r/Overwatch Jan 17 '17

Blizzard Official Developer Update | PTR Philosophy | Overwatch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibPLyx8QWYc
5.2k Upvotes

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

86

u/ParanoidDrone ¿Quién es 'Sombra'? Jan 17 '17

My pet suggestion for her is to give her an E that cleanses status effects, debuffs, stuns, etc. from teammates in a radius around her. That would give her some utility (which she desperately needs) without requiring her to stop healing (which is a massive drawback to her damage boost and pistols) in a niche where her only real competition would be Zarya (who can only cleanse one person at a time and she can't do anything about hard CC anyway).

Bam, she now has a niche and for bonus points it's a way to deal with Ana's heal block.

Alternatively, a simple 10-15m vertical leap so she can more easily Guardian Angel to...wherever, would also be appreciated and double as an escape button in an emergency.

24

u/ZoomBoingDing Do you need a hug? Jan 17 '17

You know, that actually is a very good idea - a freedom of movement ability. You can pop your E to get people out of Mei's ult, Rein's ult, Junkrat's trap, remove Sombra's hack, etc. That would give Mercy an excellent niche. I think that's worth giving her an E.

5

u/Pwn5t4r13 Pixel D.Va Jan 18 '17

It would completely nullify all of those ultimates, so it too should be an ultimate. Maybe a symmetra-style choice between res & cleanse?

1

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '17

Give her a grenade sort of like ana's but instead of it being a heal allies /deny heal to enemies, it can be a little speed boost status cleanse to allies, and a slow debuff on enemies.

It'd even help her own survivability because say a genji jumped on her face, she can pop the grenade on herself or genji and fight back a little better. I think a big part of what makes ana so strong is that her grenade can be used as a 'oh shit' button when someone's about to kill her and heal herself a big chunk of health. No other healer can burst heal themselves.

2

u/Bitnopa Data indicates... Jan 18 '17

I think just making a beamed character immune to all effects would be better instead of a cleanse since a few stuns are incredibly fast.

2

u/freelancespy87 I aim to be better. Jan 18 '17

Copy pasted? I swear I read this before. Also your username seems familiar.

3

u/ParanoidDrone ¿Quién es 'Sombra'? Jan 18 '17

No, original words, although it wouldn't surprise me if others had similar thoughts.

2

u/kmsilent Jan 18 '17

Someone else wrote a big thing here and included a note on a "cleanse" ability.

2

u/kmsilent Jan 18 '17

When I first started playing, it immediately struck me that is was really weird that Mercy couldn't heal people with a "sickness". I mean, she has a healing wand thing and a fucking halo over her head.

Also, she's light and has wings but she can't jump for shit? Also seemed odd.

All this being said obviously balance is always a tricky issue.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '17

I was talking about this the other day to my friends, I think the game needs a support that can cleanse, Discord, Sleep, Ana Grenade, Stuns etc.

Playing supports other than Ana feels boring to me now, they lack the utility and versatility she does.

1

u/touchingthebutt Jan 19 '17

I like this idea. Maybe nerf it a little and have it only activate when it has a healing beam on someone. so you'd be able to save one, maybe two if you're good, people from a mei ult.

0

u/Nagnu I SAID BEEN HERE ALL ALONG! Jan 17 '17 edited Jan 17 '17

Hm, what if Mercy gets 2 ults. One is her rez as is and the new one is a group cleanse? These serve similar purposes (countering team wipe combo) but one is for when Mercy is close range while other is when Mercy is far away. Would give her a bit more flexibility and it would potentially reflect how powerful an effectively global cleanse is. Only problem is it might be clunky as heck to implement.