Overwatch 2 Season 4 is set to “revert” Mercy’s buffs from the previous season amid player backlash at the difficulty in playing against her, with additional changes made to her movement.
Throughout Season 3, Mercy has seen her fair share of nerfs and buffs in Overwatch. She initially received a nerf at the start of the season which lowered her pick rate. Devs then sought to correct this by giving her a considerable buff in the mid-season patch.
Her healing was buffed by significantly increasing her heal output on low-health allies, and her movement, despite getting slightly nerfed, still gave her a lot of sustainability. Mercy also combo’d incredibly well with Ana, as her biotic nade essentially made a pocketed hero invulnerable.
Before long, players certainly let Blizzard know they were not happy with the buffs, with many complaining that playing against a Mercy is “obnoxious”. Blizzard has, mercifully, now decided on a course correction in Season 4, with a “revert” of the buffs they gave her in Season 3.
Listening to the feedback the community gave the devs, Blizzard has decided to backtrack on the buffs after players complained on the difficulty of killing Mercy in Season 3.
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“While our goal was to make her healing more engaging when saving low-health allies, her sustainability shifted from her mobility to being able to stay alive through her passive and Valkyrie,” devs said of the initial buffs.
And because of that, they are “reverting these changes”. The new Season 4 tweaks will also come with a “slight adjustment” to how her Guardian Angel ability works to keep her boosted jump under control.
The devs did not give specifics on what the changes would entail for her other movement abilities, but what we know for certain is her healing will be reverted to the pre-mid-season patch numbers.
All up, this means Mercy will no longer have boosted healing to low health allies, making her spot in Season 4’s meta uncertain as that was one of her most powerful assets in recent weeks. We’ll just have to keep our eyes peeled as not only does Mercy fly back down to land, but newcomer Lifeweaver joins the Support party too.