Overwatch 2 Fans Are Sick And Tired Of Pharah

Like any other competitive game, the meta for Blizzard’s hero shooter Overwatch 2 is constantly in flux. Sometimes a new hero like Mauga dominates when they debut and has to be reined in with some debuffs and tweaks. Other times a series of changes send characters skyrocketing to the top of tier lists. That’s what’s happening right now with Pharah, the flight-based, rocket-launching, Mercy-lovin’ lesbian hero who debuted back in 2016 but has found newfound dominance following her rework and some overarching changes. While this turn of events might sound like a net good for the character, it’s got Overwatch 2 players hating Pharah like they’re Kendrick Lamar and she’s Drake.

So why has Pharah become such a nuisance to the average Overwatch 2 player? It all started in February when she received a rework that pro players initially thought might cut off some of her most prominent hero combos like the classic Pharah/Mercy duo due to her increased horizontal mobility. But Pharah still rains down rockets on enemy teams thanks to her improved movement options, and the support hero still follows her around and boosts her damage with relative ease. Even without a Mercy, she can secure plenty of kills with her rocket launcher alone, so without any of those drawbacks, Pharah’s become so “oppressive” that it’s made Overwatch 2 boring to play in some players’ eyes.

That’s the broad strokes for the average player, but Pharah’s dominance also comes as part of some technical minutiae in season 10’s mid-season patch. This update reverted armor ( a health type some heroes like Orisa and Brigitte have) to its original functionality, which includes damage reduction against most projectiles. This was on top of her not being affected by tank buffs that reduce headshot damage, as her rocket launcher doesn’t need a precise shot to the cranium to get maximum damage. Pharah is just one of the most reliable DPS heroes in terms of output and more difficult to counter thanks to her increased mobility.

“I didn’t dread seeing a Pharah before, now I do,” Koboldoggo4895 wrote on the Blizzard forums. “Now when I see a Pharah I know it’s going to be an extremely unfun match. I really don’t know why they buffed her. I don’t know how she plays in higher elos, and I don’t really care because I don’t play there and primarily do QP, but she is a demonic entity here and I cannot stand her.”

My kneejerk reaction to seeing an enemy Pharah is the same as most players’: pick a hitscan hero and shoot her out of the sky. But Overwatch 2 fans are never thrilled about being forced to play specific heroes just to handle the meta of the month. Some argue that even with counter picks like Soldier: 76 or Cassidy, the game-wide buffs Blizzard has implemented have made Pharah harder to manage.

“I think the biggest change people are forgetting is the health buffs,” shape2k wrote on Reddit. “Health went up, damage didn’t. As a Cass main, it was always incredibly easy to hit a Pharah in the sky, and projectile sizes didn’t really make it any easier. But, it’s significantly harder to finish her off due to the larger health she has.”

Fans felt vindicated after Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller posted a Director’s Take blog that included win rates for some heroes, putting Pharah at the top of the list for all characters at58%. What remains to be seen is if Pharah will get nerfed, or if she will continue to rain justice upon her enemies for another season. Overwatch 2’s eleventh season began last month, which means a mid-season patch is most likely a few weeks away. No doubt some fans will be scrolling down to the Damage hero section and looking for Pharah’s name.

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