#overwatch guide

1. Damage Buffing vs The Pistol As we all probably know, Mercy’s damage buff can be useful - but a lot of Mercy players that I’ve seen will prefer to use damage buff over her pistol, which can often result in not enough damage output. It’s important to know that her pistol can do a surprising amount of damage, and if you have another healer who can keep the others topped off (as long as they aren’t critical / below half health), it’s completely fine to pull out your pistol and scare off some of the squishier targets while everyone else focuses on tanks or stronger dps characters. This can also count in your own Zarya’s graviton! You can shoot at a Reinhardt barrier or sneak behind and give them a scare. I’ve managed to trick Reinhardts into turning around to shield my attacks, and then he’ll be killed and ultimately the entire enemy team can be wiped. The pistol is excellent, but do not use it all the time! It’s a heavily situational weapon, but it can change the course of a game if used well. I have a section below dedicated to the pistol, so I won’t talk more about it. Damage buffing is, of course, very useful - you can boost Hanzo’s dragons or D.VA’s self-destruct, giving it the possibility of either killing or severely injuring someone who might not have been affected too badly before (though the self-destruct generally one-shots, but it damages people who are just inside its range but not close enough to be killed; a damage buff can sometimes cause squishy characters to get outright killed by this if they’re already a little hurt, and it’s hilarious to watch) - it’s also super good to damage boost a Reinhardt’s fire strike, though team coordination is needed with this. I succeed in buffing a Rein’s fire strike by talking to them in competitive, but in quickplay it’s much harder to pull off and is usualy down to prediction. Not only will Rein get his ult charge from this, but you will too! So in short? Damage buffing is good, but remember that you have a weapon if your team isn’t outputting enough damage.  2. Positioning Possibly the largest difference that I’ve noticed between my gameplay and, say, a less-experienced Mercy’s gameplay is often how we position ourselves. I try to break line of sight all the time! It makes it harder for people to see me, and if they have to peek to get me, it’s highly likely I have someone with me - especially when I’m in a two or three stack. More often than not, the person who dares to peek me will get charged by a Reinhardt or fucked over by my high charge Zarya, or even just shot down by my Soldier. Your teammates will often be your best friends; your counters, such as Winston or Genji, will often be spooked away by a strong-hitting friendly. Hell, Winston and Genji are often scared away by a friendly Winston or Reinhardt. Tanks are the best to stick to, but it’s good to know when you can fly with Pharah (it’s rare; but there’s another section on this), or when you should try to stick with flankers (a two-healer situation only). If you don’t have a tank that has a barrier, try to stick to walls or higher ground - unless the enemy team has a Pharah, in which case, you should try to stay in enclosed spaces, or near a hitscan such as Soldier or Mccree, who can take her down surprisingly easily if their aim is good. If your team has a Widowmaker or someone else who keeps their distance (preferably on the high ground, but low works too), it might be useful to stick beside them until your team needs healing. Widowmaker is extremely mobile and so is Mercy, making them a scary duo when it comes to moving around. Widow can get Mercy to areas that even Pharah might not be able to access, which makes her an all around useful partner. I have a duo-queue partner who often plays Widow in quickplay, and sticking to him has saved my life. Sure, people will accuse you of pocketing a Widow, but if they’re getting healed by you when they need it, they can’t complain.  The flanker situation is a harder thing to talk about. See, you need two healers for it, and flankers are highly mobile and need to be quiet. Mercy is a high-priority target, and so she isn’t ideal to stick with flankers. Personally, I recommend allowing your Zenyatta (very ideal) or Ana (not as ideal, but she can heal from a distance) go and deal with healing flankers. Sure, Ana is a tank-healer, but if you’re right by your tanks, it will help. I will only go and help flankers if they’re being harrassed or I have a good Lucio who stays on heal on my team. Lucio can generally keep everyone topped up on health and keep them alive until you return; don’t leave him for too long, but you are free to move between your flankers with the comfort of knowing your team has a constant supply of heals. Usually, however, it is best to let flankers either come to you or grab healthpacks. The former is the more ideal situation. I hate being with flankers unless it’s King of the Hill maps (such as Ilios; it often keeps me away from boopable ledges), but sometimes you need to do it. If you’re a solo heal, stick with your tanks and primary dps. Flankers can look out for themselves, and you need to remember this. 

3. “My team won’t protect me, so I’m dead all of the time” This is a positioning flaw on your part, and this is something I’ve had to learn. Your team do need to protect you, but they can’t babysit you all the time. If anything, you’re the babysitter. You need to keep a tab on your health as well as theirs, and you’re a vital part of battle. Don’t complain about not being protected - but do try to get their attention if you’re being harassed, or look for escapes. You’re going to be attacked. It’s how healers are dealt with, being harassed by flankers (especially Tracer). However, if one of your tanks simply watches as you get killed, then you can complain. This has happened a lot, even in competitive, and then they beg for heals. These are people who you should..probably ignore, actually. Heal them when needed, but don’t start yelling. They can and will throw. Sometimes people will just watch as you’re killed, in which case you should probably pull out your pistol and try to damage your attacker. 

4. Mercy’s Pistol  It does a surprising amount of damage, shoots quickly, and has a decent ammo supply. The reload animation is long, so meleeing to get someone to back off is recommended when it needs to reload. Now, there are a good few situations in which you can pull it out; to help your team when you have a Zarya ult (mentioned above), to work on Rein’s shield, to add more damage when no-one needs healing, to deal with flankers, and so on. Keep in mind that it is a projectile weapon and so you need to predict where the enemy will go (I usually strafe back and forth while shooting, I often get headshots because I’ve learned how most characters will move). You can pull it out a lot, which surprises a lot of people! However, do not pull it out when people need heals. Do not keep it out - you are a support character, not a dps. You can add dps when needed, especially if your secondary healer (if you have one) tells you that it’s fine (though I would not recommend it when you have a Zenyatta, as he is a dps-support in himself and so there will usually be enough). It’s actually easy enough to kill 200hp or 150hp heros like Genji, Tracer, or softshell D.VA. They cause little damage to you (and you heal over time), and you cause a lot of damage to them. Most of the time, they make back off. As long as you make Tracer waste her recall and don’t shoot at Genji’s deflect, you’ll be fine. Working on your aim as Mercy is actually a useful thing, because you’ll die much less and generally be more useful, because you’re dealing with flankers that, once they kill you, will go on to kill your tanks or disrupt the backlines and so damage how your team works. 

5. Pharmercy This is undoubtedly one of the strongest and most deadly combinations in the game, but also countered harshly by hitscan such as Soldier or Mccree. Hell, Zenyatta can take these two down rather quickly too. It’s important to judge when it’s okay to pocket your Pharah. You need a secondary healer (usually Ana or Lucio, don’t leave Zenyatta alone), and you need to be aware of the enemy team. Being in the sky leaves Mercy extremely vulnerable to attack, as she only has slowfall to save herself - but I’ve been saved in situations where I’ve completely let go of the spacebar and I’ve dropped behind cover. This is especially useful in Soldier’s ult, where he will usually go for the Pharah first; it gives you time to escape. Ensure that at least one other person is in your line of sight so that you can fly to them if you really need to. Pharah may only be a 200hp hero, but she is extremely durable. Her constant flitting and bounciness means that she can survive on as little as 10hp if you can’t get into the sky. Most Pharah mains will also drop down for heals if they’re desperate, or they’ll find a healthpack. After all, Pharah can easily fit into the flanker category. Pharmercy may be strong, but it’s not necessary all the time, and your team will often need you more often.  The main time to pocket a Pharah is when she’s ulting. Heal her, do not damage boost her, as people will try to shoot her down immediately and if you have the delay of switching from damage boosting to healing, she could die. Her rockets do enough damage as it is (especially if she’s well-positioned), so she’ll be fine without a damage boost, and she’ll get more kills if she’s alive.  I do not pocket Pharahs unless I know they’re worth it. Gauge if your Pharah is skilled. Do not fly with an unskilled Pharah, because you will both die pretty quickly on. The more skilled a Pharah is, the easier it is to Pharmercy! 

6. The Art of Pressing Q  Ressurection is a very useful ability, and can turn 4v6 into 6v6, 3v5 into 6v5, and generally turn the tables around. Most people think that Mercy should wait for the magical five-man res or something else Play of the Game-worthy, but that’s not it. I mean, first of all, a quintuple res will not usually get you play of the game unless you gain multiple assists with it or there’s just nothing else the game can think of, but second of all, it could be game-costing. Temporarily ressing your Reinhardt so that he can contest the Payload while your team returns from spawn can save the game, and so can a quick temporary res on your Roadhog who has ult. If someone has ult, they become a priority to ressurect in an intense moment, because it could make it or break it. It’s possibly a well-known fact that Mercy is, in a way, one of Zarya’s counter. She might get an incredible graviton where she kills five members of your team, but if you’ve hidden yourself away, then her work becomes undone as you swoop in and res your entire team, causing her so-very hurt team to become the underdogs in the fight. Ressing fully restores health, so your team will be as if they’ve just spawned, whereas the enemy team will likely be in the middle of trying to heal from the team fight. They won’t be ready to fight again, so it’s a very easy team wipe. It’s always tempting to res when the enemy team starts staggering your spawns and no-one groups up. Don’t. Don’t do it. It wastes your res - only res if they’ve staggered multiple people at the same time but your team still intends to push. I find it absolutely hilarious when I watch other Mercy players solo-res their Tracer because they’re scared of a staggered spawn - it wastes their ult entirely. Of course, I’ve done it myself a couple of times (especially considering it can save my life due to the invulnerability I gain, but I’m teaching myself against it). There’s a huge difference between having res at a crucial moment vs “nearly” having it.  Something I’ve noticed quite a lot is, after a Mercy has been unable to save four or five of her players while she doesn’t have res, they’ll have it at 90% but they’ll back off. Now, your team will be respawning in a staggered way (unless it was a quintuple / quadruple, in which case they’ll come back together), and you are super close to ult. You know an extremely fast way to grab that 10%? Shoot people. Shoot a Roadhog. He’ll feel inclined to heal himself. Once you have res, pull it off and bam, you might’ve just secured the point.  Ressing at a good time can save an entire game, and I cannot tell you how satsifying it feels to pull off a game-saving res. It’s not always for the POTG, it’s usually to try and secure a victory. (Of course, note that you shouldn’t hold onto res for too long. You can usually gain it back pretty quickly, and if you only have res once for the entire game even though your teammates are dying, you’re holding onto it too much. In a good game where I pull off helpful resses, I can have res up to five or six times). (Another note; try your best to have res for Overtime. It will save your game. Trust me.)  

7. Teamwork  This does not count for quickplay (though you can try your best), but moreso for comp. If you want to climb the ranks as a Mercy, you need to be a huge team player. Mercy is one of the characters who actually doesn’t have much to do aside from healing and damage buffing (and sometimes shooting), so callouts are a Mercy main’s best friend. Make sure you have a mic, and talk to your team about the flanker to your left, or the fact that Tracer just killed herself with a Pulse Bomb. It doesn’t matter if they saw it! Someone might’ve missed it, and they’ll appreciate it. Also, warn your team of potential enemy ults. This often includes checking the kill cam real quick if you’ve been killed - and this is a huge thing when you’re kill by Genji or Zarya. Check the percentage. Trust me, it’ll help your team a lot if they know what to expect. Once I’ve checked the enemy’s ult percentage on the kill cam, I’ll often go into spectator mode to try and help my team even from the grave, and I’ll tell them when I’m heading back. You might get lucky and have someone come to pick you up to speed it up. Also! Tell them when you have res! It encourages them to try to die closer together, but also to drag out enemy ults. The more violent your team are, the more scared the enemy team will be, and so they’ll use ults in an attempt to get the objective without being contested. Joke’s on them, you’ll have res; just make sure you’re hidden. Teamwork is the KEY to being a good support main, let alone Mercy. You don’t have to look at a teammate when you’re healing, so you can check the skies and behind you and your team can focus on the people in front of them. Making callouts is a wonderful skill to have, and your team will appreciate it too. 

Overall, Mercy has a very basic premise at first glance, but she’s all about practice and skill. You need to learn to be mobile, you need to know when to use Guardian Angel and Res, and you need to try to keep track of both enemy ults and your own ults. She’s easy to pick up and hard to master.  At present, I’m only Silver-ranked, but I have the goal of reaching Diamond this season, and my heart is completely set on it. 

A little side-note: please, please do not solo-queue as Mercy when you’re in bronze to gold tiers. Sometimes it can go right, don’t get me wrong - but mostly it’ll go to shit. Solo-queuing as her can be dodgy even in higher ranks from what I know, but in the low ranks it can cause a lot of damage. I’ve had to climb from roughly 700sr because I solo-queued and damaged my sr severely; but I’m in the 1700s now, because I know to queue with my friends.