Overwatch 2 beta will make a 'secret' Mercy ability easier to trigger

(Image credit: Blizzard)

Overwatch 2 is in its beta stages, and the theme so far is Blizzard's determination to make support heroes a bit less lacklustre. The developer recently made a bunch of changes, including giving Zenyatta a badass super kick, and now it's looking at perennial favourite Mercy.

Rather than addition, though, what Blizzard's currently testing out is making something that's already part of her moveset a lot easier to do.

"As any veteran Mercy player will tell you," the developer writes in a new update, "the full potential of Mercy is not unlocked until you've learned the techniques that accompany her kit—particularly the 'super jump.' While there are many guides and videos for those wanting to learn the method, it ultimately requires a complicated sequence of keystrokes and conditions that are not accessible or apparent to the average player."

The 'super jump' is a move that requires you to crouch then trigger her Guardian Angel ability just before jumping: the timing is extremely precise, requiring a player hit the ability about 15-20 milliseconds after crouching. This grants a huge boost to her jump's height and is seen as more-or-less an essential part of Mercy's kit. It's not exactly a secret ability—there are endless guides and youtube tutorials about the move—but the timing required means it can be a frustration for mortals like myself.

Blizzard reckons that making this existing ability easier to use will improve things for Mercy players, and it's hard to disagree. After all Overwatch is supposed to be the accessible competitive shooter and, while there will always be skill-based elements beyond average players, it feels like making Mercy's super jump easier to trigger is in-keeping with the game's goals.

"Internally, we have started testing improvements to Mercy's verticality," writes Blizzard, "leaning into the unintended consequences of player discovery. We want to take it a step further by making the ability to 'super jump' more consistent for everyone—not just the players who know the (not so) secret technique.

"Mercy’s mobility has always been a core part of her kit and we will continue to look for ways to accentuate it and make it more accessible for everyone."

Plus, y'know, she's an angel. She should be flying all over the place, right?

More generally with Overwatch 2's beta, Blizzard is happy it's done a decent job with Zenyatta, with the character seeing "all-around improvements in performance over the weekend." Support characters remain the "highest adjustment priority" for the beta, as the developer tries to finagle their toolsets into Overwatch 2's changing of the meta from 6vs6 to 5vs5. They'll have to go some way, though, to convince our Morgan that Overwatch 2 deserves to be called Overwatch 2.

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."