The best Pharah in the world has spoken: the Pharah changes are a nerf.
The faster fire rate is completely moot, as you need to take more time to line up direct hits. It only really helps against breaking shields.
Less splash means less ult charge, for one of the riskiest and most difficult to use ults in the game. It also makes her worse against the likes of Bridgette, as you depended on your splash to get around her shield.
In addition, Pharah has lost the ability to poke effectively, meaning she has to take even more risks to get value.
The only real buff she received was to concussive blast, but it’s so minuscule it won’t even matter in most situations.
Not to mention hitscans have gotten buffed yet again.
Pharah is one of the poorest performing DPS heroes in the game, and it is likely she will be in an even worse situation if these changes go live.
58 Likes
The birdman also said it was a net nerf and that he’s not gonna be playing her much when she goes live.
4 Likes
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87 Likes
we can say thank you to console players who do not have any aiming skills for dealing with pharah.
blizz should just put these changes on console and leave pharah on pc as she is.
33 Likes
Honestly its impossible to know if its a nerf or not. It seems like a redistribution of power, and some pros are saying its a buff and some are saying its a nerf. You really can not tell.
7 Likes
You cannot possibly counter highly mobile heroes like Tracer and Genji like before after those nerfs. The solid way to damage these two were with splash damage.
3 Likes
Valkia only said that if the changes went live that they would leave the pro scene. So, correct me if I’m wrong, but they never directly stated that the Pharah changes were a nerf. If I’m wrong, I’d appreciate some physical evidence to back up your surprising claims.
Just wana remind you that pros also make mistakes. They called Sombra changes a nerf and now she is a must-pick at pro level. Not saying they are wrong now. Just that shouldn’t just believe everything pros say.
33 Likes
Try aiming with stick controls, then you can understand the pain.
19 Likes
Frankly I don’t trust what the Pro’s say at all these days. They just put out there what they want to push an agenda. Keep their own hero’s strong and nerf anything not in their pool of characters.
I remember all the praise Brigitte was getting when she came out, and then all the trash talk once she arrived. Same with Hammond, hyped up the Hero till it came out and then declared it garbage in the nicest way possible. Also remember it was Pro’s that screamed about how Mercy was a Hide and Rez hero.
Frankly I think Blizzard pays a little too much attention to what the Pro’s say while ignoring the rest of their customer base. After all Pro’s might be the beset at the game, but they didn’t pay for it.
20 Likes
I’ve heard Valkia on stream. He says faster rockets don’t matter because you have to take time to aim them so they’re not useful. If it’s actually a nerf after we have some time, buff her ammo a bit and that should help compensate
3 Likes
Heres the problem, if this was a net nerf… pharah wasnt good before. At all. Like… there was nothing nerf-able about her. There was no reason to nerf her.
6 Likes
No he didn’t. He said he feels like it was a nerf as pharah will get less ult charge and the 25% self knockback means nothing. The direct shots might do more damage but the speed rate does nothing when most top tier pharah players plan their shots. So they counter dict each other.
He also said he relied on splash damage to kill Brigitte instead of direct shots. So brigitte was taking about like 80 splash damage from him. Can’t spam that broken splash damage anymore.
When enemies are grouped, if you hit the person directly in center. They take direct damage. Yes, but the others will take the new splash damage. This is much better honestly. Before, everyone would take 80 dps as it is currently live. Now, with the new changes to splash damage. The direct will hit hard, the splash damage will be less than what it used to be and that Pharah will only gain a little ult charge from that 1 shot opposed to gain a big chuck of ult charge.
But as it happened for Torb it doesn’t have to be the same on console and PC. On PC Pharah is either a sitting duck or a low budget Junkrat if she stays on ground.
1 Like
hey dont blame all of us
I actually know how to aim with Pharah unlike half the rest of my community xD
5 Likes
Well this is a pretty long stretch. Widowmakers can do fancy hookshot 360’s in the sky getting headshots in a literal fraction of a second… but Pharah players need to “line up” their shots? There are heroes like Brigitte if you are not good at the mechanics of shooting.
2 Likes
What does Valkia know, though, some posters here who never play Pharah are adamant this would be a great buff for high level Pharah players. 
When enemies are grouped, if you hit the person directly in center. They take direct damage. Yes, but the others will take the new splash damage. This is much better honestly. Before, everyone would take 80 dps as it is currently live.
What? Splash damage varies depending on distance from the explosion, not everyone takes 80 damage on live.
Well this is a pretty long stretch. Widowmakers can do fancy hookshot 360’s in the sky getting headshots in a literal fraction of a second… but Pharah players need to “line up” their shots?
Widow’s weapon is hitscan and most of these super quick shots still miss. The faster fire rate encourages spamming withotu aiming too carefully but the splash nerf discourages it, that’s what is so confusing about these changes.
7 Likes
i think they should have nerfed her splash damage even more but give her faster projectile speed
Irrelevant as it pertains to aiming. Whether it is hitscan or projectile the time it takes you to decide where to shoot and press the button is the same. Claiming that faster projectiles are not a benefit because you require more time to aim your shots is completely disingenuous.
2 Likes
So you think Valkia’s lying when he says it usually takes him more than 0.75 s to aim a shot? Also, he did say that that the faster fire rate is beneficial in some situations, like targeting shields or Roadhogs. But his playstyle is reliant on quickly eliminating squishies and he thinks these changes don’t really help in that.
2 Likes