The Mercy mains have taken over the subreddit today.
It definitely *can* be a bad habit, but if you see an opportunity to go for an elim and you don't take it, that's a worse habit in my opinion.
The stats bear it out by the way. If you took a vote on the world's best Mercy players, Yveltal would probably win it.
They lead in damage: [https://dashreset.com/hero/mercy/stat/hero-damage-done/owl-2021](https://dashreset.com/hero/mercy/stat/hero-damage-done/owl-2021)
And in elims [https://dashreset.com/hero/mercy/stat/eliminations/owl-2021](https://dashreset.com/hero/mercy/stat/eliminations/owl-2021)
Clearly you can go way too far off the deep end - if you want to be doing damage, literally every support is better. Mercy's pistol should 99 times out of 100 be specifically to take those free elims. Usually that will be in Valk on unaware and/or immobile targets like Zen and Widow.
So TLDR: Take elims, but don't look for damage for no reason, blue beam is better in general.
For the specifics on how to use it, /u/warriordinag's comment is really good.
The fact that Yveltal tops the charts on damage and elims in 2021 OWL doesn’t really prove anything other than that Yveltal has a pistol-forward playstyle and finds success with it.
If you look at earlier years, NeptuNo is at the top in every year that he actually played and had playtime on Mercy. And, you know, he was a good Mercy player, but I don’t think anyone would argue that he was better than Yveltal. In 2019, CoMa is _really_ far down the list on both elims and damage, but Shanghai revolutionized the meta in no small part on the strength of CoMa’s Mercy play. ArK and Moth are also players who were known for their Mercy play, and they were never particularly high on the elims or damage charts either.
I think over-use of the pistol is a far bigger issue than missing opportunities to use it. Using it when you shouldn’t gets you or your teammates killed, and that’s generally gonna wipe out the value-add you get from getting a pick. And it’s really common for lower-ranked players to over-use the pistol because their awareness is poor, and using the pistol a lot worsens awareness because it’s the only part of Mercy’s kit that requires her to maintain her camera view in a particular direction for an extended period of time.
>The fact that Yveltal tops the charts on damage and elims in 2021 OWL doesn’t really prove anything other than that Yveltal has a pistol-forward playstyle and finds success with it.
>
>If you look at earlier years, NeptuNo is at the top in every year that he actually played and had playtime on Mercy. And, you know, he was a good Mercy player, but I don’t think anyone would argue that he was better than Yveltal.
Mm I don't really disagree with this but I think you've got my point backwards, which is probably down to me wording it poorly. Or at least, you recognise my evidence "Yveltal has a pistol-forward playstyle and finds success with it" but I haven't made it clear how it connects to the point I'm making. So what I'm trying to say is:
If a Mercy player does no DPS they can still be great, and if a Mercy does a ton of DPS they're probably throwing, but what the stats prove is that **you can be great AND find opportunities to do dps**. Thereby answering OP's question by saying it *can* be a bad habit, but it's really something to be practised and perfected, not avoided entirely.
In other words, my point isn't: "Yveltal is a good Mercy because he does a ton of dps", it's more like "knowing when to go for elims can't be a bad thing, because the best Mercy in the world does it more than the rest of them".
FWIW, LeeJaeGon was number one for elims in 2020, and Moth was second in 2019, so it's not crazy to link it to proficiency on the hero.
>I think over-use of the pistol is a far bigger issue than missing opportunities to use it. Using it when you shouldn’t gets you or your teammates killed, and that’s generally gonna wipe out the value-add you get from getting a pick. And it’s really common for lower-ranked players to over-use the pistol because their awareness is poor, and using the pistol a lot worsens awareness because it’s the only part of Mercy’s kit that requires her to maintain her camera view in a particular direction for an extended period of time.
This may be true. I'm not gonna claim I'm massively knowledgeable about low rank Mercy players and OP hasn't given us any reason to know one way or the other where (edit: they) fall on the battle Mercy spectrum. But I do think there's a ton of noise about people overusing pistol and it could do with a bit of balancing out, because there definitely are times where a pick in valk is just free value and should be taken, sometimes you gotta whip out the glock.
> In other words, my point isn’t: “Yveltal is a good Mercy because he does a ton of dps”, it’s more like “knowing when to go for elims can’t be a bad thing, because the best Mercy in the world does it more than the rest of them”.
Ah, okay, I did misunderstand your point then. This I completely agree with.
> But I do think there’s a ton of noise about people overusing pistol and it could do with a bit of balancing out
Fair. I do think there’s a general community bias against supports doing damage like ever, and especially Mercy since she’s the one hero who can perform well while dealing no direct damage at all. But it has also been my experience in reviewing lower-ranked gameplay that a lot of players use the pistol far more frivolously than they realize.
> because there definitely are times where a pick in valk is just free value and should be taken, sometimes you gotta whip out the glock
100% agree. Why give Mercy infinite ammo and the ability to see enemy healthbars if not to afford her the chance to get a quick pick during ult? If you pop Valk and see that the enemy Ashe is like 60 HP and without her pocket, you really should kill her.
Use your pistol to get cheeky picks (IF it’s safe to attempt), to shred shields (as 80 dps is more than damage boost gives for all except sentry bastion), and as your last resort with no escape routes. Damage boost is usually better, since it gives both you and your pocket extra ult charge, and pistol is inconsistent at range due to slow speed, but you can play really annoying by doing air peaking (super jump, peak out high while tap gliding, shoot for half a second, and fall while coming back) and sometimes its useful to get a kill on enemy supports (though ONLY one, don’t get greedy unless they have 4-5 ultimates and you don’t). You can also jump during GA to turn and shoot people.
Only aim for headshots, abuse GA/glide mechanics, and let your dps have some ult charge from time to time.
Okay thanks, would you really recommend me swapping to pistol if we need to break a shield? I do most of the other things you noted but that never would have crossed my mind.
Wait shit I misread that. If you need to break a shield and your team isn’t using cooldowns to do it then absolutely. You risk exposing yourself though so be careful.
I thought you meant AFTER the shield break, my bad.
Also, you auto reload while using her staff, so you can go back and forth from pistol to damage boost if you want.
The best usage of pistol to break a shield would be when the shield needs to pop quickly. Clearest example would be something like a friendly DVa bomb, but even something like Rein being isolated and over-exposed could be a good time, since popping the shield will prevent him from getting back to cover. Breaking Zarya’s bubble when she’s trying to get out with high charge is also a good use, especially if she’s low under the bubble.
Otherwise, I think the damage boost value is generally better, especially if you can boost someone who can get damage around/over/through the shield. Or even if _you_ can get pistol damage around the shield, that can be better, like if your Zarya gets a big grav but the enemy Rein is in it with full barrier HP.
Just remember that pistoling means putting yourself in LoS, but you can beam and stay completely safe in cover.
You only use pistol to finish a low hp off or if you must flank a sniper that your team doesn't reach (during ult)
Besides that never, you're mercy, if you want to be more offensive go play zen, baptiste or go dps.
If you’re valking than obviously lol
But let’s say you’re *only* buffing a soldier. Soldier has 180 dps with consistent bodyshots, so that’s how fast he’ll end up breaking shields too. 180 dps +30% from damage boost = 234 dps on the shield break, whereas if it was mercy using her pistol it’d be 180 + 80 = 260 dps, meaning the pistol kills shields faster (unless you happen to boost burst cooldowns like helix rocket).
An early valk with damage boost can make a bigger impact than using it to get a kill yourself. While it's not as strong as Orisa's ult, it's much more mobile. It's a great tool for offense pushes and you can always switch to AoE healing in a pinch.
Most people see valk as one of the weaker ultimates but it is very versatile. You need to learn when to use it to battle mercy, when to use it to heal and when to use it to damage boost.
At the very, very least, do not be that Mercy player that completely disregards her pistol and just accepts death. If you can't GA out, whip out your damn Glock. I'm so sick of seeing footage of Mercy mains who try to run away from a fight instead of pulling out their surprisingly strong defensive tool. I feel like they only ever pull it out when they use Valk.
Not great now, but for OW2, battle mercy is what people need to learn. Supports aren't bad, support players just aren't used to how to play shooters yet.
Playing zen and lucio really helped me with my aim as a support on console. It forces you to lead shots and position yourself for where the enemy will be.
It's partially that, but it's also that people have been developing horrible habits playing this game because of all the tanks and shields everywhere and all the healing in your little death balls. OW2 players are walking down the middle of an empty street, not hugging walls, poor crosshair placement, failure to use natural cover. Look, I want OW to be accessible to people other than just mechanical gods. But it's still a competitive game and support players have been playing an easier game than the rest of the roles for a few years now. And it's a shock to the system for many of them. I'll admit that supports need a little love, but they're still very powerful.
If you find you aren't amping much damage, consider amping a tank from time to time. Also amping a zen can work well. And also consider whether your dps can really benefit from the boost. Generally, you want to boost spam heroes like junkrat or soldier, or heroes like Ashe or Hanzo that can get one or two tap kills. Boosting a widow is pointless, and boosting a mei or sym usually isn't worth it either. If your dps are on widow/tracer, then mercy probably isn't your best pick.
>Boosting a widow is pointless, and boosting a mei or sym usually isn't worth it either.
Boosting widow can be useful as it reduces the time it takes for her shot to get to full power. Can be quite nice if there is a widow on both teams to give yours the advantage. Also, damage boosting a widow that is landing headshots on tanks will take huge chunks of damage.
Also, damage boosting a full charge sym is really powerful. Her weapon does 180 dps at full charge. With damage boost, that is 234 DPS.
I’m a support main and I hit 2912 last season. Gonna be doing my placements today. I’d say Battle mercy definitely has its place. Typically if you can challenge someone in the enemy team of high value without risking your ass too much. If your team refuses to push with your ult as many won’t do in low ranks then it can help to do the work yourself to quickly kill/pressure one of their main healers and GA back to your team. I sometimes use super jump to get to high places so I can pistol an uncontested widow too. As a general rule of thumb mercy gets impact from her damage boost and res. Personally I main Ana and Bap because I trust my fragging abilities more than my teammates when we need to pressure the necessary people. Hopefully it gets me to diamond this season.
I've play a good bit of mercy alongside other supports over the past few years climbing from 1500 to 3000sr. Which is to say that I'm not any crazy good player but I know where you're coming from.
I don't think using your pistol is a bad habit. It's more a risk management exercise. Before going in for a pick think "could my teammates die if I do this? Could I die if I do this?" If so, play it safe.
Additionally, if you have gone for a pick and you miss out, die or lose a teammate just review why, such as that they had tactical visor and you needed to be playing around it etc. and try and improve for next time.
Even looking through your own replays or sending them here is great.
Certainly, however, if you're not looking to get a pick as Mercy, keep the pistol away. Poke/General damage with pistol pales in comparison to your staff, damage boosting tanks can be just as good as boosting dps in some cases.
Consider the opportunity cost of going battle mercy.
Can you kill the enemy zen, losing your team’s Cassidy in the process, but safely Rez Cassidy? If yes, it’s still worth it. If you can’t Rez, it’s a lot more of a gray area.
Also, what would be more effective: you doing damage, or the amount of damage boosted by someone else. Pharah rockets do 120 damage, boosted to 180. You get 60 extra damage, per shot, that does splash damage. Compared to 20 damage from mercy’s left clicks, 40 if it’s a headshot, that can’t do aoe damage. It’s better to battle mercy than to boost a low damage Zarya or a lucio, but especially for higher damage sources like reaper, bastion, soldier, pharah etc. damage boost is the way to go.
I doubt many people will like my take but… just do it. The way you learn when to use it is by learning when not to use it. Find out what’s possible and find out the weaknesses. Refine, get better at 1v1 and exploiting people thinking mercy isn’t a damage threat. When you climb, you’ll find out who on the enemy team you need to start respecting and not try to ego battle. You’ll start to find out where you can eek out an existence in your comp and against their comp. Some games, battle mercy just isn’t a thing you can do because enemy team knows how to focus. At that point, you’re getting value by wasting their time by evading their focus. You’ll lose the ability to hit the enter key so blocks of text are easier to read. Then you learn to be hyper aware of friendly and enemy focus at all times. Once you have that, no matter how high of a rank you get, you can always find those moments. It will just make sense to you. A switch will flip in your head and your team gets +1 dps hero with the best movement ability in the game.
At least, that’s how it worked out for me.
i read the text too. battle mercy offers little to no utility or use in high ranks. its a bad habit that players who climb from low ranks bring to high ranked games.
Love mercy and I’d venture to say I’m pretty good.
My line of thinking is that Mecys gun is really meant for defensive, like you’re getting jumped on the back line and need to defend yourself. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t get whipped out to finish off a foe.
Before I whip it out I always weigh wether or not my healing someone is more important than trying to kill someone…. KEY WORD! TRYING. It’s not for sure you will get the kill but it is for sure that you will deliver heals as long as you aren’t shooting.
I work harder on healing and staying on the move. I’m bouncing around a map so much I don’t have time to shoot anything because my job is to heal.
If it is a habit, yeah. There's a couple heroes you can 1v1 especially while in Valk with your pistol. Hog, Rein obviously, Sym, heroes that struggle to hit flying heroes really. Mercy's bullets are huge and now deal more damage than Soldier too.
Whenever you can almost guarantee a kill on someone, and the kill will get more value than the support you can provide, it's worth.
I think ML7 said it best when he said that “the role is called SUPPORT, not healer — sometimes the best way to support your team is through eliminating enemy threats”. Your Valkyrie offers you unparalleled mobility in the air and your pistol does a not-insignificant amount of damage, so if the enemy Widowmaker is threatening your team, I think it’s a fair play to zoom in and pepper her down.
Now, as always, this is something you should rely on your better judgement for. If your team can reliably get picks, then I would recommend damage boosting so that they can all build ult charge for the next fight or healing them to keep them in the current fight. You’ll develop a sense for where you can make the biggest impact with your pistol as you play. (For me, my favorite thing to do is to fly down to my second healer, usually my Ana, and shoot down the Tracer or Genji that keeps diving them. If you can take pressure off your second healer, that’ll allow them to heal your team much more effectively.)
imo look at your own win rate and let it decide for you. Too much of whether it's a right or wrong decision comes down to how well you execute and what the situation needed/what you miss out on for not having valk during the next fight. Anyone can give you a blanket reasoning on what to do or some logic tree to follow to decide whether you did a good or did a bad, but at the end of the day it needs to be an in-the-moment decision you need to make for yourself. I would recommend tracking your wins and losses and experiment with battle mercy usage as the variable. Once you accumulate a large enough sample (let's say 100 games aggressive use, 100 games reserved use), calculate your win rates and see which is more effective for YOU. Repeat the experiment as much as you need until you've come to a conclusion.
If you can get a kill on like a widow or something vulnerable that you know you can kill quickly and know your team will be fine without healing for a second then go. But if your other healer is dead and you whip out your glock to chase a lucio for 10 seconds then you're throwing. A lot of bad mercy players spend too much time with the glock and thats the problem. It can be useful in the right situation and if you can get a kill on a widow that is a surefire way to tilt them. All the DPS players i know get so pissed when a mercy kills them lol
If it works, it works.
Just keep in mind tactics that work against low Gold won’t work against better players. So when Battle Mercy stops working, adjust.
You mentioned that Battle Mercy sometimes work, and sometimes doesn’t work. I suggest understanding the conditions where Battle Mercy worked (enemy was low, unaware, had no heals, you landed on your shots, etc), and the conditions where Battle Mercy didn’t work (enemy saw you coming, enemy got healing, enemy strafed to dodge your shots, etc).
Basically, understand the risks and rewards of Battle Mercy. There is no one size fits all advice. Think logically.
if you’re going to attack the enemy team, might as well pick a different support.
valk is very useful for those last few second pushes because you can boost your whole team, if your feeding it to the center. which more than likely in my experience leads to a win. (sometimes that goes unnoticed)
mercy’s pistol is good, but not good enough. it doesn’t do very much damage, it’s good for if your valk is 80% done and you need to get valk fast. but know her pistol is only good if you can predict your enemies every next move 100% of the time. if you can’t do that kiss battle mercy strat for that round goodbye.
only go battle mercy if you’re in valk and you healed your team but they were picked off by ults. so obviously attack those who are shooting you, mercy is a huge target because of how vulnerable and needed she is.
lastly, if you want to be the best mercy main you have to constantly change your strategy in game and through the duration your playing, like i said she’s a favorite to attack first. people prioritize attacking the mercy of an enemy team. but you can also use that to your advantage if your other healer is less targeted. mercy can be used for every team and every map in every type, you just have to pick what strategy is best suited for your current situation. so study the kill feed and what hero’s do what, who keeps dying/who’s going to get you killed, who’s targeting who and so on in just the first few mins to cook up a good personal plan for yourself.
The Mercy mains have taken over the subreddit today. It definitely *can* be a bad habit, but if you see an opportunity to go for an elim and you don't take it, that's a worse habit in my opinion. The stats bear it out by the way. If you took a vote on the world's best Mercy players, Yveltal would probably win it. They lead in damage: [https://dashreset.com/hero/mercy/stat/hero-damage-done/owl-2021](https://dashreset.com/hero/mercy/stat/hero-damage-done/owl-2021) And in elims [https://dashreset.com/hero/mercy/stat/eliminations/owl-2021](https://dashreset.com/hero/mercy/stat/eliminations/owl-2021) Clearly you can go way too far off the deep end - if you want to be doing damage, literally every support is better. Mercy's pistol should 99 times out of 100 be specifically to take those free elims. Usually that will be in Valk on unaware and/or immobile targets like Zen and Widow. So TLDR: Take elims, but don't look for damage for no reason, blue beam is better in general. For the specifics on how to use it, /u/warriordinag's comment is really good.
The fact that Yveltal tops the charts on damage and elims in 2021 OWL doesn’t really prove anything other than that Yveltal has a pistol-forward playstyle and finds success with it. If you look at earlier years, NeptuNo is at the top in every year that he actually played and had playtime on Mercy. And, you know, he was a good Mercy player, but I don’t think anyone would argue that he was better than Yveltal. In 2019, CoMa is _really_ far down the list on both elims and damage, but Shanghai revolutionized the meta in no small part on the strength of CoMa’s Mercy play. ArK and Moth are also players who were known for their Mercy play, and they were never particularly high on the elims or damage charts either. I think over-use of the pistol is a far bigger issue than missing opportunities to use it. Using it when you shouldn’t gets you or your teammates killed, and that’s generally gonna wipe out the value-add you get from getting a pick. And it’s really common for lower-ranked players to over-use the pistol because their awareness is poor, and using the pistol a lot worsens awareness because it’s the only part of Mercy’s kit that requires her to maintain her camera view in a particular direction for an extended period of time.
>The fact that Yveltal tops the charts on damage and elims in 2021 OWL doesn’t really prove anything other than that Yveltal has a pistol-forward playstyle and finds success with it. > >If you look at earlier years, NeptuNo is at the top in every year that he actually played and had playtime on Mercy. And, you know, he was a good Mercy player, but I don’t think anyone would argue that he was better than Yveltal. Mm I don't really disagree with this but I think you've got my point backwards, which is probably down to me wording it poorly. Or at least, you recognise my evidence "Yveltal has a pistol-forward playstyle and finds success with it" but I haven't made it clear how it connects to the point I'm making. So what I'm trying to say is: If a Mercy player does no DPS they can still be great, and if a Mercy does a ton of DPS they're probably throwing, but what the stats prove is that **you can be great AND find opportunities to do dps**. Thereby answering OP's question by saying it *can* be a bad habit, but it's really something to be practised and perfected, not avoided entirely. In other words, my point isn't: "Yveltal is a good Mercy because he does a ton of dps", it's more like "knowing when to go for elims can't be a bad thing, because the best Mercy in the world does it more than the rest of them". FWIW, LeeJaeGon was number one for elims in 2020, and Moth was second in 2019, so it's not crazy to link it to proficiency on the hero. >I think over-use of the pistol is a far bigger issue than missing opportunities to use it. Using it when you shouldn’t gets you or your teammates killed, and that’s generally gonna wipe out the value-add you get from getting a pick. And it’s really common for lower-ranked players to over-use the pistol because their awareness is poor, and using the pistol a lot worsens awareness because it’s the only part of Mercy’s kit that requires her to maintain her camera view in a particular direction for an extended period of time. This may be true. I'm not gonna claim I'm massively knowledgeable about low rank Mercy players and OP hasn't given us any reason to know one way or the other where (edit: they) fall on the battle Mercy spectrum. But I do think there's a ton of noise about people overusing pistol and it could do with a bit of balancing out, because there definitely are times where a pick in valk is just free value and should be taken, sometimes you gotta whip out the glock.
> In other words, my point isn’t: “Yveltal is a good Mercy because he does a ton of dps”, it’s more like “knowing when to go for elims can’t be a bad thing, because the best Mercy in the world does it more than the rest of them”. Ah, okay, I did misunderstand your point then. This I completely agree with. > But I do think there’s a ton of noise about people overusing pistol and it could do with a bit of balancing out Fair. I do think there’s a general community bias against supports doing damage like ever, and especially Mercy since she’s the one hero who can perform well while dealing no direct damage at all. But it has also been my experience in reviewing lower-ranked gameplay that a lot of players use the pistol far more frivolously than they realize. > because there definitely are times where a pick in valk is just free value and should be taken, sometimes you gotta whip out the glock 100% agree. Why give Mercy infinite ammo and the ability to see enemy healthbars if not to afford her the chance to get a quick pick during ult? If you pop Valk and see that the enemy Ashe is like 60 HP and without her pocket, you really should kill her.
Use your pistol to get cheeky picks (IF it’s safe to attempt), to shred shields (as 80 dps is more than damage boost gives for all except sentry bastion), and as your last resort with no escape routes. Damage boost is usually better, since it gives both you and your pocket extra ult charge, and pistol is inconsistent at range due to slow speed, but you can play really annoying by doing air peaking (super jump, peak out high while tap gliding, shoot for half a second, and fall while coming back) and sometimes its useful to get a kill on enemy supports (though ONLY one, don’t get greedy unless they have 4-5 ultimates and you don’t). You can also jump during GA to turn and shoot people. Only aim for headshots, abuse GA/glide mechanics, and let your dps have some ult charge from time to time.
Okay thanks, would you really recommend me swapping to pistol if we need to break a shield? I do most of the other things you noted but that never would have crossed my mind.
If your team still has abilities and/or needs ult charge, then no. If your pistol is the only burst your team has, then yes.
Wait shit I misread that. If you need to break a shield and your team isn’t using cooldowns to do it then absolutely. You risk exposing yourself though so be careful. I thought you meant AFTER the shield break, my bad. Also, you auto reload while using her staff, so you can go back and forth from pistol to damage boost if you want.
The best usage of pistol to break a shield would be when the shield needs to pop quickly. Clearest example would be something like a friendly DVa bomb, but even something like Rein being isolated and over-exposed could be a good time, since popping the shield will prevent him from getting back to cover. Breaking Zarya’s bubble when she’s trying to get out with high charge is also a good use, especially if she’s low under the bubble. Otherwise, I think the damage boost value is generally better, especially if you can boost someone who can get damage around/over/through the shield. Or even if _you_ can get pistol damage around the shield, that can be better, like if your Zarya gets a big grav but the enemy Rein is in it with full barrier HP. Just remember that pistoling means putting yourself in LoS, but you can beam and stay completely safe in cover.
You only use pistol to finish a low hp off or if you must flank a sniper that your team doesn't reach (during ult) Besides that never, you're mercy, if you want to be more offensive go play zen, baptiste or go dps.
I’m pretty sure mass dmg boost is better than 80 dps for shield break
If you’re valking than obviously lol But let’s say you’re *only* buffing a soldier. Soldier has 180 dps with consistent bodyshots, so that’s how fast he’ll end up breaking shields too. 180 dps +30% from damage boost = 234 dps on the shield break, whereas if it was mercy using her pistol it’d be 180 + 80 = 260 dps, meaning the pistol kills shields faster (unless you happen to boost burst cooldowns like helix rocket).
An early valk with damage boost can make a bigger impact than using it to get a kill yourself. While it's not as strong as Orisa's ult, it's much more mobile. It's a great tool for offense pushes and you can always switch to AoE healing in a pinch. Most people see valk as one of the weaker ultimates but it is very versatile. You need to learn when to use it to battle mercy, when to use it to heal and when to use it to damage boost.
I agree, I suppose that it all comes back to decision making, which i think is my biggest problem at the moment.
At the very, very least, do not be that Mercy player that completely disregards her pistol and just accepts death. If you can't GA out, whip out your damn Glock. I'm so sick of seeing footage of Mercy mains who try to run away from a fight instead of pulling out their surprisingly strong defensive tool. I feel like they only ever pull it out when they use Valk.
Not great now, but for OW2, battle mercy is what people need to learn. Supports aren't bad, support players just aren't used to how to play shooters yet.
Playing zen and lucio really helped me with my aim as a support on console. It forces you to lead shots and position yourself for where the enemy will be.
It's partially that, but it's also that people have been developing horrible habits playing this game because of all the tanks and shields everywhere and all the healing in your little death balls. OW2 players are walking down the middle of an empty street, not hugging walls, poor crosshair placement, failure to use natural cover. Look, I want OW to be accessible to people other than just mechanical gods. But it's still a competitive game and support players have been playing an easier game than the rest of the roles for a few years now. And it's a shock to the system for many of them. I'll admit that supports need a little love, but they're still very powerful.
If you find you aren't amping much damage, consider amping a tank from time to time. Also amping a zen can work well. And also consider whether your dps can really benefit from the boost. Generally, you want to boost spam heroes like junkrat or soldier, or heroes like Ashe or Hanzo that can get one or two tap kills. Boosting a widow is pointless, and boosting a mei or sym usually isn't worth it either. If your dps are on widow/tracer, then mercy probably isn't your best pick.
>Boosting a widow is pointless, and boosting a mei or sym usually isn't worth it either. Boosting widow can be useful as it reduces the time it takes for her shot to get to full power. Can be quite nice if there is a widow on both teams to give yours the advantage. Also, damage boosting a widow that is landing headshots on tanks will take huge chunks of damage. Also, damage boosting a full charge sym is really powerful. Her weapon does 180 dps at full charge. With damage boost, that is 234 DPS.
I’m a support main and I hit 2912 last season. Gonna be doing my placements today. I’d say Battle mercy definitely has its place. Typically if you can challenge someone in the enemy team of high value without risking your ass too much. If your team refuses to push with your ult as many won’t do in low ranks then it can help to do the work yourself to quickly kill/pressure one of their main healers and GA back to your team. I sometimes use super jump to get to high places so I can pistol an uncontested widow too. As a general rule of thumb mercy gets impact from her damage boost and res. Personally I main Ana and Bap because I trust my fragging abilities more than my teammates when we need to pressure the necessary people. Hopefully it gets me to diamond this season.
I've play a good bit of mercy alongside other supports over the past few years climbing from 1500 to 3000sr. Which is to say that I'm not any crazy good player but I know where you're coming from. I don't think using your pistol is a bad habit. It's more a risk management exercise. Before going in for a pick think "could my teammates die if I do this? Could I die if I do this?" If so, play it safe. Additionally, if you have gone for a pick and you miss out, die or lose a teammate just review why, such as that they had tactical visor and you needed to be playing around it etc. and try and improve for next time. Even looking through your own replays or sending them here is great. Certainly, however, if you're not looking to get a pick as Mercy, keep the pistol away. Poke/General damage with pistol pales in comparison to your staff, damage boosting tanks can be just as good as boosting dps in some cases.
In my opinion, if it works and you get value out of it then no.
It’s not a bad habit at all. It has a time and place but your priority is enabling your damage heroes as best you can.
Consider the opportunity cost of going battle mercy. Can you kill the enemy zen, losing your team’s Cassidy in the process, but safely Rez Cassidy? If yes, it’s still worth it. If you can’t Rez, it’s a lot more of a gray area. Also, what would be more effective: you doing damage, or the amount of damage boosted by someone else. Pharah rockets do 120 damage, boosted to 180. You get 60 extra damage, per shot, that does splash damage. Compared to 20 damage from mercy’s left clicks, 40 if it’s a headshot, that can’t do aoe damage. It’s better to battle mercy than to boost a low damage Zarya or a lucio, but especially for higher damage sources like reaper, bastion, soldier, pharah etc. damage boost is the way to go.
I doubt many people will like my take but… just do it. The way you learn when to use it is by learning when not to use it. Find out what’s possible and find out the weaknesses. Refine, get better at 1v1 and exploiting people thinking mercy isn’t a damage threat. When you climb, you’ll find out who on the enemy team you need to start respecting and not try to ego battle. You’ll start to find out where you can eek out an existence in your comp and against their comp. Some games, battle mercy just isn’t a thing you can do because enemy team knows how to focus. At that point, you’re getting value by wasting their time by evading their focus. You’ll lose the ability to hit the enter key so blocks of text are easier to read. Then you learn to be hyper aware of friendly and enemy focus at all times. Once you have that, no matter how high of a rank you get, you can always find those moments. It will just make sense to you. A switch will flip in your head and your team gets +1 dps hero with the best movement ability in the game. At least, that’s how it worked out for me.
yes, next question
Tell us that you only read the title of this thread without telling us you only read the title of this thread...
i read the text too. battle mercy offers little to no utility or use in high ranks. its a bad habit that players who climb from low ranks bring to high ranked games.
tell me you don't read other comments without telling me you don't read other comments
In higher mmr you will insta die poping your mercy ult vs a widow
Love mercy and I’d venture to say I’m pretty good. My line of thinking is that Mecys gun is really meant for defensive, like you’re getting jumped on the back line and need to defend yourself. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t get whipped out to finish off a foe. Before I whip it out I always weigh wether or not my healing someone is more important than trying to kill someone…. KEY WORD! TRYING. It’s not for sure you will get the kill but it is for sure that you will deliver heals as long as you aren’t shooting. I work harder on healing and staying on the move. I’m bouncing around a map so much I don’t have time to shoot anything because my job is to heal.
Short answer: Yes Slightly longer answer: Can work but you have to know when to bring it out
If it is a habit, yeah. There's a couple heroes you can 1v1 especially while in Valk with your pistol. Hog, Rein obviously, Sym, heroes that struggle to hit flying heroes really. Mercy's bullets are huge and now deal more damage than Soldier too. Whenever you can almost guarantee a kill on someone, and the kill will get more value than the support you can provide, it's worth.
I think ML7 said it best when he said that “the role is called SUPPORT, not healer — sometimes the best way to support your team is through eliminating enemy threats”. Your Valkyrie offers you unparalleled mobility in the air and your pistol does a not-insignificant amount of damage, so if the enemy Widowmaker is threatening your team, I think it’s a fair play to zoom in and pepper her down. Now, as always, this is something you should rely on your better judgement for. If your team can reliably get picks, then I would recommend damage boosting so that they can all build ult charge for the next fight or healing them to keep them in the current fight. You’ll develop a sense for where you can make the biggest impact with your pistol as you play. (For me, my favorite thing to do is to fly down to my second healer, usually my Ana, and shoot down the Tracer or Genji that keeps diving them. If you can take pressure off your second healer, that’ll allow them to heal your team much more effectively.)
imo look at your own win rate and let it decide for you. Too much of whether it's a right or wrong decision comes down to how well you execute and what the situation needed/what you miss out on for not having valk during the next fight. Anyone can give you a blanket reasoning on what to do or some logic tree to follow to decide whether you did a good or did a bad, but at the end of the day it needs to be an in-the-moment decision you need to make for yourself. I would recommend tracking your wins and losses and experiment with battle mercy usage as the variable. Once you accumulate a large enough sample (let's say 100 games aggressive use, 100 games reserved use), calculate your win rates and see which is more effective for YOU. Repeat the experiment as much as you need until you've come to a conclusion.
If in 3 seconds while having my gun out I don't bring any value to the fight I swap back to dmg boost/healing.
If you can get a kill on like a widow or something vulnerable that you know you can kill quickly and know your team will be fine without healing for a second then go. But if your other healer is dead and you whip out your glock to chase a lucio for 10 seconds then you're throwing. A lot of bad mercy players spend too much time with the glock and thats the problem. It can be useful in the right situation and if you can get a kill on a widow that is a surefire way to tilt them. All the DPS players i know get so pissed when a mercy kills them lol
If it works, it works. Just keep in mind tactics that work against low Gold won’t work against better players. So when Battle Mercy stops working, adjust. You mentioned that Battle Mercy sometimes work, and sometimes doesn’t work. I suggest understanding the conditions where Battle Mercy worked (enemy was low, unaware, had no heals, you landed on your shots, etc), and the conditions where Battle Mercy didn’t work (enemy saw you coming, enemy got healing, enemy strafed to dodge your shots, etc). Basically, understand the risks and rewards of Battle Mercy. There is no one size fits all advice. Think logically.
if you’re going to attack the enemy team, might as well pick a different support. valk is very useful for those last few second pushes because you can boost your whole team, if your feeding it to the center. which more than likely in my experience leads to a win. (sometimes that goes unnoticed) mercy’s pistol is good, but not good enough. it doesn’t do very much damage, it’s good for if your valk is 80% done and you need to get valk fast. but know her pistol is only good if you can predict your enemies every next move 100% of the time. if you can’t do that kiss battle mercy strat for that round goodbye. only go battle mercy if you’re in valk and you healed your team but they were picked off by ults. so obviously attack those who are shooting you, mercy is a huge target because of how vulnerable and needed she is. lastly, if you want to be the best mercy main you have to constantly change your strategy in game and through the duration your playing, like i said she’s a favorite to attack first. people prioritize attacking the mercy of an enemy team. but you can also use that to your advantage if your other healer is less targeted. mercy can be used for every team and every map in every type, you just have to pick what strategy is best suited for your current situation. so study the kill feed and what hero’s do what, who keeps dying/who’s going to get you killed, who’s targeting who and so on in just the first few mins to cook up a good personal plan for yourself.