Massive changes are coming to D.Va and Mercy of Overwatch, and players have expressed mixed reactions as they go live on the game's Public Test Region.
There has been a good amount of Overwatch news lately, with animated shorts The Plan, featuring Junkrat and Roadhog, and Rise and Shine, featuring Mei, along with changes for the upcoming Season 6 of the Overwatch competitive mode. The planned changes for D.Va and Mercy, however, have generated a lot of discussion.
Overwatch D.Va Changes: New Micro Missiles, Weaker Defense Matrix
The Defense Matrix of D.Va has proven to be too strong, pushing the development team to nerf the skill by making its resource meter deplete twice as fast.
However, simply toning down Defense Matrix would make D.Va too weak, so in exchange, she was given a new skill named Micro Missiles. Upon activating the skill, D.Va fires a barrage of small rockets that explode upon impact, dealing damage in a limited radius. The Micro Missiles can be fired even while D.Va is firing her primary weapon or using other skills.
Overwatch Mercy Changes: Mass Resurrection Ultimate Gone, Replaced With Something Better
The planned Mercy changes, on the other hand, are more significant, as the healer hero is basically being overhauled.
The first major change is that Mercy's Ultimate, Resurrect, has been downgraded to a basic skill. Resurrect will now only be able to revive one teammate instead of all allies in range, and will have a 30-second cooldown.
The new Mercy ultimate is named Valkyrie, and it provides a massive buff to the healer hero for 20 seconds. Once activated, Mercy gains the ability to fly, and her healing and damage-boosting beams can chain through multiple teammates. Mercy also gains unlimited ammo for her blaster, and will be able to shoot faster and for more damage. Lastly, the cooldown of the new Resurrect ability will be reduced to 10 seconds while Valkyrie is active.
According to Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan, the decision to overhaul Mercy was made because many players using the hero will simply hide and wait, and then only enter the battle to activate their ultimate. With the changes, Kaplan hopes to make Mercy more engaging for players.
Players' Reactions To D.Va, Mercy Changes
On the official Overwatch subreddit, most players hate the Defense Matrix nerf, as it is what makes D.Va unique from other tanks. However, the Micro Missiles skill is a legitimate new weapon for D.Va players, and it remains to be seen whether it is more than enough to make up for the shorter Defense Matrix activations.
Meanwhile, after the initial shock of losing the ability to resurrect all five teammates at once, players have started to warm up to the Mercy changes. Players are already dreaming of the damage that a Battle Mercy powered up by Ana's Nanoboost can dish out, as she swoops down from the sky.
Valkyrie, however, will likely not arrive to the main game in its current form, as Overwatch principal designer Geoff Goodman noted that Mercy's blaster is a bit too powerful while the ultimate is activated.
