals faster then (most) hero’s damage… I suppose that’s the point tho…
Junkrat, now Junkrat is in EVERY game you play!
Winston man, I know hes only to apply additional damage and not to take charge in dps but I hate that he can’t outdamage Mercys healing. if anyone is due for a buff it’s Winston. his Cannon should do additional damage when its arcs are all focused on one player, 1 extra point of damage for each arc is all he needs.
It makes sense. Her most powerful ability, Rez, is now being used on a 30s cooldown. That is pretty damn significant.
It’s almost like meta is decided by who the current most broken character is.
Welcome to every competitive game every made.