Overwatch Mercy School 102 - beginner positioning

This is Overwatch mercy school section 102 - beginner positioning. In this video you'll be learning about the basics of how to position correctly as Mercy. There's a lot more positioning than one might think. This video does a good job of laying out, in detail, that basics of what you'll want to know to be a better Mercy, as it relates to positioning.

See also: Overwatch school

Below is the full dialogue from the video if you prefer reading rather than watching.

Welcome back to Mercy school!
This is section 102: Beginner positioning!

Today we're going to learn the basics of positioning and using cover with Mercy.

Knowing where to position yourself is one of the most important parts of being a good Mercy. One of the core tenants of Mercy is to stay alive. When the Mercy player dies first the rest of the team often follows. Knowing how to position and use cover while healing is one of the biggest areas to improve in for Mercy players.

Let's begin with the most basic of all positioning, cover. While Mercy is often found flying around, where she lands is even more important than where she's flying. If possible, everywhere Mercy flys to she'll find something to hide behind so she doesn't get picked off by ranged damage.

Here we can see Mercy using cover three different times. Each guardian angel brings Mercy from one safe spot to another. In ideal circumstances this is what using cover looks like during a fight. Standing out in the open is uncessary except maybe in certain double shield team comps. Finding new cover on the fly is one of the biggest talents any Mercy can improve in.

Next let's look at shield awareness. Most games have some form of shield tank. Knowing how to use a shield as cover increases Mercy's survival rate dramatically. A shield offers a temporary refuge from ranged damage, just make sure to use it correctly.

One of the biggest mistake new Mercy's make is stepping through the shield without good reason. Moving in front of the shield should only be done with a purpose, doing it randomly offers no advantage and only further increases Mercy's chance of death. Make sure to keep the shield between Mercy and her enemies whenever possible.

Now let's talk positioning in general. Where to be in relation to your team is important, and varies dramatically depending on what kind of team comp is being run. Regardless of comp some general rules usually apply. Stay further back than the tanks, except to save a teammate. When the tanks move, Mercy moves up with them. If Mercy takes too long to follow she may get cut off and left behind.

There are a million different scenarios where Mercy should stray from these rules, but whenever Mercy is unsure where to be, this general positioning is better than no positioning. Also be aware of the flanks, if Mercy's side opens up to the enemy position she could easily get flanked and killed by suprise.

The last important lesson in this beginner positioning course is beam connection breakage. When Mercy is linked to another player she can break line of sight for around one second before the beam actually breaks. Mercy can take advantage of this by only peaking from behind cover once every second, simply to refresh the beam connection. Using this strategy decreases the amount of time Mercy has to peak from cover dramatically.

That concludes today's lesson. Now you are beginning to see the basics of positioning with Mercy. If you enjoyed class today be sure to subscribe. Sharing the video and hitting the like button are also great ways to help out. We hope you enjoyed todays lesson! If you liked thi class consider attending the other courses in the playlist

Until next lecture, Angela Ziegler signing out!