Overwatch 2 Mercy: Tips, Abilities & Changes

Mercy in Overwatch 2 is one of the best healers available in the game. Her kit as a support hero makes her a superb hero. To perfect her, you’ll need to learn all about her abilities and Ultimate. With that, you’ll need to know about every nook and corner of Maps to plan your escapes ahead of time. Be sure to check out our Overwatch 2 Review before continuing with the Mercy guide.

Mercy In Overwatch 2

One of the best support heroes in the game is Mercy. The angel-like character uses her skills to move around the map quickly and heal her teammates that are low on health. Not only that, her abilities allow her to boost their damage too. That is all thanks to the staff in her kit. She uses a pistol to shoot at enemies whenever she can. That is to dish out extra damage to help her team get closer to victory. 

All in all, she is a support hero, and like all the support heroes, she has to keep herself safe. She is a vulnerable hero at the end of the day. For that, she has to stay at the back and heal her teammates, and when needed, go to the front. She can fly to an ally who’s low on health and heal them using her wings.

Mercy isn’t one of the heroes that you’ll have to Unlock to play with them. She is available as a Starting Hero in the game. So you’ll have plenty of time to master her if you want to main her.

Mercy’s Abilities

Mercy has a total of four abilities and two different weapons in Overwatch 2. One of these weapons is a Staff that focuses on aiding the teammates. As for her abilities, they focus on supporting her teammates by healing them or increasing their damage output.

Caduceus Staff

The first and main weapon you’d be using most in a game is the Caduceus Staff. Using it, ‘Mercy engages one of two beams that connect to an ally. By maintaining the beams, she can either restore that ally’s health or increase the amount of damage they deal.

Using it, Mercy can heal low-health teammates. She has to make sure that there is nothing between her and the teammate that she is healing. If there is, it will end up breaking the link. If the distance between you and the teammate increases, the link will break too.

To heal a teammate, you’ll have to stick close to them. Although, while I was playing with Mercy, when I got in front of the teammates, the link didn’t break. But keep in mind that the link will break as soon as you get out of the 15-meter radius of the skill.

When she is healing, she heals at a high rate of 55 HP per second. It seems high but remembers, a lot of the heroes in overwatch deal damage higher than that. So you can’t expect to heal your teammates while they’re getting attacked. At best, it will delay the time it’ll take your enemy to kill them.

When you use the Caduceus Staff with Alt-fire, it won’t heal the teammates. But now, it will increase their damage by 30%. This might seem like nothing, but if you combine it with a perfect hero, the benefits would be great. The best example would be the heroes that deal AoE damage. When you increase that hero’s damage, it will deal an extra 30% damage to all of the enemies.

There’s no limit to using the Caduceus Staff, as it has unlimited ammo. Whenever you see a teammate with low hp, just press the fire button.

• Damage Increase: 30%
• Healing: 55 per second
• Maximum Range: 15 meters

Caduceus Blaster

All of the heroes in the game deal damage in one way or another, so why not Mercy too? She won’t do much good if she doesn’t have any weapon for self-defense or to get a hit on the enemy running towards cover. Yes, her primary focus is to be the support her teammates need. But she has teh Caduceus Blaster as an enemgency side arm.

The Damage of the Caduceus Blaster isn’t high like other heroes, which is obvious as damage isn’t her main thing. The blaster is there because, first off, you won’t need to heal your teammates that much in the early stages. It will come in handy as you hit the enemies a few times to get your teammates a headstart in the fight.

Later on in the game, you’ll have to make a decision. That is, if it is better to heal one of your teammates or if it is better to use the blaster. Whatever you choose can change the battle’s outcome. So make your decision wisely while keeping in mind that your main purpose is to heal the teammates.

The Caduceus Blaster’s magazine is big enough to have 20 rounds. If you switch to the Caduceus Staff, the blaster will automatically reload after 1.4 seconds.

• Damage: 20
• Ammo: 20
• Reload Time: 1.4 seconds

Support Passive And Regeneration

Like all other supports, Mercy benefits from the support benefit too. With the support passive, ‘Mercy automatically heals over time. It is a beneficial passive for most supports as they don’t have any abilities to heal themselves. They can use it to heal themselves over time.

But to activate it, there is a limit. The passive comes into effect after Mercy or any other support doesn’t take any damage for 1.5 seconds. Once the condition is met, the support heroes heal themselves automatically.

That was about the Support Passive. Mercy has her own touch to the support passive. She increases the support passive’s healing ability. Where other heroes heal themselves at 15 health per second, Mercy can heal herself at 22.5 health per second.

It goes on to show that she can take care of herself as better as anyone else in the game. All she has to do is stay out of the fight for a few seconds, and she’ll patch herself up in no time. It doesn’t mean that she won’t be healing other teammates or boosting their damage. She’ll be doing that, too, ensuring that she’s right behind her teammates in a fight.

Guardian Angel

The ability that you’ll be using the most, aside from her healing or boosting, is Guardian Angel. It will be your go-to ability in the game, as it can save you from getting ganked or it can save your allies from certain death. When used, ‘Mercy flies towards a targetted ally, allowing her to reach them quickly and provide assistance in crucial moments’.

When I say that it will be your go-to ability, I mean it. It is basically her movement skill that will allow her to help her teammates that are low on health. She can use the sprint button or left shift on the PC and fly towards an ally. When she does so, a meter will show up that shows how much momentum she has. It shows how fast she will fly towards the ally, the higher, the better.

If an ally of yours is about to die, you can get to them and patch them up. Whereas if you are attacked by one of the enemies, you can use it while aiming towards an ally and get out of the area. That ensures that you’ll always have an escape plan with Mercy in the game.

Not only does it take you toward your teammates, but with practice, you can use it to soar through the air. When done correctly, you’ll find yourself going in the direction that you are facing. It increases the versatility of the ability. If things don’t go your way, you can always pull out the Caduceus Blaster and put up a fight before dying. 

• Cooldown: 1.5 Seconds
• Maximum Range: 30 Meters

Resurrect

One of the most useful abilities in the game is the Resurrect ability of Mercy. With it ‘Mercy brings a dead ally back into the fight with full health’. Thus saving a lot of time for that teammate. 

When you’re considering the ability of Resurrect, you shouldn’t consider the tie it’ll take for your ally to respawn. They’ll have to walk all the way toward where the objective currently is. This can be a long 30 seconds walk, or if the hero has some good dashing ability, it will take at least 10 seconds for them to get there.

And if the hero is one of the heroes that is carrying the team in that one game, it will make all the difference. As long as the hero dies, the opponents will start to make their move. At that time, the best option will be to resurrect that one ally and spoil the opponent’s plans. You can use it on the Best Tank hero or the Best DPS hero on your team. A perfect hero can change the tide of the battle.

Mercy will be most vulnerable when she is using the Resurrect ability. Because when she is using the ability, she must channel it before resurrecting takes effect. The channeling phase lasts for 1.75 seconds, and her movement speed will reduce by 75%. When the ally is resurrected, they gain 2.25 seconds of invulnerability. But it doesn’t mean that they start killing off enemies. It will be after this phase that they can attack enemies.

• Maximum Range: 5 Meters
• Healing: Restores full health
• Cooldown: 30 seconds

Angelic Descent

You might’ve noticed that Mercy has a set of wings. These wings aren’t for display; Mercy uses them in the game. Using these wings, she descends at a slower speed. To do that, you’ll have to press the Jump button.

While you’re going down from a high place, you can use Angelic Descent to manipulate your fall. Speeding up the fall or slowing it down can potentially save you from getting killed in a battle. As the opponent would have to adjust their aim to hit you again, giving you that small window that can save you.

It is great if you want to observe where the enemies are or if you are healing a teammate on a higher platform and want to heal the next hero on the ground. This will not only save you time, as you’ll connect with the second hero as soon as you patch up the first one. It will help you take a good look at the battlefield too.

• Duration: As long as it’s active
• Movement Speed: 2 meters per second (downwards)

Valkyrie

The Ultimate Ability of Mercy is known as Valkyrie. It seems a fitting name as she is a Valkyrie. When she uses her ultimate, all of her abilities as a healer enhance. Her healing becomes more effective. She can heal all of her teammates as long as they’re within her range, and she can fly up as long as the ultimate lasts.

When she activates the ultimate ability of Valkyrie, she can fly anywhere on the battlefield freely. There is no limit to where she can go or can’t. If you’re trying to get to that one tank, then you can do that by flying there. You won’t have to go through winding streets or obstacles. Just activate her Ultimate and press the jump button, and she’ll be up in the air.

If you want to go down, then you’ll have to press the crouch button. With it, she will descend to the ground. During the Ultimate’s 15 seconds duration, you can use the jump button and crouch button to fly or descend wherever you want. Her movement buttons let her fly in any direction she wants.

Her healing and damage boost now make a chain that connects two or more heroes. Using this chain, she can link all of the teammates and heal them or boost their damage as required. Her healing now increases from 55 health per second to 60 health per second. And with that, she heals herself with 20 HP per second. It won’t be interrupted by enemy attacks.

Lastly, her blaster gets unlimited bullets as long as the Ultimate lasts.

• Duration: 15 Seconds
• Damage Boost: +30% Boost to allies
• Maximum Range: +100% range in Caduceus Staff and Guardian Angel

PlayStyle For Mercy

Mercy has a blaster, but at the end of the day, she is supportive. That blaster shouldn’t be taken more than temporary self-defense to make enemies run away. Apart from that, your goal should be to stay with your teammates and be ready to heal them at any point. Not only that, you have to make sure to boost your teammates’ damage when needed.

Pocket Support

Mercy has single-target healing. What it means is that she can’t heal more than one hero at a time, except for when she is using her ultimate ability. When you get in a match, you must be ready to stick with one hero at a time to heal them or to increase their damage.

When you come to think about it, her kit is designed for that same user. Her healing is single-target so you can’t expect to heal more than one hero at a time. The damage boost works the same as healing, it boosts one hero’s damage. Guardian Angel’s ability closes the gap between you and the teammate you’re supporting. The blaster comes in handy when the hero you’re supporting is getting overwhelmed.

But it doesn’t mean that you should completely neglect what’s happening in the game. If you feel that your team’s carry is strong enough to take care of themselves, you can focus your attention on the tank or any hero that requires help. Once they are fully healed, you can then head back towards your carry.

Tanks And Cover

Mercy is a vulnerable hero. She doesn’t have a fast dash or any good offensive abilities. She has to rely on other heroes to save herself from opponents. And as a support, your main goal is to keep yourself safe and make sure you’re alive to heal your teammates or to boost their damage. Because once you’re dead, then they all will fall like dominoes.

It’s no shame to take cover behind a tank whenever needed. And when you’re using Mercy, you’ll be actually benefiting them more. As Mercy can heal the tank, she is hiding behind. But when the time comes, you might have to run behind a natural cover. It can be an alleyway in the game, a tunnel, or even inside some house in-game. Wherever it is, don’t be shy about using it for your benefit.

Keep A Look Out All The Time

Mercy can benefit from her Caduceus Staff when she is healing her teammates. The Staff can maintain beams of healing as long as the ally doesn’t move away from her or there is an obstacle between them. Use it to your benefit to ensure that you stay alive longer on a battlefield.

When you’re healing your teammates, look out for flanking heroes. They will always try to target you to cripple the team. You can foil their plans by keeping an eye on the map while you’re healing your teammates. When you spot any one of the enemies, let your teammates know by pinging the opponent’s location. Your teammates will quickly come up to you to help you at that moment.

Combine Ally Ultimates With Caduceus Staff

A lot of players don’t know how to utilize the Caduceus Staff fully. They mostly spend their time healing their teammates, making sure that the teammates don’t end up dying in the game. There’s no fault in that, but if you’re only healing your teammates, then you don’t know the full potential of Mercy.

The Attack Boost of Mercy can make any weapon lethal. A 30% damage increase of some heroes’ damage can kill opponents in one shot. For example, Pharah’s rocket launcher deals 120 damage. But if you increase it by 30%, it gets to 150 damage. That high damage can kill a few heroes in one shot.

As a Mercy user, you should always keep an eye on your teammates’ ultimates. Especially those teammates whose ultimates deal AoE damage in the game. When they cast their ultimates, your damage boost will make it much more effective. A great example would be Pharah’s Barrage ultimate. When the already high damage of this ultimate is combined with Mercy’s Damage boost, nothing can save the opponent.

If you don’t have Pharah, you can combine it with Soldier: 76’s ultimate Tactical Visor or Cassidy’s ultimate Deadeye. Both will be great at taking out the support heroes hiding behind their tank heroes.

Don’t Waste Resurrect

One of the most important abilities of Mercy is her Resurrect. It is so important that it has a 30 seconds cooldown to stop you from spamming it. As we’ve already explained that the Resurrect ability allows Mercy to revive one of her dead teammates. The allies that you revive must be worth it. That will save the time it takes from the spawn point to the fight or the objective.

To further make the decision easy for you, keep an eye on the team score. You can resurrect a hero that has a fully-charged ultimate. They will use their ultimate as soon as they can, thus helping your team big time with a win.

Apart from that, resurrecting a tank will be helpful for your team. The tank will take all the damage while your DPS takes care of enemies.

Combos With Other Heroes

Mercy is useful with almost all of the heroes in Overwatch 2. But there are some heroes she has better synergy compared to others. If used properly, the combo can be the end of your enemies. And it will make them stay away from the objective, and they won’t even be able to contest it.

Usually, you won’t find the perfect heroes to make a combo with Mercy. At that time, you might have to ask your friends to play with you. Don’t worry if they are on another platform, as Overwatch 2 has CrossPlay. To help you with it, we’ve covered a guide on Best Controller Settings. So start the game, and here are some heroes with whom Mercy’s Team Comps works the best.

Pharah

Mercy and Pharah’s combo was one of the best combos in the original Overwatch. That combo has made its way to Overwatch 2. In the game, You can combine both their abilities and have hellfire from above to the enemies.

To make the ‘Pharmercy’ combo work, you’ll have the Pharah fly up in the sky. Now, Mercy’s goal will be to become the pocket support of Pharah. Pharah should be up in the sky and firing rockets toward opponents. Then Mercy’s job is to use the Guardian Angel ability to get up to her. When she’s in the range, she should use Caduceus Staff to increase Pharah’s damage.

The AoE damage of Pharah will ensure that she deals extra damage to the enemies. Usually, a DPS or Support hero has 200 health, so Pharah’s increased damage will be quite beneficial. Not only that, as mentioned before, her ultimate can make all the difference in a fight if done correctly.

Aside from that, Mercy can heal her whenever she’s low on health, as she’ll be the enemy’s high-priority target.

Widowmaker

Similarly, Widowmaker has a lot in making a combo with Mercy. She has to recharge each of her sniper shots to make them worth it. But with Mercy on her team, she won’t have to charge them to their full level. The recharge time for each shot can be reduced a lot with Mercy’s damage boost.

If the Widowmaker on the team is a great sniper, it’d be better to stick with her and pocket-support her instead of any other hero in the team. Because Widowmaker’s headshot on a tank, if it is enhanced by Mercy, can make all the difference. It will force the enemy to retreat and heal themselves before they fight against you with confidence.

Changed In Mercy From Overwatch To Overwatch 2

Mercy had a lot of changes to her from the original game. A few of her glitches turned into features, such as the Super Jump. All in all, I believe that it still needs polishing, but it has made her Guardian Angel a lot more useful. Here are all of the changes to Mercy’s kit.

• Support Role’s passive of Mercy increases her Regeneration by 50%.
• Pressing Crouch during Guardian Angel launches you up in the air.
• Pressing Jump during Guardian Angel launches you Forward in the direction you’re facing.
• Angelic Descent can now be activated by holding Crouch while airborne.
• The Guardian Angel ability now has a meter that charges up while Guardian Angel is active. Pressing Crouch or Jump with the meter fully charged increases the speed or height with which Mercy is propelled.

These are all of the changes she received when the game switched from Overwatch 1 to Overwatch 2.

My Experience With Mercy

My overall experience with Mercy has been positive due to her versatility and ability to empower teammates. Her ability to heal and increase damage significantly affects the team’s performance. Meanwhile, her effectiveness largely depends on the positioning and coordination of the squad. Mercy’s vulnerability and dependence on her allies can be a drawback, as skilled opponents easily target her. For instance, I helped a Reinhardt survive a fierce enemy attack in one round and secure a vital objective. 

Conversely, I encountered a strong Widowmaker in a different game who persistently abused me, making it difficult for me to provide good team assistance. These encounters highlight Mercy’s advantages and disadvantages and serve as a helpful reminder of the value of cooperation and situational awareness in Overwatch 2.

These are the abilities and weapons that Mercy uses in Overwatch 2. Learning all about them will help you better understand the mechanics of Mercy. If you time everything correctly, then you can become the worst hero for your enemies. If you see a Pharah in your team, pick up Mercy. Yes, I know that there are better heroes subjectively, but Pharah and Mercy’s combo is what makes both of them deadly.

Apart from that, learn all about her abilities, so you know when to use them and when to skip past them.