Pharah Counters

General Discussion
1

Does literally anyone else find that Pharah has an insane amount of counters?? I have 300+ hours on Pharah and I’m decent, I’m mid-plat, obviously not the best but I play the game for fun not for rank or because of skill. I find that every game, I’m having to go against 5 heroes who can easily counter me and I end up being not able to play the one person I’d actually like to play. Call me whiney or whatever but the amount of counters she has is just pissing me off at this point. (yes i play other heroes, im a widow/pharah/moira/dva main, i just want to play pharah sometimes and i keep getting countered by all 6 of the enemy team :)))

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2

No.

All of her counters except Sombra are soft counters.

Meanwhile a third of the roster is literally powerless against her.

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3

Widow is the strongest counter. After that comes ashe, mcree. Soldier is a counter as well, but unlike other counters he wont one shot or two shot you. In my experience i’ve found good pharahs can play around soldier since he doesn’t kill them instantly.

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4

I can usually easily counter most of them with my Pharah play, as long as their not god-tier. Its just that I’ve seen an increase in the amount of people who are able to counter me and when 6 enemies all counter you, its difficult to survive long. It’s just frustrating.

5

Would one of these be more fun for Pharah?

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6

I think all of those ideas are pretty solid! I feel like since they are slowly buffing and messing around with some of her counters, she might need a little something herself but you know what people in this community are like with changes, buffs and nerfs :roll_eyes:

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7

I’ve heard WB is a counter to Pharah, but an extremely soft one

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8

It’s not Pharah counters it’s Pharmercy counters, unfortunately if you play just Pharah it is weighted against you.

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9

Problem is if she is overbuffed she will ruin everyone else’s experience besides the mains themselves.

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10

Most if not all are soft counters. Although they can just take 6 of those heroes and just force you to swap.

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11

That’s the issue I’ve been having. Being countered by all 6 enemies and then I’m forced to play someone I dont want to play in quickplay

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12

I know how you feel. I used to be a GM pharah player, I used to destroy even pro hitscan players like boostio.

But when they started buffing all the heroes that can contest her it’s just like I can’t play pharah at all 70% of the time.

I’m still very good at pharah, and if I tried to I could get to gm or higher, but I can’t do it one tricking pharah… or having her in my top 4 heroes for that matter.

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13

I too am a 400 hour Pharah main, I feel you, I do.

But think of it this way, if I can dictate their comp to having at least 2 hitscans, my team can leverage that.

But on the same note when I saw this shift coming I forced myself to learn Genji and Widow and play them well. If my Pharah get’s countered I go one of those two to get rid of my counter.

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14

Did you know, you can do this?

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15

Yes, I use this method often but when I’m getting shot almost through walls by a mcree hitting my pinkie toe or a moira looking at me and all my abilities are on cooldown, there isnt much I can do.

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16

I’ve found winston be a good counter, just jumppack buzz and punch.

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17

The issue with Pharah is that she is a super hardcounter to like half the hero pool. She kinda needs to be able to hardcountered herself or she ends up in a super unhealthy position balance-wise where she just dominates games where someone isnt a god tier hitscan sniper. And as someone mentioned: she still has the tools to outplay her counters, to a much bigger degree that other heroes do.

Also her balance is super tied to Pharmercy. Pharmercy is too cancer for Pharah to be buffed in any way.

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18

Widow, Ashe, McCree, Soldier, Baptiste and Ana hard counter her due to due to a blended smoothie of effective range differences, TTK, the instant feedback aspects of Hitscan vs the delayed slow moving projectile, and areas of effectiveness.

Sombra is a hard counter due to the Pharah’s weaknesses working exceptionally in Sombra’s favor, but ranks lower on the list compared those 6.

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Agreed tho OP. Pharah has 9 hard counters through and through, and given her most recent change bringing her closer to the fight, 2/3’s of the roster can contest her quite easily and could be considered soft counters.

There are usually better choices to run instead of Pharah due to her “risk/reward” factors being weighted heavily on the “risks” and less on the “rewards”.

I’ll happily elaborate on anything stated here if anyone has any issues or questions concerning it. Be nice about it, and I’ll show you equal respect.

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19

While it’s true she has a pretty big amount of counters most of them are really situational and even against a team of counters Pharah can still be good if used correctly (Flanking,Picking,middle fight encounter, focusing specific target,long range Pharah and ect…)

Think about it like that:
Moira,D.va,Hammond & Sombra only counter her if she’s getting to close

Widowmaker,Soldier76,Ashe & Zenyatta deal with her the best only if she’s in a pretty long range

& Only Torbjorn,Ana & Mcree can deal with her on every distance but still can get countered by smart Pharah…

Also not all Pharah counters counter Pharah that well…
Bastion,Torbjorn & Zenyatta are super easy to hit because of their lack of mobility & HUGE hit box.

and if that is STILL not enough, even against her counters Pharah has a damage advantage…
2 rocket shots can kill every squishy in that list…

So while it’s true Pharah can be easily countered try adopting a different play style against every team and if it’s still does not help you can always try picking something else i guess…

Hope I helped :slight_smile:

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20

I agree with Widow,Ashe,Mccree,Soldier:76 & ana, but why Bepsite is in that list and what happened to D.va?

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