Overwatch's Jeff Kaplan Details Mercy, D.Va Changes

Mercy's new Ultimate will boost all of her abilities and allow her to fly.

By Chloi Rad

Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan announced some "big changes coming for Mercy" as well as other heroes, including D.Va, in a new developer update video, which you can watch below. All the changes noted are currently available to test in the Overwatch PTR.

Mercy's ultimate ability, Resurrect — which currently lets Mercy revive multiple dead teammates within range — will become a common second ability next to Guardian Angel, with some vital tweaks. The revamped Resurrect will become a single-target revival ability that relies on "a rather long cooldown."

The replacement for Mercy's Ultimate is called Valkyrie. When activated, it will allow Mercy to fly freely and buff all of her current abilities: extending the range for Guardian Angel and her healing and damage boost beams, allowing her beams to connect with multiple targets at once, and increasing the fire rate and damage of her Caduceus Blaster, for all the "Battle Mercys" out there.

"I know you exist," Kaplan says.

Kaplan hopes Mercy's new, unrestrained flight ability will make her more versatile — capable of escaping from danger more easily, and swooping into battle to help teammates.

D.Va is also going to see some changes, primarily to her Defense Matrix.

According to Kaplan, the Overwatch team is looking to "lessen the impact of Defense Matrix without injuring the character's ability to perform her primary role, which is that of Tank." They also have several "experiments" in the works which should make D.Va more fun to play offensively.

"So please don't panic," Kaplan says. "We're not going to overly hurt D.Va. We're also looking to give her other fun things to do."

One Reddit user has highlighted another useful update currently available on the PTR: holding down the primary fire button with Reinhardt's shield up now allows you to rotate the camera 360 degrees.

These changes will be available outside the PTR "soon," according to Kaplan, though he did not specify a date.

Chloi Rad is an Associate Editor for IGN. Follow her on Twitter at @_chloi.

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