‘Overwatch’ Mercy Nerf Has Actually Made Character More Powerful According To New Stats

Blizzard works hard to make sure that no Overwatch characters are too powerful or too weak so that gamers can play any character they want to without some being passed over. One of the most recent changes was a Mercy nerf, which was Blizzard’s attempt to strip the character of her mass healing powers to weaken her strength.

However, according to Omnicmeta, the opposite has happened. While the Overwatch pick rate for Mercy was around 65-70 percent before the Mercy nerf, it is now almost 100 percent across all levels. Blizzard was trying to lower those rates with the last change.

What The Overwatch Mercy Nerf Really Did

Originally, Mercy was almost invaluable in Overwatch because she had the power to resurrect an entire team of players. Blizzard noticed how massive this power was and released a statement that indicated that someone could use all their strength to hit the opposing team and Mercy could come in and heal everyone, making it frustrating for opposing players.

As a result, the Overwatch Mercy nerf allowed her to only heal one player at a time with a 30-second cooldown. However, while that seems good in theory to slow down Mercy, the opposite has happened. The numbers prove that the Mercy nerf was actually an Overwatch boost.

The old Mercy could resurrect between five and eight with the old Overwatch patch. With the new patch, the resurrection is up to between eight and 15 per match. This is likely why Mercy is chosen in around 100 percent of the matches.

How Does Mercy Work Now?

The results of the Overwatch Mercy nerf is that the skill of reviving one character every 30 seconds is much more valuable in play than reviving the entire team once. The resurrects for Mercy have doubled. There might be arguments that the win-rate for Mercy is the same as it was before, but that is because everyone is using Mercy and that means Mercy will win and lose every match.

Of course, Blizzard made the Overwatch Mercy nerf to lower the rate of people using the character due to her being too powerful. However, Blizzard missed the mark and made Mercy more powerful. Don’t expect it to remain in play and a future patch update will likely see a new Mercy nerf to lower her power.

The one thing to take from this is that Overwatch players are having a lot of fun playing with Mercy, despite her excess powers. However, don’t expect this to last for long because Blizzard will be making a move soon to level the game back out again.

[Featured Image by Blizzard]