Overwatch 2 Guide: How to Play Mercy (2023)

Welcome to a new era. Overwatch 2 is finally here, and with it, comes a brand new Mercy Guide due to an abundance of changes to the FPS’ core gameplay and its iconic heroes. In particular, Mercy has seen some pretty big changes to how her Guardian Angel functions, altering how the foundations of her kit operate. As a hero so centered on smooth, swift movement and split-second decision-making, it’s crucial to understand every aspect of Mercy’s moveset.

In this Overwatch 2 Mercy guide, I’ll be going through her abilities, weapons and their statistics, playstyle tips and tricks, as well as how to get the most value out of her kit. Whether you’re a rookie or a veteran, there will no doubt be something in this guide for you. Those more familiar with the character will find later sections of the guide more useful, while novice supports will benefit from starting in the weapons and abilities sections below.

Don’t forget to check out KeenGamer’s review of Overwatch 2, free-to-play now.

Weapons

One of the few heroes to have multiple weapons, Mercy has her caduceus staff and her caduceus blaster. Primarily, you’ll be holding your staff to aid your team and enable them, but occasionally whipping out the pistol to dish out the damage in self-defence or when the opportunity presents itself.

Caduceus Staff

• Healing: 55hps
• Damage Boost: 30%
• Max Range: 15m

Heal your allies with the yellow beam or amplify their damage with the blue beam. Whilst holding either of these buttons, a beam will connect to a selected ally within range. They will be under the benefits of this beam until you disengage, even briefly after it disconnects.

Knowing when to use each beam shows the difference between a good Mercy and a great one. You’ll want to mainly focus on enabling teammates with your damage boost and heal when necessary. For beginners, focus on your healing and movement. More experienced players will really want to squeeze out that damage boost and aim for a much higher ‘offensive beam uptime’ percentage.

Caduceus Blaster

• Fully-Automatic
• Damage: 20 per shot (40 Critical)
• Ammo: 25

Swapping weapons brings out a small self-defence pistol that can be pretty deadly. Hold the fire button to continuously shoot a round of 25 bullets into your enemies. You’ll want to bring this out in specific scenarios; you definitely don’t want to use it too often. It functions exactly the same as from her original kit.

When Mercy swaps back to her staff, her gun will automatically reload after a short period of time, so you don’t have to worry about keeping track of your ammo or reloading once you swap back to the pistol. Obviously, going back and forth quickly between weapons will interrupt this passive reload.

Abilities

With excellent timing and a solid grasp of the different ways to utilise your abilities to the fullest, you’ll see a lot of success with this support. Flying from player to player across the battlefield is pretty exhilarating and provides a support experience that no other hero or game can provide. In this Overwatch 2 Mercy guide, you’ll learn the basics and intricacies of her moveset.

Hero & Role Passive: Regeneration

• Healing: 22.5hps

When she isn’t taking damage, Mercy automatically heals over time. This, however, is actually present in all support heroes’ kits as the new role passive. For this combat medic though, her self-healing is greatly increased. She heals more, and it activates after only one second of not taking damage. It’s something that a newer player may not notice. Since you’re often flying around the battlefield, you can become an easy target. So, this healer regenerates at a much faster rate to help you sustain yourself.

Tactically using this ability is essential to survivability as Mercy. You want to be out of enemy sightlines whenever possible, allowing yourself to regenerate missing health. Use natural cover, and avoid peeking down any unnecessary sightlines, where you could be exposed to damage. Mercy does not need to see the enemy team. Focus on your team and your own knowledge of the enemy’s whereabouts to ensure your safety.

Guardian Angel

• Cooldown: 1.5s
• Max Range: 30m

Press this ability whilst looking at an ally to fly towards them. While flying, press Jump to launch forward or Crouch to launch upwards. Alternatively, Jump while holding the backwards key to launch rearwards. During the flight, a small meter will appear that fills up the longer your flight duration. The more this fills, the further you’ll launch yourself when cancelling with a Jump or Crouch.

This one takes some time to master. It’s not easy and operates very differently from how it did in her original kit. Whatever direction you’re facing is the one Mercy will launch herself in. This allows so much free reign over where you fly. So, if you happen to select the wrong target or your target dies mid-flight, you have an emergency backup plan, in which you can change directions and launch away! Use this ability wisely, there’s no need to dive right into the action as Mercy.

Resurrect

• Cooldown: 30s
• Cast Time: 1.75s
• Max Range: 5m

Activating Resurrect requires the sight of a fallen teammate’s golden, glowing ‘soul’ as I refer to them. Once activated, Mercy is locked into a short animation in which she revives the ally at the soul’s location, providing them temporary invulnerability. This is an incredibly strong ability, being able to bring a fallen teammate back to the fight in an instant.

Be very careful and selective with this one. It’s so powerful, and yet is the undoing of Mercy players both new and experienced. During the cast animation, you can not do anything but spin around. No defence, no instant-cancelling it, either. A top tip with this one is to activate the ability and then slowly manoeuvre around a corner to hide from incoming damage. Don’t move too far away, however, as it will disconnect, and the ability will cancel.

Angelic Descent

• Cooldown: N/A

Hold this ability to glide slowly through the air. You can also press Crouch whilst airborne to activate this. Be warned that this ability does expand your hitbox, making you more visible and predictable. Do not stay in the air with this for long when the enemy has a hitscan such as Widowmaker or Ashe, who will shoot you down quickly.

Some players like to tap this ability repeatedly instead of holding it down, to hide Mercy’s wings. I prefer to just pick and choose when it’s safe to use. Using Guardian Angel to launch yourself vertically and then hovering down slowly when the enemy has specific damage characters is an easy way to get yourself placed back in the spawn room.

Ultimate Ability: Valkyrie

• Caduceus Staff Healing: 60hps (chains)
• Caduceus Staff Damage Boost: 30% (chains)
• Caduceus Blaster Ammo: Infinite
• Duration: 15s

Valkyrie is a transformation ultimate that amplifies various aspects of Mercy’s kit. As well as the stats mentioned above, her Guardian Angel gains a greater range and quicker movement. Her beams will chain between nearby allies, connecting them with the effects of her desired beam. In Overwatch 2, Mercy can guide her team to victory with this tool.

Knowing when to use Valkyrie can be difficult. It’s best used as an initiator, using the damage boost feature to enhance your team and to help them mow down the enemy quickly. If one of your teammates happens to get a pick, then use Valkyrie to help your team clean up the remaining enemies. It can be tempting to use it for mass healing, but it can not out-heal high-damaging ultimates such as Hanzo’s dragon, so it’s best used offensively.

Playstyles & Situational Tips

In Overwatch 2, Mercy is a support hero who guides and enables her team, stabilising those in peril. You want to focus on assisting your teammates in eliminating enemies with your damage boost and healing allies that need it, all while keeping yourself alive. Overall, learning how to utilise her movement with Guardian Angel to traverse the battlefield safely is crucial. You’re no use to your team if you’re dead, so prioritise yourself first and foremost.

Healing

As her primary feature, this angelic support is known for her healing capabilities. Able to consistently (and infinitely) pump out a solid amount of healing to sustain a single ally beyond enemy shields, and around walls briefly is a pretty strong bonus. Most healers cannot do this. Knowing which heroes to prioritise healing to and when to do so during team fights is important, though.

First of all, keep yourself safe. You can heal from quite a distance with the beam, so experiment with its length and know that you can keep that safe space between you and your teammate, as they are likely being focused if you’re healing them. If your main healer is alive, allow them to focus on your tank hero, while you ensure that your DPS and other support are healthy. Otherwise, make sure to keep your tank alive, they’re the glue that holds your team together!

Damage Boosting

While technically her secondary feature, more experienced Mercy players need to make it their primary. Giving an ally a 30% damage boost is no joke and it breaks many thresholds that can change the tides of the entire game. Again, knowing which ally to damage boost and when is important. Great examples would be Roadhog when using his Hook combo, Reinhardt during his Firestrikes, Ashe when using Dynamite or targetting foes (especially airborne ones) and other similar abilities.

A quick tip to know about how damage boost functions: you only boost an ally’s damage as they’re firing, not afterwards. Say Reinhardt does a Firestrike and you attach your blue beam to him after he has used the ability, while it’s travelling. It won’t affect it. You need to be there as he’s firing his ability. This is the same for every damage-boostable projectile.

Pocketing

This is a term used to describe a play style in which a support character such as Mercy will pump resources into one ally for most of the game. To do this as Mercy, you’ll want to stay with a single high-damage output target who can get consistent damage for most of the game. This would be heroes such as Soldier: 76, Sojourn and Ashe. You can safely damage boost them from a distance, around corners and in buildings so that you’re not in the enemy’s sights.

You can tail them, but don’t let them drag you into any high-danger situations that you’re not prepared for. Feel free to disengage if you’re not so confident in their ability to get value. Sometimes, you may be more useful to your other team members by increasing their ultimate charge with your damage boost, rather than flying around with your Pharah who somehow misses every shot. In Overwatch 2, Mercy can guide her teammates’ gameplay by enabling their damage.

Movement

With Guardian Angel’s rework, this is an integral part of the kit to get right. You want to be using her flight optimally and know when to use Jump to launch forwards and Crouch to launch upwards. As there is now a metre that fills up, it’s even more necessary to distance yourself from your allies a little more when possible in order to have plenty of room to fill up the metre with a longer flight.

Learn how to cancel Guardian Angel, too. As soon as you no longer need to continue flying, cancel it early. This can quite literally save you in situations where you may not have had it due to its cooldown. Despite being a tiny cooldown, it’d surprise you how often people die due to misuse of the ability or simply having not cancelled it. Every second in a fast-paced game like this counts. With 5v5 now the format, this is even more important.

Combat

Engaging in combat as Mercy can be exhilarating and rewarding, but also highly dangerous. This healer is not equipped with high-damage output abilities or even defensive ones. You need to pick and choose your fights very carefully. You’ll learn how to fight against each enemy hero in a 1v1 situation the more you play the hero. I recommend choosing her in Deathmatch and finding the best way to beat each one. Your passive healing will also kick in if you dodge enemy attacks for 1s, so try your hardest to play mind games in this situation.

During Valkyrie, though, you have infinite ammo, flight and extreme regeneration. This makes Mercy quite the threat. Veteran players of this hero will know when they can shoot down more stationary targets like Widowmaker and Ashe who will have to aim very precisely to win the match-up. Don’t spend too long trying to get a kill like this though, if it’s not working, turn around and go back to helping your team. Here are some situations when you could be pulling out the pistol:

1. In a 1v1 Duel – When you’re being cornered by an enemy in a small room, see if you can embarrass them by taking them down, then get back to your team. Also if a sneaky Sombra or Tracer is flanking you, occasionally test your aim to see if you can surprise them. Note that this Overwatch 2 Mercy guide is not responsible for any harm caused to enemy DPS players.
2. Last Woman Standing – All allies have fallen and there’s no way to save the point, so you’re stalling for time. Don’t just stand there and accept death, the enemies may stagger you. Instead, use your blaster to try and acquire ultimate charge for the next team fight.
3. Getting Picks – Don’t get me wrong, you shouldn’t be looking for picks all the time, but when the opportunity arises to take out an enemy, such as a Widowmaker or Ashe, you can use Valkyrie to do so. Don’t initiate Valkyrie simply for this though, get the picks if you see the enemies are low on health mid-flight!
4. Situational Decisions – Imagine you’re healing your DPS who is losing a 1v1 against an enemy DPS. You decide to initiate damage boost, but they’re missing their abilities and shots. Body blocking and grabbing your caduceus blaster to take the enemy out is occasionally the faster and better option. You’ve just gotta make the right call.

When Should I Swap?

While she is a brilliant support hero, there are situations where playing her can bring down the team. Say you have a Wrecking Ball, one of the more independent tanks while your DPS heroes are Sombra and Tracer. Mercy just isn’t as strong here, as she doesn’t have an obvious pocket target to get consistent value. If she’s not damage-boosting for most of the game, then she’s healing. There are other supports who have much higher healing output, damage numbers or utility values that can do so much more with certain teammates.

If you’re also getting eliminated a lot due to being focused by an enemy Genji or you’re getting consistently picked off by Widowmaker, it may be time to swap off. It just isn’t your Mercy game. For the sake of the match, it’s important to know when she isn’t the right pick, and currently, at launch, she’s not one of the stronger supports in the game.

Heroes To Pair With Mercy

• Ashe – A great one to stick with most of the game to break some damage thresholds.
• Echo – While you can be her best friend, a good hitscan will be dangerous to you both.
• Cassidy – A decent choice, but be warned that he can’t help defend you very well.
• Genji – Pocket safely during his Dragon Blade to help him tear through enemies.
• Hanzo – A decent ally, but he can already deal a lot of damage and one-shot some targets.
• Moira – While she is using her Coalescence, she’s a great damage boost target.
• Pharah – ‘Pharmercy’ is a brilliant strategy, but requires good movement from both heroes.
• Sojourn – Another brilliant pocket target who you can safely stick with from a distance.
• Soldier: 76 – You’ll amplify very consistent damage here, a great pocket target.
• Symmetra – When she’s on a high charge, enable her to melt enemies with her beam.
• Zarya – When this hero has enough charge, she’ll be unstoppable with a 30% damage boost.
• Zenyatta – Help him build his ultimate and possibly even get some picks. Don’t pocket him, though. Two supports focusing on damaging the whole game usually isn’t a good idea.

Final Thoughts

Now that you’re at the end, you’re ready to get out there and start enabling your allies. They’ll always appreciate a good Mercy since she’s so good at sustaining people. An often relaxing and satisfying support character to pick up, she has a very low-skill floor, but her skill ceiling is so high when it comes to situational awareness. This part of her comes with time, no one can directly teach you how to gain this awareness, you’ve just got to play her more.

Check out her short story, Valkyrie, which delves into the lore of the beloved support hero. I hope you found this Overwatch 2 Mercy guide useful. Be sure to keep an eye out for future hero guides, coming soon. If you haven’t played the free-to-play FPS, then go ahead and try it out now, available on all major platforms.

(How to Superjump with Mercy in Overwatch 2video published by eleyzhau.)