Every hero in Overwatch is unique because it has special abilities. Pharah is one of the popular DPS heroes and among the strongest heroes in the game. As long as you know how to utilize her potential, she can become a force to be reckoned with.
Unlike some DPS in the game, Pharah relies on doing AoE damage. She doesn’t need to be as precise as things like Widow, which allows her to be “easier to play”. With that being said, the hero’s ability to “fly” and the fact that she deals a lot of damage make people think that she is easy to play. Needless to say, there are many small things you have to take into consideration before p15laying. We will try to include most of them in this Overwatch Pharah Guide.
Pharah is easy to kill, so you need to be careful
Some heroes are more common among higher-level OW matches than others. Sadly, Pharah is not one of them because the hero rarely appears in pro games. There are several reasons why this is the case, and it mainly has to do with the hero’s survivability. Despite doing a lot of damage, Pharah can die within seconds when she faces heroes like Widow, Cassidy, Hanzo, and more.
Since the hero has the Jump Jet ability, many people think they are unkillable. Sadly, this is not the case, even if Mercy accompanies Pharah. These two heroes are often picked together because they work really well. However, once the opponents know how to counter them, they are nowhere near as effective as usual.
Learning how to survive with Pharah is not easy, and it usually depends on the map and the heroes you have to play against. It will take some time before you learn how to maneuver, and once you do that, you will be able to deal a lot of damage.
Besides shooting with your Rocket Launcher, you can become an easy target while casting Barrage. Even though this ultimate can be more than enough to kill most opponents, you have to stand still while using it. This makes you an easy target for tons of heroes.
Don’t always rely on Mercy, even if the hero is on your team
Mercy and Pharah are probably one of the most popular combos in Overwatch. The two heroes can do wonders together because Mercy makes sure Pharah stays alive. The healer can also stay in the air with her and even increase her damage.
Even though Mercy can do wonders for Pharah, this typically has a negative effect on the team. Since Mercy is constantly trying to help the DPS, she does not have enough time to heal the other members of the team. This can be crucial, especially for some thanks.
Good Mercy players will know when to change their position so that they can be helpful in every situation. However, those who don’t have that much experience will only focus on Pharah, which usually doesn’t end well.
Try to combine your ultimates
As mentioned above, Barrage is an incredibly strong ultimate that can easily kill multiple opponents. However, since the hero has to channel it, she can die within seconds. That’s why the hero needs someone that allows her to unleash her potential.
There are a couple of good ultimates that can work with Pharah. One of them is Zarya, Graviton Surge, an ability that “gathers” the enemy’s heroes close to each other. This allows Pharah to use her deadly ultimate and kill almost anyone caught in the fire.
Besides Zarya, Pharah can also deal more damage with heroes like Orisa and even Rein’s ult.
Concussive Blast can be used in various ways
Besides Pharah’s impressive damage output, the hero also has an ability that allows it to be perilous. Concussive Blast might not seem that good on paper because the ability does not do any damage. However, it enables Pharah to knock back herself or any opponents hit by it. This means that the hero can escape or jump in, depending on the situation.
Most players prefer to save their Concussive Blast for situations where they need to escape from danger. Thanks to this ability, they should be able to survive in many scenarios, as long as they use the ability correctly.
Besides using it as an escape tool, Concussive Blast can also allow you to kill your opponents. Since you can blast them off cliffs and other things, you can score interesting kills. However, getting a kill with this ability requires you to catch your opponents when they are out of position. People who know how to play against Pharah will always keep this in mind.
Concussive Blast can also be used to evade ultimates, and to score kills by luring people to chase you.
Usually, it is not worth focusing on the enemy’s team Pharah
The fact that this hero is not that common among higher-MMR Overwatch games doesn’t mean it is not picked. On the contrary, Pharah has many fans, which means that you can often play against this hero.
Even though everyone loves to focus the same hero on the opposing team, doing this with Pharah is not a good idea. Since her Rocket Launcher deals AoE damage, hitting the enemy hero with your shots is really hard. This means that you will waste a lot of time trying to kill Pharah when you can use your abilities on other heroes and deal more damage.
Sadly, many people don’t follow this advice and spend at least a couple of minutes trying to kill the enemy’s Pharah. In the meantime, the other person knows that he should focus on other heroes because it is the better option.
If you want to help your teammates when they have to play against Pharah, you can tell them to hide and be ready to kill her once she shows up. Alternatively, you can switch to some of Pharah’s counters and kill her within seconds.
Check out our other Overwatch hero guides here.