During a Q&A with fans on Discord last week, Blizzard Entertainment Vice President andOverwatchGame Director Jeff Kaplanteased a “cool” new Mercy skinthat would be releasing sometime soon. Earlier today it seems that aesthetic makeover was revealed to be Mercy’s new Legendary “Dragoon” skin being added as part of the 2020OverwatchAnniversary event.
Since the team-based first-person shooter was released back in 2016, each year’sOverwatchAnniversary event has brought a bevy of new special skins to equip on its diverse cast of characters. This year’s skin for Mercy is a unique divergence from her angelic roots into a green-and-black set of scaled armor with razor-sharp claws and a dragon’s head helmet.
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The fantasy storybook aesthetic of Dragoon Mercy fits rather well with another Anniversary skin revealed earlier this week: ALittle Red Riding Hood variant for Ashealongside a Big Bad Wold reskin for her bodyguard, Bob. These alternate skins alongside a “Masquerade” Reaper will be available through loot boxes while the event is active from Tuesday, May 19 to Tuesday, June 9, though a number of others will appear as rewards for completing match victory milestones.
Mercy has received aton of different skinsover the years, but few of them have changed her appearance quite as dramatically as the new Dragoon skin — and some players have been active in the comments on its announcement Tweet asking for some way to remove the helmet that completely overhauls her usual halo. However, there is something to be said for diversity of choice when it comes to player customization, and Kaplan seemed excited to reveal this version of Mercy when talking about the long pipeline of development for skins last week.
The game’s Director has been active on social media for more than just alternate skin teases in the days leading up to the 2020 anniversary event. After footage of aBaptiste exploit on Gibraltarsurfaced on the r/Competitiveoverwatch subreddit, Kaplan personally commented on the Reddit post that his team was aware of the unfair balancing issue and had a fix in the works.
This upcoming event may very well be one of the last major celebrations forOverwatch, as its sequel is in development and the team has put out itsfinal new character, Echo. That being said it’s exciting to see how much effort is still being put into content like skins for current players, and it will be interesting to seeOverwatch 2further build upon special cosmetics like Dragoon Mercy.
Overwatchis available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
