Mercy Movement

heading anchor introductionIntroduction

Whether you think she looks fun, have seen your favorite streamer play her or bought a new skin for her on a whim - you want to learn how to play Mercy better, be the annoying moth you were always meant to be or simply die less? Fear not my baby Mercy friend, for you’ve come to the right place! This guide will go over some of the basics of Mercy’s movement and a few more intermediate principles. Enjoy!

heading anchor the-basicsThe Basics

heading anchor positioningPositioning

While it is important and very helpful to have a good grasp of her movement, it is much more crucial to understand the basics of positioning (just like with any other Overwatch hero) first. This includes using high ground and playing around cover/ corners to stay out of LOS from enemies as much as possible! While it can be tempting and feel safe to fly in the air at all times, you will be an easy target for any competent hitscan player. Think of her movement as a tool to reposition into safer areas for survivability first and a way to annoy your enemies and look cool second!

Another rule of thumb is to utilize your maximum beam range as best as possible, which lies at around 15 meters and lingers for a bit even if you break LOS to the ally you’re currently healing or damage boosting. This enables you to stay in cover as long as possible, while peeking your allies quickly in between (also called jiggle-peeking).

heading anchor mercys-movement-kitMercy’s Movement Kit

First of all, let’s talk about your “Guardian Angel” ability, which is bound to shift by default and lets you fly towards one of your allies. Its regular cooldown lies at 1.5 seconds, with each movement tech used afterwards extending the cooldown for another 1.5 seconds. This means that you shouldn’t default to using fancy movement but rather use her “raw” GA as often as possible, which makes pocketing characters with high mobility such as Genji or Pharah easier to follow as well.

Now onto her movement: Her slingshot and Super Jump. Her slingshot is triggered by pressing your jump button after using Guardian Angel, which while pressing W or none of the movement keys propels you in whichever direction you’re looking. When pressing your backwards key (S), no matter which direction you’re looking, you will get slingshotted backwards. This can be useful in situations, wherein you want to keep allies/ enemies in your FOV while GAing backwards but be sure not to overuse it, as there is a slight movement penalty making it slower than a regular GA slingshot.

Next is her Super Jump, which can be activated by pressing crouch after Mercy’s Guardian Angel. This quickly propels you high up in the air in a straight line and is thus the fastest way to gain a lot of height with Mercy. Do be careful to not spam this technique though, as it’s a very predictable movement pattern, which a lot of beginner Mercys tend to overuse and can even get you killed more quickly than not using it at all.

Two rules for all of these techniques:

1) The longer you hold your Shift when using GA, the further you move afterwards with one of the movement techniques (charge is visible by paying attention to the bar next to the right of your crosshair)!

2) During your ultimate (Valkyrie) your overall movement speed is increased, so use that to your advantage in sticky overtime situations ;)!

heading anchor her-passiveHer Passive

Last but not least it’s important to mention her movement passive, her “Angelic Descent”. This passive enables you to float and descend from great heights slower by holding your jump or crouch button. While it can be of use when trying to get more air time with a Pharah for example, this passive shouldn’t be overused, due to your slow movement speed and bigger hitbox (her wings spread out), which makes you an easier target for any enemies.

heading anchor intermediate-tipsIntermediate Tips

heading anchor wing-tappingWing-Tapping:

Whilst a bit more advanced, there is a cheeky trick to minimize your hitbox while using Angelic Descent. To utilize this, simply press jump/ crouch repeatedly instead of holding it (thus called “wing-tapping“)! This doesn’t just make your hitbox smaller but can make your fall less predictable as well.

heading anchor prop-jumpsProp Jumps

By utilizing Mercy’s beam linger, you can Guardian Angel to targets that are already out of your LOS for 1.5 seconds. To do this, simply keep your beam connected to a target, when e.g. going around a wall, ledge or another object and use your GA afterwards. This enables you to get creative with your movement and fly in a way that your enemies might not expect!

heading anchor super-jump-resurrectionsSuper Jump Resurrections

These techniques require a bit of practice and I wouldn’t recommend doing them in-game unless you’re at least 80% confident in your Mercy skills and have practiced SJ-rezzes in custom game modes. But once mastered, a good Super Jump rez can potentially be game-winning or at least a creative way to outmaneuver your enemies and get some illegal rezzes off (I do recommend going for a normal rez in cover most of the time though!).

The first and easiest way to do this is to GA to a soul, crouch and rez your ally. This however only works when you’re incredibly close to the soul and the rez can easily break once you jump too high! So be sure to get a feeling for how high up you can go before your rez breaks first or you will have wasted it and now have to wait for another 30s to get your ability back online.

The second option is a flick SJ rez, where you GA to your soul, flick your camera up and down simultaneously while jumping and rez your ally once you’re in the air. This requires quite a bit of practice to get the timing and height right and I do recommend you to increase your sensitivity quite a bit to enable the fast flick.

Your third option, which is also more controller/ console-friendly is to do a slingshot SJ rez. To do this GA to the soul, jump and press rez simultaneously. With this technique your rez isn’t as likely to break but it is incredibly important to get the timing and feeling right for this. If you fail to jump at the correct time, you will not move at all and reap none of the positives to this technique.

The last option is also more console-friendly, since it doesn’t require the fast flick and one of the safer options once you’ve figured it out but requires the most steps out of the four: The backwards SJ rez. For this technique you have to GA to the soul, make a 180 degree turn during your GA, look towards the ground (but not too much, since the rez might break afterwards!), press your backwards movement button (S), jump and rez once you’re in the air. This one might take a bit to learn, which is why I would recommend you to look into the first three options before this one.

heading anchor time-to-practiceTime to Practice!

After having learned all this, it’s your turn to practice your new-found wisdom. This can obviously be done by loading into the practice range or queueing up for a game of Quick Play but besides that we have compiled four custom codes that can help you as well:

Easy Mercy Parkour: New Queens Street (YZGFV)

Mercy Rez Parkour: Ilios (GQX30) & Paris (2CWBR)

Mercy Training Facility: SS39G on maps of your choice

As always, thank you for reading and happy flying!