Overwatch 2 has revitalized the hero shooter by bringing a ton of new players to the game. While some will be drawn to new heroes and the new Push game mode, new and returning players will want to try out some of the older heroes as well. This includes Mercy, a support character. Mercy is a great character for new players to learn the game and easily one of the best healers in the game. Here’s how to maximize your healing as a Mercy.
Mercy overview
Mercy is a support hero that focuses almost exclusively on healing. While healing is the main focus for all support heroes, Mercy provides one of the highest amounts of healing, in return for doing very little damage. Armed with a healing staff that can attach to an ally to give them healing or a damage boost, depending on who you want at the time. You can switch between healing and damage instantly. Mercy also has the ability to fly towards her allies and can even revive a person using her ability.
Mercy abilities
Caduceus Staff: Attach to a teammate a supply of a healing stream or a damage boost.
Caduceus Blaster: Fire a small automatic pistol.
Guardian Angel: Fly to an ally. Jumping while flying launches you forward, crouching launches you upwards.
Resurrect: Revive a dead teammate.
Angelic Origin: Fall slowly.
Valkyrie ultimate: Gain the ability to fly and enhance all other abilities.
If you want to deal damage, don’t pick Mercy
While Mercy is strapped with an auto pistol, this should only be pulled in an emergency or if the rest of your team is dead. In almost every other situation, your time is best spent healing or boosting a teammate, which is your role as a support hero. There are other support heroes that can deal damage, although they don’t heal as much as Mercy. It might seem a little strange not to shoot in first person, but Mercy’s purpose is to keep the rest of the team alive.
Sharing is caring
Anyone who has played Overwatch 2 has probably seen what is commonly referred to as “Pocket Mercy”. This refers to a Mercy that sticks with a single teammate, always giving them a boost of healing or damage. While this can be productive in the case of a Pharah and Mercy combo, most of the time your services should be provided to everyone on the team. The best way to make sure you’re constantly healing heroes who need it is to constantly move between your teammates, healing anyone who really needs it. If you’re going to focus on pocketing a teammate temporarily, a good time to do so is when a teammate uses an ultimate.
Valkyrie Ultimate drastically increases healing
Using Mercy’s ultimate allows her to fly and increases the efficiency of her abilities. One of the ways it does this is by allowing healing and damage links to branch out to other teammates nearby. This can be used to apply a large boost to a target or to withstand some enemy limbs. Some Mercy players like to use the ultimate as an opportunity to draw the pistol, as during the ultimate it has a much faster rate of fire. While you’ll probably get a kill or two doing this, your time is still better spent healing your team.
More tips Mercy
- Revive is on a 20 second cooldown and takes a few seconds to complete the animation, so you need to make sure you’re deadlocked before attempting it.
- Resurrection is best used on your tank or DPS, but if only your other healer goes down in a fight, you can also bring them back.
- The damage boost is most effective when she has a friendly ultimate, which makes her do even more damage.
- Use Mercy’s flying abilities to keep moving as much as possible. Being a healer puts a target on your back, especially if you play Mercy.
- If you focus on healing your teammates, you can easily heal enemy supports, giving your team a big advantage.
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