Pharah

Pharah is a Damage hero in Overwatch.

Overview
Soaring through the air in her combat armor, and armed with a launcher that lays down high-explosive rockets, Pharah is a force to be reckoned with.

Strategy
Pharah is a hero with excellent aerial mobility, but is somewhat crippled by staying on the ground. Her Rocket Launcher can dish out excellent damage, as it does not suffer from damage falloff and deals splash damage upon impact. Jump Jet launches Pharah high in the air, allowing her to properly position herself for well-angled attacks, or to escape from danger. The Hover Jets, her passive, allow Pharah to sustain her altitude and gain a small amount of height. This can be used to keep her away from threats on the ground, but will leave her vulnerable to enemies with "hitscan" attacks, such as Soldier: 76, McCree, and Widowmaker. Concussive Blast deals no damage, instead providing strong knockback both to enemies and Pharah herself. Barrage is one of the most dangerous ultimate abilities in the game, able to wipe out entire teams with ease, provided good setup and communication with your healers. Overall, Pharah is a good backline character, able to harass enemies from afar, deal good damage to shields, and separate the enemy team from each other. Pharah can also use her ability to fly to get to unusual points on certain maps, where enemies won't expect her.

Weapons & Abilities

 * Hover Jets (Passive): Pharah's passive ability, activated by jumping. Slowly lifts her upwards, but has a fuel cost.
 * This ability is mainly for maintaining altitude to rain rockets down on the enemy.
 * Hover Jets should not be held down, as this wastes fuel. Instead, tapping jump in quick succession will allow her to maintain height while she waits for Jump Jet to recharge.
 * Hovering creates a loud noise to the enemy. If you are planning to flank the enemy team, avoid using it in the position where they can hear your coming.
 * While sliding off some unintended location such as roof WILL NOT refill the fuel, this can be very helpful to flank the enemy by sliding off without any noise from the jets as you don't have to use it.


 * Rocket Launcher: Pharah's primary weapon. Fires high-damage splash projectiles at a fairly moderate fire-rate. The rocket can deal self-damage.
 * Because of their devastating damage, concentrated fire on "choke points" can force the enemy team to select an alternate route to get to their objective.
 * Since the projectile travels rather slowly, Pharah may need to "lead" her shots to be fully effective.
 * Rocket Launcher can be used to "rocket jump" by shooting at a nearby wall or at the floor to propel yourself away from it. Note that Rocket Launcher will damage Pharah.
 * Don't underestimate the effect of rockets' splash damage. While it is not as damaging as landing a direct hit, it is still impressive.
 * Rockets deal mild knockback to both enemies and yourself.


 * Jump Jet: When activated, Pharah will launch herself high in the air in a short time.
 * Used in conjunction with Hover Jets, Jump Jet can allow Pharah to stay in the air almost indefinitely.
 * Jump Jet is a good escape option, provided that there is room to fly.
 * Jump Jet allows Pharah to get to points most heroes can't reach. This can both be used to get to a good vantage point, or to position yourself behind the enemy to attempt to flank.
 * Try not to use the ability when you are about to reach the skybox (where you can't go higher than that) as it will quickly knock you back and make it hard to maintain the right altitude afterwards.


 * Concussive Blast: Fires a projectile that deals incredible knockback, but no damage.
 * Much like Rocket Launcher, Concussive Blast may be used to help Pharah quickly reposition herself. Unlike Rocket Launcher, however, it deals no damage whatsoever.
 * Concussive Blast has potential for environmental kills. For example, it's very easy to knock enemies off the bridge at the beginning of Rialto, or into the well on Ilios.
 * Because of its great knockback and decent radius, Concussive Blast can be used to break up the enemy team or push them away from your allies.


 * Barrage (Ultimate): Pharah's Ultimate ability. When activated, Pharah will bombard the enemy with rapid-fire rockets that deal large amount of damage on both contact and splash damage. She can't move or stop the ultimate by herself for the duration. Rockets deal self-damage.
 * While Barrage has fantastic damage output, it leaves her incredibly vulnerable to enemy fire. The smartest use of Barrage is in combination with another teammate to cripple the enemy's mobility.
 * Like Reaper's Death Blossom or Moira's Coalescence, Barrage is immediately cancelled if Pharah is stunned during it. Position yourself so enemies like Brigitte and McCree can't reach you.
 * Try not to use Barrage when the enemy has shields up. While it will easily destroy them, that still means a great deal of your ultimate will be blocked or even getting yourself killed.

General strategies

 * With frugal use of Hover Jets and Jump Jet, Pharah can stay in the air almost indefinitely. However, she is rather slow horizontally, which can make it difficult for her to dodge.  Use Concussive Blast to reposition yourself, or else drop behind cover if you feel threatened.
 * Avoid staying on the ground. Pharah deals excellent damage, but her attacks are fairly slow, and much more difficult to avoid when coming from above.
 * Pharah is a good counter to enemies with slow-moving projectiles or short-ranged guns that can't hit her in the air, such as Reaper, Mei, Junkrat, Reinhardt, Lúcio, and Symmetra. Prioritize such enemies.
 * "Hitscan" is arguably Pharah's greatest threat. Scoped shots from Widowmaker and Ana, Soldier's Heavy Pulse Rifle, and McCree's Peacekeeper can easily take her down with good aim.  Either find cover until they are dealt with or attempt to knock them out of position with Concussive Blast.
 * You have incredible mobility as Pharah, so use it to behave unpredictably. Enemies with projectile weapons can still take you down if you move predictably.
 * While Pharah can stay fairly safe up in the air, she should not be without support. A common pair for Pharah is Mercy, who can boost her damage and heal her while staying with her in the air.  Remember to be a team player.
 * Practice is a key factor to improving with all heroes, especially Pharah. Get used to the travel time of your rockets, practice leading your shots, and pay special attention to your mobility.

Story
"I Will Protect The Innocent." With a strong sense of justice, Fareeha Amari's commitment to duty runs in her blood. She comes from a long line of highly decorated soldiers and burns with the desire to serve with honor. A serious but altruistic individual, Pharah seeks to make the world a better place, and bring order out of chaos. She loves the feeling of entering the unknown, and has a udjat tatoo on her right eye, bearing the Eye of Horus. Every action she undertakes comes from "a deep place" within her spirit. Fareeha has a mixed relationship with her mother, and while her relationship with her father was initially complicated as well, it is currently more familial.

Childhood
Fareeha was born to Ana Amari and Sam. She spent part of her childhood in her father's native Canada. While her relationship with her father was complicated then, she came to enjoy Canadian butter tarts with him over the holidays.

Initially, Fareeha had a good relationship with her mother, who taught her martial arts. As a child, she grew up in the company of Overwatch; she dreamed of following in her mother's footsteps and joining the organization. She spent her life training, doing everything she could to ensure that one day, she could join Overwatch herself. However, her mother was against it. This led to a strained relationship between mother and daughter. At some point, Fareeha asked for a toy rifle, but Ana refused, telling her daughter that she'd shoot her eye out. Her mother later came to regret her comments.

After her mother was apparently killed in action, she got her udjat, to honor her memory. Her mother had borne a similar tattoo, and told her it was a symbol of protection. At the time, Fareeha had assumed that it meant that her mother would always protect her.

Soldier
Fareeha enlisted in the Egyptian Army. Her dogged persistence and tactical prowess caused her to rise up through the officer ranks. She was a courageous leader and earned the loyalty of all who served under her. With her exemplary record, Fareeha was well placed to join the ranks of Overwatch, but before she had that opportunity, Overwatch was disbanded.

After leaving the army with a commendation for distinguished service, she was offered employment with Helix Security International, a private security firm contracted to defend the artificial intelligence research facility beneath the Giza Plateau. The top-secret facility was touted as vital to the safety of not only the region but countries across the globe. Fareeha gladly accepted the choice assignment and received training in the Raptora Mark VI, an experimental combat suit designed for rapid mobility and devastating firepower.

Under the call sign "Pharah," she worked to safeguard the AI installation. Though she mourned Overwatch's passing, she still dreamed of fighting the good fight and making a difference on a global scale. She was assigned to a strike team under the command of Captain Khalil, with the rank of lieutenant.

Mission Statement
"I was afraid that someday I'd have to make this decision. Which is more important...the man...or the mission?"

- Pharah

When the Anubis AI broke free of containment, Pharah's team was sent in to neutralize the AI. They found a wounded member of the engineers that had been sent ahead, revealing that Anubis had taken control of the sentry bots assigned to the site. Pharah ordered that they move on, despite the protests of Saleh that the engineer needed medical attention. Pharah stated that the mission was more important than any of their lives, given what was at stake if Anubis breached HSI's firewalls. Khalil conceeded the point, but pointed out that Pharah needed to work on her attitude, that the squad was her "family." The team came under attack by security bots, and in the ensuing firefight, Khalil was killed. Per the chain of command, Pharah took command of the squad. Pharah ordered the squad to push on. Anubis had attacked their "family," echoing Khalil's words. The squad entered the temple, and engaged in combat with the security bots. The ordnance caused a pillar to collapse, threatening to crush Tariq. She saved him, much to his confusion&mdash;didn't the mission come first? She dismissed the question, and she and her squad held the line while Tariq hacked Anubis's systems. He was wounded, but Anubis was shut down, and the squad exfiltrated the site. As Tariq was loaded into the squad's APC, he told her that Pharah was her captain now, and that he'd always follow her. Pharah reflected on her udjat, and that she'd misunderstood what her mother had told her all those years ago. It did not mean that she was protected, but rather, she was the protector.

Reflections
At Christmas, Pharah visited Canada in order to spend the evening eating dinner with her father.

Trivia

 * Chris Metzen has joked that Pharah has "a little bit of a Captain America type of vibe."


 * A Pharah portrait is available in StarCraft II for those who purchase the Origins Edition.


 * Pharah's design, which includes the Egyptian Eye of Horus symbol around one eye and armor reminiscent of a falcon, is a reference to the ancient Egyptian falcon-god Horus, god of the sky and protector of the pharaoh.


 * A giant action figure of Pharah was displayed in Busan as part of a pre-release promotion for Overwatch.


 * Ana Amari shares a similar Eye of Horus tattoo as Pharah.


 * A Funko Pop Pharah statue is available from the Blizzard Store.


 * Pharah's father's First Nation tribe is known by the developers. They may reveal it at a later date.

Development
Pharah's design stems from a playable class in the cancelled Project Titan. In the original pitch for the game that would become Overwatch, she appeared as a jetpack-equipped class called Phoenix, which used a rocket launcher and an ability that called down napalm; in a later pitch, Phoenix was reinvisioned as a hero concept with a flamethrower and explosives, while the jetpack and rocket launcher were moved to a new hero that would eventually become Pharah. The design of Pharah was "bottom-up"; where developers start with gameplay mechanics, and later build a character around them. Her original design was done by Geoff Goodman. It was a simple concept of a male hero with a jetpack, simply named "Rocket Dude." Another one of the original concepts was done by Justin Thavirat. More iterations were went through. Her official codename was Rocket Queen. Early in development she was also briefly given the name Mercy; Mercy was named Angelica at the time. Inspiration for her was taken from the Tribes series. She was one of the first characters implemented in the game, coming in at around the same time of Tracer, Reaper, and Widowmaker (the first three heroes implemented).

Pharah's core design wasn't altered for Overwatch 2. Rather, the developers experimented with different colors. They harkened back to white and blue (the colors of the Overwatch team). Her visor was redesigned to be more opaque, making it easier to see her emotions.