Overwatch: Mercy's Ultimate Nerfed In The PTR

Overwatch's most iconic healer Mercy has received an undocumented change in the Public Test Region [...]

Overwatch Mercy
(Photo: Blizzard Entertainment)

Overwatch's most iconic healer Mercy has received an undocumented change in the Public Test Region that will make it so that the angelic support can no longer use her ultimate ability to revive teammates while she's still inside of a spawn point.

The stealth nerf has been discovered by several players who began posting proof of the change, such as Redditor chomz147 who posted a video on Reddit showcasing the changes to Mercy's ultimate. In the video, you can see that Mercy's ultimate ability is ready to use, but it's crossed out while in the spawn as if she'd been hit with an EMP. Only when Mercy steps outside of the spawn area does it allow for her ultimate to be used to revive her teammates.

Despite the change not being documented in the current patch notes, players don't seem to be too put off by the nerf. In fact, there are no changes to heroes listed at all on the official PTR patch notes, though the Mercy change and other upcoming nerfs and buffs will likely be listed as the testing continues.

The nerf doesn't impact Mercy a great deal, and it's likely that the changes will affect those teams that are defending more so than those that are attacking. However, not being able to resurrect your teammates from spawn could be more impactful on certain maps as opposed to others. Players have already begun to point out that two of these maps where gameplay will be impacted more are Gibraltar and Point B on Anubis where Mercy can resurrect her teammates pretty safely from inside her spawn point.

Upon further testing from players, both the main spawn areas and the hallways leading out from the spawn points are off-limits for Mercy's ult, meaning that if she's standing inside the barrier where she can be shot but enemies can't cross, she still can't ult. Other heroes can still use their ults in these areas, all except for Mercy.

Some players think that this isn't enough of a nerf though, saying that there should be a lockout period on Mercy's ult after she leaves spawn to avoid a game-changing resurrect that can happen so quickly. The nerfs are still in the testing phase though, so there's still time for the ability to be changed further before the patch goes live.

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