Mercy Overwatch 2 – Everything you need to know

Overwatch 2 has over 35 heroes that players can choose from to make their perfect team composition. Each hero has their own unique weapon, abilities, playstyle, and personality. On top of being unique in their own way, each hero will fit into one of three different roles in combat. These roles include tanks that can protect their team, supports that can heal them, and DPS that can dish out the punishment to their foes. Mercy is a support character who specializes in using her mobility to soar around the battlefield, keeping her allies alive and her foes on their toes. Here is everything players need to know about using Mercy in Overwatch 2.

Who is Mercy in Overwatch 2?

Mercy is a character who looks and flies like an angel in Overwatch 2. Much has changed with her movement in particular since the original Overwatch, but she still plays largely the same overall. The goal of playing Mercy is to use her mobility to quickly move across the battlefield, healing and boosting allies’ damage and avoiding taking damage herself using her flight and self-healing abilities. While she primarily heals single targets, she can use her ultimate to chain her heals to her entire team, which can single-handedly win team fights when used properly.

Note: You can read about all of the Overwatch 2 characters here.

Rework to support characters in Overwatch 2

In Overwatch 2, one of the biggest changes is how teams are composed. In the original Overwatch, teams consisted of 6 players each. However, in Overwatch 2, this has been reduced to 5 players. Now each team has one less tank, and to make up for it, all roles were given special passive abilities. Support characters, such as Mercy, received the ability to heal themselves over time after not taking damage for a few seconds. This means that they can duck out of combat for a few seconds, heal up, and get back in the fight, which increases their overall effectiveness.

Mercy’s abilities in Overwatch 2

As a mobile healer, Mercy’s abilities will focus on allowing her to move freely through both the skies and the battlefield as she makes her way to tend to the wounded. In addition, she can also help to increase the damage to her team to help make key pushes and eliminate important enemy heroes. Using Mercy can be a rewarding experience for players who put the time in to learn how to avoid being hit and still be able to keep their team alive.

Regeneration

In addition to the new passive that regenerates her HP after not taking damage for a few seconds, Mercy has her own version of it with Regeneration. These abilities do indeed stack, which allows her to heal for 22.5/HP a second instead of the usual 15 HP per second. This boost in her survivability can help to keep her in the fight for longer.

Angelic Descent

Since Mercy has a nice set of wings, she can use them to her advantage in battle. Angelic Descent was recently changed to allow Mercy to slow down her ascent and descent in-game by holding the jump button (previously this was just for descent). This means that with a careful manipulation of the jump key, she can use her Angelic Descent ability to rise above the battlefield or descend from heights while keeping an eye on her teammates. When needed, she can release the ability to move faster to avoid enemy fire.

Caduceus Staff

The Caduceus Staff is Mercy’s primary weapon, and her way of healing and boosting her teammates. When she uses the Caduceus Staff in the Primary Fire mode, she will fire a beam of light that connects to the nearest ally. When they are tethered to the staff, Mercy will heal them for 55 every second. The beam can stretch up to a maximum of 15 meters and can break if Mercy loses line of sight.

In addition, the Caduceus Staff has a Secondary Firing Mode that causes Mercy to boost her target’s damage by 30%. This also has a 15-meter radius and requires a line of sight. Mercy’s 

Caduceus Staff has unlimited ammo and does not need to be reloaded.

Caduceus Blaster

As Mercy’s primary focus is healing her allies, doing damage is not really part of her kit. However, she can use her Caduceus Blaster, which is an emergency sidearm that can damage enemies in a pinch. When deciding when to use this, the player should determine if healing a target is a better choice or if firing the Caduceus Blaster would be optimal. This weapon holds 20 rounds in the magazine, and when stowed will reload itself after 1.4 seconds. In this way, Mercy always has a way to defend herself if necessary.

Guardian Angel

Guardian Angel is one of the reasons that Mercy is so hard for the enemy team to pin down. When she uses this ability, she will be able to fly instantly to an allies location, even if that ally is dead. This ability was changed in Overwatch 2 to have a meter that charges on holding the ability. The more it is charged, the further it will go. Players can actually cancel the ability by jumping and can go soaring in the direction Mercy is facing. With practice, this can lead to some interesting movement mechanics, including even moving backward to get away from foes. This ability has a 1.5-second cooldown and can be used very frequently.

Resurrect

When used, Resurrect allows Mercy to return a dead teammate back to life. This ability must be channeled while using, and it takes 1.75 seconds to cast. During this time, Mercy’s speed is slowed by 75%. In addition, the resurrected ally will be returned with full life and will be invulnerable for 2.25 seconds, but they cannot attack during this time. In addition, they can start moving 1.5 seconds after being resurrected. Resurrect has a 30-second cooldown, and is not reset when Mercy dies like other abilities would be. Therefore, it is important to only Resurrect targets when the player is able to get off the cast, or they risk losing the ability to a lengthy cooldown.

Valkyrie

Valkyrie is Mercy’s Ultimate Ability and it greatly enhances her effectiveness as a healer when used. After activating Valkyrie, Mercy gains the ability to fly freely anywhere on the battlefield. In addition, her channeled beams from her Caduceus Staff become more powerful. In addition to now healing for 60HP a second, her healing beam now chains to other allies other than the one she is targeting, and chains to herself as well, healing an additional 20 HP a second on Mercy. When using the damage-boosting beam, Mercy will chain it to her allies, boosting all of their damage by 30%. 

Valkyrie can have the ability to make big plays and should be used wisely. The healing and damage boost is often enough to put a player’s team over the edge to give them a win in a team fight or contested zone.

Tips for using Mercy in Overwatch 2

Players who want to succeed with Mercy in Overwatch 2 will do best sticking to a single-target healing style since Mercy does not have any AoE heals unless Valkyrie is active. Because of this, Mercy can use her mobility to stay with her allies and pocket-heal them, staying with her tanks to support them, and boosting damage to break through any barriers in their way. In addition, Mercy should try to use her mobility to avoid incoming damage, because if she is struck, she will not last long. 

Avoiding direct combat is also a good rule of thumb, as Mercy is more beneficial when she is healing and boosting damage, rather than shooting her own gun. As a team-oriented support, Mercy does best when she sticks by her team, rather than going off on her own. However, in a pinch, she can use her sidearm to destroy turrets or priority targets at low health.

Pick mercy and soar into victory in Overwatch 2

As a highly mobile angel, Mercy can soar over the battlefield and keep her team safe. While she struggles to do any real damage herself, she makes up for it by keeping her team alive through all but the worst damage. For those who take the time to master Mercy’s extreme movement, they can slip away from foes and be an extremely large thorn in the enemy team’s side. With Mercy, players can activate their Valkyrie ability and soar above their team as they heal and boost their damage to lead them to victory.