overwatch New PTR Changes Affect Mercy's Valkyrie & More

[Zadina 923]

A new patch has been deployed on the Overwatch PTR bringing changes to Mercy, Genji and other heroes.

After her major rework, Mercy's Resurrection ability took a big hit and her new Ultimate, Valkyrie, was introduced. However, it seems that the team wasn't done with her, since they have now changed the way Valkyrie affects Resurrection.

Josh Engen

We're currently testing some new changes on the PTR. 

Mercy

• Valkyrie
  • No longer resets or lowers Resurrection’s cooldown. Instead it now doubles Resurrection’s range

(source)

Meanwhile, Genji's Ultimate cannot be cancelled by stuns anymore. There is also a bug where Genji can swing while pulling out his sword. Geoff Geodman explained this 'buff' to Genji's Ultimate.

Geoff Goodman

Genji being able to swing while he is pulling out his sword is a bug, though stuns not canceling his ult is an intended change. We did a consistency pass on a number of ults and in some cases changed some outliers so they work like other similar ults. For example, it has always been the case that if you stunned Soldier: 76, Winston, or Bastion right after they ult (while they are animating), it does not cancel their ult. This change makes Genji's ult work like other 'transformation' ults in this regard now.

We'll have some more details when the patch notes get updated for the patch that is currently on the PTR. (source)

For some reason, Blizzard released no patch notes for this PTR update, apart from the above blue posts. Fortunately, the community on Reddit has compiled some additional tweaks:

• Junkrat's Rip-Tire seems to be slower. (source)
• Lucio doesn't get an additional speed boost while jumping off walls. (source)
• D.Va's mech no longer just drops when using the new "hold to boost" option. (source)
• A new inactivity warning shows a countdown until you get kicked out of the game. (source)

[Laragon 269]

RIP Team-rez mercy 2.0
They extended range is kind of worthless since getting to the rez position wasn't really a huge issue.

[Yridaa 490]

Kaplan when explaining Mercy's changes (A month ago): "We didn't want to make her feel weak because she's the most picked hero globally and she's such an awesome hero"

 

Probably took a page out of Ghostcrawler's book back for Retribution in WotLK. TO THE GROUND, BABY.

 

Now her ult is a worse Zenyatta ult. Way to go.

Edited October 5, 2017 by Yridaa

[Aglommon 21]

28 minutes ago, Yridaa said:

Now her ult is a worse Zenyatta ult. Way to go.

Yeah, except not, Mercy during Valkyrie can fly around, damage boost multiple allies, use her gun and stuff, she has more flexibility than Zenyatta so obviously she can't heal as much.

They need to change her somehow anyway, a must-pick hero is unhealthy.

[Laragon 269]

9 minutes ago, Aglommon said:

Yeah, except not, Mercy during Valkyrie can fly around, damage boost multiple allies, use her gun and stuff, she has more flexibility than Zenyatta so obviously she can't heal as much.

They need to change her somehow anyway, a must-pick hero is unhealthy.

She was absolutely a problem in the full team rez version, but the change with the decreased rez of still 1 person didn't feel "must pick" anymore. It felt maybe a little too powerful, but to totally revert that and just make it range is too much.

[Yridaa 490]

1 hour ago, Aglommon said:

Yeah, except not, Mercy during Valkyrie can fly around, damage boost multiple allies, use her gun and stuff

You forgot "Die" as well, perhaps that's what you meant when you said "stuff".

Besides, there were multiple classes that were "must have's" and most of them have either been buffed or untouched. The only notable nerf would be Lucio; which by the way is still a top tier support.

 

Ults are supposed to be powerful. She lost a lot of survivability. And the ability to fly has been - in my case as a widow main - be detrimental to her whenever it is used. Improved health regen doesn't matter when you get oneshot and the massive heal range also means she's very easy to spot when hiding. Just hook -> zoom -> one shot. Before the rework, she'd never reveal herself in an upcoming teamfight, forcing me to focus on other targets (Which meant they just get ressed) or use my ult.

 

But now, I don't need to ult to see the giant bullseye she paints on her back.

 

Then again, with this nerf, I won't even need to focus her down because she can't ress enough dead people.

 

I'd be surprised if it went to live untouched. But that just means more MMR for me if it does, so, /shrug.

 

 

 

Mercy's entire design philosophy hinged on the fact that she can turn the tide of the battle. She turned from that into a "Sustain the battle" which usually doesn't fare well against burst comps (Which, lets be honest, is what GM is all about). Genji merc combo has been hampered a lot in GM because she can't make herself invulnerable in a pinch anymore, but now she also loses her multi-ress utility.

 

But hey at least she can fly and heal and stuff right?

[Syktris 36]

As a main Ana, I find this funny. Heard a lot of people saying how Mercy was so much better than Ana and Ana should be deleted, here we go everyone! :)

[Aglommon 21]

13 hours ago, Yridaa said:

Mercy's entire design philosophy hinged on the fact that she can turn the tide of the battle. She turned from that into a "Sustain the battle" which usually doesn't fare well against burst comps (Which, lets be honest, is what GM is all about). Genji merc combo has been hampered a lot in GM because she can't make herself invulnerable in a pinch anymore, but now she also loses her multi-ress utility.

 

But hey at least she can fly and heal and stuff right?

Yeah, I'll give you that one, guess I was wrong. And why the hell did I use stuff also, I shouldn't have.

I feel that rez was simply not a fun ability to deal with back when it was her ultimate, it never was fun to have to hide, wait for your entire team to die and "heroes never die". Being able to turn the tide of a battle made her good, but I prefer having her as an accessible and reliable solo-healer who can maintain her allies in good health. We just need more healers, really, we have a bunch of DPS but only 4 healers, like c'mon. 

Sure, flying around transforms the game into Duck Hunt for any kind of hitscan, but well... I guess that if Mercy fly around not caring about anything when there's a Widow in the enemy team, the Mercy should be punished with a good ol' headshot.