Overwatch Overhauls Mercy on PTR With New Ultimate And More

Published: August 24, 2017 9:12 PM /

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Overwatch Mercy

After teasing for a few days that Overwatch's Mercy will receive some “very interesting and sweet changes,” Blizzard has revealed all changes coming to the beloved healer, which is now available for testing on the PTR. Overall, Blizzard’s goal of introducing a more engaging Mercy experience involves giving her a new alternate and ultimate ability.

In a video, game director Jeff Kaplan said the core fundamental design of Mercy encouraged Overwatch players to hide and stop healing her teammates whenever her ultimate ability is nearly available for use. “It’s wrong to tell a main healing character to stop healing and hide,” Kaplan said. Additionally, the opposing team’s efforts to orchestrate a full team wipe feels 'disheartening to have Mercy just erase that moment’ due to her ultimate ability to revive everyone.

With a 30 second cooldown, Resurrect is now a second ability that will only heal a single teammate. Aside from reducing the radius of her Resurrect ability to five, Blizzard has removed her invulnerability when casting the skill. Despite these changes, Mercy can use Resurrect more times upon casting her ultimate ability.

Mercy has received a new ultimate ability called Valkyrie, which enhances all her skills and allows her to freely fly for 20 seconds. With Valkyrie active, Mercy’s Resurrect cooldown time is reduced to 10 seconds. Additionally, her healing and damage boosting beam’s range has been drastically extended and will chain towards nearby teammates. Her Caduceus gun will also receive infinite ammunition, with an increased fire rate and damage output. Mercy will also last longer in the battlefield during Valkyrie as her self-regenerating passive skill will no longer get interrupted while taking damage.

D.Va is also on the receiving end of a major rework. To make D.Va more fun to use, Blizzard has given her the tools for a more aggressive playstyle. She now has a new alternate ability called Micro Missiles, which continuously shoots 18 missiles in a straight line upon activation. Micro Missiles, which has an area of effect damage, can be used simultaneously with her other abilities. Additionally, she can use her Fusion Cannons and Micro Missiles while using her Boosters.

The upgrades to D.Va comes at a cost, with the resource meter of her Defense Matrix now halved. Kaplan said this was done because the ability “can feel smothering” to the opposing team." She can also feather Defense Matrix “very quickly to deny crucial abilities.” Additionally, there are no indicators for the opposing team to know when her Defense Matrix will run out, unlike Orisa and Reinhardt's shield that show visible cracks when nearly broken.

The full changes for D.Va and Mercy are now available for testing on the PTR, though there are connection issues at the moment. The full list of changes on the PTR can be seen here.

For more Overwatch information, you can see the recently released Mei animated short, and their newly announced map at gamescom.

Are you happy with Overwatch's changes with Mercy and D.Va? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below. 

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More Info About This Game
Learn more about Overwatch
Game Page Overwatch
Platforms
PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Release Date
May 24, 2016 (Calendar)
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