Key Takeaways
- Mercy’s best maps enable her to fly between teammates and make use of natural cover, meaning they usually feature accessible high ground and plenty of small spaces to move around in, such as Numbani.
- Mercy’s worst maps force her to stay in the backline without much room to move around, such as King’s Row. Maps with plenty of flank routes also allow Mercy to be targeted more easily.
- Mercy counters heroes that need to commit to aggression, like Winston and Reaper, because she can easily escape with Guardian Angel and/or keep targeted allies alive with her single-target healing beam.
- Mercy is countered by flankers on tight maps, such as Genji and Tracer, who can easily apply pressure. She’s also vulnerable to hitscan heroes like Cassidy and Widowmaker on maps without natural cover.
Mercy Quick Tips
- Mercy has 200 total health, with no shields or armor.
- Staying alive as Mercy while also making an impact relies on mastering Guardian Angel to be able to dart around the map while being hard to hit.
- As you get to higher ranks, Mercy’s primary utility is through her damage boost, not her healing. A popular strategy is to pocket the best damage (DPS) player on your team to enable them to be more aggressive and make as big of an impact as possible.
- Mercy requires excellent game sense because she is often the first target of the enemy team—understanding where enemies are, and where escape routes are via allies and Guardian Angel, are both essential skills to master.
- Use the Z League app to team up with players who will provide you with escape routes when you need them.
Mercy Abilities Explained
Img via Blizzard Entertainment
Caduceus Staff
Caduceus Staff can either heal an ally for around 50 healing per second, or apply a 30% damage boost. Mercy can quickly switch between the two modes, allowing her to amplify key damage while providing healing the rest of the time.
Since Caduceus Staff can heal only one ally at a time, Mercy players need to be sure to heal the most important target. Simply keeping Caduceus Staff on your tank will pad your leaderboard stats, but reduce your actual impact on winning the match.
Caduceus Blaster
Caduceus Blaster is Mercy’s alternate weapon which has 25 ammo and does 20 damage per bullet. The alternate weapon is useful in situations where Mercy finds herself alone, without escape routes, and needs to try to defend herself. In most other situations, Caduceus Staff is the ideal weapon to use due to its better stats. It usually makes more sense to damage boost a teammate with Caduceus Staff than it does to use Caduceus Blaster to try to inflict damage yourself.
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel is Mercy’s mobility ability that allows her to quickly fly across the map towards an ally, assuming she has line of sight on the ally she wishes to fly to. By jumping and/or crouching during Guardian Angel, she can quickly move upwards and backwards, and becomes very hard to hit. The best Mercy players have mastered Guardian Angel to allow them to navigate the map with ease and help any ally that needs it, while also staying out of enemy fire.
Resurrect
Resurrect brings a single ally back to life and may be used on a dead ally while they’re respawning. Mercy cannot move far during Resurrect, which makes her vulnerable. In some cases, going in for Resurrect and dying can lose the teamfight despite your best intentions. Knowing when it’s safe to use Resurrect is another key aspect of a skilled Mercy player.
Valkyrie (Ultimate)
Valkyrie lets Mercy fly around the map freely without relying on Guardian Angel. It also creates a web of either healing or damage boosting around the ally receiving buffs from her Caduceus Staff. Valkyrie can be used in a variety of situations to keep Mercy safe and/or provide key multitarget healing or damage boosting.
Recommended Overwatch 2 Streamers
- Eskay – She is top 500 in every role and member of Dart Monkeys. She plays tournaments on stream. She is often live by 5 PM ET on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and the weekend.
- mL7support – High-level support player who streams usually starts before 9 AM ET and often runs for 8-10 hours each day.
