Her ult is a bad meme. It’s one of, if not the worst, dps ultimates in the game. It’s basically a suicide button without a TON of resources poured into it, and even then it’s 50/50 if you live.
She’s one of the slowest moving/most predictable characters. Easy to shoot. She’s also one of the only dps with no form of self-sustain or reliable escape.
She is the only hero in the game with self-damage on her primary fire. She’s also the only hero in the game that literally has no source of damage that doesn’t self-damage.
There’s a ton of QoL stuff that needs to be done to her to make her viable outside of Pharmercy. (And even Pharmercy can be shut down by a good Ashe/Soldier/Widow/McCree/Bap… even Ana if she’s a good shot.
10 Likes
Her ult’s damage is absolutely insane. High risk high reward.
The self damage is fine since shes basically effective at nearly all ranges.
If Pharah plays around corners and has experience Vsing decent hitscans she can still be effective.
3 Likes
She’s at a disadvantage at all ranges too.
She loses long-range against snipers.
She loses mid-range against McCree/Soldier/Ashe.
She loses close-range against most of the cast because of self-damage.
She can only be effective on maps where she can sneak up on enemy snipers/hitscan and get the drop on them.
Her ult’s potential damage is high. But with how hilariously easy it is to shut down (or just make her kill herself with it), you rarely get the benefit of that outside of VERY special circumstances.
2 Likes
If you’re taking self damage that’s a positional issue on the players part.
Play your corners and shes actually annoying to deal with.
2 Likes
she needs a shield like DF when she ults. even a mercy can take her out.
But hey, the fanboys will whinge like no tomorrow if that happens.
6 Likes
Self-damage is honestly the least of your worries if you’re close-range though. You can be blocked, shot, stunned, frozen, etc so easy. You have 0 advantage close range because you lack any tools to deal with it.
Mid-range you’re solidly in the ideal range for all your counters.
Long range your rocket travel time is so long that Stevie Wonder could dodge them.
Her kit is basically flawed to the core concept:
Can easily dominate at lower ranks (people don’t have good but it takes less aim for a pharah to land shots than it is to land shots on pharah) while getting easily dominated at higher ranks.
Give her a slight buff and it’s gonna be pharmercy all over again in lower ranks.
Her ultimate should be used with surprise element, of course if you hover in a straightline on volskaya second point and then ult, it’s gonna end up bad, but if you sneak in behind and coordinate with your team’s push, it’s turning their team to ashes before her voice line is over
it takes less aim for a pharah to land shots than it is to land shots on pharah
This was true before her splash damage changes, but with those nerfs she’s lost her advantage against groups, her ability to pressure around corners, and you basically HAVE to land direct hits in order to kill anyone before they kill you.
The changes to her rockets was a huge, huge nerf to her ability to punish clumped groups and it basically erased all of the tradeoffs for having a slow-moving projectile.
unless they cannot hit you at all that is, plus remember that while missing a shot on pharah is totally wasted, teams tend to stick together, so as pharah, a missed shot on your target can still output damage
There’s a reason people also expect to get a sweet 4-5 kill with her ult.
She feels in an okay spot right now, her issue certainly isn’t playing against word class snipers, otherwise she wouldn’t be used against them in OWL.
Less than 1 soldier’s worth of damage at minimum splash damage… which is a very small radius.
And pretty much every hero except for Rein can hit Pharah at mid-short range.
There’s a reason people also expect to get a sweet 4-5 kill with it.
Most pharah mains I know are happy with a 1-3k. 3k being a huge ulti. The 1k is usually onto a healer or a tank to swing the fight.
You have to De-mech the D.Va, make sure Ana doesn’t have sleep dart, make sure Trans is down, make sure Bap doesn’t have immortality field, make sure Winston’s bubble is down, make sure you’ve already taken care of the Widow/Hanzo/Soldier/McCree/Ashe/Zen, and a ton of other things before you can even think about ulting without being shut down or facing almost certain death. In most cases it’s a better idea not to ult.
When I’m going against Pharah I love when they ult. It’s an easy kill.
1 Like
I’m maining her this season, and realistically you’re right, I’m often happy with just disintegrating Rein’s barrier to open things up for my team to follow.
That doesn’t change that massive ults aren’t uncommon with her.
I am satisfied if I get 2 - even if I die because I usually will.
Less common than similarly devastating ults with B.O.B. or Blade or Tire or a ton of other ults.
She needs buffs,
For the love of God what are blizz waiting for.
I think they’re trying to figure out how to buff her without making Pharmercy incredibly oppressive. Pharah on her own is pretty much the worst dps pick you can make. Pharmercy is still a viable combo, but it’s certainly not invulnerable.
This is coming from over 200 hours on her. So… not a TON, but not a small amount.
Blade is the only one I’d put ahead. BOB is usually contributory damage rather than full on killing a team outright. He does a lot more to break positioning as well.
Thing is you can sit on your ultimate with Pharah for a long time because in general she’s still contributing an awful lot between them, while Genji is all ult, and Ashe is generally doing less as well.
I’d rather have pretty much any other ult on Pharah than barrage.
Wait… What is mid range? Even up close McCree deals 70 a pop to the body and Mercy heals at 50 per second. That only drastically goes down requiring an extra bullet like one meter past 20 which neuters his time to kill hardcore.
Beyond that, I feel at range Pharah is more likely to land splash on one of the least mobile DPS relative to him landing headshots.
I mean, like, are we talking about a McCree with 70% accuracy versus a garbage Pharah. Or something? He only counters her up close, within 20 meters. Basically the range where Moira is a threat to her (lul).
Of course you would, but then she’d be ridiculous. You have to balance the whole package.