A new season coming soon to Overwatch 2, bringing a new battle pass, map rotation, and an array of balance changes to shift the meta.
But one adjustment wasn’t expected at all by players, and they were baffled when they discovered them in the patch notes.
Mercy received a heavy nerf alongside balance changes after she dominated the ladder’s higher tiers in season Two. The developer, however, didn’t speak of those changes ahead of time, and players are still confused, criticizing the unexpected changes on social media.
“Overwatch 2 has become a lot more fast-paced and if Mercy can’t keep up with that then she’s done for. The core of her survival is movement,” claimed a player in a highly-voted thread on Reddit. Another posted a joke by editing her Valentine’s card.
Mercy’s nerf is likely to bear a significant impact on her average performance in the game. It undermines the power of her Guardian Angel by increasing its cooldown and reducing her dashing speed, which is vital for her to survive and heal efficiently in a round.
While she’ll have a harder time surviving, her healing potential has also received a nerf with a general healing reduction, compensated by a boost for allies who’ve lost more than half of their HP.
She’ll regenerate less when out of combat, too, as she’ll need to heal allies to regenerate her HP.
Players complained about Mercy’s changes, saying they asked the developer to nerf her damage boost to make her more balanced in the meta, rather than hitting her survivability and healing potential, which are her main strengths.
They also argue that Mercy will get more boring to play in lower tiers, as she won’t be able to switch targets easily and will be forced to play passively due to her Guardian Angel and self-healing nerfs.
Mercy’s light rework will shift her role in a team. Her healing boost for targets under half HP (50 percent more healing done to them) is supposed to boost her burst healing potential, rather than giving consistent support for the team.
It might make her more situational than a go-to-pick, but it’s too early to tell what will be the exact impact of nerfs on the meta.
Overwatch 2‘s season Three will kick off later today, at 11am CT.
