Mercy (Overwatch)

Mercy
Overwatch character
Promotional Artwork
First appearance	Overwatch beta (2015)
First game	Overwatch (2016)
Created by	Blizzard Entertainment
Voiced by	Lucie Pohl (English)

Mercy is a player character appearing in the 2016 video game Overwatch, a Blizzard Entertainment–developed team-based first-person shooter, and its related animated and literary media. Lucie Pohl voices Mercy in English-language Overwatch media.

Within the Overwatch narrative, "Mercy" is the callsign of Swiss doctor Angela Ziegler, who provided key medical support for Overwatch group. In game, she is a Support class character who can heal and buff teammates, and has a powerful ultimate ability to resurrect all dead teammates, which can be strategically used to continue a strong offensive push or defensive stand. The character is one of the more popular in the game, being noted by Blizzard to be the most played support character during the game's beta.

Mercy was one of the first twelve Overwatch characters introduced at Blizzard's BlizzCon 2014 event. A Polygon story covering the event noted Mercy was equipped with feathery wings, a healing stream, and a pistol. Mercy is voiced by Lucie Pohl, a German-American voice actress. While Blizzard had been trying to find an actor native to the area that could perform a good Swiss-German accent, they found Pohl's accent to be good for the character and selected her instead, according to lead writer Michael Chu.

In addition to her default skin, Mercy has received themed cosmetics, such as during the game's 2017 "Year of the Rooster" event.

In late June 2016, a post-release patch which added a competitive play mode to the game also unintentionally inserted a nerf for Mercy. Gamers quickly pointed out this nerf; Blizzard confirmed it was an unintentional addition and shortly thereafter fixed the issue with the July 21 patch. Later, in August, Blizzard added a buff to Mercy's ultimate ability, as well as her general healing abilities, in order "to solidify her role as a strong, single-target healer."

Prior to a patch in September 2016, post-match Plays of the Games in competitive play were frequently dominated by a Mercy player using the Resurrect ability, requiring Blizzard to rework how the game selected Plays of the Game to reduce this frequency.