Genius Overwatch trick lets Mercy protect Pharah during Rocket Barrage

Michael Gwilliam

Mercy and Pharah are two Overwatch heroes that go together like peanut butter and chocolate – the two synergize with each other almost better than any other pairing in the game. As it turns out, Mercy can be quite the savior to Pharah when she’s using Rocket Barrage.

Rocket Barrage can be a tough ultimate to get value out of because of how vulnerable Pharah becomes during its duration. As she stands still in the air, the rocket queen unleashes a series of missiles that do immense damage to enemies below.

However, it’s not cancelable and can easily result in Pharah being eliminated by a foe ready to pounce on the hero still in the air.

In theory, even heroes that are normally countered by Pharah such as Junkrat can easily land shots to her while the ultimate is activated.

Pharah uses Rocket Barage on Temple of Anubis
Pharah is very vulnerable when using Rocket Barrage.

Thus all said, a neat trick can actually let Mercy players body block incoming damage for the Pharah and let her finish the ability without dying in the process.

Twitch streamer Yourietje showed off this technique during a match on Kings Row. As his Pharah teammates activated the ultimate, he used Guardian Angel to fly up to the ally just as an enemy Widowmaker landed up a near-perfect shot.

Even the enemy Widow was impressed, using match chat to call the Mercy player a “god” and a “genius.”

Using the replay viewer, Yourietje was able to pull up the Widowmaker’s POV. Sure enough, just as the Widow had lined up a fully charged headshot, the Mercy swooped in to take the damage.

Plus, because of the positioning of Mercy, the attack wasn’t a headshot on her, so she managed to live.

In theory, you should do this to help out your Pharah unless the raw damage that you’d come into contact with is 200 or more, as then you’re completely sacrificing yourself.

After all, it’s not like you can resurrect yourself in Overwatch, but you can bring Pharah back to life.

Nonetheless, it’s certainly a strategy Mercy players should utilize whenever they have a friendly Pharah in the skies.

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About The Author

Michael Gwilliam is a senior writer at Dexerto based in Ontario, Canada. He specializes in Overwatch, Smash, influencers, and Twitch culture. Gwilliam has written for sites across Canada including the Toronto Sun. You can contact him at michael.gwilliam@dexerto.com or on Twitter @TheGwilliam