Overwatch 2 is soon welcoming a new season on April 11, bringing a series of changes to shake up the meta. Season four will be highlighted by the release of upcoming support hero Lifeweaver, but many other changes will be coming as well.
One of the heroes receiving balance changes is Mercy, as confirmed in April 6’s patch notes. Blizzard aims to revert changes that hindered her strength in season three, but the notes left some players confused.
The patch is set to increase her regular healing by 10 and remove her bonus from under half health. Her passive regen is also being added when she uses Valkyrie, and her Guardian Angel ability, which allows her to fly toward an ally, is being adjusted.
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The patch notes indicate her Jump and Crouch cancel active ability, which allows her to control her dash, is being increased by 0.5 seconds but can no longer be “manually interrupted to begin the countdown early.”
Blizzard explained this change aims to grant Mercy more flexibility by “opt[ing] into an additional 1.5 second cooldown when using the increased mobility from the jump/crouch cancel options or otherwise waiting for the base cooldown time.”
Some players argue the intended effect won’t translate into the game and will hinder Mercy’s Guardian Angel ability instead. In a recent Reddit thread, a player explained how the Jump and Crouch cancel ability was most commonly used by Mercy players to dash quickly and control their direction.
In many cases, this ability is used to reposition and avoid a flanking attempt, rather than flying to an ally to heal them, which makes the jump essential for positioning in a teamfight.
The player explained that with this change Guardian Angel will have an increased cooldown of three seconds when using the Jump and Crouch cancel, in turn reducing Mercy’s mobility.
“Just so no one is confused: The GA cooldown is reverted back to 1.5 seconds ONLY if you stop short. Any other time using the horizontal OR vertical jump, it will still be 3 seconds,” the player explained. “They basically just nerfed her healing (cool, fine) and didn’t give back movement but it made it look like they did.”
Overwatch 2 players have to wait and see how these changes affect the Mercy when season four kicks off on April 11.
