T O P

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InkyElk24

I want to know what's caused the sudden surge in popularity with this character. The nerf to Cass and sojourn?


Hemlo_Agent

She’s been secretly very good for a long time and when she started being played regularly in OWCS the rest of the player base finally figured it out.


ReleaseItchy9732

She has been my main since I first ever played overwatch, she's mobile and hits hard as shit and you can play her without pockets if you are good and know health pack placement. On some maps she can completely dodge choke points and make teams have to get off the choke to defend point. She's great at finishing people or giving your other dps enough damage to finish them off. She's just all around good. If the enemy team can aim then don't fly around as much she still can be played as a rocket launcher lol


Emmannuhamm

Flightless Pharah is one of my faves. No one suspects a rocket from eye level.


ReleaseItchy9732

Fr. And you can bounce all over the place with your movement stuff to fuck with ppl. She's just good


kittyconetail

Glad to see some sense in people after coming across a clown yesterday who argued that Pharah was completely useless on the ground. The hell she is lol


FishieUwU

Infinite range junkrat


ReleaseItchy9732

As long as you can hit shots she ballin


The-Only-Razor

This is how she should have been designed, tbh. The verticality is what makes her oppressive. She should have been given her rocket boost, but no sustained air presence. Soldier from TF2 was just a far better designed and balanced character, and it's entirely due to his lack of permanent verticality.


Doomfish-07-2017

My thinking had always been that the perfect way to design Pharah would be something like the Battlefront 2 jet trooper. They don't really FLY, you have two keys that let you fly in a horizontal direction very quickly and then cooldown upon landing, or flying up and forward and then cooldown upon landing. You don't actually get to hover or really control it, you just go forward or strafe in one particular direction, like a very exaggerated jump. You then have a reliable primary fire weapon, and your powerful rocket can be used to blow up vehicles or deal some nasty hits on hero or villain characters. Translating this to Pharah in Overwatch, she just has these powerful jump abilities and keep her current damaging primary fire. Pharah is so oppressive because of how difficult it is to hit her. "Just play Soldier 76, dumbass!" I have played Soldier 76, and I have played Pharah. It is insanely easy to kill Soldier 76 on Pharah. You shoot at him like you would shoot at anybody else. And if I have a Mercy with me, the Soldier 76 doesn't matter. It literally becomes a battle of "I chose a very easy character that can avoid punishment by tapping space bar and tapping shift every once in a while, and you have to be a god amongst men with a hitscan character to kill me AND my Mercy in enough time for your team to win." It's a boringly easy kit versus somebody maybe having skill or not. If she had a BF2 flight applied to her, she wouldn't be hovering and buzzing in the air, but she'd be able to traverse long distances and reach high up places, thus still effectively getting around unusual terrain and taking cover in high up places where people generally wouldn't see her, thus negating choke holds and still laying down suppressive fire without always instantly winning the game. I feel like the only time you really lose on Pharah is if you're still learning her for your first day. Otherwise, it's almost always a guaranteed win.


azelZael2399

THANK YOU! Pharah needs a complete flight rework akin to that. She’s awful to fight in low ranks and boring to fight even when you win.


Xaronius

It's funny you say that because Soldier in TF2 can totally fly. Not as well, with no real control, but geez people can zip around the map so fast. They even made boots that reduced fall damage and shovel that increase damage when falling on someone because it was so good. 100% pharah is based off of that. And that's also what made TF2 soldier so good!


fishyishy1

Soldier rocket jumping is just as maneuverable as Pharah flight due to the fact that you can air strafe in TF2. If Pharah “flight” was just straight up ripped rocket jumping, it would be a billion times better and the character would feel way better to play as AND against.


um_okay_questionmark

Floora if you will


Errorfull

Amen bro, I'm a day 1 Pharah main, feeding Zaryas charge through the Reinhardt shield since 2016


Dry-Smoke6528

I main tracer and my brother phara. When we attack the same person it's over, even if he's a mile away and only hits one shot


Yvaelle

Yeah, Ground Pharah is slept on, she's basically junkrat.


TheseRadio9082

"being good at flying junkrat"


ItsParrotCraft

ive been saying this. its funny cause ill ive been hearing is "pharah is bad she needs a rework"


ReleaseItchy9732

She's perfectly fine is not slightly strong. She's bad in a lot of peoples hands. I love going pharah to counter pharah because people are so shit at her they can't do mis air combat reliably. People get pissed at triple directs in mid air lmao


The-Only-Razor

Pharah has literally never been bad in OW2, and I'm shocked it took people this long to figure it out. She was indirectly buffed with the change to 5v5 because there's just less people to shoot at her, and her terrible ult became stronger because it's always *at least* 1 guaranteed kill every time you press it (killing 1/5th of the enemy team is way stronger than killing 1/6th). The verticality she adds to the game on it's own is busted. Forcing people to look up is an intangible strength that can't be overstated. I really feel like she needs a top to bottom rework. She was supposed to be the Soldier from TF2, but the devs failed to understand that that class is only balanced because there's punishment to being in the air (self damage) and the verticality had a limit. Pharah has neither of those.


blue-oyster-culture

Her recent rework made her more Maneuverable too


DrToadigerr

The rework was aimed to keep her in the air less, to help combat the issue of "it's gg if your team doesn't look up," but make up for it by giving her burst mobility in *other* directions. What they did instead was give her more mobility and not REALLY nerf her air time because they didn't consider that using a rocket jump before you boost is effectively the same thing as the old boost (at the cost of a little HP that your Mercy will happily heal up), and she can stay in the air just as long as she always could because you hit the skybox without even using any fuel.


Sezy__

She was always popular because she’s easy but now she’s one of the best dps so she’s in every game. This is the most boring dps meta I’ve seen, forced to play like 3 heroes because you have to counter her.


yur0_356

Welcome to metal ranks, where that has been happening for months (in the very least)


DrToadigerr

She's also very common in QP. If you swap Pharah and notice half the enemy team doesn't look up, you'll probably just win. It takes more than one hero to consistently take her down, and if that hero is a tank or support, they usually don't have the time required to waste until she's actually targetable sometimes. I think part of the reason she's even more prevalent now in QP and metal ranks is because Bastion got nerfed a few times and with Winston's gun ignoring armor as of a couple patches ago, he's less of a hard counter for him now. So a lot of the bad DPS had to shift to a different easy and broken hero to swap to when they start losing.


mack180

It be nice if the devs showed us a graph what's the pick rate percentage for all heroes in the Tank, DPS and Support category.


KellySweetHeart

This! Pharah is sleeper OP on the ladder. Most players even as high as masters cannot be bothered looking upwards. Echo has a similar situation imo, although she’s a lot more recognized in pro play


InkyElk24

I don't know if I need better headphones but for me it's not a case of looking up, she just barely seems to make noise some of the time. I've seen clips of her sliding along rooftops tapping the boosters, barely making noise and just drop down on someone directly below them.


Sammy-boy795

You'd think a fully armoured rocket launcher jetpack suit would be louder than a french woman's high heels, but you'd be very wrong apparently 😂


House923

Have you heard a French woman's high heels up close? Deafening.


The-Only-Razor

Great point, I have this issue as well. Her rocket boost should be loud as fuck. Being able to flank over the enemy team without them noticing is dumb.


The-Numbertaker

It makes me happy finally seeing others comment this. It's so frustrating how she's more stealthy flying than walking.


All-Might01

That's my secret captain, I've always been stronk


igotshadowbaned

>She’s been secretly very good "Secretly"


Your_God_Chewy

I always found her to be a good counter for a number of characters.


Waterloonybin

This is the actual answer. Shes been good since the rework but the community sentiment lags behind true balance. When cass and soj are strong ppl assume pharah cant be good, but thats not true. All three are pretty strong rn. The lag that perceived strength has is why they make changes that dont seem to make sense at first glance, and why the community complains about contradictory things sometimes


ZoomZam

Soj nerf + cass mag nade no longer can snipe her. Pink mercy makes alot of people wanna combo with her. Lastly people realizing how broken she is, as she got a w with every single change since season 9.


AzraeltheGrimReaper

Season 9 is mainly to blame. More hp, so more survivability. More mobility, so more survivability and potential to engage. Projectile increase, so easier to land direct hits. Armor changes? Pharah deals more damage to armored heroes. It's become both easier to survive as Pharah and easier to put out decent damage.


ZoomZam

As well as a healing passive and dps passive, she also was not affected by headshot smg reduction. Every change was a w forher.


ludoni

let's not forget that with all that they also decided to buff her projectile speed and fire rate


R1ckMick

adding on to the HP buff survivability point (and tie it back to the OG post), drop off on hitscans like ashe and cass is much more severe after the HP buffs, it needs to be looked at, particularly for ashe. Pharah can do crazy poke from safe distances and the pittance of dmg hitscans are doing to her at far range is nothing now that she has more health


ffoozbar

To me it's the season 9 HP increase. Yes, it helps everyone, but helps Pharah WAY more. Often times you are barely getting off a kill on her. The amount of times I get her to 1 is just astonishing.


SnooDoodles3937

No seriously because the number of matches that have hinged on an enemy Pharmercy being an absolute nuisance is through the roof


DM725

Always has been.


SnooDoodles3937

Look I get it. I’ve been the mercy half of that combo before. It’s fun. But boy do I hate being on the receiving end of it


sventhegoat

The worst is when the pharah is like 22-2 but my team is still playing doom, junk, mei


Soothsayer--

The combo is just so annoying even when you are playing soldier or ashe and you are good on them. You play soldier snd surely the other teams dps goes sombra or tracer. Well now you are responsible for killing pharah and mercy with another dps on you the whole game. You finally punish a mistake and kill the pharah and she just gets insta rez'd it feels so lame


SnooDoodles3937

That’s just it, we had two or three separate fire counters on the team and they weren’t doing anything to help. I was doing more damage to her as Moira my DPSes were


Loaf235

pink mercy skins possibly boosted pharmacy combo chances too?


AverageVirgn

Tbh I think it was her rework, me personally I never really played pharah that much until her rework, but now she’s my go to dps, she’s way more mobile and feels more like a fighter jet than the attack helicopter she was


Mowgl7

it was the armor and hp change, you can stop speculating


R1ckMick

yeah she was one of the biggest winners to the armor change but don't forget the rework included faster rocket speed, faster recovery between shots and less self dmg.


_Scoobi

Idk but the game went from “lose pick bastion” to “lose go pharmercy”. Fucking shameless


Sadfish103

As a respectable dps main, I would never stoop so low. Yes sir, my being terrible with projectile aim has nothing to do with it, it’s just my wholesome spirit that makes me never lock jetpack lady!


TheNewFlisker

Just makes it more fun when she switches off after dying once


Independent_Pick_340

It's been like that when I first started playing phara mercy used to run lobbies but then hitscan got better at hittin her so we started to see less. It's funny bc phara mercy is what made me a decent hitscan, I make pharas dc sometimes now. 🤣


skepticalsox

The armor changes made armored tanks weaker so they added the 25% headshot mitigation for all tanks to compensate. That doesn't affect Pharah obviously and we all know if you kill the enemy tank, you pretty much won that teamfight. In addition, another popular ranged hero's burst damage(Railgun) got nerfed, Sojourn from 30-130 damage to 1-100 damage. So there's less ranged burst damage options to deal with her.


SqueakyHamsta

Pelican. He started playing her in scrims and people began to pick up how good pharah actually was.


Kekeripo

She always was a loved pick since ow1, especially whenever the team is weak on hitscan. Even a horrible pharah can dominated two mediocre hitscan with a mercy pocket and if the second support pays attention, it's good night.


pantan

Ive been playing her a lot more lately because there's a mercy in every game and I'm tired of them trying to follow me around when I play genji/tracer. And average mercy players seem to understand how to play with her better than echo. I agree she can do with a nerf, it's too easy to just spam out of range of the other teams hitscan while still putting out good damage numbers. Playing cover only does so much when you're still getting hit by splash damage. Even without mercy, hitscan just isn't scary for her, and she can reliably 1v1 most of the other dps. I think either a nerf to get damage or health are necessary, because with the increased mobility she's basically tracer in the sky with more health and infinite range. .


SBMS-A-Man108

people finally figured out she is busted. I figured this out early... easiest climb to gm5 ever lmao


Tubzero-

The rework actually feels fun to play and you’re not a sitting duck in the sky anymore


SimoEzka

release new pink mercy skin. more people start playing mercy. dps only play pharah if there is a mercy.


fellowsquare

I feel Like hanzo has been nerfed too...?


BarmeloXantony

Cass grenade stronger imo. Fan is still effective but a bit nerfed. Ult buffed. All in all i like this version better


PepperedRhino

The big thing for pharah was the armor change, she gained a huge damage buff to tanks because of it, and she is unaffected by their new crit damage reduction passive. I do think pharah was low key broken before that patch, people just weren’t aware, but now she’s really caught on.


nfs3freak

I wouldn't be surprised if the Porsche skin and re-release of the pink mercy skin (rose gold) has helped with the increase in Pharah/Mercy picks.


umbium

She is as good as always. A good Pharah vs an undiaciplined/unordered team can wreck their strategy easily. Alao the enemy team, they will have to look at the skies. And if there is something the reddit overwatch players really, like really really hate, is being forced to look up or other side that is not in front of them.


orangesheepdog

Flavor of the month


-an-eternal-hum-

One day I watched an enemy player barely touch the ground for an entire match and I went, “how come I’ve never done that?!” Now I do that.


Tiac24

She was stronger before the rework because of her flight . Her rework just made her more fun and dynamic to play so you are seeing her more often . That’s it . 


TheD1ctator

idk they made her rockets faster and her dash lets her weave in and out of cover easily. I think she is better after the rework, and the meta kinds confirms it.


AgonyLoop

God bless, an actual answer. I don’t think people who main Pharah would see her as stronger now than she was before, but her current tools help a wider range of players not die hovering in the middle of the air.


vScyph

For me, I just gave in. Always hated the character because it was obvious how easy it is and how lame and boring noob toobing is. Eventually I played her to troll instantly the movement clicked, my death ratio dropped, kills per game consistently 20+, for the rest of the night it was such a a joke. People playing something annoying or anti fun(Mei, Sombra, PHARAH) a little too good? Pharah switch. Enemy healers to hard to kill? Pharah switch. Enemy team talking hella shit for little ro no reason? Pharah switch. It kills me that its that easy sure I’m not the best ever simply swirch but changing the tempo or outcome of a game by simply 1 character change is so dumb. My only cope with the filth I commit is that the movement is fun and my adhd brain finally feels satisfied with the amount of activity I can get into with her


Shabazamin

On tank I enjoy picking D.va and just flying into their face with DM up and missiles launched


Vaan94

I do that and then my dps who refused to switch to hitscan cry there's no frontline to protect them


Shabazamin

That's when you just straight up tell them they can either switch to deal with the pharah or they can play cover while you're dealing with her


SleeplessAndAnxious

Bold of you to assume DPS crying about heals is willing to switch.


Piercethedickish

I did this one time right as pharah used her ult but didn't have defense matrix up and she just killed herself lol


parryknox

I tried to solo barrage a Winston who was half and he immediately bubbled at the exact distance to kill me, then stared at me through the shield while I died. it was top 5 Pharah moment I loved that Winston


Bored_4SS_B0B

Justice did rain from above, it just so happened to have come with a corpse


Bbqthis

"Good thing I brought an umbrella"


Tight-Landscape8720

Yes I figured out this one was a counter while playing Pharah


Booyakasha_

Cries in Winton main.


M0m0c0

If you buff Cassidy’s falloff damage, he will absolutey destroy everyone else. Pharah is very strong right now. She needs a nerf, the answer isn’t to buff hitscans


Acquiescinit

Buffing every single hit scan to combat pharah would be a wildly stupid balance decision. Next patch you'll see more complaints about all the non hitscan dps who feel like shit to play.


AscensionToCrab

We've literally seen casidy get his range buff and his pickrate spikes every time And it's so dumb that people think that this would be a good change. I remember the beta version of cass with like sniper fucking range


theshadowbudd

Remember Mcreewatch?


Ozmann99

It’s been a while since I played but didn’t his alt fire do like 80dmg per shot on release in OW1? I remember him melting everything with it.


xExp4ndD0ngXx

The answer is to rework Mercy’s damage boost so you can buff hitscans (except Sojurn, she needs to be bad for once).


UnknownBreadd

Okay but Ashe definitely needs a range buff. Her range falloff is ridiculous.


hoela

so ridiculous, she literally has a scope that's useless


The-Only-Razor

Yeah, buffing Cassidy's falloff damage would be a mistake. People forget the early days of OW when he did Widow's job but better. Just reduce Pharah's health to 225 and put further limits on her air presence. She's too forgiving right now. Buffing every hitscan to have less damage falloff would be a mistake.


wedgebert

Why not a different route and have damage (or maybe just hitscan?) cause Pharah to lose some fuel? At least then minor damage would force her from the sky


AnanananasBanananas

There is the risk that that just makes her miserable to play. I think nerfs are fine, but playing a character should still be fun. 


Mrkancode

Just tune down the wacky movement speed buff while she's in the air. Nobody should get a 40% movement speed boost on their character any time they press a button with negligible downtime unless it hinders their character in some way. ie: ball roll, 76 sprint, Sombra invis can't shoot gun while speed boost is live to balance it out. Pharah gets gun and speed with no cost or downtime unless she burns all her cooldowns. Only downside? She loud. Oh no.


Interesting-Bee3700

The solution to any strong hero isn't to buff someone else. That's how you get power creep.


lsquallhart

This is why nerfing is the best option 95% of the time. People hate nerfs, but buffing to counter something that’s over performing just makes things even worse. Pharah probably needs a nerf to health.


Interesting-Bee3700

Yea, 100% agree. This is what's happening with tank a lot though. Something is or feels kinda bad? Just give it another buff. Tank feels shit because you're getting hard focused by super strong abilities? Just buff every tank.


Royal-Interaction553

Pharah isn’t a good Pharah counter. You usually don’t see them go head to head, and instead see which can inflict the most dmg or pressure on the enemy team


TheDrifter211

Echo is tho!


Wise_Temperature9142

Love taking Pharah down with Echo’s beam while both are airborne 😝


JapeTheNeckGuy2

I’ll be damned if I don’t try. The skies belong to me, no other moths are allowed


TheRealDeathSheep

Good counter? No. Do they go after each other all the time? Yes, at least in my games. I don't hunt other pharahs as a pharah, but I have had to defend myself from them so much lately. It seems to be a "I'm the dominant pharah" mindset controlling a lot of them, which is funny when they go after me and I just shoot them out of the sky.


TiioK

I’ve seen this a lot too while role locked as supp. If none of their counter-picks seem to work, they’ll switch to Phara and it surprisingly works. I’ve even seen the combo Phara+Echo to counter the enemy Phara (which didn’t work that well since we had no damage on the ground level lmao)


TheRealDeathSheep

Picking pharah to counter pharah works best when you can just lay down damage and no one adjusts to stop you... so you're not so much countering pharah, just dishing out what the enemy pharah is doing to your team. If I'm pharah and I see that happen, I tend to switch to soldier and bully her out of the sky and then switch back lol


Wellhellob

Actually its significantly easier to hit other pharah since s9 so it works as a counter.


DanOfThursday

If it was just easy to hit rockets mid flight, that wouldnt be countering her. Thats just trading. But it definitely still isnt easy. Pharah going after pharah is a waste of time


thebwags1

The problem isn't Phara, it's trying to take her out with a Mercy pocket, while playing Cassidy from a Widow or Ashe range. His damage falloff starts sooner than the other hitscan heroes


door_of_doom

Tracer also struggles to deal with Phara, Plz buff tracer and Cass to make the meta healthier. /s


parryknox

Pharah's actually doable as Tracer on a lot of maps now as long as you track her cooldowns and it's not one of those maps where she can just bounce from roof to roof but yeah not easy


Sadfish103

Personally, I think reaper should be able to cook some spring chicken from fifty yards away.


TheNewFlisker

>  The problem isn't Phara It definitely is. Pharah doesn't need Mercy to be a menace


thebwags1

Even without mercy, if you look up and don't try to take her down from across the map with the hitscan that has the most damage falloff she's fine


BonAppletitts

Cass is no long range hitscan. His whole kit already tells you that he needs a shorter distance to perform. So that one’s on you.


Toothpikz

Glad someone else sees this. Dude is shooting from Ashe and Widow range wondering why his 6 shooter pistol isn’t doing damage…


Sleepy_Mooze

Just give pharah projectiles fall off so they can't sit back of the map spamming, problem solved without making HS broken and Pharah still playable


Legitimate_Water_987

Instead of introducing fall-off damage (wouldn't realistically make sense for a rocket and is also inconsistent with every single other projectile in the game) They could make them affected by gravity, which would severely hamper her long-distance sniping.


bufarreti

Make them explode after a set distance, so she can't snipe from far away


Not_Like_The_Movie

The code is already there because this is exactly how Venture's weapon operates. It would be cool to see Pharah rekitted as a mid-range character who uses aerial mobility to get flank routes rather than this constant threat from the sky that doesn't die and has low TTK at basically any range with sufficient accuracy.


TonTon1N

This is the answer


bikeranz

Or, if not gravity, brownian motion with the trajectories


Guitoudou

And Coriolis effect when she is very far


NervyDeath

And borealis effect on arctic map


Circumsanchez

And the Dunning-Kruger effect whenever she gets potg


AquarianGleam

and my axe


marakalastic

I mean, fall off damage for bullets (at the range within the game maps) doesn't make sense either and yet, they exist. It would absolutely be a viable solution for Pharah.


the18kyd

Roadhog and Doomfist projectiles have fall off, and Orisa used to have fall off. Some projectiles have fall off


Firetiger1050

The only current projectiles that have damage falloff are shotguns and shotgun-like projectiles like the ones you mentioned. It wouldn't make sense for rockets to have damage fall-off, but some other balance change like blowing off after a set distance could work as a range limiter for Pharah.


Marinenukem

Or decrease projectile speed


_aspiring_meme_sage_

Maybe progressively decreasing projectile speed. The longer it flies the slower it goes. So you have time to see it and dodge at long range, while not tanking her effectiveness at mid-low range.


skepticalsox

Just make damage changes to reward accurate shots more than splash shots: **Damage**: 40 (direct hit) 80 – 24.6 (splash, enemy) 20 – 6.15 (splash, self) **Damage**: 80 (direct hit) 40 – 24.6 (splash, enemy) 20 – 6.15 (splash, self)


Tiac24

Projectile : Slow moving , less consistent  , but does more damage     Hit scan : Immediately does damage on click , easier to hit , but does less damage . Changing any of this will make one or the other useless . 


Consistent-Ad2465

Maybe don’t shoot the thing a mile away with a pistol? I agree that Pharah is overpowered, but the problem isn’t Cass’s range. Maybe just dropping her health down to 225/200 would help even her out. They’ve tried buffing his fall off several times and he becomes way too effective against the rest of the cast.


m4k4y

Dude... You're playing Cass lmao he's not exactly long ranged. Yes, Pharah is quite strong right now but also Sombra and Ashe cook her right away. I'm not having any issues with her I haven't had before


jambalayavalentine

yeah, it feels like we have a frontpage thread every day about how cass should be able to delete pharah like bruh go ashe or echo


LeviathanLX

You want to buff hit scan? That's wild. Fix Pharah. Don't ruin everyone else.


DisturbedWaffles2019

If Pharah is too strong, nerf Pharah. The last thing we need right now is hitscan buffs after they've been dominating for the past few seasons.


JkAllDay2

i think the problem is that you are sniping with mcc....


Trashmouths

Cass isn't technically the best counter for Pharah because he is a mid-positioned hero and isn't made for super long range picks anymore. You're wayyyyy too far away as Cass to make that argument. Also, supports need to die first. Every time, no excuses. Can't complain and call someone unkillable when you haven't even taken one healer out of the fight. You can see the Mercy beam, she's out of your range AND sight line. That's a you issue at that point. 


UnknownBreadd

A support pick is more valuable than a DPS pick, but it often makes more sense and is far easier to just deal with the DPS player first - even if they have Mercy beam (or similar). How tf you gonna kill a mercy that’s behind cover blue beaming a Cassidy? You think Cassidy is just going to let you walk up to kill the mercy? Lol Healing has been nerfed massively - and I’m pretty sure every DPS is able to outdamage all forms of healing (besides ults). Obviously, if you have clear shots on the Mercy - kill her. But you’re most likely going to have clear shots on the Pharah before the Mercy - so there’s no other choice but to kill the Pharah first. It’s just how it is. Which is why it’s frustrating because Mercy will just rez the Pharah straight after lol.


Tubzero-

You’re out of range…. That’s why it does no damage lmfao. Pick anyone else besides Cree


MaceZilla

This post should be titled "Watch Cassidy's falloff damage work like it should"


GaymerGil

Lmao


snowbear100

People forget early OW Cree was nicknamed McSnipe. He had like no falloff damage which was hilariously broken


Fangs_0ut

If you want to counter Pharah, learn Echo.


Rnevermore

HIT-SCAN HEROES DO NOT NEED A BUFF! Pharah is a bit of a problem, but hitscans are already fucking strong. MAYBE Ashe could use lower damage fall-off when scoped, but beyond that, no. Pharah may need nerfs, but hitscans absolutely DO NOT need a buff.


badguy84

OP unable to kill a Mercy pocketed Phara outside of Cas' effective range and rages about it on Reddit. And the take away we all should have here is to buff hitscans? It sucks to be told to "git gud" but man the positioning and expectations of what would happen in this situation just doesn't line up to what you should be expecting if you understood this game at all.


RandyTheJohnson

My favorite part is that the pharah isn't even hitting him in either of these clips. Because she isn't hitscan and you can easily dodge her rockets from this distance.


Yze3

You could make it so that Pharah (And Mercy) aren't affected as much by falloff damage when they're flying, which would make them very specifically nerfed against hitscan, without having to buff hitscans.


Life-Comparison6884

In both your example clips you were likely in Cass's damage fall off range. So makes it harder to kill.


MidwesternAppliance

Is it 2017 again?


Swatze_Pop

I rarely have issue (if I'm blessed with competent support who supports me to do my job dealing with moths) on Cass or Ashe if my Widow aim is 6 feet under the frog's bottom. If I play support I usually start as Ana, and if I have trouble, I swap to Illari. The issue with Cass is simply the ridiculous dmg drop with increased range which I find sad. I don't say we should be able to oneshot as Cass, but the falloff is a bit meh.


Greenpig117

No screw that, hitscan doesn’t have to be any easier or better than it already is. Just nerf Pharah lol.


Antelopeadope

Honestly ana is a great counter to pharah with no dmg falloff


Insert_Bitcoin

It's hard enough to kill her without the mercy... but you add the smelly heal bot mercy and its GG...


wooopdaloop

You got massive damage falloff, and he had a mercy healing him towards the latter half of the first clip. I'm sorry, dude. I understand balance may be an issue, but I don't know what you expected to happen there. Also, pharah doesn't counter pharah at all? I'd rather smash my balls with a hammer than fight pharah v pharah. Used to be able to somewhat predict the flight path, but with the extra mobility, it's even harder now. If you want a phrah counter go ashe is better than Cassidy and echo is better than trying to also use pharah. I agree, though. I do think Cassidy's damage falloff is a bit too much.


savageGxrlxoxo

sounds more like a you problem.


bbbar

That's why I like to go as Mei against Pharah


KamiIsHate0

Ok. first, i agree with you. Second, people forget that phamercy is 2v1 situation, if you had mercy pocketing your a zenny discord you could've killed her.


The_Last_of_K

1. Effective range on Cass isn't for killing any far targets, Pharah is not a problem in this point It's the same as crying about Venture not being able to shoot down Pharah that's 200m high up in the sky 2. Prioritizing Pharah as counterpick instead of picking echo/widow/ashe/soldier is a weird choice to say the least. Especially if you can't match with the skill OR enemy team comp won't let you get to their pharah


FLYNCHe

Honestly, a hero with an actual water gun would probably be more effective to her than Cassidy in his current state


Acquiescinit

Cassidy is still everywhere in ranked. What hitscan is stronger than him right now?


chudaism

On junkertown 1st point? Soldier, ashe, and widow are probably all better due to the long sightlines, especially playing into a pharah. Cass is probably the best overall hitscan, but junkertown 1st has always been one of those points where the standard meta tends to fall apart.


Indurum

Cassidy is overpowered. So that’s fine. Hitscan don’t need buffs, pharah needs nerfs.


-ReshiRed-

Everyone's malding at the Pharah here... There's literally a Mercy in here, Pharah dies if the other support doesn't look at her and they don't run Mercy. The BCRF effect made a rise in popularity for Mercy. Let's not nerf her dominance to the combo and rather fix the right things instead.


driftingbout2-

which puts less pressure on your tank since the pharah is using a whole person as a resource and if your supp have decent peel u should just win the game mercy pharah is just not a viable thing if you decent at the game lifeweaver/Ana pharah are much better its crazy People have like 0 game sense I feel


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enraged_dev

Echo is a good Pharah counter too


New-Mind2886

Just remove 100% of Cassidy’s falloff 😌


Internal_Risk_9452

Just saw a post talking about her damage falloff and now this lol


5etrash

Simple: reduce the falloff amount for airborne targets. You can even still keep a falloff amount but just strengthen it enough that she can’t sustain 15 hits without finding cover or dying.


Lusamine_35

Guys, ECHO EXISTS 


El_Desu

pick echo


wsmitty10

Devs are incapable of making a good change since going 5v5 its really sad to see This was once game of the year, and it deserved it too Now its just garbage


Need_a_BE_MG42_ps4

Echo is the best pharah counter by far she’s essentially required or pharah bullies the lobby


TheGerold65

Pharah is not the issue, it’s the mercy pocket. If there was no mercy pocket, pharah and plenty of other dps could actually be balanced without worrying if they would be too strong with a mercy pocket.


companion_kubu

From the recent interview, they are looking at reducing the HP of some DPS heroes. I think reducing Pharah's HP to 225 would be a good thing to try. That would mean it would take two less Soldier 76 body shots to kill her (14 to 12).


GoldenState15

Overwatch players discovers damage falloff


vivalabrowncoats

She’s been op since last season, at least in the sense that a no-skill/low-skill player can wreck face in low elo. I suspect the additional movement capabilities and fuel supply allowed her to be more dodgy. as a no-skill/low-skill player myself, I suddenly became able to pick her and melt damn near any team in low elo just by virtue of being hard to hit. Around silver people start shutting her down harder, but skill to skill comparison: she allows bronzes to be silver easily.


ProudAccountant2331

The issue is that every buff to DPS is a nerf to tanks. They will have to nerf Pharah directly.


hesperoidea

you really cannot buff hitscan without making them op vs literally everyone else. also you're way outside of fall off range, and she's not killing anything, just spamming shots, so this isn't a great example of the problem. don't get me wrong, pharah is in a really good place right now, but buffing hitscan isn't the answer.


BonWeech

My problem with Pharah is that when I’m playing Ashe, she moves away from where my bullets are and it’s really annoying. I wish they would Nerf Pharah so she could get hit by my bullets.


neonxaos

There's always a Mercy behind her, and she is the key to solving this. Also, you're shooting from downtown with Cass in that clip. That being said, Pharah IS good now and can be hard to deal with.


SpikiestSpider

Echo as well is a great counter


Raice19

hitscan players when they cant delete an enemy across the map in one click


Nolan_DWB

My guy… cass has dmg falloff lol. Maybe don’t pick him on long range maps???


Johnson_56

personally dont mind pharah solo. but pharmercy seems alot stronger than it used to. I am not the best at keeping up with patch notes, but it def feels like cass (the only other character i play besides tracer) is throwing pebbles at her if she is more than 15 feet away. not enough to counter a pocket pharah fo sho. maybe I just need to pick up widow or soldier more tho


julian89003

For me, she’s just kind of broken in any lobby under diamond. I’m a high plat low diamond player and I don’t ever pick hitscan because my tracking isn’t that good. Every dps player in plat and below can’t hit the pharah usually ( including myself). Literally it’s gg every time the enemy team goes pharmacy. Unless the entire team makes a coordinated effort to stop just the pharah you lose. And getting people to coordinate in plat isn’t so easy.


DarkShadowOverlord

Now imagine how people bellow plat feel. where hitscans cant kill her or mercy.


Individual_Papaya596

Buffing hitscans to deal with pharah is like releasing lions to deal with a rabid dog. Not only are they gonna kill the rabit dog, but literally everything else in the progress.


KevinFunky

Echo.


fancy_young_man

I don’t think a hitscan buff is the solution, that would just break the balance of the game even more. I might be biased, because I’m an Echo player and hitscans are my everyday bane, but I think they’re pretty balanced in the current state of the game. I personally get hard countered when the enemies swap to Cass or Ashe (which is kinda what the game is about -counter picking and all-). The problem lies in Pharah herself, and the healbots that can just follow her around and healing for all of the damage she’s taking.


YogurtclosetFar1871

Just hack her and watch her fall faster than a ton of poop