Pharah: Tips, Maps, Counters, Abilities, and Ultimate

Key Takeaways

• Pharah’s best maps are those that have tall skyboxes, allowing her to easily get and stay in the air when she wants to.
• Pharah’s worst maps feature short skyboxes, and/or skyboxes without any sources of natural cover, and/or long sightlines that benefit ranged hitscan characters.
• Pharah counters short-range heroes like Reaper and Symmetra because many of them simply cannot do meaningful damage to her while she’s in the air.
• Pharah is countered by hitscan heroes such as Cassidy and Soldier 76 because their weapons can hit Pharah from far away more easily when she’s exposed.

Pharah Quick Tips

• Pharah has 200 total health, with no armor or shields.
• Pharah is most effective if your team has a Mercy or Zenyatta, as these heroes can easily heal Pharah. Supports like Ana may have trouble focusing on both Pharah and the rest of the team, and supports like Baptiste and Lucio simply cannot heal Pharah if she’s up high in the skybox.
• Download the Z League app to find a skilled Mercy player who will pocket you.
• When you pick Pharah, it’s highly likely that the enemy team will pick ranged hitscan damage (DPS) heroes to counter you. Especially with a Mercy pocket, Pharah can often overwhelm a single opposing hitscan hero.
• If the enemy team swaps its entire composition to counter you—for example, picking Soldier 76, Cassidy, Ana, and D.Va—Pharah is very hard to get significant value from. However, with so many resources going towards countering you, your teammates should have an easier time taking advantage of the one-dimensional enemy team composition.

Pharah Abilities Explained

Img via Blizzard Entertainment

Rocket Launcher (Primary Fire)

Pharah’s primary fire shoots a projectile that does 120 damage upon direct impact, or between 25 and 80 splash damage. Rocket Launcher has six ammo with a 1.5 second reload animation.

Rocket Launcher is a powerful weapon that’s able to two-hit most damage (DPS) and support heroes, even without a Mercy damage boost. The projectile is difficult to aim at a distance due to its travel time, with its potential accuracy increasing the closer Pharah gets to her opponent.

Similar to Junkrat’s primary fire, Rocket Launcher can be used both as a spam weapon and as a way to deal reliable damage up close. Part of becoming a skilled Pharah player is being able to reliably hit her primary fire, especially at medium range. Splash damage from Rocket Launcher is useful, but the real burst damage comes from landing direct hits.

Jump Jet

Jump Jet quickly propels Pharah high into the air. Combined with her passive ability Hover Jets, Pharah can maintain altitude and in theory never touch the ground if both abilities are cycled properly.

Jump Jet can be used to quickly get an angle on an enemy player—however, it also makes Pharah vulnerable by lifting her above her teammates and natural cover.

Concussive Blast

Concussive Blast shoots a fast-moving projectile which boops enemy opponents and Pharah herself a considerable distance. The ability is crucial for Pharah to close the gap on enemy opponents and increase the chances of landing direct hits with her primary fire. The ability can also be used to displace enemy players, especially if Pharah finds herself in a compromising position and needs to suddenly disrupt the aim of enemy players.

Barrage (Ultimate)

When Barrage is activated, Pharah stands still and unleashes many projectiles. At close range, if many of the projectiles hit an enemy player, Barrage does tons of damage and can instantly kill even the tankiest heroes. However, because of the wide spread of Barrage, it’s far less effective at medium and long range.

Due to how vulnerable Pharah is while Barrage is active, skilled Pharah players look for opportunities to quickly secure kills with Barrage without allowing many of the enemy players to target her. For example, by making use of natural cover, Pharah may be able to quickly kill one or two enemy players, and stay safe from the remaining teammates while she does.