Mercy, among the most popular Support and healer heroes in Overwatch 2, is one of the most consistent healers in the game. Her low execution floor allows anyone to pick up and play this combat medic, as you click your low-health teammates and get them to full health. She’s designed to zip around the fight and heal teammates in need of some assistance, but she also has the unique ability to resurrect allies and bring them back into the fight. On top of this, Mercy can also damage boost allies, a simple point-and-click damage boost that gives Mercy extra utility. She’s incredible in the right hands, and here’s how to play Mercy in Overwatch 2.
How to play Mercy in Overwatch 2 – Tips and tricks
In Overwatch 2, Mercy’s Valkyrie ability turns her into an unstoppable healing machine with insane mobility and the ability to fly far into the air. This often allows Mercy to pull off a safe rez while topping off her team with her left-click. She can also damage boost more than one hero in this state, improving your overall team damage.
On the surface, Mercy seems to be easy to play in Overwatch 2 without much opportunity to optimize her gameplay. Arguably the easiest hero in the game, there are still some nuances with her kit that you should consider before deciding to pick up Mercy. As with most characters, Mercy is easy to play and hard to master in Overwatch 2, and these tips can help you level up your Mercy gameplay as you climb the competitive ladder.
Gain ultimate charge when damage-boosting allies
This is a nuance that you should know when boosting the damage of your teammates. When you damage-boost your allies, the extra damage they deal will also be funneled into your ult charge, allowing you to build your ultimate ability faster. Mercy’s Valkyrie ultimate makes her difficult to hit as she zips across the sky. It also allows her to heal her team at a greater capacity, making her ultimate important to get to turn the tides of a fight.
Of course, as you gain ultimate charge quicker, you also funnel more ultimate charge for your allies as well. Ultimate charge is generated for characters based on damage dealt, and your allies will gain extra ultimate charge with the bonus damage they deal, too.
Learn how to slingshot
In the original Overwatch, “super-jumping” was a high-level technique that allowed Mercy to fly high in the air when flying toward people with her Guardian Angel ability. This was technically a bug, so Mercy got a reworked mobility system that allowed her to be even harder to pin down and kill. When flying towards an ally, a resource meter will fill up the longer you stay in the air. When this resource meter reaches a certain threshold, Mercy will be able to jump higher.
This will not only allow you to reach certain places you normally couldn’t, but it also makes you harder to hit. Mastering this technique and being a slippery moth will help your survivability and keep you alive for longer. You can slingshot while using Valkyrie as well, which zips you across the map even faster.
Make use of cover when resurrecting
Reviving an ally is important stuff when it comes to learning how to play Mercy in Overwatch 2. But the amount of time it takes to get a resurrect (rez) off makes you extremely vulnerable to being killed. However, you have a level of mobility after reviving, which means you’ll have to get clever when reviving an ally. You can move a certain distance away when reviving an ally without the rez breaking. Use your mobility to get behind a nearby wall, or even consider resurrecting off a ledge if they are close to the edge of the map.
This goes without saying, but if you somehow stray too far from your ally, the rez will break. This includes being knocked away, walking too far, or somehow moving too far from the dead body.
Just because you can rez, doesn’t mean you should
Let’s consider that in your current situation, you can pull off a rez on a dead ally without putting yourself at risk. In this scenario, you will bring back a dead ally, and the fight can continue. Right? However, it’s important to analyze the flow of a match. A resurrect takes approximately two seconds to go off, which is more than enough time for one of your other allies to die. Did your other healer die in a fight? You have to consider that for two seconds, your team will not have any healing while you are rezzing.
Did your tank die but your Widowmaker is being rushed by a Genji halfway across the map? In this case, you might consider letting Widowmaker die in favor of reviving your tank. This decision making is an important part of using your resurrect ability.
Put away your gun
Mercy has a secondary pistol that she can whip out in a fight and use to keep herself alive. Being dove on while you are alone without any ally to retreat to is one of the only situations in which you will want to use your pistol. Getting five extra bullets and faster swap time does not make her a warrior. You are able to fight in rare situations, though. If a damaged enemy hero is in your crosshairs, you might get an easy pick. But knowing when to fight or flee comes with experience, and becoming Battle Mercy at the wrong time can result in tragedy.
How to play Mercy in Overwatch 2 with Pharah or hitscan heroes
The “Pharmercy” composition is a popular combo of using Mercy alongside Pharah. Mercy pockets Pharah, which allows Pharah to survive as hitscan enemies try to shoot her out of the air. It also makes Mercy hard to kill as well, as she has a free ally to fly to when in danger. In addition, Mercy is strong with hitscan heroes like Sojourn or Soldier: 76. Mercy can damage-boost Sojourn’s railgun to a near-guaranteed one-shot kill on squishy heroes, and generally increase the damage of hitscans.
Her damage boost synergizes well with these heroes, and they are easier to keep up with than other dive-oriented heroes like Genji or Tracer. Dive heroes often tend to put Mercy in vulnerable situations. Hitscan heroes often have stationary positioning, which is a little safer for Mercy to navigate.
That’s our guide on how to play Mercy in Overwatch 2. For our thoughts on the game’s heroes, check out our tier lists on best DPS, best Tanks, and best Support.
