Pharah is currently rather unplayable

General Discussion
1

Lets face it at the start, Pharah playes do not have the easiest of lives in this game.

There are a myriad of counters to her. Pretty much every single hitscan dps, half of all tanks, ana, baptiste and even valk mercy. Especially now with the addition of Echo, a Hero basically designed to hunt down and kill pharah makes our live harder than it needs to be.

But there is a thing you can do against all of that. You can come in from akward angles to flank and kill them before they can react or to fly so far up and high that you eventually outrange their damage falloff or at least get a little harder to hit.

All of these heroes can be “countered” with tactics and different approaches. Making it a skill matchup like it should be.

But all of these tactics basically required you to be in the air for as long as possible to hug that corner or to glide on that roof. Get every bit of cover you can get.

Now with the new changes to her, you can stay in the air for like 5 to a maximum of like 10 seconds before you get into the akward falling state wich usually results in either a rather long downtime where you can’t really shoot nor pretty much do anything or flatout death.

While I do appreciate the 20% movementspeed increase I do not think it warrents the crippling nerf that her cuirrent fuel recharge is. It just feels like pharah is now hiding for 50% of the game watching a load bar fearing to die at any moment.

Her entire kit revolves around the fact that pharah can fly. All of her tools give her the perfect set to dash around the field raining death from above.

I do not want anyone to insult the devs in any way. I am sure that there were valid reasons for this change but it really just deleted 50% of the gameplay I loved.

I would really appreciate to get a little more insight into the design aspects of the change. (and if I can make a humble request, please rethink on this change. #makePharahFlyAgain )

In the end we all love this game and want it to improve. Thank you all for your attention.

(It is no /s but I can see why people would think that way)

22 Likes
2

Pharah is lowkey OP, people just suck with her.

19 Likes
3

The problem with Pharah is that it’s very hard to make her both viable in higher ranks while not make her oppresive af to play against in lower ranks

6 Likes
4

Nah she’s untouchable by 70% of the roster, a free win against teams with no hitscan, and she’s already op.

If you need a /s to see that this is sacasm then I don’t know what to tell you

4 Likes
6

Pharah needed more mobility, and did not need a nerf to balance it out.
There fuel thing needs to be reverted

4 Likes
7

Eh, unplayable is quite the stretch tbh. She’s looking fairly good at the moment, especially considering her stats are pretty decent despite the meta favouring hitscan. Like, I understand the complaint, but she’s not unplayable.

2 Likes
8

Pharah is a great long range spam character. Play her like that and you will profit. You have to learn the maps and angles to be good at it. If you are flying way up in the air, you are doing it wrong.

9

I absolutely agree. allthough you would die to snipers like that. Learn the maps, learn the matchups, learn who to flank and who to spam and you have a great skillset to pull your own weight. but all of there things require you to fly.

10

I know is had a /s but there is some truth in that. A good Pharah is a nightmare and personally Pharah is my most hated hero in the game (after that Widow and then Mei). Yes. If you have no hitscan heroes she is nearly impossible to eliminate (with a Mercy). I rather have Pahrah in a weak state than in a “nerly meta” state. I think before the flight changes Pahrah was at the right place. Not to strong and not to bad. But even I have to say the current one seems pretty off to me.

1 Like
11

Pharah is my third most played hero overall (most played DPS hero) and I’m also not a fan of the fuel changes. I’ve never felt like I needed to be faster. As you said, the important thing is to be able to stay airborne to get where I need to be, which is much harder right now. I don’t think Pharah has ever been too good so I don’t understand what this change was supposed to be targeting. I think maybe it was intended to be a buff but it doesn’t feel that way.

3 Likes
12

I love the changes on her. And i dont have the feeling shes short on flying time. Actualy it feels like she can fly much further.

13

Its a huge buff. Unless u play pharah just for flying and not for pvping.

14

Her vertical flight ability is way worse right now. She also has less air time per jump now no matter how you use her.

Well, I do fly with her so you got me there. It’s kind of her thing.

15

tell me how you can fly further then before. you were able to stay in the air for 100% uptime before. please tell me how you manage to consider it a huge buff?

Her entire character trope is flying. you fly to pvp. its like saying we increased soldier 76 base movement speed by 5% but to balance it out we made him unable to sprint

it doesnt add up. pharah would still have been balanced with the 20% buff and without the nerf to her fuel.

5 Likes
16

In terms of stats, she’s easily one of the top Damage characters for all skill levels now (especially toward lower ranks, of course), despite her best “counters” being the most popular meta picks. I don’t think she can conceivably be branded as underpowered at this point.

1 Like
17

her winrates are insane this week, she’s alot harder to kill now. Actually kinda annoying

18

On paper yes

in practice no.

20% tops

I need to read past the part I disagree with…

1 Like
19

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: When I wasn’t washed up and was a Masters Junkrat one trick I feared a low diamond Widow more than a high Master Pharamercy duo.

She need more buffs she’s in such a sad state

2 Likes
20

Medium pickrate and highest winrate across the board. Except GM where reaper that is never played has higher winrate. Yea, looks really quite unplayable.

21

Fixed that glaring lie for you, I’ll send you the bill by mail.

5 Likes