Recently, Mercy players have begun the process of adjusting their playstyle to fit her revamped kit. Overnight, Mercy changed from being one of the most passive heroes to one of the most engaging. Her new abilities encourage players to remain very active during the match, spotting solo-picks and quickly resurrecting fallen allies while still trying to stay safe despite the abilities small cast radius.

She also may be one of the most overpowered.

Successful rework?

Blizzard has succeeded in making Mercy a higher skill cap hero, but some players think it came at a great cost. At higher levels of play (where stalemates are broken by individual kills) Mercy's new ability to solo-Resurrect as a basic ability is making her a must pick hero. Individual outplays are becoming "undone" by the all-powerful Resurrect and, as Fissure of Cloud9 KongDoo puts it, makes her superior to all other supports:

^{Fissure answers the question on whether Mercy should be nerfed soon. His answer?
" Mercy Mercy is holy s*** f***, yes I think. F*** F*** F*** F***."}

The issue comes from how valuable Resurrect is. There is simply no substitute for the ability to undo an enemy kill. Every other support hero seeks to negate this from happening, but Mercy can actively do both. The "must pick" atmosphere is a large factor when considering player fatigue and the competitive community already feeling burnt-out by the new Mercy meta.

In addition to Mercy related headaches, players have been reporting larger than normal SR gains when playing as Mercy compared to other heroes. Once again, the dilemma of performance-based SR gains (as opposed to a Win / Loss system) is rearing its ugly head. Instead of encouraging players to "Win at all cost), the current system still incentivizes padding personal stats. 


For example, in this Reddit thread, players are reporting above average SR returns when playing as Mercy. In these cases, wins would result in around 30 SR gain while losses would only cause a loss a 15 SR. Another thread popped up citing a similar phenomenon.

 
One Overwatch statistician, Switch from OmnicMeta posted their findings on Mercy's dubious state of balance. Their conclusion gives validity to anyone who has felt Mercy related oppression as of late and didn't understand why: 

"I will cut to the chase: my data analysis confirms what many in the Overwatch community has said the past several days: Mercy is likely overpowered in her current state. The change to make Resurrect a regular ability has nearly doubled the amount of Resurrections Mercy gets per match. In other words, the (arguably) highest impact ability in the game has received one of the most massive buffs since Overwatch released more than one year ago. As someone who has spent 8 months pouring over Overwatch stats and data - I am simply at a loss for words. The long cooldown of 30 secs, 5m range to resurrect, and lack of invulnerability appears to had little effect to curb frequent and successful Resurrects."   - Switch, Omnicmeta

Mercy dominates console play.

If you don't believe the Mercy hype, trying playing Overwatch console. Supposedly, the problem is even more exaggerated, as the slower pace of the game makes Mercy even more useful. It stands to reason that when kills happen less frequent (as is often the case in console Overwatch due to the limited controls) an individual Resurrects become even more powerful.

Don't even think about picking Ana over Mercy when using a controller. It's almost never worth the effort.

So, how do you counter Mercy?

As of now, there isn't a very good answer for that. For starters, you should ensure you also have  Mercy on your team. Trying to win when the game will repeatedly turn into a 7v6 scenario (thanks to the Resurrect acting as an extra man) is hardly effective and falls right into the Mercy teams gameplan.

Junkrat is currently a strong option in competitive Overwatch, and his ability to dish tons of damage, burst down Mercy flying in for a Resurrect, and team wipe potential makes him invaluable. Pickoff heroes like Widowmaker, Reaper, and Tracer are at their weakest now that Mercy is so powerful, so avoiding those picks is a good start.

Instead, focus on powerful team fight heroes. Reinhardt, Pharah and Winston fair well against Mercy's solo Resurrect, as their ultimates are more centered around winning team fights than individual kills.

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