Will the new Pharah be more dependent on Mercy?

[Kaplosion-1723]

So Pharah is getting a change to her rocket launcher. Her fire rate is going to increase however to compensate splash damage is going down. On the surface this seems like a nerf to low level players and a buff to everyone else. However, lets take a closer look at those damage numbers. Currently that’s 120 for a direct hit and 80 for maximum splash. New Pharah will have 120 for a direct hit and 65 for maximum splash.

So vs a 200hp hero
Current Pharah:

1. direct hit → direct hit → dead (1.9s)
2. direct hit → max splash → dead (1.9s)
3. direct hit → average splash → any hit → dead (2.7s)

New Pharah:

1. direct hit → direct hit → dead (1.5s)
2. direct hit → max splash → any hit → dead (2.25s)
3. direct hit → average splash → any hit → dead (2.25s)

.

1. represents Pharahs that can always land direct hits all the time
2. represents Pharahs that are pretty good when they aren’t getting direct hits they’re as close as possible
3. represents Pharahs that are worse

What’s weird is that this change is a buff to expert Pharah’s in terms of time to kill. Is a nerf to advanced Pharahs in time to kill. But then a buff to worse Pharahs in time to kill.

SO if you want to maintain time to kill as a good Pharah you will need to run a Mercy with damage boost so you can still kill with 2 good shots. Otherwise it takes longer to kill. If you’re really good or not so good congrats this is a straight buff to you!

This was an analysis of time to kill, if you want to see how these changes affect overall dps when you account for accuracy check out this analysis:

Running the numbers: Pharah changes (math closer to reality)

Let’s take a look at Valkia. Inarguably one of the best Pharahs - last I checked he was at 260 in top 500? At least Grandmaster level. Surely in the top 1% of all Pharahs. His accuracy for hits is 50% and about 25% were direct hits. There are other factors that grant him his ranking such as game sense, awareness, teamwork, and positioning but I think we can safely assume his accuracy is likely far above average to make it that far. Ok so, let’s assume Valkia was a madman and just held down LMB …

[Goldlantern-1543]

Current Pharah:

1. direct hit -> direct hit -> dead (1.9s)
2. direct hit -> max splash -> dead (1.9s)
3. direct hit -> average splash -> any hit -> dead (2.7s)

New Pharah:

1. direct hit -> direct hit -> dead (1.5s)
2. direct hit -> max splash -> dead (2.25s)
3. direct hit -> average splash -> any hit -> dead (2.25s)

I don’t understand why the time-to-kill would be higher for new Pharah for #2 than for old Pharah. Wouldn’t a higher fire rate and the same two rockets mean it should be lower?

[Kaplosion-1723]

Sorry, that was an error on my part I fixed the original post.

Basically in the #2 scenario current Pharah does exactly 200 damage in 2 shots. New Pharah will do 185 damage in 2 shots thus requiring a 3rd shot to secure the kill.

[MeliaAntiqua-11922]

The splash damage was nerfed from 80 to 65. This means that a direct hit + maximum splash no longer kills.

[Goldlantern-1543]

Ah. Got it. That makes more sense. To answer your question, then, I think Pharah would only be more dependent on Mercy if they’re having trouble hitting their shots. A Mercy boost could still go a long way if Pharah wants to easily shred a few tanks real quick, though. I think the changes are intended to make Pharah a little more independent and give her a higher skill ceiling while also make counterplay against her a bit more reliable.

[sourmoth-1880]

This patch is really just making long/medium range pharah’s harder to play and divebomber pharah’s more deadly.

To answer question, yes she will ALWAYS depend on mercy since only 3 healers can even heal her in the sky anyway and Mercy is the best equipped of the 3 since Brig and Ana need to keep focus around them on the ground

[Excella-11653]

You forgot Zenyatta.

[Mitrovarr-1405]

Yeah, Brig, Ana, and Zenyatta are all good options too. Mercy is only good if she pockets Pharah all the time, otherwise she has basically the same issues the others do.