Mercy Guide “The doctor will see you now.”

Table of Contents

• ×Introduction
  • 1. Mercy (Angela Ziegler) Guide Overview
  • 2. Mercy's Strengths
  • 3. Mercy's Weaknesses
  • 4. Mercy Synergies
  • 5. Mercy Counters
  • 6. Mercy Is Strong Against
  • 7. Mercy TL;DR Tips
  • 8. Reading Further for Mercy
  • 9. Changelog
• +Abilities and Strategy
  • 1. Mercy TL;DR Tips
  • 2. Mercy's Abilities
    • 2.1. Regeneration
    • 2.2. Angelic Descent
    • 2.3. Caduceus Staff
    • 2.4. Caduceus Blaster
    • 2.5. Guardian Angel
    • 2.6. Resurrect
    • 2.7. Valkyrie
• +Playstyle
  • 1. Mercy Playstyle Introduction
  • 2. Mercy's Positioning
  • 3. Mercy's Damage Boost vs Healing
  • 4. When to Use Mercy's Resurrect
  • 5. When Mercy Should Fight or Flee
  • 6. How Mercy Should Use Valkyrie
  • 7. When to Use Valkyrie
• +Synergies and Matchups
  • 1. Mercy Synergies
    • 1.1. Pharah & Mercy
    • 1.2. Zenyatta & Mercy
    • 1.3. D.Va & Mercy
  • 2. Mercy Counters
    • 2.1. McCree & Mercy
    • 2.2. Hanzo & Mercy
    • 2.3. Roadhog & Mercy
  • 3. Mercy Is Strong Against
    • 3.1. Winston & Mercy
    • 3.2. Doomfist & Mercy
• +Maps
  • 1. Best Maps for Mercy
    • 1.1. Mercy on Numbani
    • 1.2. Mercy on Watchpoint: Gibraltar
  • 2. Worst Map for Mercy
    • 2.1. Mercy on Volskaya Industries

Mercy is the face of Overwatch healers, and was one of the first supports to be introduced into the game. When Overwatch was released, Mercy was known for her strong single-target healing, and her powerful resurrection ultimate. After a couple of years, much has changed about Mercy, most significantly her Resurrect ability going from an ultimate that raised all of her teammates from the dead, to a single-target channel ability that only revives one teammate. Despite her changes, Mercy now seems balanced and is still called upon in professional combat, but is no longer the matron of life that she used to be.

Mercy's passive ability is called Regeneration, and it does exactly what it is named after: regenerates. After one second of not taking damage, Mercy will begin to passively self sustain over time. This allows Mercy to stay with her team and restore health without having to snag a health pack or rely on an ally support.

Caduceus Staff is ready to aid teammates no matter the scenario, giving Mercy the unofficial title of "battle medic". Mercy's primary weapon is actually no weapon at all, but a staff that heals or increases the damage of Mercy's allies. Whether going on the offensive or seeking refuge from enemy fire, Caduceus Staff is always a welcome sight for comrades on the battlefield.

If the battle hits too close to home, Mercy can engage enemies with her secondary weapon: Caduceus Blaster. Although Mercy is better off healing teammates over slinging bullets, the firing rate and accuracy of Caduceus Blaster can disrespect any player foolish enough to attack Mercy unprepared.

Mercy travels at a fairly steady rate, but her mobility abilities help her speed to her allies or slow down her falls. Guardian Angel allows Mercy to quickly fly to teammates to better her positioning or react to threats from her enemies. Angelic Descent can be used to slowly fall back to earth after Mercy flies to an ally in mid-air, or can be used to traverse over gaps in the map.

Mercy's ultimate-turned-ability talent, Resurrect, is still a main reason for Mercy's high pickrate in all levels of play. After a short channel time, Mercy will revive one of her fallen teammates who have yet to respawn in the spawn room. As previously mentioned, this ability has changed quite a lot since Overwatch's release, but is still a primary source of Mercy's potency as a main support. The ability to bring a player back from the dead is powerful in the right hands, however, making the right choice of who, and when, to Resurrect can make all the difference.

Finally, we have Mercy's newer ultimate: Valkyrie. Valkyrie turns Mercy into a seemingly un-killable "moth" who can fly around the play area wherever she desires. During Valkyrie, Mercy's single-target utility weapon, Caduceus Staff, is buffed and allows Mercy to either heal multiple allies or increase the damage of multiple teammates from an increased distance. Additionally, Regeneration cannot be interrupted by damage, Caduceus Blaster has unlimited ammo and its bullets travel twice as fast, and Guardian Angel has an increased range. As you can see, Valkyrie helps Mercy survive damage, fight enemies, and aid teammates for an extended period of time.

• Most consistent single-target heal in the game
• Is still beneficial to teammates when they are full health due to damage boost
• Resurrecting dead team members has massive ramifications in certain scenarios
• High survivability due to Guardian Angel and Regeneration
• Viable on attack, defense, and with most team compositions
• Easy to use and master

• Can only heal one player a time
• Cannot heal and perform other abilities at the same time (unlike Zenyatta, Lúcio, and Brigitte)
• Valkyrie is underwhelming in regards to defending allies when compared to other support ultimates
• Resurrect is easily countered by enemies

Mercy works best with heroes who either help her stay alive and heal her team, or greatly benefit from her assistance. Pharah is arguably the hero who benefits most from an ally Mercy since she gets pocket-healed and damage boosted. Zenyatta assists Mercy through his ability to heal her no matter her position thanks to Orb of Harmony, and his ability to supplement Valkyrie and protect his team from certain death by using Transcendence is vital to their team's success. D.Va's ability to split teams and dive weak enemies with Boosters and Micro Missiles is strengthened by Mercy's ability to stay with D.Va and follow her into the fray by using Guardian Angel.

Mercy is heavily countered by distance weapons and abilities that can interrupt her Resurrect. McCree works miracles against a Pharah/Mercy combination, and Deadeye can make quick work of Mercy as she flies above the battlefield with Valkyrie. Hanzo is another sharpshooter than can bring down Mercy with ease due to his Storm Bow. If Hanzo only lands a body shot, he can pull out his Storm Arrows to follow up his damage and deal a killing blow to Mercy. Roadhog's Chain Hook can pull Mercy out of the sky and into the maws of his team. Additionally, Chain Hook can be used to pull Mercy out of a Resurrect and into the path of Roadhog's Scrap Gun.

Mercy counters enemies who feed off of easy picks on non-mobile healers. Winston has a tremendous gap closer onto Mercy, but a simple use of Guardian Angel can pluck Mercy away from his Tesla Cannon and into the throng of her team. Similarly, Doomfist is a great pick against healers like Zenyatta and Ana, but can have a hard time taking out Mercy thanks to her fast and reusable mobility ability.

• Mercy should primarily heal allies with Caduceus Staff, but she should damage boost allies when given the chance (especially during ally ultimates).
• If an ally dies within enemy territory, Mercy should wait until an ally is about to respawn to use Guardian Angel to Resurrect them. If she waits long enough, enemies may leave the body and give Mercy the opportunity to Resurrect.
• Mercy can slingshot herself to various areas of the map by jumping just before she reaches her Guardian Angel target. Use this to quickly reach allies around corners or to get away from enemy damage.
• Valkyrie can be used to hunt an enemy healer or other opponent, but her main priority should be assisting her team.
• Sometimes Mercy should stop what she is doing and wait for Regeneration to heal her before attempting to heal her team.
• Mercy should sit around corners out of enemies' line of sight when using Caduceus Staff. The reach of the staff can allow Mercy heal or boost allies without having to expose herself.

See our Abilities page for further information

About our Author

Mournflakes is a flex Grandmaster Overwatch player who boasts a career high SR rating of 4433. His favorite heroes are Roadhog, Soldier: 76, and Ana. He has played Overwatch since its initial release, and has put over 700 hours into competitive play. When not writing guides, you can catch Mournflakes streaming on his Twitch channel.

To take things further, we have 4 more pages that you can read:

• Abilities and Strategy: an overview of your hero's abilities and how to use them;
• Playstyle: a detailed explanation on how to play your hero;
• Maps: how to make the best use of your hero on each map;
• Synergies and Matchups: where we detail your synergies, your counters, and the heroes you work well against.

• 21 May 2018 (this page): Guide updated and moved to new format.
• 22 May 2016 (this page): Updated the guide following KabaL's review.
  • Added another strategy for using Resurrect.
• 29 Apr. 2016 (this page): Guide added.

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