mercy damage

[psychkik]

Hi quick question why does the mercy do 2400 damage. why not 3000 for mex snipes?

[Plasma_Wolf]

The first mercies were 3K damage but they were incredibly OP. Along with a speed nerf, they got a damage nerf. Now you need 5 or 6 (in the case of a UEF ACU) mercies to kill an opponent. Before it was 4 or 5. The mercy has always been an ACU sniper and it was rebalanced on that basis.

The biggest constraint of the mercy now is the energy cost. 6K energy against 5400 for the T2 mex. This makes it hard for a mercy snipe. You need two things to pull it off:

1. Air superiority
2. Catching the opponent unprepared

If you want to catch an opposing ACU unprepared, you have to send the mercies at the early stage of T2. At later stages, T2 land will be dominant and the ACU won't be alone anymore, because a single ACU with overcharge isn't enough then. Your opponent also must have little to no intel on the nearby area and absolutely no intel on your base. That's where air superiority comes in, because if you can deny him air, he'll not make it to your base. The second part of air superiority is that you must gain it above the opponent's ACU at a moment's notice. If you're too late, his interceptors may take down any mercy. If you're too early, his ACU may retreat and T1 AA can deny the mercy strike.

At an early stage, it may be hard to get that energy requirement, but at a later stage, there's too much air. Gaining air superiority will take some time and then the ACU can retreat already.