Is mercy's revive better than normal revive in coop?

Mercy's revive, other than being almost instant, has no other special effect. I don't think it stops that player's revive time from increasing if they get downed again soon afterwards. Therefore, it's up to the Mercy player to assess the situation before using it. If a player is going to be back up in 5 seconds, then there's no need to waste an ability on them.

Mercy's Resurrect is an actively channelled skill (E on default), co-op reviving a crippled teammate is a passive non-character-dependant task (being in a certain area, like contesting a point).

Both practices have up and downsides but all in all I would consider Resurrectas the more powerful way.

Detailed analysis

RESURRECT

1. Mercy's Resurrect is casted faster than Co-op reviving

   • Resurrect has a casting time of about 2 seconds, which is undeniably faster than having to wait for the recovery drone to patch up a crippled teammate, which takes 8 seconds on average. This time advantage stacks up, as the process gets longer the faster that teammate dies again.

   • Correct me if I am wrong here, but Co-op reviving duration could also be dependant on the teammates total HP. So getting a Reinhardt (550 HP) back up takes considerably longer than a Tracer (150 HP), where in most cases you need Reinhardt more urgently. Resurrect is not.

2. Mercy can use both techniques

   • Mercy can use Resurrect to quick revive a teammate or let the recovery drone do the job like all others. While doing so she can even heal or boost another teammate as long as she remains near the downed character. This way she has effectively two ways to recover a teammate.

   • This makes her an exceptional pick to bring back key characters like Reinhardt (in Uprising) or Winston (in Stormrising) back to life. This is especially important and lifesaving on higher difficulties when the enemies may take an overrun on you and your tank drops out. Keep Resurrect available to bring back important characters quickly (in most cases that will be your tank) if things get hasty and let the recovery drone do the job else.

   • After being ressurected a teammate gains a short period (something around a second) of "total immunity" but is also immobilized and unable to act

CO-OP RECOVERY

1. Co-op Recovery has no cooldown

   • Ressurect may be faster than Co-op recovery but has a considerable 30-seconds cooldown. Another point to mention to not use Resurrect when not desparately necessary. There is no limit to use the recovery drone right again after bringing back a crippled teammate with it

2. You can still act while recovering a teammate

   • Co-op recovery is a passive task and not a channelled skill. This means you can still attack and use abilites while recovering the teammate, as long as you stay near him or her.

   • Co- op recovery is often the necessary if your support got picked off. In this case a tank is best suited to guard the crippled character while trying to block as much of the incoming damage as possible. Reinhardts Barrier Shield can do good on low to mid difficulties, on higher grades you can Use Winstons Primal Rage and Barrier Projector or Roadhogs Whole Hog to keep enemies of your skin while recovering you crippled teammate. Note that the recovery drone may take slightly longer when recovering as tank (this fact needs to be checked too).

   • Mercy is utterly flat-footed when casting Resurrect where she can quickly be picked off in classic gamemodes as she can barely move and not attack during the cast. Also abilities like a Stun grenade or a Chain Hook can interrupt the channeling letting her effectivy lose the Ressurect (the cooldown still applies). While this might not happen often in co-op events this can occur if a Talon Assassin sneaks up on you while using Resurrect on a teammate.

This might give you all a guide how to manage recoveries in co-op events. Some general things can be taken into account to, to avoid nasty surprises and getting overrun as this often results into a bad positioning and makes surviving a lot more difficult:

• Stay in a group! At higher difficulties you won't get anything but crippled when engaging the enemy alone. This will also result you to be left in a location where your team can barely reach you in order to recover you.

• Use abilities for countering enemy tactics. Don't waste them just to get awesome kill streaks, you won't have them in moments where you really need them otherwise! For example have McCree have his Stun grenade ready if a Talon Assassin is lurking around or Winston use his Jump Pack to knock a Talon Sniper off a high ground so she loses her advantage.

• Coordinate your attacks. When having played the events several times you can partially predict, from which spots enemies will appear. When fighting Talon this is often announced by a decent red warning light and an alerting sound. This way you can, as a mobile DPS set yourself in a position, where you will have the first strike, deal some damage and be able to get back to your team if your surprise attack fails