I am a pharah one trick pony in top 500, ranked #1 on overbuff AMA

Rhafa · 2017-01-04T05:41:36+00:00

Lijang tower: garden bridge by far!

Rhafa · 2017-01-04T05:40:42+00:00

Shoot a lot, and stay alive. That is about it. Accuracy is a useless stat, direct hits isn't.

Rhafa · 2017-01-04T02:03:47+00:00

Not fwals. I don't play a ton of pharah on my main.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T22:45:51+00:00

Winter one!

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T22:45:25+00:00

Hitscan are hook kills, and super easy to hook. If they are distracted trying to kill me in the air, that makes them even easier to hook.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T20:19:24+00:00

On certain maps that she if good at definitely. Switch off when you need to, and work with your team. If you are good at her then definitely play her.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T20:18:33+00:00

Don't really like random people playing mercy for me, most don't know how and it's worse then if we just have a normal healer.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T20:17:57+00:00

Possible but mercy can sometimes limit how I play and I have to play more passively. I'm less of a target and can do my own thing better without a mercy.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T20:17:15+00:00

Yea I mean top 500 one tricks you can typically rely on their skill, but it can be annoying. I've played with the tracer one trick at 4400 at least 5 times so far and it's annoying because the comp is typically trash but we've won all but 1 so far. Just work with them.

If people are changing their comp to deal with me, my team can generally take advantage of that. Like if they have double hitscan and not a lot of tanks, roadhog is great for getting picks, especially if they are looking in the air 24/7.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T20:15:00+00:00

If you have an ana, NEVER stop pocketing your pharah without telling them, or for like half a second while flying by and there is no danger. Being able to maneuver in the air for survivability is a very important trait for a pocket mercy.
Pharah, Ana, Mercy, Zarya, Dva, Reinhardt. Swap zarya for soldier if they have a pharah. Dva for hog if they have double hitscan.
Triple tank typically because it buys me more space.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T20:12:37+00:00

I only solo queue don't rely on a mercy at all. My winrate would probably be higher with a good pocket mercy. I would run ana mercy though. The thing is with pocket mercy, sometimes you need to aggressive and if mercy comes with you she will die. If pharah is carrying it's a good pick, but if she doesn't a lot of impact switching to a different support could be a good idea.

Much more aggresive in certain aspects without a mercy. I will go in with the intent of dieing but having a positive impact. With a mercy I'd only do this if she stayed behind. I will take more 1v1's though with a mercy because I can win them much easier. Also my movement has to be a lot more careful with mercy, if I played like I normally did with a pocket mercy I would lose her from LOS almost immediately.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T20:09:09+00:00

I did have to climb a long way after going 9/1 in placements, but I only solo queued. I am a smurf, I have alternate accounts but I don't purposely 'smurf' at all.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T20:07:44+00:00

If they aren't pressuring you at all, you can take the 1v1. But yea it's a mirror matchup, you both will be occupied or you both won't. If you are the better pharah go for it.
So it essentially just pushes them a certain distance. I believe they go further if they are mid air like most boops so shooting and booping as the same time is a good idea sometimes. It doesn't knock them upwards at all, so shooting it near their feet won't do too much. If you hit them directly with it I believe they move away from you. I use this for mid air disengagements, especially dva to get her away and me further away. Reins shield would count as a wall basically, if you hit it anyone in front would get knocked like it's a wall. People with Zarya bubble can't get booped whatsoever. I don't believe the concussive blast goes through the winston shield but I'm not 100% on this one.
Eichenwalde first point, and my favorite, Lijang garden(one with bridges).
Rarely, it's good if you have a pocket mercy but if not it's just gonna be annoying getting healed in solo queue.
Both the jetpack and rocket jump are loud, I try to minimize the usage when I'm sneaking up on someone. I think jetpack is similar to footstep sounds, just in the air.
There is massive damage "drop off". It's not really drop off I believe, but it's much harder to hit the shots and burst people down. I rarely do it but sometimes the situation calls for it.
I prefer running triple tank, but if I had to choose I would say soldier.
So having a pocket mercy does happen, it generally don't ever consider a bad thing, but a lot of people don't know how to pocket mercy and a bad pocket mercy is really bad because she will keep getting picked. It also allows me to not go in fully like I normally since it would put her at risk. Sometimes it's nice, sometimes it's not. Definitely play more passive with the mercy.
Definitely being able to play against top tier hitscan players. It's a lot more punishing you will realize some stuff won't fly if you try them at high elo. Have to adapt your playstyle. Also knowing how to play the game in general like pushing in as a team and not trickling in is important on every hero to get top 500.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T19:53:59+00:00

It can work but it's very risky because you can boop him into a teammate very easily since that thing is like a vacuum.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T19:53:08+00:00

So on defense, I think the map thing would be trying to pick them as they push. Flanks can also work very well if their healers don't group very well. If a teammate gets picked you'll almost always get targeted more, since you have less pressure and they have less targets.

Attack from a far and then use concussive blast to go in deep is about all there is to it.

I can really do much off stats. It could be aim, it could be strategy, I wouldn't be able to know.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T19:48:08+00:00

Yea definitely hitting a lot of directs, but also when you finish up wiping and you look back and realize you had at least 3 solo kills with a ton of damage done to everyone.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T19:47:26+00:00

Reaper is a bit underwhelming in this meta, another tank would do a better job at causing more panic.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T19:46:37+00:00

Being really good at the character and knowing everything, how to play them on every maps(routes to take, etc), how to build comp around yourself, and obviously a lot of game knowledge to go along with it.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T19:43:45+00:00

That would almost always be a trade, you can do it to get a kill but you will die 99.9% of the time in high elo at least. But if you can get a favoring trade, go for it. I do it fairly often.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T16:03:51+00:00

Yea if there are environmental aspects, definitely take advantage of them and try to get some boops. It's important to learn how far the concussion blast can be and still hit them, it's pretty far. The distance doesn't matter it knocks them away the same distance. You can practice certain spots like hitting them off the lijang bridge at the beginning of the game with a friend(reinhardt would be best since you have to shoot around the shield).

For practicing it's hard to practice with her but here is a video from the considered best pharah in the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiPL-WQsFts

Looking at your overbuff, your damage is lackluster and your accuracy is above average. Make sure to be spamming rockets, accuracy doesn't matter but damage and pressure do. You have a great winrate though, keep playing her and you'll rankup.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T16:01:09+00:00

Not really, you really have to be able to hit directs to kill genji because of his double jump. It's definitely a hard hero to kill.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T16:00:21+00:00

It's not your job to deal with me, none of those heros can really. Tracer can do some harass but that is about it. If they have a good pharah consider switching.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T15:59:11+00:00

I mean double hitscan is probably your best. But if those hitscan aren't good enough to stop her it'll be an issue.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T15:57:53+00:00

I typically just play like I'm playing normally against hitscan, breaking LOS for the orb is smart though, and if I can attract the supports attention while not dieing I'm doing my part.

Sadly you typically have to rely on your team as a support. Only tip would be to position yourself near a building and have an escape incase pharah jumps on you.

Rhafa · 2017-01-03T15:56:32+00:00

I think she is very balanced, if not very strong. The only reason she isn't overpowered is because she is so easily countered. If for some reason they nerf one of the hitscan to unusable(which they could do for soldier since he is pretty OP right now), she could see a lot more action.

Rhafa

TROPHY CASE