Rocket launchers are fun to use, but Pharah’s kit does a great job of making it as difficult to enjoy as possible. Her role is so specific and easily-countered that you’re almost always playing on the backfoot if you try to use her abilities to their fullest.
She needs a powershift. Severely nerf the vertical mobility from Hover Jets, and make Jump Jets and/or Hover Jets give her horizontal mobility, not just vertical.
There are so many scenarios where vertical mobility is almost useless on its own, but there are others where it allows Pharah to take over games practically single-handed, so she’s just left as a walking gimmick to play in the rare instances when the opposing team didn’t pick a hitscan.
The theory is that this is what the rework is leaning towards, but it’s a bit more complicated in practice.
She needs more horizontal movement, yes. It should come at a cost of vertical movement, yes. However it shouldn’t be a straight permanent power shift as horizontal movement would severely nerf her due to how her weapon vantage works.
On that note as well, this shift (both yours and the speculated changes) is far more in line with her original build (and a reason as to why her current build is far more utilitarian), but without the benefits of what made that build a powerhouse in the right hands. Stuff like primary fire knockback and impulse, and direct shot advantage at the expense of splash damage, allowing her to get close without the fear of being gunned down rapidly. Pair that with the general impulse and aerial movement changes from years ago and even a reversion to her original primary attack might not even be as functional as it once was.
The ideal shift would be to allow her to shift or swap vertical/horizontal advantage for a rapid horizontal/vertical boost on the fly in line with her glass cannon high risk/high reward build. By allowing for a one-and-done transitional playstyle it doesn’t lock her into one or the other that would constitute a shift in general physics and a hardline rebalance of her primary weapons, as well as playing into conservation and careful use of her only movement abilities.
Like not trying to discount your suggestions, for the most part they certainly worked well when that was the focus of her build, but simply required a lot more effort than players were willing to invest.
I really wanna play Pharah, but I don’t want to pressure my supports, or influence them to play Mercy. I wanna be a strong and independent Pharah. But I have the overwhelming feeling I’m just going to get two tapped every time i would lock her in.
Im also sad I dont have her aviator skin (its so hot)
I played both and honestly, both of their playstyles are very different contrary to what people say about how junkrat is just a ground pharah etc
Nah, two different heroes, two different playstyles for me.
With Junkrat, I like to keep the cd to sneak up and one-shot combo people, or keep one mine for diving, and the other to one-shot combo. The spamming style just doesn’t work in the long run.
Due to the trajectory of Junkrat’s nade, he has the advantage that he can still kill other players without peeking, so if there is a long-range hitscan or snipers on the enemy team, he can stay safer than a Pharah, meanwhile, a Pharah still required LoS.
Junkrat ult is also slightly better, and faster to farm.
its funny to just completely oneshot someone with m1 mine in breathsmelling distance. its sad that you can typically only see pharah for her boops on maps with environmental kills
Pharah’s problem is simple, she is very very powerful but really easy for loads of heroes and playstyles to counter, so gimmick. Think OW1 Bastion, okay not quite that far but same boat (or ship XD).
Unfortunately the answer is likely the same as bastion, blandification. Take away some of her greatness and put it into her weaknesses. Make her harder to counter but less oppressive.
My simple suggestion would be lower her dmg a bit (which would massively hurt pharmacy) but add a form of horizontal mobility (likely make her jump-jet upwards dash omnidirectional) and buff her speed in the air a bit.
I actually think the current bastion is so much more boring than the OW1 Bastion. But I guess that’s what it takes to make gimmick heroes into ‘meta’ lol. I would never want that for my main.
Feast or famine designs are bad and all the successful reworks mitigate these extremes. Pharah’s best strength at playing at range and having an easy rocket projectile in reverse to anything on the ground is her weakness to hitscan. Hitscan inverts the weakness and says staying in the air being slow is easy to kill when we don’t have to factor in distance.
When you have hitscan in play you become a dive bomber. You limit how much free air time tyou get and you counter them by diving them point blank to hit direct rocket shots and kill them before they kill you.
This is the direction Blizzard has mentioned she’ll likely be going with her mini power shift. Less total air time in favor of more horizontal mobility. This is a direction I agree with. Its difficult to make the dive bomb method work at times due to how long her concussion blast is on cooldown. Its difficult to make frequent dives or how high her thrusters shove her into the air compared to if it was less total height. Hug the rooftops more tightly and spend less time with a predictable trajectory on approach.
Having a more dive bomb oriented Pharah that is closer to the ground makes it easier for projectile heroes to fight her in close range as well removing how powerfully she counters them on the super far away in the sky strat.
no I agree, they made Bastion way more bland and less fun, but he does have a role now besides memes. That’s what I mean by blandification and it’s what I fear Pharah will get.
Things like OW1 Bastion were what I love in this game, here’s a crazy wacky option that yeah isn’t good most of the time but adds flavor and variety. It’s the kind of thing you could never see in say CS or CoD.
bad for balance, good for fun. Both matter but I prioritize fun and would happily see more heroes balanced on the weakside but with fun, specialist, out there kits. Basically Blizz saying “hey, don’t one-trick this guy and in comp you’re better looking elsewhere but behold the meme fodder”.
That sounds hard as hell to execute on Blizz’s part, but would work well and be a great fit if they manage it, however it also sounds pretty close to echo.
Agree but I think the issue they have is the basically made her the flyer hero, she lives and dies by that sword.
I say screw that make like 4 more fliers. Make Echo the dive bomber, Keep Pharah the long range Bomber, make a flying tank that can’t do much dmg but is basically always airborn and shooting out flares to block dmg and maybe make a flying support that can stun you out of the air as an interceptor to keep people on the ground and making little platforms for their team.
Now maybe that would be stupid comp that wouldn’t work (I certainty wouldn’t want to see it balanced to be especially strong), like how could you contest payload? But actually running the flying circus would be hella fun and a great wacky option to throw into games for meme fodder. That’s what I want in this game more than making it a super tactical competative shooter.
I say make Pharah’s armor bigger, say about the size of a Volkswagen, and let her eject from it when it runs out of health. Also, give her shotfuns (not a typo) and some kind of “protection mesh” or “guard lattice” that could eat incoming projectiles.
This exactly. Play and position Pharah where you’d put Hanzo or Ashe, and she’ll score some interesting kills. Plus her ranged boop is a position ruiner for enemies, more than one might think.
However, it’s amazing that some supports are literally trained to ignore Pharah and have dps’d THROUGH me, or I die right in front of them on the ground and they just tell the team “ugh I am not pocketing you!”
It takes practice, but I would start by working on your direct shot placement by spending 15 minutes or more a day in the practice range.
From there watch some Pharah gameplay from proficient players and see what they do. Flex Pros aren’t ideal as they play her rather defensively and not too aggressively. Aggressive solo Pharah’s are utilizing tech and her kit to stay airborne or lodge themselves in spots that reduces use on her hover and allows them to wait out ability cooldowns safely, but close to where the action will be at. Also, get acquainted with all the health packs and don’t play too far away from them (drop and a CC hover away at the farthest).
I personally find Pharah to be one of the best flank heroes, and starting the fight as her against highly defensive areas (think first point Eichenwalde, all the way around the right side) is almost a guaranteed fast victory. Even if you die without getting a pick, you’ve just scrambled the enemy team’s back line to the point they’re no longer focused on your team’s advance.
