Possibly one of the most unrewarding characters to use in Overwatch is Mercy. Not only are you always expected to heal or revive “at the right time,” but most of the time, random players won’t even acknowledge your efforts to support your team.
In a new Overwatch developer update video, Game Director Jeff Kaplan revealed that Mercy’s ultimate will be changed! Yep, Mercy won’t have the Resurrect ultimate anymore BUT, she’ll still have the ability as a regular one, though she can only resurrect one character at a time and at a “long cooldown.” So don’t expect to see a revive train happening.
Mercy’s new ultimate ability will be called “Valkryie” and will enable her to fly. Not like Pharah’s boost, but actually fly around.
Jeff Kaplan: She can fly, and I don’t mean that she can Pharah-boost in the air briefly, I mean she can fly. And it’s super fun. You have complete control of your character. After all, Mercy has those wings we might as well put them to real use. I mean, Guardian Angel’s pretty good, but imagine flying with Mercy, how much fun it could be.
Aside from being able to fly, Valkyrie will boost Mercy’s regular abilities; her Resurrect ability will have a shorter cooldown, she’ll able to fire her weapons faster and do more damage, her healing and damage boost beams will extend further and will be able to buff multiple friendlies at once.
Valkyrie (New Ultimate Ability)
Valkyrie unleashes the full power of Mercy’s Valkyrie Suit, enhancing her weapons and abilities for 20 seconds:
- Caduceus Staff: Mercy’s healing and damage boost beams now affect all allies near the targeted teammate, and the staff’s effective range has been extended
- Caduceus Blaster: Granted infinite ammo, while simultaneously increasing damage and fire rate
- Guardian Angel: Increased range and movement speed
- Resurrect: Cooldown is instantly reset when Valkyrie is activated and reduced to 10s after the initial cast
- Hover: Mercy gains the ability to fly freely, at increased movement speed
- Regeneration (Passive): No longer interrupted when Mercy takes damage
These new changes to Mercy will be tested out in Overwatch’s PTR. Kaplan added that they will monitor the changes to the character and will adjust her abilities and even her ultimate as they see fit. You can check out the rest of the patches and whatnot that’s applicable in the PTR right here.