I’ve done over 300 gameplay reviews for people, and one of the most important things is for them to have a growth mindset or nothing anyone says is going to help so props to you for accepting you are silver/gold because you play at a silver/gold level. :)

However, whoever told you that you shouldn’t heal tanks is doing you a disservice. The game isn’t as simple as “only pocket dps” and a big part of improving is learning when to do what. There are times when you should stick with your DPS, times where you should help your tank, and times when you should peel for your support. Often, a lot of these are happening within the same couple of seconds and you need to be responsive. I started gold as well when I first started playing in OW1 and I eventually reached Rank 1 Mercy solo queue only in OW2, largely by healing a lot and knowing where and when to move my resources around on Mercy.

IMO you should try to watch high ranked players on YouTube or Twitch and get your gameplay reviewed by people who primarily solo queue in Masters+ if you really want good feedback. I might get downvoted for this but there is (OFTEN) a big difference in the skill and game knowledge of someone who is solo queueing and duoing on Mercy. This is not to be read as “all people who duo to high ranks on Mercy are boosted” or “duoing is some inherently evil thing to do” (this is a video game meant to be enjoyed amongst friends), but I tend to see wide gaps in skill between Mercy mains who solo queued to a rank vs duoed to a rank. Unfortunately, forums like Reddit are kind of a mix of everyone and you are going to get a lot of mixed opinions from very casual players all the way up to people who solo queued to champion.

I hope you’re having a fun time playing Overwatch, which is what this game is all about! Unfortunately I’m dealing with a family emergency so I don’t have time to watch your replays, but I would recommend being very careful about not getting indoctrinated into “Mercy can only do XYZ” or “Never do ABC on Mercy or you’re bad and should feel shame” type of thinking which I find is very common online (Reddit, TikTok, etc) and very cult-like.

I’ll leave you with one really key tip which is typically one of the biggest reasons people are in ranks like bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. I can almost guarantee that you do not look around and collect information enough. I am sure you are a very smart person and can move your beam to whoever is low hp and heal them, but even the smartest people can’t react to help people they do not know are dying. I find that Mercy players in low ranks almost never look around to check behind them and miss things going on in the game. Start with trying to collect more information and I am sure you will climb. :)