Changes to Overwatch 2’s ‘Mercy’ receive angry backlash
Mercy me, this has not gone down well with the support fanbase
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The latest Overwatch 2 Beta is officially live and with it comes a plethora of hero changes – some of which are receiving mixed reviews from fans of the game. Mercy players are particularly unhappy with the changes made to her gameplay style, with many racing to Reddit and Twitter to voice their angered opinions.
The new 5v5 competitive shooter is set to finally release on October 4th, 2022 – over 2 years after its official unveiling. That said, gamers were finally treated to a second Beta this week, with many players enjoying the new, free-to-play model.
Alongside new maps and new heroes, Blizzard decided to make major changes to some of the game’s most popular heroes. And while many of the core hero changes are being welcome, some – mainly Mercy – are most certainly not.
More Overwatch 2 guides:
- How to play Overwatch 2 Beta
- How to play Overwatch 2 Beta on PS5
- How to play Overwatch 2 Beta on PS4
- How to play Overwatch 2 Beta on Xbox
Blizzard nerfs Mercy’s healing abilities
Players are seemingly furious with the changes made to Mercy, with her main ability, guardian Angel, resulting in the biggest backlash. This ability would allow Mercy to fly over 30 meters across the map to support fellow heroes. Players could launch themselves vertically by releasing the crouch feature of the ability – adding another competitive layer to the ability. However, that all changed with the latest update. Now, players will automatically be launched vertically once they reach the end of the Guardian Angel.
A five-minute troll of one of the various Reddit posts results in a tonne of angered players, most of which say Mercy has been ruined. One Redditor says, “Making you jump automatically when flying to someone is a baffling decision. So awkward. Hope it gets reverted fast.”. Other Redditors aren’t so polite, “Mercy feels AWFUL right now”, “Yeah they have butchered her movement to a massive degree.” and “They have officially massacred Mercy. I seriously want to cry right now,”.
Other Mercy abilities have also been tweaked, with Angelic Descent being altered to slow down ascent speed when holding down a move input. The developers did have some input in this particular tweak, stating that “This means you can dampen vertical knockbacks (such as Junkrat’s Concussive Mine) but also reduce the amount of height that the GA vert boost gives you,”.
All being said, it’s clear that Blizzard is trying some pretty drastic changes to the heroes – and let’s be honest, not all will remain. Blizzard has been quite responsive to players’ opinions in the past and it seems like this change will be reverted pretty quickly.
